A Month To Live

A Month To Live (3)

'Is she like, super religious?' Remi asked.

'No,' I said seriously. 'I think she just wants to be a God herself.'

'Why d'you chicken out?' Bradley asked. 

'It's too early in the morning to deal with her,' I replied smoothly, trying to take my phone from him - and failing.

'Right... well I'm confiscating your phone as punishment for forcing me to take a call with a woman I don't know,' he said, slipping the phone in his pocket with a smirk.

'I'm surprised you didn't flirt with her,' I snorted, getting my usual cockiness back.

He may as well sell my phone and make a bit of petty cash. I doubt I'd be using it much. I'd already deactivated my social media accounts and I hadn't even replied to anyone's messages. I was now just a ghost.

'Okay children, no arguing,' Remi said, slyly stepping in with another question. 'Where'd you go yesterday, Raegan? You just bailed at lunch.'

'Oh... uh.' Damn, why am I always in need of excuses? 'I realised that I left the light on in my room,' I told her weakly.

'Then why were you searching your bag?' Bradley asked in a triumphant tone. Damn observant siblings.

'Looking for my car keys.'

'Hey look there's Kyle!' Remi exclaimed, her eyes widening before running off towards a group of people, including Hayley. I didn't recognise the others though, they must be some of the people that were on the trip yesterday.

'Who's Kyle?' I asked Bradley, tilting my head to the side as I observed the guy Remi had just run up to. He was quite good-looking too.

'Remi's old crush,' he replied, walking beside me as I headed towards the group. His next comment threw me off guard. 'You know, you lie a lot.' 

'What?' I asked, stopping in my tracks and narrowing my eyes at him. Bradley stopped too and met my fierce gaze with one of simple curiousity.

'You lie a lot. You didn't leave home did you? You ran away from it,' he said accusingly.

'Why would I run away from home and then enrol myself in high school?' I asked with a snort, trying to divert him from the subject.

He couldn't know. He was just guessing. A very fucking accurate guess but a guess nonetheless. I felt myself getting nervous and dreaded his next words still.

'But you didn't enrol yourself did you?' he said, quickly putting the pieces together. I got the feeling that he was only half being serious when suggesting that I ran away. But now he was being deadly serious. 'That officer caught you outside of school and enrolled you, right? You pretty much said so yourself, yesterday.' He was looking at me in a challenging way now. 'You look like the type to be a teenage runaway.' 

This provoked me into talking. I'd decided since being told I would die, that I wasn't going to take any shit from anyone.

'Hey I'm eighteen now so it's not running away. Wait - I mean...' I broke off with a scowl, realising that he'd tricked me into spilling the beans.

He laughed at that, eyes glinting. He was a smart one, I'd give him that. Unexpectedly smart. I'd have to watch out for him.

'So why'd you run? Mommy didn't give you enough attention?' he asked, mockingly.

I sensed a slight tone of bitterness in his voice and I remembered that he was the brother of Remi whose mom had died, guessing it was his mom too unless they weren't fully related.