Kill Me
Chapter 7
By: Makena
Benji wouldn't talk to his daughter unless he had to the rest of the night. He sent her upstairs after they ate dinner to pack - she had to leave the next day and she didn't have any of her things yet. Callie did go upstairs, but not to pack for the hospital. Instead, she grabbed her black back pack and emptied everything school related out onto the bed. She stuffed some extra clothing inside, as well as her story book and her diary and a handful of random CD's she happened to grab from her CD rack that sat in her closet. Once she was sure everybody had gone to bed, she slipped her pack of cigarettes and every cent she owned into her pockets and climbed out the window and down the ivy covered "fence" that was rested against the side of the house.
Successfully, she reached the ground and took off at a slow pace. She didn't know if they would check on her in the middle of the night like they had been doing every other night, and she didn't know if they would find her. And she didn't care.
She walked down the road and down many other roads until two in the morning when she stopped at a small, one story house. She walked to the front door and rang the door bell, hoping her friend would be home. Callie had to ring the door bell three more times before the door swung open and Billy stood angrily and tired in his boxers and a t-shirt.
"Callie?" he said, frowning. "What are you doing here?"
Callie sighed and brushed past him, inviting herself into his house. "They were gonna make me go to that stupid hospital tomorrow," she explained. "And I didn't want to."
"So you ran away?" Billy asked her, locking the door after he shut it tightly.
Callie nodded, plopping down on the soft couch. "Can I just crash here for a couple of hours?" she asked.
Billy yawned. "I suppose," he replied.
"I'll be gone before sun rise," she promised him.
"You can stay longer."
Callie shook her head. "They'll be looking for me by then," she responded.
"Like they'll check here," Billy told her. "Right?"
Callie didn't reply. She set her back pack down on the floor and folded her hands in her lap.
"Right?"
Callie sighed. "My dad found out," she said.
Billy blinked and then stared at her. "What?" he asked. "How'd he find out?!"
"I sort of... told him..." Callie said. "I didn't mean to! I don't know how he did it - it was like I couldn't lie to him and he wanted to know so bad..."
Billy groaned. "I'm gonna get arrested," he said, putting his hands on his head. "I'm gonna do major time for this - thank you, very much, Callie."
"I'm sorry!" Callie cried. "I didn't mean to..."
Nether of them said anything for a while as they each tried to think of something to say to each other.
"My friend's brother has a tour coming up," Billy said finally. "It starts tomorrow. We can catch him and his band before they take off."
"Meaning...?"
Billy sighed and rubbed his wrists - he had been cutting himself again. "We could take off with them," he told her. "Nobody knows where they'll be next and I'm sure your dad won't know where to look for you... especially if he doesn't know WHO you're with."
Callie sighed and closed her eyes. "He'll know I'm with you."
"But he won't know who I'm with."
Callie opened her eyes. He had a point - Benji would know she was with Billy, but... where had Billy gone? She thought about it for what seemed like hours while Billy got himself a glass of water and a cigarette for himself and Callie.
"Okay," she said finally. "I'll go."
----
By four in the morning, Callie had helped Billy pack everything he needed and walked a couple blocks down to catch a cab. They sat in the back seat in uncomfortable silence for a while before either of them made an attempt to speak. Finally, Callie gently brushed a strand of lose hair out of her eyes and looked at him.
"I'm sorry," she apologized to him, hoping he would look at her instead of the houses that passed by in a blur.
Billy nodded, but didn't make an attempt to forgive her. He watched houses go by and noticed as Callie sighed in the seat next to him. They didn't say anything again for a moment as the cab drove into a nearly deserted parking lot - minus a large bus and a group of five guys, plus a bus driver standing outside. Billy paid the cab driver and helped Callie with her things.
"Billy!" one of the young men called out. "What's up?"
Billy plastered a smile on his face and handed Callie her back pack. "Nothing. I hope we're not bugging you by bumming a ride."
The man shrugged and shook his head. "Naw. We got room - you gotta sleep on the couch or something, but there's plenty of room." He paused to look at Callie and extended a hand. "Hey. You're Billy's friend, Callie, right?"
Callie nodded and shook his hand briefly.
"Cool. I'm Mark."
Callie nodded and glanced over at Billy, who noticed but walked away from her side to join the other four guys. Callie sighed and looked back at Mark, who was talking to her and telling her something about her looking like Benji.
"We usually don't let 16 year olds ride with us," Mark continued as Callie played with the lose strap that hung from her back pack. "But Billy said you're cool."
