*Rye’s POV*
I quickly speed walked along the cement sidewalk, constantly looking back over my shoulder to make sure Andy wasn’t following me. My heart was pounding, and I could feel my adrenaline pumping, knowing I could get caught at any minute. When the small blue mark on the brick wall came in view, I noticed a small black object on the ground in front of it, and I pray to God that that’s Andy’s phone.
Once I finally approached it, I was able to tell that it was his phone, and it now had probably 500 cracks in it. I picked it up off of the ground and turned around to run back to where Andy was. The noise of officers stopped me. I stood in place listening to the people on the other side of the wall. There must’ve been at least ten people over there.
Why would they need so many officers there just for two people who trespassed and broke an inhumane law? It shouldn’t take that many people. I understand that they take the inhumane laws seriously, but there’s no point in having that many people. Finally, letting curiosity get the best of me, I looked both ways down the street before taking a step back from the wall.
I shoved Andy's phone in my pocket before rubbing my hands together in preparation. I ran and quickly climbed up the wall, grabbing the top with both hands. Slowly I inched myself up until I was just high enough to see into the backyard. When my eyes saw the scene, panic set in. I immediately dropped from the wall and took off down the sidewalk. I got to where Andy was in a matter of seconds, and grabbed him by the arm to pull with me, not slowing my speed even in the slightest bit.
Thunder rolled across the dark sky as we ran as fast as we could to get away from the house. Andy didn’t even ask me what was happening. He must’ve just trusted me enough to know that if I was running, there was something wrong. I didn’t even look back to see if Andy was behind me, I just needed to get to a safe place. I need to get somewhere where I can be with someone I trust fully.
The fear and panic fueling my body was immense, and there wasn’t a single part of me thinking logically. I’m hoping that Andy will be able to keep up with me, but I couldn’t gain enough control over my body to even turn to look back at him. My mind was racing with all of the possible outcomes of what was happening. All of the awful things that could happen.
The drops of rain started falling from the sky at a slow rate, but in meer minutes, the cement was completely soaked and slippery. I continued along the route I’d been going on, heading straight for the only house I could think of to go to. I continued making every turn I had made probably a million times before, and on one turn, I slipped on the cement, and nearly fell down.
I caught myself by grabbing the pole of a fence that was running along the sidewalk, managing to stay standing. A large force hit me from behind, and I turned around just in time to see Andy slip and fall right on his back. I quickly grabbed him by the backpack straps and pulled him off of the ground. Once he was standing again, I turned around and quickly jogged across the street to get to the one story house that was practically my second home growing up.
Instead of going to the front door, I went straight to the side of the house to the bedroom window that I’ve visited a countless amount of times. The blind was down, so I had no idea if he was in there or not, but I knocked on the glass anyway. After a couple of seconds, the blinds moved slightly, and I could see his eyes peek through the blind’s cracks. The crack closed again, and within seconds, the blind rose up, revealing Mikey, wearing only sweatpants.
His hair was all wet, and there was a towel draped over his neck. He was shirtless, revealing his nice chest and arm tattoos, which I had always been slightly jealous of, and the cast on his arm, which was also obviously wet. He unlocked the window and quickly pulled it up. Right when he was about to speak, Andy came in his view for the first time tonight, and his eyebrows raised as he looked back and forth from Andy to me.
“Well, can you move out of the way so I can come in?” His eyes landed on me again, and a small smile crept on his face as he nodded his head. I looked at Andy with a sheepish smile, and then looked past him to make sure there were no police coming. I turned back to Mikey’s house and lifted myself in through the window.
Once I was inside, I turned around and held my hands out to take the backpacks from Andy. He gladly handed them over to me, and I turned around to place them on the floor by Mikey’s bed. Mikey walked over to his bed, and plopped down on it, looking up at me while doing so. “So, what’s going on, mate?”
Andy got all the way in, and decided to shut the window back and close the blinds. I silently walked over to Mikey’s bed and sat at the foot of it. I rested my elbows on my knees while running my fingers through my hair with a groan. “I’m in some deep shit, Mikey.”
“What? What do you mean, Rye?”
“Yeah, Ryan, what did you see when you went back to get my phone?” I looked up at Andy and then at Mikey, and then back at Andy. The silence that was filling the room was quickly taken up by the noise of the rain pouring down outside. I stood back up from the bed and began pacing around the room.
