Acrasia

Rae looked up at the bus prices and frowned. She reached out to grab Kid's elbow, but she grabbed some weird guy instead. She apologized quickly, her mind jumping into immediate action. She scanned the crowd for Kid's blonde head and turned up nothing. She turned on the spot, trying to figure out whether it was best to move or stay where she was. Then, she figured if someone grabbed Kid then he wouldn't be looking for her so her best bet was to move.

"Kid," she called, moving toward the exit. No answer. She called again and still no answer. She looked around frantically.

She turned and suddenly he was
there with a hand on the small of her back. She furrowed her eyebrows and frowned up at him- he was almost a head taller than her- but he didn't notice or care. He just pushed to the ticket counter and slammed a handful of money down.

"Close as we can get to California," Kid said, a little forcefully, to the guy behind the counter. Rae just watched Kid wide eyes.

"Closest we get is Carson City."

"Sold." They exchanged money for tickets to a bus leaving in ten minutes.

"Hey uhm excuse me," Rae said, "but what the ever loving fuck was that?"

"What was what?" he asked innocently.

"That! We don't have that kind of money."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

She tugged his arm so he was facing her and said in a low voice, "Did you steal that money?"

"What? Pssh, no," he waved her away, laughing stiffly. Then he broke out into a grin. "Probly the coolest thing I've ever done."

Rae gaped at him, eyebrows raised, then rolled her eyes and they boarded the bus. "How did you do it?" she asked, pretending to not be interested.

"I'm pretty much a hardened criminal that specializes in video game pirating and pickpocketing."

She couldn't stifle a smile. "No shit. I didn't think that was actually possible. Just in movies and shit."

He grinned and the smile stayed on his face until the bus started moving. Then they both sort of faded into a mutual silence. For Rae, this was like the final step to losing Chris. Hitchhiking to the bus station hadn't really been an issue, but this was like the beginning of a new chapter in her adventure. And, for the first time in a very long time, she didn't have Chris. It was like a part of her was missing. But she didn't know if running from it would help of hurt.

They were silent for a long time. They had their heads low and hats and sunglasses obscuring thwir faces. Neither of them said anything for at least two hours. And then Rae spoke up.

"Why'd you leave your family, Kid?"

He looked at her. "I told you. I met a girl and it turned out to be a scam."

"Yea, but kids don't just pick up and leave for one reason, right? What's up?"

"Look, I don't wanna give you my sob story. I just... my parents were fighting and I kinda felt like it would be better for them to just hash it out without me. And then the opportunity arose and I took it."

"Oh," Rae said. She didn't really have a reply to that; her home life was never really that bad. There was the shortage of money, of course. That came with the territory of horse farming. But her parents had always seemed happy, so she was lost for a response to him.

They were quiet then for a while as the bus pulled into a station.

"Why'd you and Chris run?" he asked as the doors opened with a raspy exhale.

She realized that they'd never really told Kid much of anything. He just sort of went with it. She took a moment to appreciate how reckless he was. But still, she didn't think she should tell him everything. She looked at her hands, trying to come up with a believable and not entirely untruthful cover story.

Kid opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted.

"Tyler? Tyler, that you?"

Rae kept her eyes down, hoping whoever it was wouldn't notice them; she was halfway positive there were like eight warrants out for her arrest. Call her paranoid, but she didn't see why not. Kid's eyes, however, got about as big as dinner plates as he looked up. "Cousin Jeremy?"

Now Rae's eyes shot up to meet the stranger's.

"You're related to Jeremy?" Rae asked, pointing to the tattoo-covered skinny man blocking the aisle.

Jeremy said "Rae?" at the same time Kid said "You know my cousin?"

Someone cleared their throat behind Jeremy and he plopped down in the seat across the aisle from them. He waited for people to stop loading the bus, and then he leaned over to them.

"What the fuck, Ty? Why aren't you home?" He turned to Rae. "And where the fuck is Chris? Jesus I leave you all alone for like five minutes and you're fucking shit up."

"What the hell are you talking about?" Rae asked, leaning over Kid to hear Jeremy over the chatter.

"You and Chris. Why the hell did you guys split up?"

Rae looked away. "Me and him, uh, kinda broke up for a while. Or maybe forever. I don't really know." Jeremy face-palmed dramatically. She frowned at him.

"Rachel Warrick Jesus Christ what the literal fuck. Jesus fucking Castiel up the fuck."

"What are you even talking about?" she asked.

"The reason why I saved his dumb ass was so he could protect you, Jesus fucking mother Oedipus." Both Kid and Rae were impressed by his colorful vocabulary.

"Protect me from what-- oh." She looked away. She'd forgotten momentarily about the two assassin organizations that would kill her on sight.

"And dammit, Tyler," Jeremy went on, "do you know how dangerous it is with this girl? I mean I love her to tiny bits and pieces and at one point I wanted her in my tummy, but she's running from her life. Oh my fuck shit bitch I'm glad I found you babies. Now I can at least freaking protect you."

"I'm trying to get Tyler--? Wait, Tyler? Is that your real name?"

Kid looked away from her. "Yeaah," he said.

"Hold on, how are you two cousins?"

"I told you, my dad's white," Kid said irritably.

She looked at Jeremy. "So then does he--"

"No, no he doesn't. That's my dad's side. My mom is his dad's sister. He doesn't," he reiterated a little forcefully.

"Okay, calm your titties. Is that a new tattoo? Oh, off topic. Anywho, I was trying to bring him to his mom in California."

Jeremy's face softened and he patted Rae's cheek. "Smart girl. I knew there was a reason why you were the love of my life."

Tyler looked between them. "Wait, you two? Jeeze, Rae, you get around as much as Chris does."

Rae laughed. "No, not like that."

Jeremy smiled at the two of them and leaned back in his seat. "So I'll be taking you all to California and then me and Rae will go up somewhere safe, like Canada or something. But right now, we have to go to Vegas."

The grin that appeared on Tyler's face made Rae a bit nervous. She was gonna have to watch the kid.