"Horror."
"Ah, you're not one of those girls, huh."
"One of what girls?" He sticks a DVD into the player and presses play, coming to sit beside me on the bed.
"One of those girls that's afraid of a movie."
"I've never got why people get scared, they're just movies. What're we watching?"
"You'll see." I wait a few minutes for the movie menu and groan.
"Watchmen, seriously? That's not horror." He grins and shrugs.
"I was gonna put this in no matter what you said anyway. What's wrong with Watchmen?"
"I was never into the whole comic movie thing."
"So you don't like Spider Man or X-Men or any of those?" I shake my head and he mock gasps. "Well you're watching it with me anyway."
"I bet you just like the glowy blue guy cause he's naked half the movie."
"You got me." This almost makes me smile. I'm surprised to learn that I'm actually having a good time with Shay. It's been so long since I've genuinely liked the person I'm with. Huh, weird. About half way through Shay turns to me. "Want a drink? I think there's some Gatorade in the fridge upstairs."
"Sure." He gets up and leaves the room toward the kitchen upstairs. When he doesn't return five minutes later I start to wonder where he got to. I don't have to wonder for long, however, as soon I hear yelling coming from upstairs. I get off the bed and stand beside the door, trying to hear what's going on.
"...she is."
"Don't think so. Now get out or I'm calling the cops." I jump a little as I realize it's Doug. Is he really that mad that he'd come back the next day? I look around the room and spot a window near the ceiling. I climb up on the dresser and open it enough to fit through, relieved that there's no screen. I shimmy through the window and try my best to close it from the outside. I turn around and am glad to see that I'm in the backyard, away from the kitchen windows. I run across the backyard and spot a smallish hole in the fence. I run through it and take off down the street.
I run down a few streets and slow to a walk when I'm sure I won't be found by anyone I know. I turn another corner and jog down the street to my little hideout. I found it within a few months of living here and as far as I know, not a lot of other people come here. I move the board and climb inside, breathing deeply to get air back in my body.
I climb up the ladder to the second floor and crawl over to the comfiest spot I could find up here. I've gathered a few things and stored them away up here so they wouldn't get stolen. Stuff like this makes me wonder why me, but I stopped dwelling on that a long time ago. There's no point in thinking too hard about things that I can't change. I wonder sometimes what my life would be like if my mom had of lived, but that just depresses me, so I don't think about that often either.
I move a small piece of wood and look out onto the street. I didn't realize this before, but looking out from here, I can see the cross street to Geoff's street. This way I'll get some sort of advanced warning if anyone comes this way. I put the wood back and lay on my back, wondering what my next move will be. I don't have the best thing going here, but I'm not miserable. Maybe I should have taken that train ride. Now I'm too worried about Doug to go out anywhere just in case he finds me. I don't like being afraid of someone.
"Hey Mick, you in here?"
"Swift?"
"Yeah, where are yah?"
"Hang on, I'll climb down."
"Climb down?" I climb back down the ladder and walk over to Swift, standing a few feet from him.
"How'd you know I was here?"
"I saw you come in. Who the fuck is Doug?" Great.
"He's no one." He crosses his arms.
"Doesn't sound like no one to me. He's been asking around, tryin'a find you. Stupid faggy ass. I told him to fuck off." I give Swift a small smile. As annoying as he can get, he's actually an all right guy. If anyone wants to mess with me, he's usually first in line to kick their ass. "So what's the deal?"
"It's stupid. He called on me, I went to his house, he did and said stuff I wasn't comfortable with, I bit him, ran off, he's been following me."
"What the fuck? Where'd you stay last night?"
"Same place as the night before." A silly grin lights up his face. "And it was nothing like that. I think the guy's developed into a friend without me realizing it."
"I'm gonna fuckin' kick his ass." I roll my eyes.
"He's like seven feet taller than you." Swift is a mighty 5 foot nothing, but acts as if he's 10 feet tall. Gets him into trouble a lot. "Look, I've got two guys helping me out. I'd feel terrible if I was the reason you ended up in the hospital." He shakes his head and I can see his knuckles turn white. "Please?" He stops scowling, but his knuckles stay white.
"I'm not gonna sit around for long, Mickey. He's gonna get what's comin' to him." I nod and smile a little.
"I know, but just let me handle this." He finally agrees and after much convincing he leaves me alone in the building. I climb back up to my spot and end up drifting off to sleep.
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