“We’re screwed Andy. We’re both going to go to fucking jail, or worse, the city of fucking misery.” I rubbed my hands over my face before leaning my head back in anger and worry. “Shit!”
“Wait, what exactly did you guys do?”
Ignoring Mikey’s words, Andy spoke to me instead. “Ryan, what the hell aren’t you telling me? What did you see?” He touched my shoulder lightly, and I whipped my body back around to look at the two boys.
“You want to know what I saw? I saw police officers. I saw damned police officers all over the property. You know what else I saw? I saw a fucking dead body in the man’s swimming pool. That house is a crime scene, and I’m a fucking murderer!” I turned back around in anger and swung my fist at the plywood that had been screwed to the wall to keep Mikey from punching any more holes into it.
Pain immediately coursed through my hand, but I couldn’t care less. I needed to take some of the anger and stress out. I couldn’t manage to calm myself down, and I punched the plywood again and again. The only reason I was finally able to stop was because of the gentle tugging on my shirt. I turned around and looked in Andy’s eyes, and he seemed to have so much worry.
“Ryan, calm down. Everything is going to turn out fine.” My angry deep breathing slowly began getting back to its normal pace as I stared into the boy’s beautiful eyes, while nodding my head.
“Okay, you guys want to explain what the hell is going on, now?” I turned to look at the bed, and Mikey was sitting there, looking as if he was expecting the story right then, so I cleared my throat to speak.
I told the whole story, starting at the point when I first suggested swimming. I told of how we snuck into the backyard, we swam in a stranger’s pool, we got caught, and that I had a small brawl with the old man, later resulting in his death. “...But I didn’t mean to kill him, and if I would’ve known he was going to die, I would’ve helped him. But, the thing is that I didn’t help him. So now the police are going to find out I killed him, and I’m going to go to prison.”
“Okay, but I’m confused on something.” Andy and I both turned our heads to face Mikey, and he continued. “You mentioned the City of Misery earlier when you were, like, panicking. What was that about? Literally nothing you mentioned has anything to do with the Inhumane Laws.”
I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck slowly. “When he saw us in his pool, I guess from the viewpoint that he had, it looked like we were doing something together. He called us ‘faggots’ so I’m guessing that whatever he saw looked pretty damn bad.”
Mikey nodded his head and raised his hand up to scratch his bare stomach. “So what are you going to do if the police find out it was you two?”
“Well, I don’t know how they could, unless they’ve already taken skin cells off of the brick wall, but I’m hoping that they haven’t and maybe this rain will clean my DNA off of the bricks. And if it doesn’t…” I sighed while sitting down on the bed again, and Andy sat down beside me.
“Just don’t say, ‘if’, okay? You’re going to be fine. We’re going to be fine. There’s no way that they could possibly get anything, okay?” I knew that Andy didn’t know that for sure, and he probably knew that I knew, but pretending we’re fine is probably the best way to go. The worst thing we could do right now is panic, so pretending everything is just fine is what we need to be doing for sure.
I sighed while closing my eyes and leaning back on the bed until my body was lying across it, with my legs still hanging off of the bed, feet still flat against the floor. “I need to leave right when the rain stops. I gotta get home to my brothers.”
“Alright, you want me to make them some sandwiches?” I opened my eyes to look up Mikey with a smile and a nod. He nodded back at me, stood from the bed, and stretched with a quiet groan. Once he was done stretching, he made his way over to the door to leave the room.
Although Mikey has been my best friend since we were children, I’ve never directly mentioned that my father was the way that he is, but somewhere along the lines of our friendship, he figured it out. I don’t know whether it was the bruises, burns, and occasional broken bones as a child that gave it away or the fact that every time he saw me, I was starving and I was practically skin and bones growing up, but somehow he just always knew.
Being the good friend he was, he never actually mentioned it because he knew that I never wanted to talk about it, but I have a feeling his parents knew about my situation as well, and that’s why they kind of took me under their wing. When we were growing up together, everyday his parents would send an extra lunch to school with him so I could eat, and he’s occasionally done it with my little brothers as well.
He’s a great friend to have, and I pray to God that I won’t get him sent to the City of Misery.
A/N- Ayeee I’m back again with another chapterrrr and OH MY GOSHHH I HIT 70K THIS IS CRAZYYY AAAHHHH no joke, thank y’all so frickin much!! I absolutely love writing and the fact that y’all actually enjoy reading what I create makes me so flippin happy!! So please vote and comment on this and once again thank you so much!!xx