So, I Walk With Shadows

Today was the day it would all begin. My whole adventure; I didn’t know where I was going, whether I’d make it or not, or what would happen. All I knew was that I was getting out of this cage of a life. I panted heavily as I ran through the hallways of my school, fleeing the maths class teacher chasing after, shaking his fist angrily. Doors upon doors opened, man this school had a lot of corridors. Finally reaching the front door, I realised what I was actually doing. I was going to make it, I was gonna break free of the school, not caring who or what came after me. I was fed up of it all. Bursting through the front door, still carrying the fear that teachers were chasing me, I ran down the roads to the direction of my house. Chris would probably be trapped at home. That was okay though. I was going to save him and my self. We were going to run away from our mechanical life, that seemed to be on repeat every goddamn day.
By the end of my sprint, I felt like my breath was finished beyond repair. Despite it being my house, I climbed towards the back window of the stout white building where I live- well, it’ll be lived in a matter of minutes. Chris wasn’t prepared for our break, judging by the perplexed look on his face when I frantically, yet somewhat excitedly explained what was going on. Our dad wasn’t home yet, and our mum was probably passed out on the floor in the house somewhere. Drug abuse. Such a sick thing. We legged it out the window, not wanting to make an encounter with our mum in case she was downstairs, taking with us only the vitals- phones, the little money we had, and the dilapidated acoustic guitar Chris loved to unbelievable extent.
This was it. This was really it. We were free. I looked at Chris, a mixture of anxiety and excitement painted on my face. “So this is really happening, huh?” he spoke softly, “I guess it’s good that it is, otherwise we’d be trapped in this hell hole forever”. I chuckled as we padded through the lawn leading to the open road. “Yup, it’s really happening, but…” I paused, “where do we go from now?”
Chris raised an eyebrow. “Isn’t the thrill of running away meant to be not knowing where you’ll wind up? Well, that’s just what it is Zo.” I nodded slightly, watching as the city lights of Pahrump started to peek up from behind the buildings. The sky was a dark indigo now, laced with stars.
“We should have at least contacted someone to stay with for a while?” I was quite worried, I was expecting Chris would muster up a plan of where to stay when I was thinking about this in school that morning, clearly not. He stopped in his tracks and pulled out his phone. After flicking through something on his phone, his face lit up. “Score!” he yelled. What on earth could he be getting so excited about? “I still have Ronnie’s number! He lives out in Vegas!” he beamed. Ronnie? Meh, must be one of his old friends. Well, at least I was feeling a little more secure now that Chris had called this ‘Ronnie’ and made arrangements. Man, is my brother one awesome saviour.
We hitched rides from by passers- safe, I know, but what else could we do? Vegas was where it’s at. Car ride, after car ride, journey after journey through the night, encountering all sorts of people, one particularly memorable man on the sidewalk, clearly too drunk to function, reciting the whole of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ by Queen, guitar and everything. This all happened so fast, I thought to myself, almost…too fast. I wasn’t really sure what was going on anymore. Maybe it was the sleepiness talking, I figured I’d catch some Z’s on Chris’ shoulder; we were in our 6th car journey, some kind dude driving towards Vegas had picked us up.
After that, it was all a blur. I was lulled into a deep slumber, until being gently shaken awake. The air was humid, seeping in through the windows that were open just a slit. The sun had begun to rise, and the warm colours of the Vegas lights and buildings, still blurry due to my sleep filled eyes, printed against the red sky. The car lurched to a stop, and the dude gave us a warm smile, probably saying this was our stop. Chris thanked him deeply, and we both stepped out. He gently pulled me back onto the sidewalk as I was standing in the middle of the road, like an idiot, the sleepiness still hadn’t worn off.
So for a while, we were standing on the sidewalk like lost puppies, while Chris dialled Ronnie’s number a couple more times. Finally, he picked up, and Chris’ face relaxed. “Hey dude, we’re here…uhh, where exactly do you live, man?” Chris paused then chuckled, shuffling his feet on the ground kicking the few loose stones. “Okay, thanks so much, buddy” he said and hung up. I looked at him questioningly, and he beamed a smile at me, “don’t worry Zo, he’s coming to pick us up. We made it”. I felt a sense of relief wash over me, knowing this would be a new beginning for us. I knew it was wrong in every way to just disappear like that, but to be honest I doubt anyone would’ve even noticed.
I sat cross legged on the warm ground of the sidewalk, Chris next to me, humming Manson’s ‘Lunchbox’. I heard him sighing uncomfortably as the sun was now up, and beating down on us, despite it being the early morning. A red beat up Chevy emerged out onto the road in front of us, and my brother immediately snapped his head up. “Chris, my man!” a raspy voice called out from the open window of the Chevy, I hadn’t even noticed Chris was up and running towards the car, I’d be tempted the play ‘Chariots of Fire’ and slow-mo everything if I was able to. So, I guess this was Ronnie. Tall, black shaggy hair, dark, smouldering eyes and just an overall ‘bad boy’ look to him, his arms decorated with a few tattoos here and there. Not too bad looking, may I add. He stepped out of the car and bro-hugged Chris. Huh, I guess they used to be close. Chris introduced me to Ronnie, as Ronnie did the little head nod in acknowledgment, smirking in a friendly way. “She’s a little shy” Chris added in, after he noticed I wasn’t moving from my spot of looking slightly down, shuffling around. “That’s okay,” chuckled Ronnie, “I like shy people, they don’t clash with my fucking massive ego” he smirked again. “Man, you haven’t changed a bit” laughed Chris. Everything seemed to be going fine so far.