chapter five:
"it's the map"

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at home

when I got home I went straight to my desk and start planning on what I was going to bring, I pulled out all my school stuff from my plain black jansport and put in granola bars, a water bottle, and extra batteries for my flashlight

as I zipped up my back pack I heard a tap on my window,

I go over and move the curtain and see emma, what's she doing here?

"what are you doing here?"

"nice to see you to"

"sorry, just wouldn't expect you to come through my window and not tell me your coming over"

"oh yeah, sorry about that"

"but really what are you doing here?"

"to hang out! c'mon it's pretty much your last night here let's have a girls night!" she exclaimed, waving her hands around

"right about that, emma I can't tonight."

"why not?"

"cause I mean, it's alex's last night here with us and we're just gonna hang out and you know, I know, you don't 'like people like them,' but c'mon, I'm sorry, we'll hang out all day tomorrow!"

"yeah I totally get it! you wanna spend your last night together with your boyfriend! it's fine"

"oh my god thank yo- wait, did you just say boyfriend?" I asked surprised

"yeah, you guys are dating right? you and alex?"

"uhm no we're just friends emma"

"oh, well listen, he really likes you, I can tell by the way he looks at you and how he likes to mess around with you. and I can see it in your eyes too"

"what are you talking about?!"

"my god ashley! how can you be so blind? alex l-i-k-e-s you and you l-i-k-e alex." she told me with a smug look on her face.

and then it hit me, he did like me, all the playing around, it was him flirting! all the winks and smirks

and then realization hit

"oh my god I like alex back." I say sitting down, hand on my forehead,

I like my brothers best friend

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1 hour later

me and emma have been talking for an hour straight, well, her talking about how she's seen so many times when alex was looking at me and flirting, and she's not even with us all the time!

every time she says his name I get butterfly's and I feel the heat rise in my cheeks.

"And this one time-" she was cut off by her phone beeping

"oh that's my mom, she wants me home to try on this dress or something- I'll see you later!" she sighs, giving me a hug and climbing out the window

I look at the clock and it was 6:15, perfect. I got dressed warmer since we'll be out at night and put on and gray knit sweater with white lace on the bottom but still kept my black jeans with some combat boots on just incase we get in some action, also I grabbed my army jacket for when it got cold

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couple minutes later

I hear the front door open and slam an I know tuck and alex are here, and cue the butterfly's.

I walk out of my room and I hear my mom say,

"guys, would you please help my son with his room, before I go crazy? I don't think he started... munch, have you even started packing your room?!" she yelled up the banister

"mom I don't think he can even find his bed in that mess, let alone pack any of it " I laugh as
they walk up the stairs more

tuck whispers something to alex, him nodding in response

"hey gu-" the rest is mumbled when alex puts his arm around my waist and his other hand over my mouth to shut me up

he shushes me and whispers
"we're gonna scare him"

I nod and he let go of my mouth but still leaves his arm on my waist, I'm probably as red as a tomato.

we walk in his room and we tip toe inside and see the mess has gotten bigger since I last been in here

he was working on some machine and was too concerned about that to pay attention to his surroundings

alex jumps and yells and scares the crap out of munch

"why don't you stop doing that?! he yells

"cause it's funny as balls!" I laugh

"I'm sorry!" alex let out as he laughed

"you guys are gonna give me a heart attack some day" he complains

"we're sorry bro!" I go to hug him but he pushes me away

"just turn that off, dude" also pushing tucks camera away, which was video taping the whole time

he finally gets up and goes over to the window and shows us the voicemail receivers

"I created a substation for each if our parents' phones thats wired to the router, which is wired to the transmitter, which transmits to the receiver, which is, my phone."

"okay so basically, no matter who our parents call, it goes to your phone?" tuck questions

"yeah, my moms friends always say that I sound just like my mom, you know, when I pick up the phone, so I figured I can be Betty" he says mimicking a woman's voice

"yeah that shouldn't be something to be proud of buddy" I say and pat his shoulder

then we walk down stairs.

"bye, betty. thank you." alex says exiting the door

"um, I'm going to alex's, ashley's, or tucks house, and we're gonna play a video game and sleep over" he says rushing out the door.

