Chapter 5
“I’m gonna go find Duthtin and thee if he’ll help uth out.” Rich announced. It had been a few hours since the friends had eaten breakfast, with lots of leftovers since they stole an ass ton of food, a lot more than needed.
“I’m coming too.” Jake added.
“No you’re not.”
“Yes I am Rich.”
“Look Jake, I appreciate it, but I have the thame problem with you coming ath I had with Chloe.”
“Then give me one of your fancy cloaks.”
“Should we leave?” Brooke asked.
“No.” They answered simultaneously, smiling at each other.
“You’re not going to drop thith, are you?”
“Nope.” Jake smiled.
“Fine.” Rich agreed, handing one of his black cloaks to him.
“You told me you wouldn’t let him help you?!” Chloe exclaimed.
“Well I’m not committing crimes right now.” He teased.
"God they're in love." Michael joked once the couple had left. "What do we do now?"
"So how'd this morning go?" Jake asked which broke the silence as they walked.
"Fine. Michael and Chrithtine are nice, and thurprithingly good at thtealing."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah I'm fine, you don't need to worry."
"I know just your nightmare the other night and Christine asking about your scars, I just want to make sure you're okay."
"I'll be okay as soon as we leave this place." He laughed. "What are we gonna do?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean like where are we gonna live? What are you going to do? What am I going to do?" He rambled, getting deeper into thought with every word, almost to the point of forgetting that Jake was there.
"We're gonna have to crash with Jeremy at first and we're probably gonna have to get jobs--" Rich cut him off by grabbing his shirt and pulling him down into a kiss. Jake gently cupped Rich's face, who was expecting him to stand up meaning Rich would have to cling to him, but he stayed at Rich's level. “W-what was that for?”
"Love you.” He sighed, leaning into Jake’s arms.
"Hey Brookie," Chloe started. Brooke, who was sitting on the bed eating leftovers as Jenna and Christine talked in the distance, scooted down to make room for Chloe.
"What's up?" She cheerfully responded.
"Would you have left if it wasn't for me?"
"Probably, meeting you just sped up the process." She laughed. "What about you?"
"What about me?"
"Would you have left if it wasn't for me."
"I actually was planning to leave that night, you were just a bonus." Chloe smiled and sweetly kissed Brooke, Christine and Jenna quietly cheering. "Your hair's pretty. And soft." She stated once they pulled away.
"Please, it's nothing. I don't even think my parents would let me do that to my hair." Brooke dismissed, pointing at Chloe’s bleached hair.
"They didn't, I had Jenna help me."
"Are your kingdoms close? You seem to know each other really well."
"Our parents are friends so we grew up together. Her family came over a lot. And before you asked, her siblings were annoying as fuck." Chloe explained. "I'm glad I didn't leave before I met you."
"Me too." She sighed, leaning onto Chloe.
"Hey Jeremy,"
"Yeah?"
"Christine asked me something and I wanted to talk about it with you." Michael explained with worry in his voice.
"What is it?" Jeremy asked with a worried look on his face.
"Nothing bad! I promise." Michael assured. "Just, if we get married I would have to be king, right?"
"Um, yeah. It would." He stuttered, face red from the mention of him and Michael getting married.
"I don't think I can do that."
"Not get married?"
"No! I would love to get married, later, but I don't think I could ever be a king."
"I don't think I could be one either."
"We're gonna fail at ruling a kingdom." Michael joked.
"Babe, I love you, but can we talk about this later? I really don't need any more things to worry about."
"Yeah, yeah it's fine Jerebear." Michael smiled softly. He pulled Jeremy into a tight hug and nestled into his arms. "I love you Jeremy."
"We're back and we need to go now!" Rich yelled as he ran into the bunker.
"What the fuck happened?" Chloe asked.
"We fucked up." Jake answered. “We just need to leave now.”
“So you got the carriage?” Christine asked.
“Yeth, now pleathe just follow uth and run.” Rich begged, taking a few things from the bunker and stashing them in his many pockets and also gabbing the sword Jake had banned him from using. Jake kept watched and the hatch while waiting for everyone to be ready.
“We have to go now.” He announced. Everyone followed him and Rich outside, Brooke picking up a nearby tree branch and Michael doing the same. Christine did this as well but picked up a rock. The group walked slowly, hiding behind trees, trying to stealth their way to Dustin’s. They stayed quiet and hoped no one would find them.
What seemed like hours(but really was only a few minutes)later. Jake spoke again, “We’re almost there, and please drop the branches.”
Brooke and Michael dropped the branches sheepishly.
A muffled yelled came from behind them, what quickly revealed to be a guard. The guard started chasing after them. So they ran. They ran as fast as they could and kept together while Jake and led them to a worn down barn. He gestured to them to run inside and quickly closed the door, allowing them to catch their breath.
“What the fuck did you guys do?!” Chloe yelled.
“I told him not to come.” Rich defended.
“This is not my fault.” Jake agured.
“Okay, just what happened?” Jenna questioned.
“He took off hith cloak off right next to the fucking town.” Rich explained. “I love you Jake but you are an idiot.”
“Well you didn’t even tell me where we were how was I suppose to know?”
“You don’t take off your dithguithe if you're a wanted man.” Rich stated.
“You’re the reason the guards even found us!”
“That’th not true, they would’ve founded uth either way.” He insisted.
“Look, it’s both your fault, can you tell us where we are?” Michael interrupted.
“This is where Dustin keeps the carriage, he agreed to let us use it.” Jake explained, holding Rich’s hand despite the argument they just had. “We just have to return it later.”
“So who here can drive?” Christine asked.
“Michael can.” Jeremy told them.
“Okay, let’th leave before they realize they could’ve come through that door.” Rich said, pointing to the back door of the barn. Michael seated himself in the drivers part, using his mom’s armor as a disguise, as everyone else boraded it.
He left through the barn’s back door and quickly found a path they could ride on without being suspicious. Michael wasn’t really enjoying driving, as he heard laughter from inside he was stuck outside, alone. But it was worth it if it meant his friends could be safe.
Hours passed. Everyone was tired but didn’t risk sleeping in case anything happened. Jeremy was especially reluctant to sleep, worried something would happen to Michael.
They only stopped when they needed to, and not bringing any food with them wasn’t the best idea, but they kept going and finally made it to Jeremy’s kingdom. It was about a day and half after they left, everyone was exhausted, but excited. Michael stopped the carriage near the palace, despite a lot of people staring, and helped his friends out.
They stared at the kingdom in amazement. It was so bright and sunny, people looked happy and there weren’t run down buildings everywhere. It was nice.
“Everyone,” Jeremy started, leaning against Michael who was enjoying his friends' amazement, “Welcome home.”