"Okay, so what we're gonna do is," K said, flipping the notebook in front of her to a clean page. "Let's just make a rough outline of what we want to do."
They had gone down to her room, and were sitting on the floor beside her bed. She opened up a map of the UK, pressing the wrinkles down with her hands.
"So we're here." She circled Winchester on the map. "We need to get somewhere where it's not too costly to live."
"Glasgow's pretty cheap." B said, pointing to it.
"That's too far. I think it'd cost too much to even get there."
"True," He said, chewing on his nail. "What about Plymouth? Plymouth's not that bad."
"...Okay let's say our ultimate goal is to get to Plymouth." She drew a star next to it on the map. "It's like twice as far as London is from here, so it'll probably take like 3 hours, right?"
"Yeah. We can take a train or something."
"Yeah!" She exclaimed, writing it down. "Exactly, do you think we should take it from somewhere local?"
"No, we should probably go to Southampton Central. Just to make sure we're out of town before we get on any type of public transit."
"Okay yeah. Since we're going to be 'disappearing' we can't just recklessly appear on public transit cameras." She said, writing. "So, get to Southampton Central somehow, take train to Plymouth."
"If we figure out when we want to leave, we can book the train now. But we need money to do that." B stated.
"I'm going to find some way to get that money. We need it in its physical form, but no cards, because you can track those."
"That means we can't even buy the tickets over the phone or online, because we're going to be paying with cash. I guess we can buy them once we get to the station."
"Well, I'll tell Roger that I'm thinking about moving out soon, and he'll probably give me the bank account information. Then I'll just start withdrawing money every week or something so we can have enough by the time we leave."
"Right. And we need to start getting rid of everything they have about us. Medical records, pictures, digital files, the works. They have to have files on us somewhere around here. And we can get some fake IDs made. I can ask the guys at the smoke shop if they know anyone."
"Alright what else..." She hummed, writing some things down on the paper. She laughed quietly. "You know, it's funny how we learned all this 'creating a new identity' stuff right in this house. In these classrooms."
"How ironic," B said with a smirk. "We're going to use the very skills they taught us to get away from them."
…
"Okay, when Vienna goes to L's room, I'll go in there and make sure they don't leave. That's when you jump the fence and run across to the store. Roger's asleep so we don't need to worry about him catching you."
"Right."
He gathered all the money they were able to scrape up, everything from K's stash, B's stash, money from A's old wallet, and a small amount they found in the attic. 53 pounds, give or take. The plan was executed perfectly, and B was able to get out of the house. He walked into the shop and went straight to the counter.
"2 packs of Mayfairs please." He said, putting a handful of bills down.
"There you are lad." The man said, handing him the blue packets. "Have a nice day."
"Thanks you too."
B walked outside and immediately pulled out a cigarette. It was about time he had gotten a new pack. He had smoked his whole supply and wasn't even allowed to leave to get more. He realized he had forgotten his lighter in the house.
"Fuck." He mumbled.
He turned to his left where a couple of guys were standing, smoking cigarettes. He walked up to them.
"Can I get a light?" He asked.
One of the guys, a redhead, looked up and nodded, holding out his lighter to B.
"Thanks." B said, holding his cigarette over the flame.
He placed it into his mouth and inhaled, leaning up against the wall of the building. The three of them stood there in silence smoking for a while, people steady going in and out of the shop.
"Hey, do you guys know where I can get a fake?" B said quietly.
The guys looked at him again, and this time the other one nodded at him.
"What kind?"
"License." B said, smoke puffing out of his mouth. "I need two."
"You got pictures?" The man asked.
"Yeah." He said, pulling them from his pocket.
The man took the two photos from him and smirked.
"Your girlfriend?" He asked, referring to the picture of K.
"No... she's..." B's voice trailed off.
"Just fucking with you mate." The guy laughed. "I need names."
"Uh," B stammered. "Brennan Cunningham, that's me and... Kay Fisher, the girl."
Brennan Cunningham and Kay Fisher. Simple enough. The guy scribbled the names onto a slip of paper.
"Meet me back here in like two hours. Alright?" He said, and turned to walk down the street.
