The Planned Escape

Untitled Part 1

I tried pointing out that she had added 6 dollars to our total but Earl was too dependant on buying our drinks and sitting in the table in the very corner.

We finally sat down. "Ugh, my legs ache." I said.

He gave me a saddened look "Better start eating that energy bar. Wash it down with your coffee." He immediately started eating his half of the sandwich and sipping his frappucino at once.

I sat still and watched him with utter confusion, and frustration. He stopped eating. "Well, what are you waiting for?" His mouth was full of food.

"For you to explain to me what the heck is going on!!" I whisper-screamed in his face.

He swallowed his coffee-caramel-sandwich. "Alice, I'll tell you on the way, it's a really long story..." He kept eating.

"Earl, I know what this is. I know what this is. You just want to have---"

Before I could continue he spun around the table and slapped his hand over my mouth. I was hyperventilating by now. Thankfully our tense silence did not disrupt our surroundings.

He un cupped his hand slowly as if I were a savage wild animal. "Earl is this because you've always liked m---"

"Alice!!" He whispered. He slid to his seat again and maturely folded his hands together with mine on the table.

"I have to tell something." He said, his slightly confident voice wavering with stress.

"I am," He started.

"What? You are...?" I said.

"I am, well, you see, this is hard to explain." He took his hands away and scratched his chin.

I was beginning to become frustrated again. "Earl..."

"I'm..."

"Earl it's okay, you can come out to me. I'm fine if you're gay."

"Alice. I'm not saying that. I'm not g- you know what, let's just go. We need to focus."

"What?" I scrambled to grab my coffee and the half eaten food as he led me out the door.

We walked to a field a few blocks away while the falling snow fell quietly to the ground. It was freezing my face but under my coat I was sweating with fear and adrenaline. Earl didn't say a word, he just kept striding in front of me, continuously checking his watch, then the sky; his watch, then the sky.

I could barely see the end or middle of the field, but we were on white grass. He stopped, and turned to me. Like a dramatic movie right before the climax, except the feeling that I was about to wet my pants.

I finally screamed in the cold air. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!" I raised my arms and stepped back, watching the wall of snowflakes between us. Great job, nature. Just great.

"Alice." He grabbed me by the shoulders with the force of a bodybuilder. I let out a quiet "Ow."

"Alice, you are listening to me right now." He bent his head lower, our eyes locked.

"Yes." I gasped. My words evaporated into chilled fog.

"Do you remember when you first met me?" He said.

"Yes," I remembered his odd house, and his even stranger parents. They offered me baking soda for lunch. I said no thank you, politely. This was when I was 10, so it may have been a joke. I wasn't really sure.

"That wasn't a joke," he said, startling me.

"Wait, what?" I cried. This was about the tenth time I had said What? in our odd conversation.

"Alice, I'm not from here!" he said, shouting.

I wasn't sure if I was about to start laughing or fainting.

So I just stood there with doe-like eyes. Staring at him.

"I'm n--" His watch suddenly started beeping. His eyes shot to his watch, reflecting the flashing red light.

"Alice, there's lots to explain, but no time. I need you to come with me."

He bent down and begun feeling through the grass. Why wasn't the snow affecting him? My feet were already numb, and my nose was pink. What the hell was happening? I stared at him in sheer terror.

Oh great.

He found a strategically placed hole in the center of the grass.

How had I not seen that when we first came here? Did it just appear?

No, it wasn't a hole, more like a glassy, well...

"It's a portal," he shouted. "Now come on, we don't have time for this."

"Alice, do you still have your supplies?"

"Y-yes?" I whimpered, staring into the new, surreal abyss. Towel, blanket, food, water. This had turned out to be much different than what I had expected I needed them for.

He held out his hand. He looked into my eyes again, and the snow stopped.

"Will you come with me?"

Were his eyes purple now?

I still tasted espresso in my mouth.

This was completely stupid sounding, and I knew it would wind me into a load of trouble and probably some sort of time in prison. But, I would run away with Earl over living a normal life any day. I wasn't sure exactly what to call it, but I definitely cared about him with all of my power. I loved him, not in a romantic way.

Well, I still wasn't sure.

"Oh what the hell, sure." I grinned, shrugging my shoulders, and he held my hands, mine cold against his.

"Thank you," he whispered, somehow seemed like a thousand thank yous.

We slid into the swirling rainbow, of water and air, of light and dark, of loud and quiet, to discover a new adventure.