Fly With Me

11- Stupid Authorities

I dressed quickly, then hurried back out into the kitchen where Brandon and his mother were discussing what was happening in hushed tones. When they caught sight of me, their conversation ended abruptly, and all eyes were on me once more.

"Are you sure about this?" Brandon asked, standing from his place at the table and walking over to me, hands in his pockets.

"Nope!" I replied cheerfully, bouncing a little bit on the balls of my feet to add emphasis to my words. "But what else am I supposed to do?" Grimacing, I thought of the possibility of policemen in New York searching everywhere for Brandon and I. One of them chasing me was bad enough--I didn't want to imagine an entire force after me. "I can't exactly have the entire nation believing that I'm a kidnapper now can I?" I winked at the two of them quickly, then headed towards the front door. "Wish me luck!"

"Wait!" I turned around quickly to see Brandon stumbling out of the kitchen and after me.

"What?"

"You're not seriously leaving now, are you?" he asked. His glasses had slipped to the tip of his nose, so he pushed them back up quickly.

I stared at him blankly. "Yeah, I am. Why wouldn't I?"

"Well... you know. Because I already had plans for today and I don't want to cancel on the people I made them with."

I laughed and stood on my tip-toes to pat the geeky-boy on the top of the head. "Silly, Brandon. You're not coming with me."

Frowning, he moved out from under my condescending hand and pushed it away from himself. "Uh, yeah, actually. I am."

I narrowed my eyes at him, and put my hand back on the door handle. "Uh, no, actually, you aren't." Pulling the door open, I stalked outside and pulled my keys out of my jeans' pocket. "Bye, Nickson. It's been nice knowing you."

"Wait, wait, wait!" Brandon ran out the door after me, his long, thin fingers grabbing my wrist as I was about to pull open the driver's side car door. "At least... at least delay it." When I opened my mouth to protest he cut me off. "No. Not for long, just for today. I made some plans with my friends for us, and they seemed kind of keen on meeting you."

"Kind of keen?" I repeated doubtfully, raising an eyebrow at him. "Sounds really compelling."

A little bit of a sheepish smile quirked his lips upwards. "Okay, so they were a little hesitant."

Rolling my eyes I tugged on the door handle. It didn't budge. I felt the tips of my ears go red as I realized that I had forgotten to unlock the car. "And you really think they're going to want to hang out with me now that I'm a fugitive? Yeah, that's really likely." I hit the 'unlock' button on my car keys, and pulled the handle again just as soon as the car chirped out that it was open.

"Please," Brandon pleaded, using one hand to keep the driver's side door open. "Just one more day. That's all I'm asking for."

Why was it that I found it so incredibly impossible to say 'no' to him? "Fine. One day. That's it. Then I'm leaving, and you're not coming with me."

"Yes!" Childishly, Brandon jumped up and down and clapped his hands together repeatedly.

I smiled a little bit at his puerile behavior. "Okay, you need to move now so that I can actually get out of my car."

The boy in front of me's face flushed pink as he moved backwards mumbling his apologies.

Sighing, I slid out of the front seat and stepped back onto the Nickson's driveway. "How long until we need to meet up with your friends?"

Brandon glanced down at the watch on his wrist and frowned. "About thirty seconds."

~~

Because of the delay, Brandon and I ended up meeting his friends half an hour later than he had told them that we would. We went to a mall in Merritt Island where they were waiting for us at the food court.