Human Nature

I felt my mind ease from the comfortable nothingness of sleep into the painful wakefulness of reality. I tried to lift myself up from where I was laying and felt I couldn’t, I tried to push myself up with my arms, but felt I couldn’t move those either. I opened my eyes and saw the ugly, budget cut upholstery that could only belong to a cop car.

"Aw fuck," I muttered, twisting my wrists around in the tight metal handcuffs.

"Aw fuck is right kid; I thought you broke my partners jaw," A voice said from the front seat. I felt Tess help lift me up from my uncomfortable position and into a more dignified sitting position.

"I didn’t? What a shame," I spat through the bars of the backseat.

"No. The shame is that I didn’t get to blast your punk ass with pepper spray," The female cop spat right back.

"You have to admit that the girl has spunk. I never thought I’d see the day a seventeen year old could knock you out," The male cop said to his partner. She merely grunted, and he laughed. I was beginning to like him. Now if I could only charm him into getting what I wanted, we would be free again. I felt Tess squeeze my hand and I looked up at her. She looked even paler than usual, and her eyes were alight with fear. We had both been here before, in the back of a cop car, and knew how to annoy the hell out of the cops driving. I smirked at her and saw her return the gesture.

"Shall we start with My Country Tis of Thee?" I asked her my smile wider and my hand closed on hers more tightly.
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After an hour and a half of our singing My Country Tis of Thee, America the Beautiful, Funky Chicken, Mr. Roboto, and Material Girl, Riley was moaning in agony, but the guy cop whose name I still didn’t know, was still singing along with us. And here I was thinking he wouldn’t know the words to Material Girl. Hmmmm, some man.

"Where are you taking us?" I asked him after a chorus of Dancing Queen.

“I’ll tell you if you promise to sing Miss Independent next," He said with a mock devious glance in the rearview mirror.

"Done. Now tell me," I said with a barely suppressed laugh.

"Cambridge, Massachusetts," He informed us. I grimaced. Why Cambridge? I decided to voice this question out loud.

"I guess social services have found you a family. What’s your name?" He asked abruptly, turning around in his seat to look at me this time. I saw him take in my dirty face, raggedy jeans, a torn black t shirt, and a faded blue jacket covered with dust. A small smile met his lips.

“Why do you need to know my name?" I said darkly.

"Just curious. And I have a 50 50 chance of getting it right, I just don't want to make a bad impression by calling you by your sisters," He tapped the police scanner meaningfully, showing me that he had pulled up our files.

"I’m Della," I muttered and looked away from his eyes, which were now staring intently at me in the rearview mirror again.

"Yes, and If I didn’t ask you your name, I would of called you Delaney," He said sarcastically. I inwardly grimaced at my full name and saw Tess grinning hugely.

"Well, what’s your name then?" I asked him, in a softer, more seductive tone that made Riley turn around and glare at me.

"Ryan. This is my sister, but I guess you already figured that out," He caught my eye in the mirror again; his brown ones were crinkled with a smile.

"We seem to have something in common, then, don’t we?" He said laughing hysterically.

"Now,” He continued, "Where’s Miss Independent?"

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We stopped an hour or two later at a gas station and Ryan got us cokes and a big bag of Funyuns.

"I won’t tell if you don’t," He said, putting a finger to his full lips. "I would let you out to stretch, but I don’t trust you. Anyone that can take my sister out can certainly take me," His sister, within earshot, cackled at this. He shut our door and pulled his sister to the side, looking back at me once more with an indiscernible expression. I frowned at this and watched their exchange through the tinted windows. He seemed unhappy, arguing with her in his deep strong voice. She came back just as strong, getting up in his face, like any pair of twins would do. He got quiet then, giving her a look that could only be described as "the puppy dog face. Of course, he won. No one can fight the puppy dog face. They got back inside the car, Ryan, with a big smile on his face, and Riley, with a defeated expression.

"I still don’t like it Ryan. I'm not going to get my ass chewed out for this you know, don’t expect me to cover for you!" He ignored her, smile still in place.

"Listen girls, were 30 minutes outside of Cambridge, so hurry up and eat. I can’t guarantee you’ll be eating again anytime soon," He said, with emphasis on "again anytime soon." I raised an eyebrow but said nothing, catching Tess’ eye. She looked just as freaked as I felt, but at the prospect of Funyuns, said nothing.

We drove a bit more on the freeway, and then turned off onto one of the exits. Ryan pulled the car over suddenly, right in front of a stretch of forest, in the middle of freaking nowhere. We sat in silence with nothing but Ryan's fast breathing. Riley got out of the car and started walking into the brush, disappearing from view. What the hell was going on? I heard the doors unlock and looked up into the rearview mirror, only to find Ryan’s warm brown eyes burning into mine.

"What are you waiting for? Go!" He yelled the last word and we scrambled out of the car. I started running into the trees, but Tessa turned and ran back to the car. I turned back around, now fizzling with rage at my sister’s stupidity.

"I’m letting you go and you-----" She stopped him with a spur of the moment kiss. At least I hoped it was spur of the moment, because this was nothing like Tess. He seemed just as surprised at this exchange as I was.

“Thank you,” She whispered, her eyes opening slowly. His were still closed but he uttered one last word.

“Go,” So we did. We took off through the forest, not caring if it caught and ripped our clothes or if the undergrowth tripped us up. We were truly free, at least for as long as it took the cops to get back and report to their station. We kept running until we nearly fell into a slightly frozen stream. We took a few long sips and sat down on a patch of ground that was not covered with snow or ice. When our breathing finally slowed I turned to look at my sister, my head full of questions.
“Why did you do that?” I asked her as quiet and calm as I could be, given the situation.

“Because I knew you wouldn’t,” She said simply, and got up, brushing off her mud caked jeans and straightening the black t-shirt under the olive green jacket she wore. She tucked her shoulder length brown hair behind her ear and put her hood up, shielding her face from my reproachful stare.

I followed suit, pulling down my blue jacket and jerking my jeans up, massaging my arms to get some warmth back in them. I put my hood up too, but that was to keep the wind from freezing my ears. Our foster parents thought it was cute to dress us up the same every day, not knowing that at school we always changed.

But the day we left we had no time to change; we just didn’t take the school bus, running as far as we could away from stupid Rhode Island, away from Woonsocket and all it tortures.
We kept moving, not wanting to be caught by anyone or anything hanging around the woods. Not wanting to waste time, and trying to keep warm all at the same time. It was tiring work. We came to a small, overgrown path that I hoped animals had made. It was easier than crashing through the undergrowth so we took it. Whatever interested the thing that made this route interested me.

Well, it was now safe to say it had not been made by animals.