The Runaways – Chapter 8
By MyNameIsCAL
-Nudge's POV-
I met Iggy at his house and he graciously let me in and offered me food. In fact, he cooked it himself.
"Are you really blind?" I asked as he set a plate of pasta in front of me.
"Yup," he said with a smile, sitting down with his own plate. "I can't see a thing."
"So, where are your parents?"
"They work. More hours now since, you know, the economy is bad," Iggy told me.
He already knew my story. I told him as he cooked and he offered his house a place to stay for me, something too generous. But it couldn't hurt, right? I mean, what could I blind kid do to me?
"You can walk me to school," he had said. "My buddy who usually does that for me hurt himself and he can't really walk."
We had even discovered we went to the same school. It was just that he was a junior and I was only a freshman.
Later that night, I settled, hidden in his closet with some blankets to sleep.
-Iggy's POV-
My mom kissed me goodbye as she ran out the door. "You have someone to walk you home too?"
"Yup," I assured her. "See you later."
She smiled and closed the door. I listened to the car pull out of the driveway before I told Nudge she could come down.
"Breakfast is on the table," I told her.
We ate, not saying much. As much trouble as I would get in if my parents found out that I was feeding and housing a daughter of drug dealers. Then again, my freakin' best friend was a drug dealer too. I wondered how someone like me got caught up in all of this. Maybe Fang would finally be in school today.
The heat, you could feel it today, even though it was only the morning. I honestly hated Arizona. It was too hot, a desert. Not to mention I burned in the summer. Nudge walked beside me to my right as we headed towards the school. As we passed Gazzy and Angel's house, the door burst open and they ran up to me.
"Hey, what're you doing? Shouldn't you two be at school already?" I frowned.
Angel took me by the hand and pulled me towards their house.
"What're you doing?" I almost tripped, falling on her.
I heard Gazzy talking to Nudge. "Who are you?"
"I'm Nudge," she replied. "I, uhm…"
Almost comically, he said, "Well, you come with us to!"
Once they dragged us inside, Angel closed the door.
"Iggy, we need to talk to you," Angel said.
I rolled my eyes. "Well, seeing that you've kidnapped me, I guess I don't have a choice but to listen."
"Our parents want to get rid of us," Gazzy blurted out.
"What're you talking about?" I shook my head. The things these kids thought up. Nudge must have thought they were nuts.
"No, Ig, we're serious," Angel tugged at my hand, pulling me to the couch. "They're selling us for money. They're going to pretend to take us to California for spring break and sell us!"
"Alright, alright, calm down for a minute!" I exclaimed.
Nudge took a seat next to me. "Your parents want to sell you? Why?"
"For money! And they're going to run off to Mexico," Gazzy told her.
This was crazy.
"We're not insane," Angel protested at my incredulous look. "We even found an email. I printed it out."
"It says they're going to be sound for half a million dollars," Nudge said, taking the paper. "And they'll be used as drug smugglers through the border. Iggy, I don't think they're kidding. The email is dated a week ago and it's from….."
"From who?"
"My father."
-Gazzy's POV-
"Your father?" Angel took the paper back from Nudge.
"Yeah, but he got arrested with my mom yesterday," Nudge sighed. "Iggy offered to help me get off the street. I never knew who they really were until I saw the news."
"That explains why dad was making so many phone calls after he watched the news," I concluded. "He wanted to make sure the deal was still on."
"And it is," Angel finished.
Iggy sat silently, thinking. And then, he spoke slowly. "I think I have an idea. Each of you grab a backpack and get everything you need. I'll meet you back here in ten minutes. Nudge, will you watch them?"
"Of course," Nudge agreed.
Iggy was off back towards his house to get his own things.
"We're running away?" I asked as Angel and I started to get things.
She nodded. "I guess we are."
-Iggy's POV-
Fang used to stay at this place, an unfinished apartment building not too far from his mom's place. From Josh, he lifted a couple of keys to the finished apartments and took refuge there during his mother's fits of drug induced rages. He gave me a set of keys, saying he didn't want to keep the ones he was using at his place because his mother liked to go through his things.
Although Fang, over the past weeks, had been worrying about his mom more and more and stopped going to the abandoned building. I'm surprised he went to the mall instead of there after his father beat him up.
An hour later, after walking in the heat, we reached the place.
"Read the key. What room does it say?" I asked, handing it to Nudge.
"Room eleven," she told me.
"Lead us there."
Thanks for reading!