Callie didn't know how to respond, so she shrugged and told him that she was tired and just wanted to jump on the bus and sleep. Mark understood and walked with her to the bus, getting on after her. Callie climbed onto the couch and curled up, leaving her back pack propped up against the side of the couch. She didn't know these people, and she prayed to god she could trust them enough to not take any of her things.
The bus started up and Billy and the others were soon boarding, dragging their things onto the bus and into the bunk area. Callie watched as people shifted around while the bus began to pull out of the parking lot and reach the open road. She laid her head down on the pillow Mark had let her use and shivered slightly.
Billy walked from the bunk area and stopped to look at Callie, who was now crying silently into her pillow. He stopped and sighed, disappearing back in the bunk area for a moment and returning with a blanket. Walking silently over to her, Billy placed the blanket over Callie and kissed her on the head. Callie looked up at him and quickly tried to wipe her tears away.
"I'm sorry," she said again, before Billy could leave.
Billy sighed and sat down on the couch. "It's not your fault, Callie," Billy said, although he wasn't sure if it was her fault or not.
"It is and you know it," Callie said, letting out a broken sigh. "I ruined your life."
Billy nodded - she had pretty much ruined his life. Since she was five she had been ruining her life, but he wasn't about to mention that - he loved her too much to admit that she had ruined his life twice now. "Yeah, I guess you did," he said.
Callie laughed through her tears and tried to brush the lose hair out of her eyes again. "I ruin lots of lives," she replied with a sigh, suddenly very tired.
Billy closed his eyes and kissed her quickly before she fell asleep, Billy falling asleep on the couch next to her.
----
Callie awoke later that afternoon to four strangers playing PS2 in front of her. She blinked a couple of times before siting up, looking for Billy or even Mark - just some familiar face.
"Mornin' Sleeping Beauty!" one of the four men in front of her greeted. "You're a hard sleeper, you know that?"
Callie yawned and stretched her arms out. "I was probably on drugs," she said. "But yeah, I know I sleep hard."
"Aren't you too young to be doing drugs?" one of the other guys asked her.
Callie shrugged. "Probably." She paused for a moment. "Where's Billy?"
"Him and Mark are in the back," some one replied. "But I don't know what they're doing."
Callie thanked them and began to get up. One of the guys - the one who hadn't spoken yet - got up and reached for the refrigerator where he grabbed a Pepsi for himself.
"You want anything?" he asked her.
Callie shook her head no and tried to walk past him.
"I'm Sam, by the way," he said. "Over there with the blond hair is Landry. The guy with the spiked green tips is Rob, and that dip shit with the cigarette is Jeremy - who we said NO SMOKING on the bus..."
Callie looked over and noticed the man who had called her Sleeping Beauty was smoking a cigarette. He had a red base ball cap on backwards and had a glass of what looked like some kind of alcohol sitting next to him.
"I heard that," Jeremy said, punching one of the buttons on his controller furiously. "Shit."
Callie looked back at Sam and plastered a smile on her face. "I'm gonna go ask Billy a question if that's alright with you," she said.
"Hey, no problem," Sam said, stepping to the side to let Callie past.
She walked past and opened the closed door, not bothering to knock before entering. Billy was sprawled out sideways on the bottom bunk, moving his head slowly. Mark was sitting on the bunk next to Billy's with a needle moving towards his arm.
"Heroin," Callie whispered, unable to take her eyes off Billy. "Billy. Billy! What the fuck are you doing?"
Billy shifted his eyes towards Callie, but didn't bother to sit up or begin to apologize. Callie glared at him before she turned towards Mark, who hadn't injected the drug into his system quite yet.
"Billy's on heroin?" she asked him. "How long has he been a junkie?"
She wasn't completely enraged, but she was angry none the less and couldn't even imagine how long Billy had injected.
"I'm not," Billy spoke softly, because he wasn't able to speak much louder than that.
"That's only his third time, I swear to god," Mark swore, putting the needle down for a moment.
"Great," Callie said. "Then it'll be easy for him to get off."
"Out of all the people in the world, I thought maybe YOU would be the most likely to understand," Billy said, trying to sit up with out much effort.
"Okay, yeah," Callie said. "I do drugs. I admit it, but - heroin, Billy? Why the FUCK would you want to do that?"
"It relaxes you," Mark explained to her. "It's like having the best sex in the world every time you inject..."
"I don't remember asking you, Mark," Callie snapped. She paused for a moment to look back at Billy.
"What a waste of space," she muttered finally, slapping his head after he had passed out.
Mark watched her leave the room with his eyes, the belt still wrapped around his arm and the needle still laying on his bunk.