Whatever Happens |Kyman • Stenny • Creek|

Chapter 50: Fight For Freedom

"It's a long way home when you're on your own; and your only friends are traffic lights, speaking in Morse code; yeah the road is long and I am tired; but with you on my horizon, I will drive until it all breaks down."

~Michael's POV~

I wasn't sure what was going on downstairs with our parents, but I can only hope that they're fighting to get us out. Being in here over burning down Hot Topic is just bullshit. We did this years ago and nothing happened after that. Everything went on as normal and no one admitted us to a mental hospital. We had to do it because everyone was comparing us to those stupid vamp kids again, and we found it overwhelming. Everyone knows that we were like this long before those Vamp kids even came around. All they see is what's on the surface. They don't see that we don't have those fake vampire teeth in our mouths like those conformist vampire kids do. It's so childish at this point in our lives. Everyone who was putting the vampire label on us is a part of my senior class, and you would think they'd smart up by now. As you can see, that isn't the case.

While thinking about that, I was also thinking about what I was going to do with myself after high school. Henrietta and Pete are still juniors. I thought about sticking around South Park until everyone graduated. It's going to take Firkle a lot longer to get out of high school. He's so much younger than us. I might have to stick around for longer than I'm expecting. Maybe another five to six years.

Pete, Henrietta, and I came up with a plan for when all four of us finish high school. The four of us plan on traveling the world to the most haunted places we can find. I know Finland has a lake called Lake Bodom. Apparently, three of four teenagers were killed there in 1960. The fourth teenager has no memory of what happened there, which I thought was fucked up.

Spending up to six years at home after graduation might be enough to save up some money to do this. Henrietta and Pete are going to chip in once they graduate too. The second Firkle graduates school, we'll be gone.

I smiled at the thought of traveling the world with my three best friends. Even though our destinations might seem creepy to those other conformists, we think doing this would be pretty cool.

For what seemed like hours, an orderly came into Kyle's room. The four of us were sitting in here smoking cigarettes with the window open. There were bars on the windows so we couldn't escape, but we could still open them and let some air in.

"You guys are being released. Gather your things and follow me. I'll be waiting out here." He said just before closing my door. Kyle gave everyone a surprised look. "No fucking way." He said out loud. I smiled and waited for Kyle to get his stuff together. His phone was shoved in his jacket pocket. I guess he finally had his clothes delivered here because he was dressing up all emo now. Wearing a black "Bring Me The Horizon" shirt, a black zip-up jacket black skinny jeans, and black Vans shoes. I've come to realize that emo kids aren't as bad as they used to be. Upon discovering that emos actually don't come from plants that one time, I started to accept them a little bit. Even though we live completely different lives and have different tastes, our clothing style can be mistaken for one another. People may view Kyle as a goth kid and view Pete as an emo kid. We know deep down who we are, though. We decided to let everyone around us be the conformist assholes they are.

"Did you guys come here with anything?" Kyle asked us. We shook our heads. "No. We've been wearing the same thing since we got in here." Firkle answered. Kyle gave him a grossed-out look.

When Kyle finished packing, the four of us met up with the orderly outside of the door. He led us to the first floor where our parents were. When the elevator doors opened, I saw Henrietta across the hallway in the lobby. My eyes widened. She's lost even more weight than ever. She was a little chubby in elementary school, but just like that Eric Cartman kid, she lost most of it by the time we got to freshman year. I guess she wasn't eating too much in her ward. God damn...

Before anyone else exited, I walked to Henrietta and hugged her tightly. She grunted at the sudden embrace, but wrapped her arms around my neck anyway. Pete, Firkle, and Kyle caught up to us and smiled as Firkle and Pete joined in on the hug. Kyle didn't join the four of us in the hug. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets with a mixture of a smile and a sad look in his face. He's probably upset about the idea that he has no friends. After spending the last five days with him, I see him as more than just an acquaintance. He's more of a friend to me than he ever has been.

Our parents were still talking with the people behind the desk when the five of us looked outside. I continued to hold Henrietta close to me, planting a kiss on top of her head since I'm almost a full foot taller than her. Yeah, she's my girlfriend and has been since I was in eighth grade and she was in seventh grade. I looked over at Kyle and flashed him a smile. "I know this is going to sound fucked up, but thanks for attempting suicide." I said to him. He gave me a weird look. "Wait, what?" he questioned.

"If you didn't attempt suicide, you wouldn't have ended up here and helping the five of us get out of here. We...couldn't have done it without you." I sound like such a dork right now, but the feeling of happiness was flooding my body for the first time in my life. I can't even express how grateful we are.

Kyle smiled at us again and looked outside. "Well, if I had known you guys were in here, I would've attempted to get you out. You should've called one of us. Or at least get your parents to reach out if you didn't have any of our numbers." he explained. Pete chuckled and shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, true. But still. Thanks." he said to him.

"I don't know if your conformist friends are going to apologize or whatever, but if you ever want to chill with us, you can. We're free all day every day." I told Kyle. Kyle's smile widened. He nodded and looked back at our parents. They were finally heading our way. "Alright kids, we're good to go." Henrietta's mom said to all of us. Henrietta gave her parents a hug and a slight smile. "Thanks for helping us get out, mom and dad. I...I love you." she said to her parents. Mr. and Mrs. Biggle smiled and was about to tear up.

"Oh, we love you too, sweetie." she said back, both hugging Henrietta even tighter.

Before we went into our cars, I gave Kyle our phone numbers so we could all stay in touch. Pete, Henrietta, and Firkle were obviously okay with it, so I just gave it all to Kyle at once. "We'll see you in school." I told him.

"Alright, see you then." he said before getting into his parents' car.

"You're like a siren in the dark (Siren in the dark); You're the beat playing in my heart (beat playing in my heart); you keep me alive, on the edge of tonight, yeah."

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