Biography of a Teen (Meeting Diane)

We stood by each other for what seemed like an hour. The sun began to go down, and the wind finally began to pick up. It was a pleasant suprise since we had felt nothing but the unendurable heat constantly since we had ran away. Aiden started pacing behind us, and Wendy watched him like a hawk. We had one decision to make, right or left. Which way would lead us to civilization, water, and food? and Which way would lead us to surely dehydration, starvation, or insanity.

"Do you think we should split up?" Wendy stupidly asked.

"Yeah Wendy, then only half of us will live." I rolled my eyes. "If you don't have anything smart to say just shut up."

"How about we just pick a direction and just hope." Ray spoke up. "We're not going to get anywhere by just standing here. Come on you guys what are we waiting for? a damn bus?" Whether or not he made it sound rude the kid had a point. With no hesitation I lead the way and we went right. Honestly I wasn't sure at all if we were going the right way but truth be told I kinda was waiting for a bus. Or a car or something to help us out.

As we continued to make our way farther down the road. I could tell everyone was beginning to get exhausted. We had walked all night and the entire day before that.

"So when we finally get to a town, we're immediately going to get some food." Aiden was desperate for small talk. This entire time was almost spent in complete silence.

"You know Aiden, that would be an amazing Idea." I agreed with him. "There's just one problem."

"Whats that?" he questioned

"NO MONEY!" I bursted out laughing as did everyone else.

I don't know what it was but after that the rest of us seemed to have high hopes. Who knew one little joke would make everything so much more better. Thats when it happened. A loud 'vrooming' noise up ahead sent us all looking around desperately.

"Please tell me I'm not just hearing things." Wendy said.

"Oh, I heard it." Ray answered.

We began to sprint in the direction we were going frantically looking for the car. And it finally appeared off in the distance coming our way. A large semi truck barreling straight towards us. Immediately we all started yelling our heads off. This was our only chance. We had to get this person's attention, and persuade him to take us to a nearby town. As it got closer and closer to us my stomach began to devolp butterflies. What if this person ignored us? What if they refused to help four runaways? I couldn't bare the thought, but it burned in my mind and scorched my thoughts with such a high intensity it was insane. We all could tell the truck driver noticed us. It was a woman, middle-aged curly dirty blonde hair piled in a messy bun on top of her head, and she squinted through the windshield at us, until she came to a complete stop just a few feet away. Ray sprinted ahead of us towards the door and thrusted it open.

"Can you please help us ma'am?" he had such a pleadingly look on it would have been hard to reject him. "We're trying to get to a nearby town."

"Well I'm on my way to Phoenix, if you want to hitch a ride there?" she looked at every single one of us. So we were in Arizona? My mind was boggled. This entire time spent at RSTT I had no idea that we were in this state. Nobody would ever tell us. I could tell she was shocked at the likes of us. Four teenagers, sweaty, beat red, looked like they have just witnessed a murder(one of us actually did), and all wearing the same orange jumpsuit. "Did you kids just break out of jail or something?"

"No ma'am." It was Wendy's turn to speak. "We're just really close friends from a rehabilitation clinic, and they were going to send us to different places so we did run."

"You were half right" i smiled as I spoke to the lady, trying to seem as pleasant as possible.

"Well hop in." she smiled at us "but if the police question me, I'm telling them you guys told me that you were in a car wreck or something." she laughed as if she was joking but I knew she was serious.

With great relief all four of us climbed into her large semi, and made ourselves comfortable. I went straight for the bunk bed in the back and realized this was the first time I had laid in a bed with a decent sized matress in about a year. My muscles ached and I immediately went to sleep.

-----------------------------------------Aiden's point of view-----------------------

I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around the fact that all of us were actually going to be able to make it. This random woman decided to help four strange teens with no hesitation at all. It was absolutely phenomenal. After guzzling down about half a gallon of water she had stashed in a mini refridgerator I climbed up to the top bunk in the back of the cab. Mya was already fast asleep, and Ray had taken to the seat next to the lady whose name we found out to be Diane. Wendy climbed up after me and laid down right next to me. I wrapped my arms around her, and like Mya she quickly fell asleep. As I nestled in closer to her I could feel the softness in her skin. I began to slowly rub my hand up and down her arm, and I felt goosebumps quickly rise. There was something about this girl that made her constantly stay on my mind. She had a bitchy attitude and she complained a lot, but everything else about her I loved. It was strange too since I never really had these feelings, and this happened in a matter of two days. I kissed her on the cheek and I could see her smirking. Wendy wasn't entirely asleep, but I smiled to myself and laid my head down right by her shoulder. Even though I tried my best to sleep I couldn't seem to do it, instead I just laid there and eavesdropped on Diane and Ray's conversation up in the front. Clearly they thought we were all asleep because I could hear Ray talking about me.

"Aiden's kinda like the leader in a way but he hasn't really stepped up." he turned around to make sure we were still asleep then began to talk to her again. "He spends most of the time in the back of the pack with Wendy."

"How far have you kids been walking?"

"I'm not sure how far we've been walking, but we've walked as hard as we could all day, and night." I could see Diane shaking her head in disbelief. Now that I think back to it I couldn't believe it either. The conversation soon became hazy as I started to drift off to sleep, then was quickly wide awake when I felt Wendy's lips touch mine for the first time. I went completely numb in my entire body as we began to kiss more. My hands were stroking the back of her blonde hair as she rolled on top of me. It was a moment I didn't think could ever be ruined, until I heard Diane and Ray at the same time shriek. A loud crash rang throughout the air I had to cover my ears to protect them from the sound. Quickly Diane slammed on the brakes and the worry began to flood me. Mya had lurched out of her seat looking out the nearest windows as me and wendy quickly did the same. All I could see was cars flying, and everything in complete chaos. The night was soon lit up with fire.