Chapter 6: Run Away Rebel

Chapter 6: Run Away Rebel

When my mother came home, I swore it was really the grim reaper knocking on my door. She yelled “The NERVE of that boy! The NERVE! He should be tortured with Mrs. Debow’s witch trial instruments!”

That sent a shiver down my spine, to see Alistair getting dunked into water in a chair from which there is no escape. He would fight the chains trying to fight the chains that bound him, trying not to drown.

I heard her from my room. “I wish they could just slice his head off with a guillotine and be done with him!” She exclaimed. I shuddered.

I imagined a burly executioner with no shirt; his head covered by a mask to his shame and way too tight pants. Alistair’s neck would be on the guillotine. He would think of some final wishes, hopes and dreams. I know in the last seconds as the executioner pulls the switch, he would think of me. Then the executioner would show the head for the glory of the foul, revolting, despicable public.

That vision urged me to race downstairs and clear this out. “I hate this town, but… Alistair makes it great.”

“You mean Alistair is the demon with the black wings?”

“Yes.”

“I should’ve known.” She responded. “It is always the good ones who have a dark side. Never speak to him again.”

“But mom…” I started.

She yelled, “Don’t ‘but mom’ me! I am the mother in this house and will never allow you two to talk again!”

I started tearing up “But mom…”

She bellowed “GO TO YOOUR ROOM!”

“But mom!”

“I said GO TO YOUR ROOM!”

“BUT MOM!”

“What?”

“I LOVE HIM!” I yelled, tears streaming down my face. I needed a shoulder to cry on, but my mom was still steadfast in her ways.

She stared at me. “I only have one daughter now, Hannah. Roxanne Atkins never existed to me. You are officially dead to me.”

“Mom I can’t…”

“I’m not your mother anymore.”

“Whoever you are hear me out! I can’t change he way I feel about Alistair. But you can try to open your heart and feel some sympathy.” I responded passionately.

“Out of my house.” She started.

I asked “What?”

“Out of my house!” She exclaimed.

I repeated my question and I swear the Leaning Tower of Pisa stood straight when she yelled “OUT OF MY HOUSE!”

I was bawling. I knew no other place to go than to Alistair’s. I opened the door.

He acknowledged me with a happy “ANNIE!” He raced to me, and then held me in a long wing hug.

I bawled inside the warm, feathery, smooth fortress that is Alistair’s wings. He asked, “Why are you crying?” This was in a low whisper.

 I sniffed. “My mother disowned me for loving you.” I whispered.

Alistair whispered, “I’ll always be there. We have plenty of space. My parents are mostly bird with human heads and human idiosyncrasies so they can’t even talk, or so I’m told, I never met them. I’ll just have you sleep in the guest room.”

“Okay.” I responded, in a whisper.

I had to ask, this close “Do you love me?”

He blinked. He nodded, slowly. He had to speak the words, to my eyes “Yes, I love you.”

I smiled. “That was all I needed to hear.” I spoke softly.

There was a brief pause before he asked softly and slowly “Do you love me?”

I stared right into his black eyes. I nodded quickly. “Yes! I love you!” I exclaimed, which wound up being up being a normal volume level.

He stopped embracing me with his wings. We sat on a nearby bench.

Alistair asked, “Will you fight with me? In the war against malice?”

“WAM?”

“Wow. That is a kick-ass acronym.”

“Thanks!”

“So will you fight with me in WAM?”

“Yes.” I responded, positive my answer was correct.

He shook my hand, “It’ll be a pleasure working with you, Annie.”

“What are you making? A business deal?” I asked. He shrugged “A bit, I just was being…”

His sentence was cut off by my lips pressing his, hard. It was invigorating. It was my first kiss with Alistair and it beat every other kiss I had experienced, to that point with anyone. I saw fireworks, big, bold beautiful fireworks when I closed my eyes.

He smiled “That was… unexpected in a perfectly magnificent way.”

“I just felt it.” I responded.

He nodded. Somehow he rocked my whole world when he gave me this simple little kiss. He smiled. “You were my first kiss.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I have never been kissed, until now.”

“Want to make-out?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Why not? We’ll be living in the same house.”

“Oh god, no. We are technically living together.”

“No, we are technically hiding from the town together.”

“Then we are technically are running away together and that is even worse.” I responded. “I need to learn control. My god my mom and dad must be worried sick! Oh! And I’m here kissing the most awesome guy I know.” I was being a bit bipolar.

