Good Riddance

Tuesday morning and I truly was in a prison. I woke up and looked up at the ceiling of my bed and half smiled, this part of my bed always made me smile because hidden between one of the four posts and the wooden top was my diary and the box I kept everything Billie in. I didn’t stand up to get it, it just made me smile because I knew it was there.

The door opened and my mother walked in holding a tray of what I assumed was breakfast, she placed it on the floor at the bottom of my bed and walked out without saying a word. I was surprised she was still feeding me; maybe this was my dad’s input, maybe he was making her keep me alive.

I waited for about five minutes of merely sitting before I actually got out of bed to see what she had bought me. I was half expecting bread and water but it turned out to be toast with a small pat of butter and a letter next to it. I opened the paper while I munched the toast and saw my mum’s spiky handwriting adorning the page – she wasn’t actually talking to me anymore, she had resorted to writing to me.

Scarlett, You are to present yourself downstairs fully dressed in half an hour, when your father, who is off work today, will explain to you what is going to happen.

That was it. No reprimand and no ravings just a one sentence note about what I was to do this morning. I decided there and then that I was going to arrive fashionably late to my meeting with my parents.

**

“I said half an hour” my mother said icily forty-five minutes later when I presented myself in the kitchen where her and dad we sat. I shot her a sarcastic smile and sat down opposite them at the table.
There was an icy silence as my mother realised what I was wearing. It was a t-shirt I had bought one night down at Gilman Street and it had Billie’s, Mike’s and Tre’s face plastered on the front. One of the very first pieces of Green Day merch and I was wearing it at the table. I was past the point of trying not to piss them off.

“Your mother and I have decided that for the foreseeable future we are going to keep you off school” said my father, “You will be homeschooled for four days a week by a teacher we have yet to find and then on Thursdays you will have your usual dance practice with Miss Hickett”

I was gobsmacked. I didn’t even give them the benefit of acknowledging that they had said anything, I merely pushed my chair back and knocked it to the floor before running out of the kitchen. I looked at the front door and realised it would be unlocked. I bolted for the front door before they would even realise I had gone and was sprinting down the street. I heard them calling my name as I reached the gates; I punched the pin and ran. I knew they’d probably be coming in the car so I cut down a side street and through an area Billie had shown me, in case I ever had to walk through at night and didn’t want to meet anybody.

I guessed it was about nine o clock and people would have already gone to work and to school so I wasn’t likely to meet many people as I ran. Also I thanked my lucky stars I never had told my parents anything about Billie, they didn’t know where he lived and until I got home they wouldn’t know where to look for me. Unless they called the police. They wouldn’t do that – would they?

I arrived outside of Billie’s house before I thought I should but I was no less relieved for it and I knocked on the door. I wondered wildly for a moment whether anybody would be in but then the door was open by a thoroughly grumpy looking Billie in boxer shorts. I would have stopped to admire the view but instead I neatly sidestepped him and shut the door before he could even properly realise it was me. Once inside I sat down on his stairs breathing heavily from the running.

“Scar?” he asked after a moment. I looked up and smiled at him as I tried to get my breath back.

“I’ve just escaped” I said. Most people when they said this were exaggerating; I meant it literally.

“Are they coming down here?” he asked. He was immediately alert because he knew exactly what I was talking about.

“No,” I said after a moment, “They don’t know where you live”

“Well,” he said a moment later, “It’s nice to see you again Scar”

I smiled up at him and stood up and hugged him tightly.

“So what brought you here this morning?” he asked as we made our way down to the basement.

“Well after what happened yesterday, my mother reckons I can’t be trusted to go to school on my own so I am going to be homeschooled. I didn’t reply to that, I merely ran out the kitchen, out the front door and legged it here.” I said as I sat on the end of his bed as he locked his basement door.

“Homeschooled?” Billie asked stony faced with anger.

“Yeah” I said, “Only getting out on Thursday when I have dance. Other than that pretty much locked inside”

“You’re not going back” he said quietly, “You’re going to stay here”

A warm feeling was surrounding me as he said that but it was accompanied by a gnawing feeling of doubt and anger.

“I can’t” I whispered, “I have to go back. Unless I officially renounce them which takes a while through legal courts; I could because I’m sixteen but I would have to name someone as my guardian”

“Well not now” he said at last, “You’re staying here for today”

“That, I think I can manage” I said with a slow smile as I flopped back onto his bed.

“Do you mind?” he asked as he stood at the foot of it. I looked up at him and giggled, he was still wearing only his boxer shorts and his hair was sticking up in all directions from where he had been sleeping.

“You look like a fretful porcupine” I observed from my position lying on the bed.

“Oh really?” he asked with a grin down at me. Billie promptly decided it would be fun to leap on me and tickle me half to death so that my hair got messed up equal measure.

