Like Yesterday (first draft)

Chapter Six

“Oh my gosh…” Carter gasps. “That’s the paper…”

“I know…” I whisper and squeeze her closer to me, all my fake confidence lost.

The guy takes a step closer to us, and once again, I hug Carter closer to me.

“Well, what is it?” he asks again. “I know you two are part of this, so don’t say you don’t know what it is! Just tell me!”

I don’t answer. Instead I just stare at the paper.

“WHAT IS IT?!”

Carter and I take some more steps back until we are up against the wall. The man reaches into his coat and pulls out an object. My first assumption is that it’s a gun and I panic. But when he changes the angle he’s holding it at, I see a blade and handle. I stare at the blade for a few seconds before the guy starts to run at us. Carter screams and hugs me. I hold her tight and squeeze my eyes shut, expecting the worse.

Within a few seconds, the man grabs Carter and starts pulling her away from me. I snap my eyes open and try to keep her in my arms. But the man is a lot stronger than both of us. He kicks me away with such a force that I lose my balance and fall back onto the concrete. Small rocks dig into my back, but I ignore the pain and quickly stand up. Carter is struggling to break free from the man’s headlock. The paper is crumpled up in one of his hands. In his other hand, he holds the knife just barely an inch from her neck. He threatens to kill her if we don’t tell him what the paper is. Carter tries pushing herself as far away from the knife as she can, but the man is too strong.

“What is it?!” The man yells.

“It’s notes that we made…” I mutter, trying hard to think of something to say other than the truth. But I can’t think clearly as I look at Carter’s terrified face with tears dripping off her face.

“Notes for what…?” The man asks, moving the knife slightly closer to Carter’s throat.

“A story!” I exclaim. It’s the first thing that pops into my head. “We thought we’d get in trouble if we wrote about leaving here, so… so we tried keeping it a secret!”

“You’re lying,” he says, not taking me seriously. “Now tell me!”

Before I have a chance to respond, a cop siren sounds from a block away. The man is distracted by the siren just long enough for Carter to kick him between the legs. He drops the knife and falls to his knees. Carter turns around and kicks him in the face before running to me. I take her hand and we run out of the alley, leaving the man crumbled up in a ball on the ground.

We run for almost fifteen minutes before we stop at a bus bench. Carter bursts into tears as we sit down. I hug her as she cries on my shoulder. Looking around, I realize that I have no idea where we are.

“It’s okay,” I whisper. Carter continues to cry and I rub her back, not knowing what else to do. “You’re okay. He’s gone, we’re safe.”

After a while, Carter sits up and wipes her tears away. I keep an arm draped around her shoulder. She scoots closer to me and rests her head against my shoulder. She works on calming her breath and wipes away more tears.

“You know, that was quick thinking back there, kicking him.” I whisper. “I wouldn’t have ever thought of that. You probably saved us.” I rest my cheek on her head.

“How did you come up with the story idea?” Carter asks.

“I don’t know. It was the first thing that popped into my mind.” I reply. “But it didn’t work too well.”

“Well, it saved us a little time…” She hugs me. “Thank you.”

We sit on the bench until the first sign of light. I manage to lead us back to familiar territory. When we get to the block her house is on, Carter grabs my hand. We get to her house and she turns to face me.