Runaways- Runaways 1

Chapter 4: Aaliyah

"Why? Why can't I FaceTime Kinsley? Mom, I haven't seen her since March," I complained.

"Aaliyah, social distancing is not something we can control. Unfortunately, the whole country is having to deal with it. It's not just us. Just because we gave you a phone for your birthday doesn't mean you can sit on FaceTime with your friends all day," she lectured.

I groaned. "What about Marcus?"

"Definitely not," Dad said from the kitchen. He'd never seemed to like the fact that one of my closest friends was a guy.

"Fine." I headed upstairs to my room and climbed the ladder on my loft bed. There wasn't really anything better to do other than finish the book Marcus had lent to me. I still hadn't returned it to him, even though he'd given it to me on our last Sunday at church. I picked it up and continued reading.

The main villain was a drag queen, which I found pretty intriguing. I just wasn't much of a reader, so I didn't always want to pick the book up and physically read it, despite the interesting story line. I loved talking about this stuff, but reading about it was a little different. It made it less real. I was much more of a movie person.

However, Marcus was a bookworm. He'd bought the book at the bookstore in early March and had plowed through the 560-page novel in two days. Then he came to church and told me about it and the level of LGBTQ+ material in it. I immediately asked to borrow it, receiving it the following Sunday which turned out to be our last one for over a month.

Church was closed until the end of June, though that date might be extended considering the number of cases was still climbing. The last time I'd talked to him was last Friday. It was Wednesday afternoon now, almost a week later. I'd gotten a few emails from him which I'd eagerly responded to, but he usually didn't continue the conversation after that.

I was getting sick of this. My best friend Kinsley texted me almost every day, but my parents restricted how much I could text her back. Molly and Jordyn Cooke, two twins who went to my school, emailed me constantly and called me every now and then but my extroverted self still wasn't satisfied. And forget Marcus. He didn't even have a phone. He always had to use his laptop that was probably a decade old.

There was one good thing about not being able to see Marcus at church anymore though. Everyone there thought we were dating. Seriously, everyone. All the freshmen, the majority of the sophomores, and a good amount of eighth graders and juniors too. It was so annoying. I knew he wasn't dating Peyton anymore, so that made it a little more believable, but still. I'll confess that I did like him at one point. I was still a little jealous of Peyton as much as I hated to admit it. She just hadn't seemed like a nice person when I met her three months ago. I didn't understand why he liked her.

I sighed and put down the book after reading a single page. I was about halfway through, and it was getting interesting, but I just didn't have the patience right now. I slid down my ladder and stood in front of my mirror. My short dark hair fell just past my shoulders in two braids and my dark green t-shirt hung just below my waist. The black leggings I'd thrown on this morning went to my knees.

I took one of the hairbands out of my hair and then the other one. I decided to tie my hair up in a ponytail instead. It was a little short to do that, but it worked. I was just about to start my workout when my phone buzzed. I picked it up to see who it was, surprised to see Marcus's email address on the screen. After reading what he had typed, I swept up my phone and in a single defiant movement, replied asking if I could call him. She answered five minutes later saying I could. After two dial tones, he picked up.