Two hours? He couldn't afford to be gone for two hours. That meant he had to sneak back out again. The red headed guy finished his cigarette and dropped the butt to the ground, flattening it with his foot.
"I'll see you around, kid." He said, then walked away.
B was alone now, and came to the realization that K was probably still stalling for him. He dropped his cigarette and ran across the street. B climbed over the fence and ran back into the house, slipping in quietly through the back door. He walked down the hallway and past the entrance to the kitchen, and there stood none other than Vienna. It was as if she was waiting for him.
"And where might you be coming from?" She asked, arms folded.
"I was smoking a cigarette." He said, attempting to walk past her.
"Oh really?" Vienna said, blocking his way. "Why are you out of breath?"
"I was... smoking a cigarette." He said again, the response still fitting.
K then came running down the stairs like and elephant.
"B!" She said loudly, running over to him and Vienna. The older girl looked at her with suspicion. "B where were you?"
He looked at K, then Vienna, and smiled. "Smoking a cigarette." He said with a laugh, the look of annoyance on Vienna's face too much for him to bear.
Vienna rolled her eyes and walked past him to the kitchen. "You reek of smoke. Go somewhere." She spat, disappearing into the other room.
…
"I need you to stall again."
"What?!" K whispered sharply. "She almost caught you!"
"Well I need to go back out there. He's bringing me them in like an hour and a half."
"You got someone?"
"Yeah. So stall."
"Why doesn't anyone want you leaving the house anyways? It makes no sense to me."
"I don't know. But figure it out, please? Might as well do it while the old man's still asleep. I'll tell you when I'm leaving."
…
He left at 3:15, leaving K to handle Vienna once again. He snuck out the back door and made a mad dash for the fence, climbing over it quickly. Once he was on the other side he made his way across the street to the convenience store. He leaned up against the wall with his hands in his pockets and waited. Minutes later he felt a tap on his shoulder. B's body got rigid from the foreign contact.
"Hey mate." It was the guy again. He stood close to B, holding a yellowish envelope at his side. "Here," He said, slipping the envelope into B's back pocket.
"What do I owe?" B asked quietly.
"67 pounds."
B's face got hot. "I've only 53." He said, gripping the money that was in the depths of his pockets. Maybe if he hadn't bought those cigarettes...
"Awe come one kid, really?" The man said annoyed. He stared at B, waiting for a response, but B said nothing. He didn't know what to say. The guy sucked his teeth. "Fine," He said. "Get the rest to me within the next month. I'll be looking for you."
He held out his hand and B reached out and shook it, transferring the money through that handshake.
…
"Here they are..." B said, pulling the rectangular cards from the envelope.
K's face lit up with excitement as she took the card from B. "Kay Fisher...?" K laughed, holding it.
"To be quite honest, I couldn't come up with anything else at the moment." B said. "Hell, I gave myself the name Brennan Cunningham. Who the hell knows where I got that from."
K laughed again, shaking her head. She looked up at him and B noticed her eyes were a bit red. He stared at her carefully.
"So what'd you do to distract them?" B asked. "V and L."
"Well, I just walked upstairs and started bawling my eyes out. That's always good when trying to draw attention to yourself." She rubbed her bloodshot eyes. "I made believe I was crying over A."
"Ah," B said, eyeing her.
"But the funny thing is was that I wasn't pretending at all really, I actually miss him so much."
She stared off to the side for a while, B's eyes still studying her. Then she started to tear up and giggled a bit as B put his hand on her shoulder.
"I'm fine." She laughed. "It's really... I just..."
"What is it?" He asked her.
"Sometimes I wish I could just go back in time, you know? I wish I could go back and just fix things. If he were alive right now, maybe A would be coming with us."
"He wouldn't have liked the idea." B said. "You know how in love A was with his studies."
"He was so stubborn! I would've dragged him out of this house." She laughed, wiping her eyes. She stared at her picture on the ID. "So stubborn. It was cute."
They were quiet for a long time, just sitting there on the floor staring at their identification cards in silence. It wasn't a weird silence, it was... peaceful. Quite comforting, actually.
"B, I'm glad you're with me." K mused quietly.
He looked at her, and she was just gazing at the floor.
"I... I'm glad I stayed, K."
...