Вера Ефимова – Soulmate (страница 5)

 We were getting weaker step by step, stopping from time to time to sit on the bench without any willingness to stride any further. One thing was clear: we needed some place to crash and some food to eat. I caught myself pondering about completely unnecessary things, about the environment I’m surrounded by. I forgot about the actual thing—our well-being. Fabian was walking silently, afraid to utter the wrong word, because with every endeavor to speak, it seemed like, due to the lack of rest, his words were slipping away from him. A muffled groan of some beast was heard from afar, diluting the somber atmosphere of the night with incoherent noise. The rustling of leaves was especially audible, suppressing the background of silence.

 His deep voice interrupted me from my thoughts.

 “What’s next?” he asked timidly.

 “I have no idea.”

 “What do you mean you have no idea?” his voice started to rise. I could see he was a little irritated. “You said you'd help me to run away, but we ended up in the middle of nowhere. You said you had a plan!”

 “For a start, calm down. I promised you to run away, as we successfully accomplished. And yeah, I got a plan, and right now we are following it. Yes, certain circumstances got us up guard, but…

 “I shouldn’t mess with it in the first place,” he responded quickly, not letting me finish my excuse. I instantly realized how messed up my initial idea was to take the goddamn subway and not think of any contingency plan. I fully understand his disappointment.

 “Don’t worry. We’ll come up with something. I know a hostel nearby. We can crash there for some time.” There was certainly no use of my unwarranted excuses; he is not stupid.

 “Just leave me alone.”

 “Leave you… What? No. You can’t be on your own.”

 “Why are you doing this? I don’t know you, so why should I trust you? I shouldn’t have trusted you in the first place. You said you had a plan, and now we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

 “Maybe you shouldn’t. Now it’s too late to turn back; you have only one choice.” I was getting angry by the tension between us. Too late for him to start regretting.

 “I choose to go on my own.”

 “Fine. But remember: I still have your personal information, and police are on every corner.”

 We were looking at each other in silence for a few minutes. He angrily frowns, showing how resentful he is, rubbing his icy nose. I was thinking if I had anything else to say and wondering if Fabian had anything else to say. The silence was deafening. I was startled with his fortitude on going out on his own when being forged to these kinds of circumstances. Not only that, but Febian Hawthorne was as stubborn as rock when it comes to decisions. I was sneering at his tendency to do so.

 “I see you on the other side.” I ain’t got nothing to lose or gain in this situation, so I turned around and went against his direction somewhere in the fading darkness. I was eager to try his independence.

 “You’re bluffing,” he cried.

 “Well, maybe I am.” Some conniving laugh of a villain would be a perfect match for me. “Your complacency knows no limits,” he grinned.

 I was moving away from him, and the farther I went, the more miserable Febian seemed, alone in the middle of the square, completely clueless. My disrespect to “the lonely wolf” increased so much, as he thought he would manage getting away with what he has done. Remarkably pretentious of him to show such immaturity.

 I was walking past police headquarters, making sure there’s no leaked information about location. Luckily, police had more important things to do than chase two escaped teens. Local beggars started robbing their favorite donut shops. Something was whispering to me that Febian went directly towards darker areas, where all the vagrants gathered. In this case, his chances of success are reducible to zero. Vibrant, distinct colors showed up around the corner he entered. I followed him.

 “Not a minute for seclusion,” I thought. “He must’ve bumped into a group of bad people." My level of anxiety started to grow. It was very possible he was going to get himself into trouble.” However… The sun’s coming up. No need to hide anymore. Moreover, he can come back any minute. I wouldn’t mind.

 My phone started ringing. I reluctantly picked up.

 “How’s everything going?” said the voice on the other end of the phone.

 “Meagerly,” I replied, scratching the top of my head and picking at the stone under my feet with the end of my worn-out shoe.

 “When are you going to arrive? Everything is set. You should’ve arrived a few hours ago. You can’t delay it.”

 “Relax, I got it. We will be home soon. Just one more night, he is tired.” I actually felt like I had a little brother, whom I was walking home late at night under mom’s angry voice.

 “What?! Vincent, you’ll be caught!” She screamed desperately, trying to convince me I was failing. I hang up.

I hastily turned around and went in the opposite direction to the central area. The morning wind wasn’t blowing; silence could be heard from anywhere. It was half past seven. Near the coast I was standing on, it smelled like mud. The sun, rising from far away, was covering everything in morning light. I felt enlightened too. I’m afraid to look past me because I can still see Fabian desperately trying to be on his own. A completely new, gratifying feeling pierced me from head to toe when I went to grab some snacks at the nearest convenience store; I realized the existence of other interests besides my very own. Significantly different, maybe. That’s why Fabian wanted to split up; he had his own perspective of living outside of his father’s house. I didn’t realize that, since I was solely putting my strategy forward, leaving his ideas behind. And that’s my retribution for everything.

 Life in this place was still average: same people, same streets, same grocery store shopping. With only one feature—in this city there are two guys who escaped from the police, looking for a place to spend the night and regale, and thinking that they can get away with it without any serious complications, coming out of the water dry. Nothing in this city has changed except for people's conversations, which were usually about the weather and life; now they were about these two guys.

 I walked into the store and headed to the hotdog stand. Small, local grocery store with a few features that distinguish it from Target. Suddenly, I witnessed a little chat between a stranger and a local sheriff.

 “Have you heard about news from Riverside?.” A man with black greasy hair and a striped tweed jacket stroked up a conversation with the same greasy-haired man.

 “About Major’s kid? Oh, definitely. In fact, living under such pressure of having a cop dad prevents having all the fun for a teenager; that’s why he left. Now he’s causing such problems for his poor dad.”

 “If they only knew.” I thought to myself, picking out jelly jars.

 “Yeah, a kid like this would be a pain in the ass. Maybe it’s a good thing he’s gone. If he were my son, I’d rather.”

 At this moment, I started to lose patience. My knuckles turned white and sturdy, my eyes were ready to jump out of eye sockets, and my body was drenched in sweat. I felt obligated not to let these people talk about my pal like that. I will teach them a quick lesson before they open their dirty mouth again. I turned around and looked aggressively in the man’s eyes and punched him right in the

face, feeling a sharp rush of adrenaline coming from my lower body all the way to my head. I was leaning into an agitating moment of ruining someone’s face. I felt like I needed such a charge. I would not atone it for all the treasures in the world. There’s nothing to atone, actually.

 “What the heck are you doing, kid?” he yelled in the pouring rage coming to him starting with this instant. However, I didn't have to wait long for a retaliatory strike.

 “You know, being an old fuck says it all.” A stroke of injustice poured out of me like a river.

 “I don’t know who you are, but I know you asked for it.” He starts rolling up his sleeves, staring at me angrily. I punch first.

 He knocks me down the second I punched. Now I’m lying on the floor with a bearded man over me, nearly destroying my face. We were beating each other, shouting “asshole” and “jackass” sometimes. It wasn’t the ideal way of getting revenge for putting down all the noble things I have done for Fabian, but it was worth trying. The whole store looked at the security guard separating two bleeding men in amazement. I ended up kicked out of the store. I looked at the man one last time. It wasn’t the end.

 I ran away looking for Fabian everywhere. The man just threw a fist at me, indistinctly yelling something. The moral of the story was the frightening fact that some people knew about Fabian here; we needed to head out immediately. Oh, why, indeed, did I let him go?

 I saw a desperate figure covered in baggy clothes, looking around in confusion. In a long hoodie the size of himself, with a hunched back and in the hood that covered his entire face, Fabian was moving in a direction he didn’t know. Didn’t take a second to guess. I grab his arm, making him look at me.