“There we are” he said about five minutes later when my hair was thoroughly messed up. I stood up and looked in his mirror and then turned to glare at him.

“I spent a long time this morning making my hair look nice” I grumbled at him.

“Oh well it still looks beautiful to me” he said, “It’s looks like we’ve been behaving indecently”

“Well you have” I said, “Taking advantage of me like that”

“Come over here and I take advantage of you properly” he said waggling his eyebrows at me. I shook my head and stood firmly over by the mirror, with my arms folded over my chest and poked my tongue out him.

“Like that is it?” he asked getting up from the bed. I squeaked and backed up until my back hit his closet side. He grinned evilly at me and promptly picked me up and threw me over his shoulder; I never knew he was this strong but apparently he was. I giggled as he put me backwards on the bed and by firmly setting his weight above me affirmed that I wasn’t going anywhere.

Not that I particularly wanted to.

**

Later when I got dressed again and plonked myself on Billie’s sofa did I truly think about the implications of my actions this morning. My parents could have Billie arrested for kidnap or something. I was going to have to get out as soon as possible. I set a date in my mind then – June, New York. To me it was still two months too long and if my parents hadn’t relented by then, then I was gone. That’s if they didn’t kick me out first.

Where would I go?

I know Billie had said I was always welcome here but I didn’t particularly want to burden Ollie like that. Maybe I could get my own place, but with what money? I had nothing as far as I was aware, all my money came from my parents; because of my excessive dance training I had never had a job and I wasn’t going to ask Billie for any. Apart from the fact that I didn’t think he should, I was far too proud to do that.

“Scar, you wanna come upstairs?” Billie’s head popped back around the door as he had finished showering in the upstairs bathroom. I nodded and got up, heading into the lounge and reassuming my position on the sofa in there.

“What time will anybody be back?” I asked softly.

“Thankfully Ollie will be back first tonight” Billie said, “At about four, Daniel doesn’t come in till six on a Tuesday – he goes to the gym”

So that’s where he got all those muscles from. I wouldn’t want to get on the wrong side of Daniel and I voiced this to Billie.

“Don’t worry about him, he won’t ever touch you” he said, “If he does I’d knock him to hell and let him stay there”

I half smiled at him and stood up to kiss him softly and take his hand.

“Billie I’m scared” I said and promptly burst into tears. I don’t know why I suddenly started to cry, I had told him most of the problems this morning and had managed it fine but now I was feeling totally vulnerable and it showed in the tears that were now flowing freely down my face.

He drew me onto his favourite chair and pulled me onto his lap to comfort me. I buried my head his chest as he stroked my hair.

“You could move in with me” he whispered. I didn’t quite dare to believe it as I heard him say this.

“You’re serious?” I asked looking into his eyes.

“Deadly” he said, “You don’t deserve to be locked up like an animal for loving someone. It’s mostly my fault that we ended up in this situation anyway – I am offering you a solution and me.”

“I’d take it, gladly” I said, “But I will have to legally change my guardian until I’m eighteen” I said.

“I’m sure Ollie will be alright with that” he said, “She detests the situation you are in as much as I do. She loves you too”

“She’s so wonderful” I said the tears welling afresh, “We’d have to ask her and I don’t know how long it will take to get my guardian changed”

“We’ll manage Scar” he said, “So that’s your decision?”

“Of course” I said to him and hugged him tightly, “I love you Billie”

Billie just kissed me softly on the lips and with that he twisted a ring off the ring finger of his right hand and slid it onto the thumb of my left hand – the only finger it would fit on.

“Just so you never give up” he said, “I’m always here for you”

***

I was curled up in his arms on his bed when Ollie opened the door with her arms full of washing, later in the day.

“Scarlett!” she said dropping the washing as she jumped and put her hand on her heart. I scrambled off the bed to help her pick up the fallen washing and gave it back to her as I did so.

“What are you doing here?” she asked after a moment.

“I – er....” I didn’t really know how to try and tell her about the resolutions Billie and I had come to today.

“She escaped” said Billie recycling my words from earlier. Billie also slid off the bed and came to stand next to me, he took my hand and I couldn’t help notice that his mums eyes darted to the ring I was wearing on my thumb and recognise it as Billie’s ring.

“Come upstairs” said Ollie eventually. Evidently she could see that this was going to be an important conversation and she didn’t want to have it stood in her son’s bedroom with her arms full of clean washing. I followed her the stairs and into the immaculately clean kitchen, we all took a seat at the table.

“What did you mean, she escaped?” Ollie asked Billie.

“My mum wants to have me homeschooled,” I cut in, “And I would only be able to leave the house on a Thursday when I have my dance class. My father told me this morning so I bolted from the house and came here”

“So you’ve been here for eight hours and they don’t know where you are?” asked Ollie. I shook my head.

