Meet Me Halfway (EDITING)

Chapter 1: Hidden Lies

Jay clutched the home phone in his hand closely, listening to Chuck's breathing on the other end cautiously, like someone was going to walk into the room and hear the whole conversation.

"Well, I mean, it's about time we sneak out at our secret cabin again. Come on, no one knows that campsite anyway. It'll be a good way to get out of our houses for a bit and hide - well, especially for me. I can't stand the way my mum and dad are always fighting, too," Chuck sighed, speaking into the phone softly. His voice lowered as he finished each sentence and drifted off.

"Yeah, ok, I guess..." Jay said, scratching the tip of his tiny scalp, once again giving in to Chuck's ideas and dangerous plans. His ruffled his fingers through his silky smooth, scruffy auburn hair. He looked outside the large window that sat at the top of the staircase in his house. It was a starry night, over the pitch black houses sitting below. The bright moon shined as it hovered over the town.

Chuck continued. "So, I'll say I'm sleeping at your house, you say you're sleeping at mine, and Vince and Nate have already sorted out what they'll tell their parents. Sound good to you?" Jay said nothing.

"It'll only be a night anyway," Chuck added, speaking convincingly as if he had already planned everything out in his head beforehand. It was as if he wanted Jay to consider it straight away, as if he wanted Jay to run away from his own life himself just because he wanted to.

Chuck had never had an easy life. He was left at the doorstep of a young couple's newly built house at just two months. This was possibly because his real father had left his mother after five years of marriage. After those five years of marriage, a baby was born, and she must've figured that she couldn't handle raising a baby on her own with very little money.

As a result, he was taken into their care, only growing up to realise his foster parents argued almost every day about every little thing that was happening in their life, even if it was as small of a deal as forgetting to buy some more milk during the week.

He was an only child, although not spoilt nor happy in life. His foster parents did fight - quite often, in Chuck's eyes, but they barely realised this had an impact on him and the way he was growing up. The fact that Chuck witnessed it all the time is pretty much the reason why he is rebellious and can't stand watching his so-called 'family' tear apart. It crushed his heart, and the sad thing was that he didn't know what it was like to have an actual family.

"Yeah, but, I-I don't know. I mean, last time we went there and something happened," Jay said, not wanting to name what had happened. Ever since it happened, the boys never thought they could talk about the incident again, even though they knew all of them had always been thinking of it.

"I don't want anything to happen this time." Jay took a deep breath, struggling to keep up with Chuck's pace of talking. He swallowed nervously and whispered so he couldn't be heard from outside his room.

"Jay, that was a long time ago. Everything has changed since then in this town. New people have come and others have gone..."

Jay looked down at his lap and twisted the phone's cord around his index finger nervously. He wasn't sure whether he should listen to Chuck. If he didn't agree, he wouldn't want to be left behind.

"Maybe," he stated, bluntly.

"It's only going to be the four of us, and no one else." Chuck waited. There was a long pause on Jay's end of the line.

"Are you sure about that?" Jay scoffed, scrunching up his face. He pinched the bridge of his nose and rolled his eyes in pure annoyance. It was always Chuck's way.

"I'll meet you at your house with the others and we'll start walking. You with me?" Chuck implied, continuing to insist with a strong sense of power. He acted as if Jay had agreed, like he knew it was something that Jay had always wanted to do.Jay snapped back out of his thoughts, hearing Chuck mumble something quickly.