Vampire's Runaway

Don't Run pt 2

In three weeks I would officially graduate and then I would escape this hell hole of a town that was full of judgment, gossip, and stagnation.

I'm 18 so technically I could have left a long time ago, but my best friend and crush are still in high school so I've been waiting until after graduation-- but days like these made me want to throw all those plans out the window.

Usually, when we pulled into the parking lot in Sarah's pretty big, annoyingly loud, red truck, all eyes would be on us-- because of the deafening sound of the spurting muffler and the smokey cloud of exhaust that followed us, but we were really late and no one was left in the parking lot.

Without slowing down from her furious drive to school, Sarah honked her horn then sped up and pulled her car between Avery Winston's gold Mercedes, and Bryan Anderson's silver Hummer. I was still clutching the side handle of the truck when she turned off the engine.

As we got out of the vehicle Sarah clicked the remote key fop with a relishing flick and swish of her hand, instantly locking the doors to the truck that no one in their right mind would ever want to steal.

I've actually agreed to buy it from her after our graduation, so she can actually get a halfway decent-looking car for herself. It was one of the many checklist items I had for leaving town.

We ran to homeroom where Mr. O'Brian pointedly looked at the clock reminding us of our tardiness as the principal was nearly halfway through with the overhead morning announcements. Which I don't really regret since our principal liked nothing more in the world than to hear himself talk.

"...and don't think for a second because it is the end of the year that you can ask to slack off. I expect full attendance and punctuality or there will be consequences! For those of you Seniors who haven't applied for college yet, there will be a job fair in the town square the weekend after graduation."

When the principal finally finished his repetitive rant, we were free to talk amongst ourselves for a few minutes. "So, have you finally decided what you are going to do after this? You are running out of time, you know," Sarah asked me again for the umpteenth time.

I knew my best friend wouldn't like my answer so I've been putting off telling her my plans, but I guess there was no use putting it off any longer. Although I liked to be organized and plan, this is one thing in life I had not decided on yet. "I'll probably go somewhere out of town. Anywhere but here."

Somewhere where the town wasn't constantly judging a person based on who their parents were, and what side of town they lived on.

"Maybe you could come with me," I said with a hopeful tone, even though I knew what my best friend's answer would be.

"Nah. My parents want me to stay near home so I can eventually take over the store when they retire. You should come to the Community College with me. We can live at home and still go to school, which will save a ton of money."

I hadn't even applied to college because I knew it would be too expensive. It was already hard enough to save up so that I could move out of town.

Everyone else in town knew what they were doing with their lives because they all were doing something their parents did. Because my mom was a teen mom that dropped out of high school and never married, I had to make my own way in life. Problem is I had no idea what I wanted to do.

While I looked away from Sarah, I noticed Bryce \in the far corner of the room where he was reading something on his phone while he talked with his friends Zach and Ian. His friends were assholes that hung out with Craig outside of school and were always trying to score, but Bryce was more mature than that.

He was the whole reason I had spent an hour dressing up and carefully doing my makeup this morning, only to have to undo it all when I took a swan dive in the forest. My plan was to work up the courage to ask him out to Prom.

I think the only reason that Bryce even hung out with Zach and Ian, was because they were all Andersons and all cousins. It wasn't unexpected since, in a town of 2000 people, about 200 had the last name of Anderson. Most of the local businesses were owned by Andersons. Even the Sheriff was an Anderson.

"I don't know what you see in him," said Sarah as she noticed my gaze. "I don't care if his family does own half the town, he's not that interesting."

"That's not why I like him, and he is sweet and intelligent and so so interesting," I protested. He's cute and has a dazzling smile. And he's a star track runner and soccer player with a hot bod to match-- which I find very, very interesting indeed.

She leaned back in her desk and shrugged. "Whatever. You barely speak to him and you don't really know him, but he's all you talk about lately. And before that it was Tyler, and before that it was Freddie. Anytime a guy shows you any sign of interest or kindness you automatically catch feelings like some desperate, lovesick puppy."

"That's not true!" I said, even though she is right about me having quite a few crushes. They never work out because I am at the literal bottom of the social food chain here.

When it comes to the high school hierarchy, I was nearly nonexistent. In fact, I don't even have a yearbook photo because I couldn't afford the extra fee for the Senior portrait.

But on the plus side, being invisible means bratty snobs like Avery Winston and her friends tend to ignore me instead of ridicule me. I had enough taunting and teasing from her in my earlier years to last me a lifetime.

It started at Avery's sixth birthday party before I knew I was allergic to meat and I puked everywhere. It was over twelve years ago, but Avery never let me forget it. To this day she and her friends call me barf breath whenever they remembered I existed.

Another reason among many why I wanted to leave this stupid town.

My only goal was to get out of town and move to a place where no one knew me. This road trip I was going on with Sarah would be my first real chance to explore the world and look for a few places for me to move to. After that I thought everything would magically fall into place-- what I didn't realize was that leaving town would be the first nail in my coffin.