Safeguard

"Poppy, hold fucking still, please!" Aria struggled, grunting as Poppy groaned. The two stood in the shadow of a house, the light from a window on a floor above them dully shining upon them. Poppy was bent over, staring at the ground with hands on her knees while Aria had found a pen and a napkin from a small diner they'd stopped in, and wrote on the napkin, using Poppy's back as a desk of a sort. She insisted as the police sirens faded out, that the two of them stop and she write a proper, or the closest to proper she could get, note to anyone following them. She chewed her lip as she wrote, squinting in the dim light, even with her glasses on.
The note read:

Dear Determined Policemen and Parents,

I remember learning about how to write a proper letter in school. I was going to attempt to do so now, because ya know, you're sort of authority figures and I know you'd feel happy to know that your young'uns grew up learned and all that; but i'm not going to write like so. One, because this is a friendly letter, and two, because this napkin doesn't give the space for it.

First of all, that house is a crisp. I'm going to be honest, we sat on a hill watching it burn for a good five minutes. Pretty sick. But that's not really what I wanted to get at, even if it was awesome She scribbled out awesome hastily, she didn't want them to think they were crazy, but she did want them to know it was a complete accident. Continuing, she wrote scary next to the scribbles, and went on.

I don't think it's a crime to run away from a burning house, especially if you've got asthma, and it's hot as hell. We took the essentials because I was positive i'd be without a house, and I certainly did not want to move away from Poppy, P..
Would you want to move away from someone you grew up with? Anyhow, we'll get ourselves situated somewhere elsewhere, please stop chasing us. Here's basically all we need to say.

We never meant to burn that house, and we didn't want to steal that money. It was a spur of the moment thing, everything was just burning so fast.. So we grabbed what we could, that's acceptable at least. We're teenagers, we're allowed some leeway right?
It's not like we left a rag soaked in gasoline or a few lighters around the house.. We're not idiots. Anyways, thanks for the money, we'll try to pay you back. Honest.
- P & A

Aria stood up, joints popping as she did. Poppy groaned loudly as she straightened up and turned to look at Aria, smiling her playful smile. Aria chuckled softly to herself and shook her head. She knew not to trust Poppy's smiles, not to trust her bright, glittering golden-olive eyes. Not to fall into the trap she wove with seductive words that left her peach lips. Aria's eyes looked Poppy up and down quickly, almost nervously.
Black Vans, probably swiped from the boy's shoes section hid her feet, dark, dark blue jeans graced Poppy's toned legs, and a black sweatshirt hid her girlish upper. Aria's eyes moved to her hair, tangled, unable to be tamed, gorgeous.

She knew she had to fear moving too close, because Poppy's overwhelming personality could persuade her to do things she might not want to forget. Aria reached out and cupped her face with her hand, brushing first her thumb across her soft lips, before placing her index finger on her lips.

"Don't smile, Poppy."

It was the moments like those, where they were close but not so close that she held on to when she was alone. She thought about her a lot, but wasn't that how it was supposed to be? It was not love, but solid, and caring friendship that all best friends had.. But then why was there always the wave of strong feeling, a fluttering feeling in her stomach when they were so close? Why did her throat get more narrow, and her heart throb, and long for something Aria's mind hadn't even thought of before? Aria was innocence while Poppy was it's lust.

Aria moved away from Poppy and turned, looking towards the quiet, dark houses before them. Poppy put her hands on Aria's shoulders and looked around her. The two would have to get moving, they both knew very well, though they didn't know how far they'd get. Poppy sighed, exhausted as she leaned against the house.

"Rick is coming with us."

Aria felt her stomach tip into the pit it teetered on, dropping, she felt sick. She turned to face Poppy, who was studying the ground with interest, hands clasped together in front of her. Poppy knew very well the conflict that always went on between the two, she choose to ignore Aria when she'd called her an instigator. Poppy called it including him, she'd said she loved him, and Aria had always scoffed. Sure, they looked happy together, but did he deserve to be with Poppy, as much as Ari thought she did?

Poppy looked up and gazed at the quiet, dark haired girl. Her black hair was wild, singed from the fire; pale skin glowing a milky peach in the moonlight, she looked haunted as she thought bitterly of Poppy's boyfriend. Eyes at the ground, lingering on her bare toes, Aria wrung the fabric of the large tie dye shirt she'd slept in. The skin of her legs hidden by the black jeans that caressed them. Aria's lips turned downward, she looked up at Poppy.

Aria hoped to not be one that was called jealous, but no other word could describe her. She shifted from foot to foot as the thought of Rick tagging along settled in. She would be the third wheel, the one separated from the group, not so needed. She wouldn't be surprised if they'd thought of leaving her, because when Rick was there, he was happy, and she was not. There would be more problems, less money, and would they get caught? Fears she didn't even know she had surfaced when she thought of one more person moving along with them, the two girls trusted each other, but only one trusted Rick.

"That Dick, doesn't have to come with us."

Poppy scratched her head. It was going to come down to that. Aria would act like an angry child, she would be the instigator while Poppy just tried to keep the group together. Poppy stepped closer to the frowning girl and reached out for her, frowning herself when she shied away.

Poppy knew how Aria felt, she'd been talked at about it since she and Rick had started dating, and after a while, it just got annoying. She bit the tip of her thumb nail and thought. There was really nothing she could do to make Aria feel better when he came, but to not be with him. Was it selfish that she wanted to love? That she liked someone that made her feel good about herself, and beautiful? She certainly hoped not.

"It's Rick, Ari, you know that, and you know how I feel about him."

She was afraid to say more, being as close to Aria as she was, she'd learned that speaking down to her for a long time ignited a fire in her. Poppy crossed her arms over her chest as Aria looked away from her toes. Her stare was cold, the frosted winter air was nothing compared to the ice Poppy felt in her chest as she received the glare.

"I don't like him."

"Aria.."

"He smells."

"You smell."

"He smells bad."

"Ari, that's ridiculous."

"He thinks he's funny."

"You can't be serious."

"He hurts me."

"He hasn't touched you.." It was a hesitant question.

"My heart hurts when you're with him, Poppy." There was a yearning in her voice.

"I love him." A hurt in hers.

"Do you not love me?" Almost a sob.

It was quiet. A question meant to stay unsaid, stuck in the depths of Aria's mind surfaced and filled the air. It was suffocating, the silence, the ringing in Aria's ears as she waited for words she thought would never come. Love was something always new to her. No, she hadn't fallen in love the first few months of high school. She was never swept off her feet and she never found herself drawn to someone. She never longed for one person to be by her side. Except Poppy.

Aria sucked in a breath and turned away from Poppy. Poppy ran a hand through her hair, she reached for the duffle bag on the ground next to her and picked it up. They needed to get moving.

"Aria, you can't help what you feel.. Now c'mon, he's meeting us in town."

Aria quietly walked behind Poppy as she headed in the direction of town. If you couldn't help what you felt, why could people reject it so carelessly?

"I do love you, Aria."

In the short time she went from sorrowful, to elated and she walked on, Aria missed the ghost of the words as they were blown away by the wind.

"I do love you, Aria. But that's different."