"And what about you young lady?" my mom said, turning to me

"uhm, I'm going to emma's house to have a slumber party and stuff before we leave okay?bye mom love you" I don't give her a chance to answer when I'm already out the door

I shut it and lean against it, sighing. I look at munch and it looks like he's gonna pass out,

"good job, munch. you did it." alex says patting his back

I lock the door with my key and walk over to mine and munch's bike and get on

"here we come." tuck says going down the drive way "17.6 miles!" he yells then started humming

alex started going down and I was about to go when I noticed munch looking down, not moving

"munch, c'mon it's okay." I say

"munch, what you doin?" tuck
asks

we all get off our bikes and walk towards him

"guys, guys, just hold on, hold on, hold on"

"c'mon munch don't do this" I complain

"I'm not backing out or anything,"

"he just wants to quit right when we-" alex starts

"just-just hear me out." munch says

"been waiting for this forever." Tuck complained from the back

"dude, listen, come on, okay. this is crazy what we're doing. dude I don't want to punk out or back out or anything-- it's just, our mom, you know, she just got divorced. she's already had enough guys lying to her." munch tells them

at the word divorced, I turn around not wanting to hear the rest, me and our dad were really close, we would do everything together

I would even fix the car with him, we had a daddy daughter relationship that every daughter wants

but then he starting coming home late drunk, and so one night he just, didn't come home

two weeks later we found out he was cheating on our mom for a whole 3 months

my mom sent him the divorce papers and we said our final goodbyes and I haven't seen him since

I didn't notice I was crying until I felt one tear fall from my face, I wipe it and look at the boys still arguing

"okay guys that's enough! munch are you coming or not?!" I yell

"fine, fine, I'll go, but under only one condition" he points out

he walks over to the side gate and walks into the garage and looked through all the boxes and pulls out 3 helmets.

one plain black other was purple with butterfly's from when I was 8 and another was barbie from when I was 5

I am not wearing that thing,
the guys start fighting over the black helmet, and alex ended up winning

we walked out of the garage and got on our bikes and left

"It's so weird no ones gonna be in these houses next week." munch said, voicing exactly what I was thinking

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1 hour later

tuck had told alex that he had kissed emma, so it had turned into the topic of this hour

I was trying to keep my laughs in from tucks horrible lies, but I decided to be a good friend and let him keep this one

"dude, your so full of it! when did you kiss her?" alex asked, not believing tuck

"dude, trust me. after pre-algebra, she pulled me into the bathroom." he lied

"wait, wait, wait, mannequin girl?" munch asked confused

I started bursting out laughing

"munch she has a name! use it." I say defending my friend.

munch ignored me and asked
"was she good at it?"

"uh, b minus. you know, I've kissed better in better locations." he says

"no, how do I know your not lying? alex asks

I finally decided to tell them

"because he is! tuck we don't even have pre-algebra on fridays! and, I was with emma the whole entire day besides when I was in the nurse, but she was at lunch, and even If you did kiss her, we all know it would've been your first kiss. oh, and really tuck, a b minus?" I sass, exposing him

"oh man, she got you there" alex laughed

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a couple hours later

it was dark out now and we've stopped a couple of times for me to catch my breath so I wouldn't have an attack in the middle of the trip

we followed the map out to the middle of nowhere

"it might be, like, a cia prison." munch suggested

we were miles away from home, no one in the world knew it, and no one said it, but we were definitely scared

"you know guys, we haven't seen a car in, like, half an hour." alex told us

we were on our own

"this is the way right?" I ask, making sure we were on the right track

"you have the map, right?" munch asked tuck

"can I see the map?" I ask munch who had just gotten it from tuck

me and alex both look at the map

"left" he says, I nodded reluctantly

"you sure? right looks a lot less scarier!" I say slightly scared

he looked at me and grabbed my hand

"I won't let anything happen to you"

"promise?"

"I promise.." he confirms

damn these butterfly's, good thing it's dark outside

"just a couple more miles" he tells me as we get on our bikes again

we get to this open grass land where we started to hear electronic humming

"wait hold on, hold on, what is that?" I ask as I see a flash of a light

I grab a hold onto alex

he looks at his phone,
"it's the map"

"are we close?" tuck asked him

"I never understood why people liked the outdoors." munch complained

"will you stop freaking out?" tuck told him

"see what I have to live with" I whisper yell, while laughing

we come across a steep hill and we get off our bikes and go down it

when we get to the bottom I go and wrap my arm around alex's because he makes me feel safe, he notices me and takes my arm, sliding down his hand to my hand, intertwining our fingers

"we're getting pretty far the road guys" I tell them looking back at where we came from

"we're almost there" he reassures me.

we walk up to this back electric tower and the humming slows, that must mean we are close

"Is it this thing?" tuck asked, pointing to a tower

"I don't think so." I say looking over at alex's phone. the humming stops completely and I catch sight of a blink of a light

"wait, what was that?" I ask, stepping back

"I don't know" alex said, naturally pulling me closer

"what hold on, what did you see ashley?" munch asked me, confused

"I don't know" I say looking around worried

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