Honestly, I hadn’t thought it though. My mom didn’t care when I left. She treated me like a rusty machine, with no purpose. She cast me aside. I was always used to Mom loving and missing me, but this time she didn’t care. Now I knew how Hannah felt, alone against the world.

Only, I had Alistair. His house felt like the Island of Misfit Toys and I was the little doll you couldn’t figure out anything was wrong with. He would be a fish that flies. Darcy would be a flying dolphin with anger issues.

In reality, though, if we were doing the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer analogy, I’m Clarisse, Alistair is Rudolph and Darcy is the abominable snowman Yukon Cornelius has to take the teeth out of. I am sure I could’ve come up with a better analogy, but this one somewhat got my point across.

I was unsure of everything, I did know that kiss was amazing and I did know my mom soullessly kicked me out, all I could think of was the good times in the city with my mom. She wasn’t always this crazy, you know. Anyways, she used to take me campaigning with her in Massachusetts. She and I wanted George W. Bush out of office and the Iraq war to stop. I remember coloring in a campaign sign for John Kerry and John Edwards and having it in my window so everyone knew we were a Kerry household. In ’08 my mom was an Obama mama. Now suddenly she is torn between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. I wanted to shoot her the Rick Santorum bit. He is too much of a staunch Catholic Republican for my tastes.

My dad was always a gun loving, Jeff Foxworthy-loving, country- talking, baseball-cap-wearing, Republican, God-loving and fearing Dad. But I still had fun times with him.

He and I would watch Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader together. I would always yell out the answers to the questions asked by Jeff Foxworthy, even before I was supposed to know them. He would take a swig of beer or whatever amber-colored drink he drank that day and would say, “That’s my girl.”

And if he didn’t get the joke at the end for that day like “If you think pi is just a type of pastry, you may not be smarter than a fifth grader.” I would explain it to him. In this case pi is an irrational number in math represented by  and is used to find the circumference or area of a circle. My dad would say something like “Oh yeah.” And then take another swig of alcohol and give me another condescending pat.

Then there was Hannah. I remember showing her Sims and getting her addicted. She lost interest fast in regular Sims but once I showed her MySims she freaked out. She and I played it constantly, especially the Wii versions. We bonded and became closer siblings. For those who don’t know what Sims is, it is literally simulated life. The only difference between Sims and MySims is that MySims has a storyline and all the characters look like Play Mobil. Between the two of us we had favorite characters, mini games, hangouts, etc. We were Sims buddies.

All that against Alistair. That kiss was amazing and my curiosity led me to his lips. He is my first real boyfriend that I really care for. All the rest were filler. I made-out with a few of them, but they all had junk food breath, so it didn’t last long, or there was a string of spit or something. I knew them for months before I let them kiss me, and Alistair pops up and I just kiss him…

Long story short, it is all very confusing. Alistair asked, “Should I try to be encouraging you to stay?”

“Not if you don’t want to.” I responded. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do, so the idea of telling him what to do made me sick. To the point my whole body felt cold and hot at the same time.

I was sweating cold, but felt really hot. My skin was whiter than the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I suddenly felt like I was going to vomit. I fainted.

Alistair laid me on his couch, and then carried me inside. I woke with a cold compress on my forehead. He smiled “I am really good at treating fainted people.”

“I am still so confused.” I responded.

He extended his lower lip in a pouty puppy way for a second. Then, he kissed my forehead. Then he proposed “How about you stay the night to see how you like it here?”

I nodded. “I can stay.”

“You can sort out your ideas and I can still have that make-out session you mentioned earlier.” Alistair responded.

I sat up and sighed deeply. “I am such an idiot!”

“No, you aren’t.” Alistair responded.

I nodded. “I am. I am preoccupied with where my lips can land and who wouldn’t mind if I shoved my tongue down their throat.”

Alistair knotted his eyebrows. “No, no you don’t. You care about me, right? You love me right? That is the REASON you came here RIGHT?” Alistair’s despair rose as he got more towards the end of the sentence.

I stood beside the tall window. I watched the angered mob come towards us with pitchforks and fire. My eyes grew full of tears. “Alistair, I love you, but psychologically I only want you for the freedom I will get fro my parents for loving you.”

Alistair’s eye grew full of tears of rage. “I thought you loved me for who I am! I thought you loved me because of what you see inside! I thought you loved me for more than your own personal gain! I NEVER had a friend before you except Mrs. Thompson, who is more of a mother figure! I NEVER loved ANYONE the way I love you! And you just lay that bomb on me? You are sick Roxanne Atkins, perfectly sick.”