He lay on his bed with his face in the pillow. Am I trying to suffocate myself?
He sat up and groaned from the pain, though it was mental, it hurt.
Although he should be happy, because it was Saturday, he wasn't. Rajeev and Shanilla miraculously came up with plans, plans that didn't include him. So it's starting.
They'd said they had family stuff, but why couldn't he go to family stuff? They'd known each other for years; family was the next step. He knew why though, they just didn't want to hang out with him.
And to make it worse his parents were gone, along with Jessica. They'd gone to some karate meet up thing, but they hadn't even asked if he wanted to go.
Sure I never want to go, but maybe I did today. Maybe I wanted to go to one of these meets and see just what my little sister can do.
He looked around his room; it's all so boring. I've done literally everything I can do in here.
He wanted a change. Graduation couldn't come sooner; he'd planned on moving out practically the day after. He, Rajeev, and Shanilla would get an apartment somewhere together.
"One with 3 bedrooms," Shanilla had suggested.
"And 3 bathrooms," Rajeev added.
One for each of us. We'd have privacy when we wanted, and company when we wanted. We wouldn't have to worry about any problems because we could talk them out.
We'd go furniture shopping.
"I've always wanted to go furniture shopping," Spencer said.
And life would be fine, and livable.
He wanted to cry now, all those plans: flushed down the toilet.
He put on a pair of pants, grabbed his keys and shoes, and left the house.
He was hungry, and lonely. Those were practically all he felt nowadays, besides the obvious sadness. Shanilla and Rajeev were so busy with colleges now, they're parents only wanted the best. They were back and forth on college tours, and here Spencer was; he'd only had one choice. What am I gonna do for a back up plan? What if I don't get in, huh? What am I gonna do?
Spencer wanted it all to stop, to just run away from it all. To slow down, he wanted things to be simple again.
"Sir?" a voice called out from in front of him. It belonged to a guy in uniform, and he looked slightly annoyed, but also slightly worried.
Spencer did know which one was caused by him, but he still felt bad. He must've been lost in thought.
"Oh.. I'm sorry.." he muttered.
"It's fine, what can I get for you?" the man asked quickly.
Spencer gave the man his order: a burger and fries, and stood to the side to wait
Food was always good, it helped Spencer clear his mind. When he ate, his thoughts decided to go to food too. He'd think about how it got here, what people did to make it, and then he'd end up thinking about the history of burgers, or french fries, or smoothies, or cake, and his problems would go away, because food would be the only thing on his mind.
He sat in the grass under a tree, and ate his food. He loved doing that. Maybe if the college thing didn't work out he'd live in a park. He loved all the different things he came across, and he felt that the fresh air made food taste better.
If only my whole life was like this.
He closed his eyes because of the sun, only to feel it go away. He opened one eye and was met with a face; a familiar face: it was the guy from school.
Spencer had wondered about him. He'd met him a week ago on that day, and he'd never seen him again. He'd shrugged it off at the moment, but the thought was still there.
Brown eyes stared down at him, Sepencers cheeks were probably red from the uncomfortableness of the situation. He averted his eyes elsewhere, though, due to the guys position he didn't have much choice between crotch and the guys black pants, why was he standing so close anyway? So Spencer looked at his own lap instead.
"You, uh, need anything?" he asked, glancing back and forth between his lap and the guys face. He had on a green hoodies, and had a guitar strapped around his shoulder.
"Were you sleeping?" the boy asked curiously.
"No…."
He heard an "oh," from the boy, and then the sun was back in his eyes, before he knew it the boy appeared in front of his face. Spencer could feel his eyes on him, but he kept his own focused on something else.
"What's your name?"
"Spencer."
...
"Spencer." Billy repeated to himself.
"I'm Billy."
Spencer gave an awkward smile. Billy studied his face. He looked so dorky; the glasses, the freckles. But his eyes, Billy thought they were beautiful. They were olive green, or maybe light, off-brown, either way it goes, he'd never seen eyes like Spencer's, and he'd paid a lot of attention to other people's eyes.
Spencer. His name seemed to match his eyes, it was strange. You know how you sometimes match certain words with certain colours? Like how math could be green, and history was yellow; Spencer was this colour. Billy had to find a name for it.
Naturally, for a songwriter like Billy, you had to know a lot of words. You needed things to compare stuff to, and you couldn't do that unless you knew what to compare it to.
He then noticed the boy's face was red, he let a laugh slip out and tilted his head to the side. Was he embarrassed?
"What's wrong?" Billy asked.
Spencer shook his head quickly, "nothing."
Billy smiled, but then remembered what he was here for: he needed Spencer's help.
