Imake a Great Escape

Sam's POV

Her cold hand struck across my already sore face as her fingers made their impression on my cheek. The pain burned through me like a wild fire. My mouth hung open as I turned my head to face my attacker. My mother stood before me, drunk again, as she always was.

Her hand was still in the air as she smiled evilly at me. "Let me tell you again, in case you haven't caught on, brat." She spat her words out at me.

"We don't have food here. My job is not to feed you. I don't even have to give you a home, but I do. You should be happy you live with me in this rat hole. Now why don't you go out on the streets and scour some food for the both of us."

I shook my head at her with disgust. "Alright," I told her and looked her straight in the eye. "But this time, I'm not coming back." I turned on one foot and headed to the door as I picked up my backpack already filled to the top with food and other things I might need if I ran away.

I slung it casually over my shoulder and walked out of the dump I called a home, forever.

I didn't really know where I was going. I never did, actually. I usually just ended up somewhere and found a box to sleep in for the night, or on lucky days, found enough money on the street to get a hotel room.

But that was usually just for the night. This time I wasn't ever going to come back. I was just leaving all of the crap in my life behind me.

Truth be told, I was a little rusty. I hadn't run away since the day before I met Freddie, five years ago. Recently, I would just stay the night over at Carly's place.

She understood everything. And though I would never admit it to a soul, being near Freddie always seemed to…calm me down for some reason. And he lived right across the hall from Carly.

I was now just wandering the streets a few miles away from "home". My eyes caught sight of a little meadow and I instantly thought it would be a nice place to sleep, just for tonight.

I started to get excited and thought I was doing a good job, for my first night on the run in a while. I was going so fast I hardly noticed the familiar blur of a boy about to collide with me headfirst.

One Hour Earlier, Freddie's POV

I sat on Carly's couch as she came through the door to her apartment with the biggest smile I've seen her have in a while plastered on her face. I stared at her, like she was the most beautiful thing in the world as she turned around and saw me sitting there. "Oh, hey, Freddie," she greeted me looking a little confused. "What are you doing here so late?"

"I'm always over here. I was just waiting for you to come home so we could hang out or something." I offered as an answer. She sighed and said, "I know, but you shouldn't have waited up for me." She paused as she got a dreamy look in her eyes. "I was busy being on the best date in the world with Griffin. He took me to see the new movie, 'Move on, Dork.'"

Right. I forgot Carly was out with another guy for the third time this week. Carly knew I loved her, but I don't think she understood how much it hurt when she rejected me.

My heart sank, and it got to the point where I just could not take it anymore. I had to do something about this. I couldn't go on suffering every time she talked about her dates. I knew what I had to do now. "Carly?" I called to her, snapping her out of her ramble about the movie. "Yeah?" she asked me.

"Will you go out with me? Right now. We can go to the park or ice skating. I'll even go to glitter gloss if you go with me and call it a date." I pleaded with her. Carly smiled at me and shook her head and said "Freddie, I have told you a thousand times. No. You're just not the guy for me."

She patted my shoulder and walked right past me over to the kitchen to eat some dinner. I bit my lower lip and knew what I must do, for sure now. "Carly, I…have to go. I'm sorry, my mom will probably be wondering where I am at this hour. You know how she is," I said without bothering to look at her.

I could hear Carly's voice behind me say, "Sure thing, Freddie. I get it. I'll see you tomorrow at school then."

"Bye." I said as I walked out of her apartment. She wouldn't see me tomorrow at school, because I wasn't going. I didn't know where I was going but it wasn't school. When I was in the hallway I walked straight past my door to the elevator. I wasn't going to say goodbye to my mother. She'd never let me leave.

Instead I found myself wandering west from my apartment building into the deserted streets of Seattle. I just walked for several miles and thought about what I was doing. I had never run away before. I was mommy's little boy. I just needed to get out for a while and just have nothing to worry about.

I was about a mile away from the apartment when I saw a little meadow that looked like it might have berries or something in it. And I was hungry, as I didn't even eat dinner. My stomach did a flip and I started to run towards the meadow and possibly food. I was so excited I had no idea there was another person running right towards me.

Then our bodies collided as I yelled "OOF" and fell to the ground as did the mysterious girl I ran into. I felt guilty and immediately began apologizing. "I am so sorry; I didn't think there would be any…" I stopped as my eyes fell on the face of the girl. "Sam?" I asked shocked. "Fredweird?" She asked, clearly as puzzled as I was.

"What are you doing in the middle of a meadow at this hour?" She asked me, almost yelling. I was taken aback. I couldn't just come out and tell her I was running away. She would tell someone and I'd have to come home. "I…" I started some excuse before she cut me off.

"You're running away, aren't you?" So much for trying to hide it. Sam looked amused.

"Maybe," I suggested.

"Clearly, you are. You're not a good liar, Freddo." She said as she shifted her weight. "You're so stupid," she half laughed as she turned to on her foot lightly. "No, I'm not! I have a perfectly good reason to be running away." She looked at me and raised an eyebrow.

"I was actually going to suggest you were stupid for running away without any supplies. But you now have me curious about this reason." She said.

"Since when are you the expert on running away?" I asked her disbelievingly, and then it hit me. "Hey, you're running away too, aren't you?" I accused her.

She scoffed. "Took you that long to figure out did it?" she casually stated. "Now why did you run away?"

I gave in and told her. "I just can't take Carly going out with all these guys anymore. I think I still love her."

Sam looked rather peeved about this. "That's your reason? Carly will never love you? Oh get over it." She rolled her eyes at me.

"Well I happen to think it's a perfectly good reason," I defend.

"Pfft," Is her response.

"Well what kind of reason do you have to be running away?" I ask her accusingly.

The smile drops from her face and she bites her lip, thinking. "That's none of your business, Fredward."

"What?!" I exclaim. "I tell you why I ran away, but you don't have to tell me?" I ask her.

"Yep, that's pretty much how it works."

"That's not fair at all!" I argue.

"Eh, what you gonna do about it? Cry to mommy? Mommy won't be here anymore. Unless, of course, you're heading back home?" She cocked her head to the side and looked at me. But I wasn't going to go home. I was sticking this out. "No." I confirmed. "I'm not going back."

"Okay, as long as you don't regret it when we're in a life or death situation." She says.

"We?" I ask. Did I hear that right?

"Yeah," she smiles at me. "Unless you're ready to face the big bad world by yourself. But I think you could use a little of my help." She laughed as if by 'little' she meant 'a huge freaking amount of help'. I only needed to ponder this for a second before I realized she was right. "Alright. I'll go with you." I gave in. She smiled at me like she never did before. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad. "Okay, great. You can help me with everything too."

"That should be so much fun." I said sarcastically.

"Oh don't worry it will be," she told me.

"So what do we do now?" I ask her as she licks her lips. "Who knows? We got the whole Earth ahead of us and all the time in the world."