Runaway

"Would you relax, it hasn't bitten you yet." I reached carefully to get it just as it buried it's tiny head in her flesh.
"Oh crap, it's bitten you." Daelyn let out a high pitched scream, though in my experience getting bit by a tick didn't really hurt...Oh well. I scanned the forest floor as I spoke.

"Ok...You're supposed to burn it to get it to let go..." She gave me a horrified look.
"When I was little my mom would heat the tip of a pen to sear it...But seeing as how we're pen-less..."

I picked up a stick, so sure of my outdoors knowledge and lit it with Daelyn's handy-dandy lighter. Fumbling with the lighter, I finally made the tip of the twig start to smolder. I carefully touched the small but bright flame to the tick and it fell off.

"OUCH!"Oh, and I kinda burned Daelyn. "Well...The tick's gone!" I offered as she clutched her arm and glared daggers at me. The wind blew fiercely through the leaves, though it had stopped raining at last. My light brown hair blew around wildly and I cursed myself for not thinking to bring a hat...Or anything else, for that matter. Looking in my hands and digging into the pocket's of my jeans I realized I had nothing but a stick of gum...I'm a genius.

"What are we going to eat...?" Daelyn looked at me like I'd grown an extra arm right in front of her. "I don't know about you, but my mom's making spaghetti." Now it was my turn to look at her strangely, it took me a moment to understand what she was saying.

"Oh...You're going back..." She brushed some dirt off her clothes and nodded, glancing up at me for a moment before raising an eyebrow. "What, you're not?"

I thought of my mother, sitting on our obnoxious floral pattern couch and wishing I would come back. My father making a mental note that he would never ever jump to conclusions about his little girl again. But if I went back, of course nothing would change. I would maybe get a day of appreciation then everything would go back to normal once again.

"No."