Yes, he was, in his words, "The Cobra", and yes, also in his words, " The Cobra" would always work alone, but this was essential. This was the last of his work; the final project, he was leaving. And he needed some help.
"Are you doing anything important right now?" he asked, moving his eyes around Spencer's face.
"Uh, no.." Spencer answered quietly, presumably trying to avoid having to look at Billy.
"So, you remember how I saved your ass last week with Ponzi?"
Spencer nodded cautiously.
"And now you kinda owe me?" He'd meant for it to be a statement, but instead it came out as a question.
"O….K…"
"Can you drive?" Billy then asked.
He nodded again. Yes, Spencer could drive, but he didn't have a car to drive in.
"Great, look I need your help with something, it's something totally important, and only you can help me with it," Billy started. Maybe he was exaggerating a little with the whole 'you're the only one that can do it' part, but Spencer was the only one he knew of that wouldn't talk.
"What do you need me to do?"
"I need you to drive me somewhere," Billy answered, looking Spencer in the eyes. He was still trying to think of a way to describe the boy's eyes, it would eat at him until he did.
You know that feeling you get when you're looking for a word, but you don't know how to explain it, so you sit at Google trying to dissect your thoughts, but you can't because Google is not your memory? It was like that.
"Uh, okay. But I don't have a car," Spencer admitted.
"Good." Billy then stood, and walked away.
Assuming he wanted to be followed, Spencer got up and followed after him.
They stopped at a truck.
"This baby right here is Viper," Billy announced, patting the hood of the truck.
Spencer stared, in all honesty he didn't know what to say.
"Why have you got a car if you can't drive?" he wanted to ask, but ultimately went against it.
He watched as Billy opened the left side door and gestured for him to get in.
"Doors kinda hard to shut," he explained as he got in the passenger seat, placing his guitar in the back seat like it was some sort of child.
Spencer gave a nervous laugh . "Ehm, so, ah, where to?"
"Your house."
The look on Spencer's face was something between horrified and confusion. This guy just kept getting stranger.
"We'll stop there first, I uh, need to pee," Billy lied.
Spencer hesitated, but started the car.
Why did he need me to do this?
Why did he need me to drive?
Could he not drive?
This guy was weird.
The car ride was mostly silent. Billy'd put in one of his CD's and they listened to that the way there, though Spencer wouldn't have minded if it was silent. Billy had a good taste in music, Spencer actually liked it a lot.
Billy had also attempted to make conversation with him, but because he's Spencer, it didn't go too well.
Spencer hadn't realised just how far the park was from his house. On bus rides he usually sat back and enjoyed the ride. He never paid attention to his phone, or anything, he just took in the scenery and waited.
But with driving, you had to be aware of so many more things. You have to keep the wheels in place, stay in the right lane, make sure you're not moving too fast or too slow, and then when you're driving with someone else in the car you've got that constant nagging in the back of your mind that the other person is mentally judging you so hard; it was so stressful. Spencer definitely preferred to be the passenger.
"We're here," Spencer announced as he stopped the car.
"No one home?" Billy asked, curiously.
Spencer shook his head.
"Good." He'd heard Billy mumble as he got out of the car.
Spencer watched as the boy strolled up his porch and stop. Billy stood staring at Spencer through the window, until it dawned on him that he had the key. He mentally face palmed himself, and quickly got out of the truck.
"You want me to break in just to take a piss?" Billy joked as Spencer walked up the stairs.
Spencer gave a nervous laugh and fumbled with his keys in the door. It took about a minute for him to finally get the thing open.
Billy found it amusing. He was in no rush, maybe he wouldn't have minded if it had lasted longer.
The inside of Spencer's house was nice. The front door lead to what Billy assumed to be the living room; the walls were green, there was a brown couch, a coffee table and a tv. There were also other things, one of those cases he'd never learned the name of that held glass, a rug, and a few pictures of a girl with purple hair.
"Who's this?" Billy asked, pointing to one of those pictures.
"My sister, Jessica," Spencer responded with a sigh.
He lead Billy up stairs to where the bathroom was, and then took a seat on his bed, where he waited. He frowned, I need a new mattress. His was old, his parents thought that as long as it didn't smell bad, and was in one piece he could deal. And besides, he'd be leaving soon anyway.
He groaned thinking about it.
"Whoa, your room is.." Billy marveled.
"Yea…" Spencer responded in embarrassment. His cheeks turned red, and he avoided looking at Billy.
Why is he like this, Billy wondered. He didn't understand why Spencer was so nervous and jumpy, but then again, he didn't know anything about the boy.
"Its cool," Billy clarified. So many posters, so many movies. What was this guy interested in, anyway?
