Grimly

“OUT! GET OUT!” Alex’s mom screeched as the short boy stumbled onto the front porch, a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. He flinched as the front door slammed behind him, her final word on the situation. The teen stood there for a second, contemplating his options now that he’d been kicked out. He didn’t take long to reach a decision and started down the sidewalk, towards his boyfriend’s house.

Michael’s house was a ways away, and given the heat of the late July day, it wasn’t long before Alex was sweating. He cursed his stupidity as he walked. What on earth had made him think that coming out to his mom was a good idea? Look at where his confidence got him. On the street, with nowhere to stay. He couldn’t even call anyone and ask for a ride or something. God, he was dumb.

It was another 45 minutes before he finally arrived at Michael’s house, tired, hot, and sweaty. As he approached the front door, he was relieved to find that, although Michael’s parent’s cars weren’t there, Michael’s was, meaning that Michael was home alone.

‘Hopefully, I can convince him to finally go through with this.’ Alex thought as he knocked on the door of the small house. It took a few minutes, but soon enough the door opened to reveal Michael, concern etched onto his face.

“Alex? What’s going on? Are you alright?” he asked, leaning against the doorframe. Alex grinned.

“I’m alright. However, I’ve made a horrible mistake, and I’m here to rope you into it,” he said.

“What have you done?” Michael said with a sigh. Alex’s grin faded a bit.

“I uh... I came out,” he said, fidgeting. Michael’s eyes widened.

“Are you okay? Did she hurt you at all?” he asked, concern creeping its way back into his voice.

“I’m fine, I promise. She didn’t hit me or anything,” he reassured Michael. “But, uh... she did kick me out of the house.” Michael tensed for a moment at that, then forced himself to relax.

“Okay. We can fix that. You can stay here until you find someplace to live. You know my parents will be fine with it.” he said. Alex’s grin returned, though this time something more sinister lurked behind it.

“Actually, I had another idea.” he glanced around for a second. “We probably shouldn’t talk about it on your doorstep though. Plus, it’s hot as shit out here,” he said. Michael laughed and stepped back from the doorway, allowing Alex to step inside. Michael closed the door behind him, and the pair made their way down the hall to Michael’s room.

Alex threw his bag into a corner as Michael shut the door, and flopped face-first onto the bed. Michael watched his boyfriend with amusement.

“That’s rather dramatic, don’t you think?” he said, crossing the bedroom and taking a seat next to Alex, who grinned up at him.

“Of course. What’s the point of anything if it’s not dramatic?” he asked. Michael rolled his eyes and put an arm around the smaller boy, pulling him closer.

“So, mind explaining this big idea of yours now?” he asked, pulling the smaller boy to his chest. Alex settled against him, and they laid like that for a moment, before he started explaining.

“We’ve been stealing shit for a while now. It’s been like, what, two years? Something like that. Anyway, I think it’s time to move on to... bigger things.” he said. Michael raised an eyebrow.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘bigger things?’” he asked. Alex reached into his pocket and pulled out a small plastic rectangle. He proudly showed it to Michael, grinning

“Things like that,” he said as Michael stared at the piece of plastic. “I figured that stealing her credit card would be a good idea in case things went wrong today. Which, of course, they did. I was thinking that we should try stealing your parent’s cards too. Maybe have Joshua, Saori, and Matt join us.”

“What’s the end goal of all this?” Michael asked.

“We leave,” Alex replied simply. “We take the cards and just take off. We could go to fucking Denver or something. Somewhere no one will find us.”

“Who? Just us?”

“Maybe,” Alex said, shrugging. “We’ll have to talk to the others. It’d be better if they came too. Joshua and Matt are 18 already. We might be able to get more done with some legal adults with us.”

“Do you think they’d go with us?”

“Probably. I don’t really see why not. We’ve talked about this kind of stuff before. Now it’s just a matter of actually fucking doing it.” The pair was quiet for a moment, thinking.

“Alright,” Michael said at last. “We’ll do it. Whether the others come or not, I’ll go with you.” Alex’s face lit up, and he grinned again. Michael laughed quietly at his boyfriend’s excitement, and leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to the other boy’s lips before gently disentangling himself from Alex.

“We should head down to the tracks. They’re all probably there already, and we can all talk this over and shit,” he said, getting up from the bed. Alex followed suit, and the pair made their way out of the bedroom and out the front door.

