NEVER LET GO [jason mccann]

Chapter 1

CHAPTER 1

JASON'S P.O.V.

      "Get away from me." I muttered icily, bumping my shoulder with Ralph's on my way towards the stair case.

      Ralph caught my shoulder, and spun me around to face him again. "Don't argue with me, Jason. Go get the supplies." He said coldly, and shoved me toward the doorway. I huffed as I stomped into the chilly fall breeze, slamming the door behind me. I saw a blue Jeep from the corner of my eye, and my head turned toward it for a better view. My feet seemed to wonder over without my control.

      My heart started pounding as I opened the hood of the car, and started fiddling around inside the engine. Soon enough, after a prayer that the owner wouldn't come out for a trip somewhere and fiddling around for a few minutes, the engine roared to life.  I opened the car door and swung myself in, then took off down the street. I was only 15 and I'd never been to driving school, but it didn't matter. Out there in the dusty desert suburbs of Las Vegas, there are more things for cops to worry about than someone speeding through a few red lights.

      I pulled into the parking lot of Roy's convenience store, and leaped out of the car. I took the crumpled piece of notebook paper from my back pocket as I shut the door and strolled in. I read over the messy hand writing that was scrawled across the thin notebook paper.

                      Jason-

                          ~milk

                          ~eggs

                          ~2 sausages

       Me and Ralph has come up with a code for some items a long time ago, just in case the police ever had found the list and used it against us. Sausage was our code name for lighter fluid, and eggs were a code name for sulfuric acid. But we didn't have an item with a code name as milk, so I figured we were just low on milk. An unusual item I had to stop for, but whatever he said was what went down.

      I wandered over to the dairy section, looking straight at my feet. I'd made a bad decision, because I ran head on into a girl, both of us toppling onto our butts.

      I looked up and examined the girl. She had the brightest blue eyes you'd ever seen. Her hair was dirty blonde with light blonde highlights, which tumbled down to about midway down her back. She had side bangs that looked like they fell to about the corner of her eye, and she would keep flipping them out of her eyes but they would always fall back into place.

      "I'm so sorry." The girl said, both of us looking at each other. "I wasn't paying attention."

       I scrunched my eyebrows, and held out a hand to her. "No, my bad. I was the one not paying attention." I argued.

       She took a hold of my hand and we both helped each other off of the ground. "Don't be sorry." she smiled genuinely at me. She looked down at her feet, then back up at me when she spoke again. "What's your name, by the way?"

   "Uh, Jason," I scratched one of my hands subconsciously. "Yours?"

   "Nice to meet you, I'm Clara." She nodded at me, and continued to open the refrigerator to get 3 gallons of milk. She reached for a fourth and loaded it into her reusable bag, which had to have been ripping at the seam at that point. Even Clara seemed to struggle carrying it.

    "What do you need all that milk for?" I squinted my eyes. She looked at me like she didn't expect to be questioned.

    "I have a big family, 6 brothers and my dad." Clara muttered. I shrugged, and grabbed 2 gallons of milk for myself, and started to walk toward the check outline. No time for small talk when you have big things ahead of you, right?