“They’ll suspect where I’ve gone but they can’t prove it and they don’t know where you live so they can’t follow me” I said quietly, “I’ll have to face them later”

“Mmmm” said Ollie thinking, “So what sort of pact have you come to today?”

“Pact?” asked Billie.

“I’m not dumb,” said Ollie, “She’s wearing your ring; I’m guessing you didn’t just give to her as a sign of affection?”

“I told Scarlett she could move in with us” said Billie swiftly taking charge, “If her parents are locking her up, which they are, that’s unlawful imprisonment and I told her that we could have here bearing mind Mike practically lives at Kiera’s these days anyway”

There was a moments silence as Ollie thought over what he said.

“Well she could have Holly’s old room I suppose...” she mused. Billie and I both looked at her horrified and she just burst out laughing.

“I can’t believe you thought I was serious!” she said, “Of course you’d stay downstairs”

I breathed an audible sigh of relief and Ollie just laughed again.

“Do you know what you’d have to do to officially move out?” she asked serious again.

“Yeah” I said sadly, “I have to have a named guardian until I’m eighteen”

“Yeah, I went through that with Mike although because his mother was happy for him to move out she stayed his named guardian he just changed residence” she said, “So what, I’d have to be your named guardian?”

I nodded slowly, amazed at how methodically she was talking about this.

“Well that shouldn’t be a problem” she said, “It just takes a while to go through the legal courts. Even longer if your parents won’t agree to sign – which they won’t.”

“No they won’t” I said my voice beginning to break at how hopeless this was, “Or they might want to get me off their hands”

There was a moments silence as the impact of that statement hit. Billie pulled me into his arms and I cried for a moment before I gathered myself together; I hated to appear weak but at the moment I couldn’t help it.

“So what are we going to do?” asked Billie.

“Well she has to go back tonight” said Ollie, “I can start to looking into what it would take tomorrow. It could take several months you know that?”

“Yeah” I said facing her again, “I knew it wouldn’t be easy”

“You can stay here tonight until as late as possible and then I will drive you back to your house” she said.

“You don’t have to” I said instantly.

“You’re not walking the streets alone in your state, late at night and also I would quite like to see what your parents reaction is – just to be there for you if I need to be” she said with a smile.

“Thank you” I said. Billie got up and pulled me with him.

“We’ll be downstairs if you want us” he said.

“Okay” she said, “Dinner will be in about an hour”

“Thanks” I said as we left the kitchen and made our way back downstairs to the sanctuary that was Billie’s bedroom.

“I can’t believe she took that so well” I said as I sat down at his side on the sofa.

“I told you she would” he said, “It’s just dickhead who won’t but then I don’t pay attention to what he says so that doesn’t matter”

I smiled at his blatant disregard for anything Daniel said to him and kissed him softly.

“Can we watch a movie?” I asked him after a moment.

“Yeah sure” he said, “What you want?”

“You’re choice” I said to him. He sighed and rolled his eyes before picking an action drama of some sort and putting it in. I didn’t know the film but it was good all the same and for the first half an hour I found it very interesting. Then I started to get bored. I kissed the side of Billie’s jaw, I was half lying on his chest as he sat up so I had access to this part of his face. I then trailed my lips down his neck and made the start of a hickey. By this point Billie was half paying attention to what I was doing and half to the movie playing on the screen.

He lost all focus on the movie when I slid completely off his lap and knelt on the floor in front of him.

***

It was after dinner and I was just about to leave the house with Ollie. It was getting dark outside and I was currently kissing Billie goodbye in the kitchen when the light flicked on and Daniel was stood in the doorframe.

“Okay stop tongue fucking and get her out of here” he said. His eyes were slightly bloodshot and I could smell the alcohol rolling off him – I guess he went out after he’d been to the gym. Almost out of instinct Billie drew me behind him and glared at Daniel.

“Come on” he said to me and led me out of the kitchen and into the hallway where Ollie was waiting for me.

“I’ll see you soon baby” Billie muttered and kissed me softly before I stepped outside with Ollie and into the cooling April evening. I turned and smiled before I exited onto the road where Ollie’s car was parked. I got in the passenger seat and we were soon on the way back to my house. I had to get out to punch the code into the gates and my hands were shaking a little as I did this; I don’t know why because I knew my parents couldn’t physically hurt me (that badly) or I’d have them done for abuse, I just didn’t want to face their reaction.

It was less than two minutes later than I did face it. Ollie hugged me in the car and promised me we would get this sorted out. She waited at the bottom of the drive while I went up and knocked on the door, it opened about thirty seconds later.

My mother’s face was white with fury and the vice grip she had on my arm was sure to leave bruises and she practically threw me up the stairs and into my bedroom, locking the door after me.
Back to prison and this time no way of getting out. I just hoped that our plan would work.