"Not everyone thinks so," Spencer mumbled.
Billy's eyes rested on Spencer. This guy was just one of those stereotypical dorks. The ones that got teased and told they'd be lonely forever. The ones that in 10 years would either be living in their parents basement, or be super hot and successful to the point where everyone was sorry for everything they'd ever said to him- but Billy couldn't see Spencer ending up in any of those situations.
Where do I see this guy in 10 years? Billy asked himself, he didnt know now, but maybe later?
"So, uh.. is that all you needed?" Spencer asked glancing up at Billy.
Billy was quiet for a second, then spoke quietly.
"Can you keep a secret?" he asked sitting down next to Spencer, a bit too close.
"No one's here, you know?" Spencer pointed out.
"You don't have to…" he started, but the look Billy gave him said shut up, so he stopped.
"Answer the question," Billy pushed, he already knew he could trust the boy, but still wanted to ask; to make things more pitiful.
"Uh, yea. I think so.? Why?" Spencer responded, hesitating.
"I'm planning on running away, all I need is a driver," Billy explained slowly.
Spencer leaned away from him. He'd never done anything like this before, no one's ever needed his help with anything. And yea, this was a small thing, but still: this guy's life kinda depended on Spencer, in a way.
"Uh, where do y-you need to go?" he stuttered out.
Billy was silent. Okay, so he didn't know where he needed to go. But he figured he'd figure that out on the way.
"Far," he decided to say. "How long are your parents gone for?" he then added.
Spencer thought. Jessica's karate meet was in Colorado, they'd left last night to get on the plane, it took about 2 hours to get there from here in California, and they were staying for 3 days, so
"A few days," he said.
"Perfect," Billy muttered. He then got up and started going through Spencer's dresser
"Hey, what are you-"
"You'll need a change of clothes….you might be gone for a few days too."
"A few days?" Spencer questioned.
"Uh, yea. I wanna get pretty far away and we could make it in a day, but then we wouldn't have time to take in all the scenery y'know?" Billy explained, throwing a pair of boxers in the other boys direction.
Spencer caught them, and sighed. His face was probably going red again.
A part of him felt aroused, he was actually excited for this. A road trip! Sure he'd imagined going on it with Rajeev and Shanilla, and not some total stranger, but how often do you get the chance to do something like this? How often in your life will some guy come up to you and ask you to help him run away? Close to fucking never. Something told him to do this, he'd most certainly regret it if he didn't.
But then there was another part telling him no. This wasn't right, he couldn't just skip school, and stuff like that. Sure he hated it, and it made him want to die, but it was something he had to do, besides maybe in a few months after he graduated he'd have a chance to take a road trip of his own.
But that would require a car, and money, two things he didn't have and will probably never have. Besides he did even want a car, #Publictransportation4life was his motto.
He was totally gonna do this, besides, it was just a few days right? This could be totally rad.
"So, should I pack a lot?" he asked, which surprised Billy. He didn't think it'd be that easy to convince him to come. From the looks of it Spencer was pretty uptight, and if not uptight he had some sort of stress problem.
"Just pack the essentials, meaning, if your home caught on fire, pack the things you would mind losing," he answered. Who knows, maybe his house would catch on fire while he was gone, Billy didn't want Spencer to lose everything because of him.
Spencer shoved some things into a bag; a camera, his laptop, his laptop charger, some USB drives, a book, a few movies, and some clothes.
"Okay," he said, glancing around his room, " ready."
He stood there in his beat up sneakers, baggy jeans and grey hoodie, and waited. Billy smiled. He's really gonna do this.
Before they walked out the door Spencer disappeared and returned with his toothbrush.
"I, uh…" he trailed off, waving the brush in the air. Billy then noticed Spencer's hair, and thought about a hair brush; he didn't look like he'd owned one. It wasn't bad though, if anything it could be quite attractive. It looked like someone had ran their hands through it a bunch of times during a makeout session. Of course though that was only Billy's take on it, it was the only way he knew how to describe it, though in time he'd have to find a proper, more appropriate way to explain it.
He was a bit disappointed he didn't get to see the rest of Spencer's house before they left though, he wanted to know what Spencer saw every day, maybe he'd ask him about it later.
The two of them sat in the front of Billy's truck.
"So, it takes about 12 hours driving non stop to get to Oregon, so it should take us 2 days to get there, that is if we only do 6 hours of driving. We could do more, or less depending on things, but 2 days and we should hit Oregon," Billy explained.
"And that's where you need to go?" Spencer asked.
"Right," Billy said trying to sound sure of himself. He didn't know where he wanted to go, but hey, maybe Oregon will be where he decides to stay.