The Runaways – Chapter 6

By MyNameIsCAL

---Nudge's POV---

My parents' car was parked in front of the trailer when I came home on Wednesday. At first I was excited, but then I realized I had missed the two cop cars parked next to it. Something was up. I approached the trailer slowly, my microwave dinners in hand.

"Where is your daughter?" a man questioned.

"I don't know." That was my mom.

"You have the right to remain silent," I heard another deep, raspy voice growl. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of law…"

I started to back away. The trailer door burst open and two cops were pushing my mom and dad out. I hid behind the garbage cans and caught my dad's eye. He mouthed the word run to me and that's exactly what I did after they were driven away. I ran like hell all the way into town. If my parents were being arrested, I was going to get pushed around by child services. That's the last thing I wanted. I had lived on my own for the past five years practically and that wasn't going to change just because they wouldn't be around.

But what were my parents involved in?

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I ran into someone. We both fell to the ground. I looked around. I was in front of the high school.

"Are you okay?" The guy asked, sitting up right away.

"I'm so sorry," I said, almost in a panic.

His eyes seemed unfocused. Maybe there was something wrong with him.

"It's quite alright," he said, standing up. He must have been in high school, or maybe a college student.

"Are you ok?" I asked him.

"Why, yes, I'm perfectly fine," he assured me. "Did you drop something?"

He bent down, his hand sliding across the pavement until he grasped one of my boxes.

"Are you sure you're alright?" He was having trouble just getting that box. Maybe I had hit him harder than I thought.

"No, I can't see," he said, and then to clarify things up, he added, "I'm blind."

Now I felt incredibly bad, knocking over some poor blind guy.

"I'm really sorry," I told him again, taking my box of food from him.

He shrugged. "Well, usually I'm the one running into people. I'm Iggy, by the way."

"I'm Nudge."

"So, you running from something?" he asked. "People running that fast are either running from something or racing someone, but I'm guessing it's the first choice because I don't hear anyone else running."

I gulped. "No, I'm just running to run, really."

He frowned. "Well I know this guy. Alright, well he's actually probably my best friend, but he thinks he can run from his problems, and maybe he can, but most problems you can't run from. So if you ever need help, give me a call, alright? You have a pen?"

I pulled one out of my backpack and scrawled his number on my hand. In a normal circumstance, I would have got up and kept running, but it was like he knew something was going on, like he could see through me with his sightless eyes.

"I have to go," I said after a few seconds of standing there in silence. Before he could say anything else, I started to run again.

---Iggy's POV---

I got this feeling that things were going to start falling apart around me. Ever since Fang had called me saying his dad had returned and beaten the crap out of him. Gazzy and Angel were also constantly arguing about their parents. The two of them, or at least I thought, were nuts, probably making up stories about their mom and dad. And then that girl, Nudge, had just run into me. I could sense that she was in trouble, the way she spoke, the way she shifted her weight. If only I could help any of them.

"Hey, you're Iggy, right?"

"Yes, and you are?" My thoughts were being interrupted.

"I'm Max," they answered.

Oh, right, I was supposed to go visit Fang today since Gazzy and Angel's parents were home today. "Oh, hello, Max."

"You don't mind walking, do you?" she asked me.

I shook my head. "Nah, walking is fine."

Max didn't live too far from the school. We made small talk on the way there. It was funny how you could go to school with someone for years and not utter a single word to them until something happened and you had to. She seemed nice though, and unlike most people, she didn't treat me like I was below her. Unlike most people, she didn't ask what happened to me and how I became blind.

"I think Fang likes you," I admitted to her. "I've never heard him talk about anyone the way he talks about you."

She laughed, almost anxiously. "Well, I guess that's a good thing."

It was a good thing, but I didn't tell her I thought that. Fang needed someone else to talk to besides me.

---Gazzy's POV---

"I'm serious, Gazzy!" Angel insisted. "I heard them!"

"Heard them what, Angel?" I frowned.

"They want to sell us. Our parents want to sell us!" she exclaimed.

I rolled my eyes. Lately, Angel had been telling lots of stories. She even told Iggy them and I was positive that they annoyed him. "No they don't. You probably heard them wrong."

She sighed and fell silent.

"Iggy has gotta stop letting you have sugar before bed," I told her. "Then you might actually have normal dreams."

Angel stuck her tongue out at me. "Your dreams aren't any more normal than mine!"

I laughed, but she stormed out of the room and down the hall.

This upcoming week is going to be busy for me, so it may be a while before I can update again. But I'll try my best. I'm working on some new stories too. I got lots of ideas. Thanks for reading!!