******

Their place at the train tracks was only a fifteen-minute drive from Michael’s house, so it wasn’t long before the teens saw the familiar sight of the abandoned train depot that they spent so much of their time at. Joshua’s truck was already parked there, though there were no signs of Matt or Saori. As they got out of Michael’s car, Joshua came out of the depot, a beer in hand. Alex snorted.

“Really, Joshua? It’s only 3:00 in the afternoon and you’re already drinking?” he asked teasingly. Joshua scowled at him.

“Fuck off Alex. I fucking need it, okay?” he said, his Tennessee accent distressingly thick. He sighed, then took a sip of the beer in his hand. “Sorry. I shouldn’t have snapped at you. Just...” he trailed off, running a hand through his hair and sighing. “I’ll explain when Matt and Saori get here so I don’t have to explain twice,” he said. “In the meantime,” he flashed a grin at the pair, “Come inside and get fucking drunk with me.” Michael laughed, though there was still a tension in the air as the trio entered the small, run-down building that had been their meeting spot for the past three years.

The building looked worse than it really was, with peeling paint and old, rotten boards everywhere. All it had really needed was a few new floorboards here and there and it was fine. The inside wasn’t much to look at, but it was comfortable enough for the small band of teens that met there. They had brought a few armchairs inside the small building, along with a cooler, but other than those items and an old desk, there was no other furniture. There was a corkboard on the wall, along with a calendar from 1954 and some photos that they had stuck up. All in all, it was a pretty nice place for being an abandoned building.

Joshua flopped down in one of the chairs and took a long drink from his beer bottle. Alex sat in the chair across from him while Michael grabbed two beers from the cooler. He tossed one to Alex and opened the second one, taking a sip before walking over to Alex and handing him the bottle opener, taking the seat between them.

“So what’s up with ya’ll? Did anything interesting happen to either of you today?” Joshua asked, accent a little thinner.

“I got kicked out,” Alex said, sipping on his beer. Joshua raised an eyebrow.

“Temporarily or permanently?”

“I think this time it’s permanent. I uh, I came out to her.” Alex said, wincing a little at the memory of the conversation. Joshua’s eyebrow raised even higher.

“Geez. That was a ballsy move,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. She didn’t touch me,” Alex said dismissively. Michael started to say something, but he was interrupted by the sound of crunching gravel from outside.

“Matt and Saori must finally be here,” Joshua said, getting up from his chair. Alex and Michael followed suit, and the three of them went out to greet the missing members of their little group.

“What took you so long?” Alex asked the pair as they walked up, a grin on his face.

“We slept in,” Saori said dryly, making Alex laugh.

“Her mom held us up. She wanted to make sure we weren’t doing anything immoral.” Matthew said, wiggling his eyebrows, sending everyone, including himself, into a giggling fit. Once they’d all recovered, they filed back into the building. Matt and Saori each grabbed a beer and they all settled into the chairs. Joshua took a large swig of his beer and then spoke.

“I’m moving back to Tennesse,” he said, accent thick with distress. “Well, my parents are, and I don’t have much of a choice in the matter.” he looked at the others miserably.

“Holy shit,” Matt said, eyes wide.

“I know,” Joshua said. He was cross-legged in his chair, beer resting in his lap. He took another big drink and drained the rest of it. He dropped the bottle next to his chair and stood up to get another one. While he was up, Alex told Matt and Saori about his getting kicked out. Once Joshua was seated again, Alex began to address everyone.

“So I have a crazy idea,” he said. Michael snorted.

“That’s an understatement,” he muttered. Alex glared at him.

“Anyways. So, before my bitch of a mother kicked me out, I managed to snag this,” he said, pulling out the small piece of plastic that he had shown Michal earlier. “This, my dear friends, is dear old mother’s credit card,” he stated proudly. “And this,” he said, pulling out a piece of paper from his pocket, “Is her pin.”

“Holy shit!” Saori said, in awe. “We’ve gotten pretty good at stealing shit, but that’s fucking next level, Alex. How’d you get your hands on it?”

“She leaves her card on the counter, and drags me with her on shopping trips,” Alex said simply.

“Still, that’s impressive.”

“How impressive I am is beside the point. Point is, we could do a lot with this. Like, a lot. She doesn’t use her card often. Maybe every two weeks or so, for grocery shopping. And lucky us, she went shopping yesterday. So we’ve got a limit of either two weeks or until her cash runs out. Whichever comes first.”

“What would we even do with all that money?” Matt asked. Alex’s grin widened.

“I’m glad you asked that, Matty boy.”

