Chapter 4

                                    

                                          
I didn't even know where we were going. Gerard didn't either. All I knew was that we were getting the hell out of Belleville. We escaped school during lunchtime, so we've already eaten enough to not need any food in a while. I have about $43 after spending my money at the convenience store, and I wanted to make sure that Gerard and I would have enough to eat, get a motel, and gas. I think that was also one of the most important things to consider if you wanted to run away. How were you going to provide for yourself? Without parents, a house, school?
"Gerard?" I said and he gracefully hummed in response. It was phenomenally conspicuous that I had developed a massive adoration for his voice. I always felt something odd in myself every time I heard it. I couldn't explain it, even if there was a dictionary in front of me with pages full of preternatural words that defined every inscrutable, nameless human feeling and thing in the universe. What I was able to explain, though, was how I heard his voice differently from anybody else. Simply because I felt that everything that mystically came out of his mouth could reach lurkingly into my brain. It gave me the same feeling of being read to as a little kid, but even better. Much better... Oh right, the money. "How much cash do you have on you right now?"
"Umm, I don't know, I'll have to check, it's all in my wallet," he said, preoccupied with driving. I bet he passed his first-ever driver's test. It was extraordinary how the asphalt never left his sight.
"Give it to me, I'll see how much," I told him. "Don't worry, I'm not gonna steal. And we can combine our money if you'd like because we'll need enough for food, gas, and a place to stay."
He nodded quite casually, and he took out his wallet from his front pocket, bringing it to me as his eyes were still thoroughly affixed to the road. "Thanks," I said, grabbing the wallet from his hand, watching it go right back on the steering wheel once I properly took hold of the wallet.
I opened it up and was suddenly met with Gerard's driver's license photo. He looked so sweet and innocent, smiling in the tiny picture. Maybe a little more than he does right now because he was a bit younger here. Purer, if you will. My eyes had scanned all the faded numbers and letters, being informed that the license wouldn't expire until another two years. Apparently, he was also a class D. Though feeling like I was negligently intruding, I began to do what I had planned to do in the first place: I checked the large wallet pocket filled with cash and took them all out, attentively counting. He had $52.31, including some coins I found in there. I felt obligated to count all the coins, for some reason. It just made sense. I then put all his money neatly back inside and handed the brown wallet back to him. "Fifty-two thirty-one. I have forty-three, so I'm sure we're good." He nodded in regard, then took his hand out for me to give him back his wallet. I placed it in his palm accordingly as he stuck it back into his pocket and continued to focus all on driving. I know it was important to have all your attention on the road, but Gerard strictly stuck to that. His broad eyes never leave the dark pavement in front of him. Either something had tragically happened to him, or he just drove this way. There was nothing wrong with that, of course, but it felt as if he was always in some sort of ethereal trance when he would drive.
Time passed effortlessly as I looked out the window, the sky a blue-ish gray. The colors and the dullness brought me back to the bench in the park. Then I looked at him.
"Are we friends, then now? Acquaintances, maybe?" I asked all out of a sudden. If we were going to stick together, which we should, then we'd have to be pretty compatible in order for this running away thing to work well, I thought.
"I mean, yeah. Sure, I guess," he replied. The plainness of his response kind of irked me.
"Yeah, but I don't know shit about you," I told him bitterly. "Tell me about yourself."