"What?" Angelica said surprised, "What's going on?"
"Look Angelica, you've got to let me and Phil pass," Dil said to his cousin.
"Why are you out in the hall?" Angelica asked.
"We had a bit of trouble in our classes," I said, we already knew why Angelica was out here. She had been given hall monitor duty this week.
"I can't let you guys past," Angelica said, "It's my job."
"Look, it's really important," Dil said.
"Where do you need to be?" Angelica asked confused by the whole situation. Dil wasn't sure what to say, he was kind of groaning.
"Look, Angelica, we just…well…we need to leave here, all of this," I said confidently to her. Dil looked at me as if I was crazed for telling her but there was something that made me trust her.
"Leave? As in what? This school, this street?" Angelica asked.
"We mean to the city, just us," I said.
Angelica said nothing, just kind of looked between Dil and I. Dil looked a bit ticked off that I'd told someone already.
"Can you just let us past?" I asked again.
"What…what are you going to do?" Angelica asked quietly.
"We're running away, okay?" Dil said, "We weren't going to say anything to anyone," he said a little angrily, "But we just need your help, please let us go."
After a long pause, she was probably thinking, Angelica let us go.
"Please Angelica, don't tell anyone," I pleaded.
"No, no, of course not," she said in a bit of a daze as we ran past.
"Why did you tell her?" Dil asked as soon as she couldn't hear us.
"I didn't want to go back to class with those people!" I tried to explain.
"She'll tell, won't she tell?" Dil asked as we walked briskly out the school gate and towards our homes.
"No, we can trust her, she wouldn't grass, that isn't like her," I said. As I said it I wasn't sure if I was reassuring him or myself. I wondered myself why I'd told her. I kept saying though, it was the only way out of there.
"Is it safe to go to your house?" I asked as we neared our street. Dil looked at his watch.
"Probably, my mum's still at work and Dad? Dad will probably be in the basement, he won't hear me come in." Dil replied.
"You sure?" I checked and he said he was.
"What about you and your house?" Dil asked.
"Mum will be at the Java Lava by now," I said, then took hold of Dil's wrist getting a look at his watch, "Yeah, my dad will be out at the store…getting food." It made me think of what we were doing. Running away? Just leaving like that. We'll end up being those kids on posters that say 'Have you seen our child' and 'any information please call'. What about Lil? What about the rest of our friends?
"Okay, meet back here in 10 minutes," Dil said and then heading for his house. I walked towards mine not as quickly as Dil. I went in the house knowing this would be the last time I'd be here for a while. The house was empty, as I had thought; just the faces on the walls were watching me.
I didn't really know what to take. Should I take clothes? A sleeping bag? Where would we sleep? Did I need food? Of course I did but what would I carry it in? This was all too fast. It was only a couple of days ago I learnt I had feelings for Dil, now I was running away from everything, but why? Some bullies at school. Maybe there was more to it, maybe Dil's family disapproved of him. Why wouldn't he tell me something like that though?
I found the rucksack in my room and filled it with food and a coat. I picked up all the money out of the small box I'd kept in my bottom draw and put it in my rucksack pocket. It'd only been 5 minutes, what should I do now? I decided to go, Dil might already be outside. I couldn't stand being alone with my mind asking all these questions.
Lucky for me Dil was already outside. He smiled when he saw me come out the door.
"You ready?" he asked quietly when I got close.
"I think so," I said, "Your dad see you?"
"No, like I thought, he was too busy with his machines."
"So, what happens now?" I asked as we walked along the path leading to nowhere in particular.
"The big city I guess," Dil said happily and that was it, we left that small town for a new, very different, life.