“Don’t call me that,” he grumbled between sips of his beer.

“You’re my boyfriend, I’ll call you whatever I like,” he replied. “Anyways, my plan is we run away. Just fucking get in one of our cars and fucking leave this shitty town. Go to fucking Denver or some shit. Just get as far away from here as possible.”

“I’m fucking in,” Joshua said immediately. “I don’t wanna go back to Tennessee, and I don’t wanna lose you guys.”

“That was easier than expected,” Alex said.

“I already told Alex that I’m in,” Michael said. “Matt? Say? You guys in?”

“Hell yeah!” Saori said.

“Why the fuck wouldn’t we be?” Matt added. Alex grinned.

“Well then, I suppose that’s settled. We’ve gotta start planning, then. When are we gonna leave?” he asked.

“My parents are leaving on Monday,” Joshua said. “So we’ve gotta take off sometime this week.”

“Why don’t we just leave today?” Saori suggested. “It’s not like we really have anything to do besides pack, and that’ll only take an hour or so. We only need to take clothes and some cash.”

“She’s got a point,” Michael said. “Plus this way Alex, you don’t have to spend a night or two on one of our couches.”

“Yeah, it’d be nice to not have to do that,” Alex admitted. “I’m already packed too, which is convenient.”

“I don’t really see any reason not to,” Matt said. “One question though; Where are we going?”

“Denver, I guess,” Alex said, shrugging. “I mean, I keep saying that, so why not?”

“What the fuck is even in Denver?” Joshua asked, still taking large drinks of his beer. He’d finished his second bottle by this point and was drinking a third while a fourth waited in his lap.

“Mountains and shit. I don’t really know, to be honest. But it’s far away from here. Plus, from what I hear, it’s got a pretty chill gay community, so you know,” he shrugged, “That’s a plus.”

“So that’s our plan? We pack up and just leave to Denver today? What’re we gonna do when we get there? Where are we gonna live?” asked Saori.

“Illegal shit,” Alex said simply. The entire group burst into laughter at that, and it took a few minutes for them to recover.

“Really, though.” Alex continued. “Why not? I mean, my mom’s credit card will help us out, but it won’t save us forever, and she’ll probably notice in a week or two that it’s missing. So why not?”

“Uh, because it’s fucking illegal?” Saori said.

“So what?” Alex challenged her. “Who gives a shit at this point? We’ve all done illegal shit. They could probably give us all at least five years in prison by this point. Why does it matter if we step it up a notch at this point?”

“You’ve got a point,” Saori admitted.

“Of course I do,” Alex said. “Besides, all we’d be doing is like, robbing party stores and a few drunk tourists. Nothing major,” he finished, smiling. His words seemed to have a calming effect on the group, and it wasn’t long before they all came to an agreement.

“Alright. So here’s the full plan for today.” Alex said. “Once we’re done here, you all go home and pack. Joshua and Saori will try each try to get a hold of one of their respective dad’s guns, while Matt tries to find a map. Once he’s ready, Michael and I will go to the store and pick up some food and water and shit. We’ll meet back here in an hour and throw our shit in Joshua’s truck, and leave. We’ll determine our route from there.” he finished. Alex glances around the small group. “Does this sound good to everyone?”

Small yeses and noises of affirmation came from the other teens, and Alex smiled.

“Alright then. It’s already like, fucking, 5 o’clock, so we should get started,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. The others followed suit, and they all filed out the door. After making sure that Joshua was okay to drive, (“I’m buzzed, not wasted. I’ll be fine.) they all went their respective ways. Michael and Alex rode in silence towards Michael’s house for a bit, the only sounds the low murmur of the radio and the engine.

“Are you nervous about this?” Michael asked after a few minutes, breaking the silence.

“Very,” Alex admitted. “Is this a good idea, Michael? Running away to fucking Colorado?”

“Well,” Michael said. “I wouldn’t say that it’s a bad idea. Joshua doesn’t want to leave us behind, so it’s good for him. You don’t have anywhere to live anymore, so it’s good for you. And we’ve all wanted to get out of this little town for a while now, so it’s good for all of us. So in the end, this probably is a good idea. I mean, it can still go horribly, but right now, it’s going well. Which is all that really matters.” he finished. His words calmed Alex, and the tension he was carrying before seemed to drain.

“Thank you, Michael,” he said gratefully.

“No problem.” the tall teen said quietly. “You’re smart, Alex. We all are, but you’re the smartest of us. If anyone can make this crazy plan work, it’s you.”