When I got home I immediately raided the fridge.

I was starving from skipping lunch and then having that altercation with Carrianne. I was still confused by what had happened, but I decided I must have just really shocked her when I punched her in the face. I giggled out loud to myself at that thought. I had actually punched another girl in the face. If I'm being honest, I have met plenty of girls I wanted to do that to, but I haven't ever acted on it. It felt kind of awesome.

I grumbled under my breath when I saw that there was no food in the house. I suppose that was just me being dramatic. There was plenty of food, but nothing I wanted. I grabbed some cash out of the jar on the counter and dug my old red bike out from the garage and started off to the supermarket. I was craving a pizza lunchable something fierce.

I walked the aisles, browsing all the different snacks and junk food available. I threw some sun chips in my basket, then some Oreo thins. I was turning to hit the drink aisles when I saw Garrett and his brother...Garrett's dad.

They were in the middle of the aisle, only partially hidden by a display of snack cakes. Dalton was red faced and inches away from Garrett's terrified looking face. My mind didn't have time to process what I was seeing. Dalton brought his elbow hard into Garrett's ribs, causing him to let out a gurgled yelp as the air was knocked from him. I advanced on them quickly as Dalton grabbed his son in a chock hold from behind. Neither of them saw me coming until I shouted. "Get your hands off of him!"

Both of them seemed startled, but Dalton didn't release his hold on Garrett's neck. I looked around for other people, hoping that someone else was seeing this, but there was no one around. Garrett's poor face was beginning to turn a purplish blue, all the while Dalton stared at me with his dangerously handsome face twisted into a sadistic smile. He was enjoying this. "You must be Cadence James." He whispered menacingly. "You're the reason this is happening to him right now." He said as he tightened his grip. Garrett had his hands up around his father's arm but it wasn't helping. Dalton was clearly much stronger than him. Garrett's eyes were starting to bug out as he was running out of air.

"Get. The. Hell. Away. From. Him." I warned him, enunciating every syllable in each word. I could feel the fear in me rippling into fiery anger. I felt heat rising through my body and when Dalton dared to smile, pleased with the reaction he was getting from me, I lost my cool. "Now!" I screamed. As the word escaped my mouth, the ground shook, and the lights flickered. Dalton stumbled back away from Garrett, and Garrett fell to the floor on his hands and knees gasping for air.

"What the?" Dalton muttered as he regained his balance.

I grabbed Garrett by the arm and pulled him to his feet as Dalton began to walk back toward us. "Run." I said urgently into Garrett's ear.

We took off together to the front of the store and out the door to my bike. I was beyond grateful that there had been a freak earthquake. I was used to them back in Cali, but I didn't know they had them in Missouri too. "Where are we going?" Garrett asked as he slung his leg over the seat of the bike and I stood on the pegs behind him.

"My house?" I suggested as I kept my eyes on the front door watching for Dalton to come after us.

"That's the first place he'll look for me."

"Ok, then anywhere, let's just go." I urged him.

He began peddling and headed up the highway, out of town. We were going way faster than I would have thought possible for us to go on my ancient bike, or with two people. I had to remind myself that Garrett was stronger than most. "You know what I just thought of?" I shouted over the sound of the wind whizzing around our heads.

"What?"

"It is totally cheating for you to be on the football team." I laughed. "Don't you have any integrity? The other teams must not stand a chance with you on the opposing team."

"You think you're pretty funny, don't you?" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Um, I don't think, I know."

"Well, for your information, our team is utterly bad."

"No way."

"Oh yeah, we have won two games out of the last two years. So I don't get to play hard, obviously it would be a little unfair, but our team is so bad...We don't have a shot." He laughed to me.

I was glad that I had been able to distract him from whatever had just been happening between him and Dalton. I know just how important it is to have someone there to keep your mind from dwelling on that sort of thing. I began to get more and more relaxed the further from town we got.

We wound through a wooded area and finally Garrett took the bike up a trail. It was sort and came out at a big wooden sign and a little hut house. "Where are we?" I asked.

He pulled the bike over before we reached the little building. "Cromley Park." He smiled. "There are some hunting lodges and camping areas up that way." He pointed deeper into the woods. "You have any money on you?"

I pulled the wad out of my pocket and counted through it. "I've got like $40."

"Great, I have $42." He laughed. "That'll be plenty." He walked the bike up to the building and a man dressed in wilderness gear stepped out to great us.

"Hello friends, just the two of you?" He asked warmly. We nodded and he pulled two red tickets off of the roll on his belt. "That'll be $4 bucks, $14 if you're camping." Garrett counted out his money and handed it to the man in exchange for the tickets. "You're both over 18, correct?" He asked. We both played it cool and nodded like it was true. "Good, good." The man smiled. "Bout a quarter mile up, there's a store you can get some supplies from, they'll also get you a spot picked out to put your tent. Enjoy." He waved to us and then walked back into his little hut.

Garrett pushed the bike up the hill in the direction the man had pointed. "We are camping?" I asked surprised.

Garrett looked to me with an anxious expression. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I just can't go back home today, and crashing at your place isn't an option anymore since my dad and Carrianne both know about that now."

I smacked him across the shoulder. "No, that's a great idea." I told him. "I've never camped before, and we can just skip school tomorrow and we will have a long weekend." I smiled warmly at him, and I could see that it made him relax a little.

"You really are excited." He mused.

"Couldn't lie to you if I wanted to." I reminded him.

We stopped into the little store and bought a tiny green tent, a hot pink camo sleeping bag, some hot dog weenies and buns, and of course the supplies for making s'mores. Garrett grabbed a few more things that he claimed were essential for a good camping trip, and before twenty minutes had passed we had already blown through just about all of our money.

The man behind the counter gave us a map that we used to find our designated spot on the campgrounds. Since it was a Thursday, there weren't any other campers near us. It was like we had the woods to ourselves. Garrett insisted on showing me step by step how to assemble our tent, even though I tried and tried to tell him that I would never need to know since I wouldn't ever go camping by myself or without another person who knew what they were doing. After our site was all set up Garrett started up our campfire and cooking our dinner. I had never been more satisfied by plain old hot dogs. As we sat around our fire, and the sun began to go down, we easily fell right back into our comradeship. We cracked jokes, roasted marshmallow, and just kicked back enjoying being completely alone without the threat of our parents showing up.

As the sky got dark I finally got up the nerve to ask him something I had been wondering about since he said it. "When you said my house isn't an option anymore because they know, what did you mean?"

Garrett shifted on the large tree trunk he was sitting on and poked the fire with a stick. "Well I had been telling Carrianne I was at home, and telling my parents I was at Carrianne's. Last night Carrianne came over and basically asked my parent's where I had been. I don't know how she figured out I hadn't been at home. Anyway, they all hashed it out and realized I had been lying to them. During that whole conversation, Carrianne accused me of telling you the truth. I denied it, but none of them believed me. I'm in pretty hot water with them right now."

"I'll bet." I muttered.

"Don't worry about Carrianne though, I have been keeping tabs on her all day at school to make sure she doesn't try to talk to you or anything." He told me.

I let out a giggle and he looked at me like I was insane. "I guess that means you haven't heard then." I said dramatically.

Garrett's face shifted. "What are you talking about?"

I stuck a marshmallow onto the end of my pic and stuck it into the fire. "Well, I may have...kind of...broken your girlfriend's nose." I admitted sheepishly.

Garrett's mouth fell open.