Alive and Free

After the bell rang, signifying he was free to go, Edamura grabbed his backpack and exited the school. He began walking home by himself. The streets weren’t very populated at the moment, making what happened next a huge burden for Edamura.

He heard the screech of tires and turned to see what had caused it. He saw Abby and Cynthia running at him and before he could even process what was happening, the two girls dragged him into the back of a white van. After the doors closed behind him, Laurent began speeding away. Edamura wrestled his arms from the girls’s grips and began yelling.

“What the hell! You can’t just kidnap someone off the fucking street!” Edamura screamed.

“Too late!” Laurent smirked at him through the rearview mirror.

“You left us no choice, hun! We aren’t gonna let your last two years of high school go to waste!” Cynthia told him.

“This is bullshit! Why can’t you guys just leave me the hell alone!”

“I agree. We should leave him alone. It’s clear he doesn’t wanna hang out with us and I don’t wanna hang out with him.” Abby grunted.

“Hey!” Edamura glared at her.

“We’re gonna have fun whether you want to or not!” Cynthia yelled. “To the oral school!”

“The what?” Edamura’s voice was blocked out by the sound of Laurent rolling down all the windows and blasting the radio. The song Tongue Tied by Grouplove was on and Cynthia stuck her hand out the window and giggled happily while Laurent sang along to the song. Each red light they came to, people stopped to stare at them in confusion much to Edamura’s embarrassment.

Once they got closer to their destination, Laurent turned the sound down and rolled up the windows. Cynthia pulled a bag out from under the seat. Edamura wasn’t sure what was in it. They parked on the side of the road, hidden under trees. They all began to get out of the car.

“Where are we?” Edamura furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. It looked like they were in someone’s neighborhood.

“We just have to walk a bit before we get there, be patient.” Cynthia grinned at him. They began to walk down the road, appearing like they were just going for a walk around their neighborhood.

Soon, a large brick building came into sight. It was covered in overgrown vines and broken windows. Edamura could see some graffiti on the outside. It was obvious this building was abandoned. A large sign warned them not to trespass. Edamura’s eyes widened when he watched the three begin to walk up the hill and past the no trespassing sign, completely ignoring it.

“Guys! Why are you doing? That sign says no trespassing!” He yelled.

“Shh! It’s fine! We’ve been here before!” Abby scolded him for talking too loud. They didn’t want the neighbors to be alerted and call the police.

“This is illegal!” He whisper shouted.

“So what? Nobody ever gets caught here. The cops don’t care about this place unless the neighbors see you and call, so let’s hurry up and go in before they see us!” Abby walked over to a door. She tried the handle, but it was locked.

“I can’t remember which door is propped open.” Laurent tried to remember.

“Wasn’t it the one over there?” Cynthia pointed to a door a bit farther away. Before they could walk over, they heard a car approaching.

“Quick! Hide!” Abby and Cynthia ran for the bushes while Laurent grabbed Edamura’s wrist and ran towards the other side of the building where they wouldn’t be seen. He slipped into a small space and pulled Edamura to his chest as they waited for the car to pass. Edamura blushed at how close they were. Laurent smelled good, like expensive cologne. Before he knew it, they were separated again.

“Sorry about that.” Laurent smirked at him when he noticed the slight blush still on Edamura’s face.

“Hurry up, guys!” Cynthia found the door propped open by a rock while they had been distracted and held it open. The three entered the building and Cynthia followed behind.

Inside, it was dark. The only light was provided by sunlight, so only the rooms with windows were bright. The hallways looked dark and creepy. The concrete floor was covered in debris and the whole place smelled extremely old with a hint of weed. The walls were covered in graffiti in some rooms.

As they walked through the building, Edamura was glad he had worn his work boots that day. He heard the crunch of broken glass under his feet with each step he took. While he was a bit nervous since what they were doing was illegal, he had to admit the building was really cool. He loved looking at photos of old abandoned places online, so being able to experience one in person was amazing.

“So? What do you think, Edamame?” Cynthia grinned.

“It’s cool.” He smiled in amazement. They entered the auditorium of the old school and Edamura stepped up the stairs and onto the stage. It was covered in dust and debris, but as he looked out at the other three he tried to imagine a school principal giving an assembly up here. Old buildings held so much history.

They explored some more classrooms and went up the stairs to the different floors. As they went up the stairs, Edamura heard movement in one of the rooms. He paled before peeking his head in. Luckily, it was just a bird flying around. It must’ve gotten trapped in the room due to the open window. Edamura opened the window wider and herded the bird towards the window. After a few minutes, the bird finally flew out. It made Edamura sad, though when he saw another bird was dead on the floor.

“Wow! Edamura you saved that bird! See, if you were less of a nerd I bet you’d have girls all over you. Girls love guys who save animals, and plus I bet you’re pretty cute under those glasses and those two sweaters you alternate between every day.” Cynthia teased.

“I don’t have time for a girlfriend. I need to get perfect grades so I can get a good scholarship. Which I should be studying right now instead of hanging out here with you guys.” Edamura huffed.

“Do you regret coming here?” Laurent asked. Edamura wanted to say yes so badly, but he couldn’t.

“...no.” He admitted reluctantly. He didn’t want to look at the smug expressions Cynthia and Laurent were sharing right now, so he continued to explore after stepping off the stage.

Edamura entered the next room and saw a bunch of graffiti that made him blush. There were some offensive terms painted into the wall as well as porn website URLs. He could tell that some of the graffiti had been done recently, because someone had written a current meme reference on the wall. Edamura chuckled a bit when he saw the word hentai spray painted largely across the wall in red paint. Laurent and Cynthia joined in too while Abby did her best to hold in her amused expression.

“Go stand on either side of it! I’ll take your picture!” Cynthia took out her phone and held it up. Laurent dragged Edamura to the wall. Edamura stood at the beginning of the word while Laurent stood at the end. Edamura smiled awkwardly while Laurent had his usual smug smirk on his face. Cynthia took the picture and sent it to Laurent.

“What’s your number, Edamame? I’ll send it to you too!” Edamura put his number into her phone. She sent him the picture a few seconds later. If Edamura made the photo his wallpaper, nobody had to know.

When they went downstairs again, they noticed a large blank wall. Cynthia, Abby, and Laurent studied it closely as if inspecting it.

“Uh, what are you guys doing?” Edamura raised an eyebrow.

“Edamame, what do you see?” Laurent asked. Edamura looked at him in confusion.

“A blank wall?”

“Well, what I see is a blank canvas.” He smirked before holding his hand out, not taking his eyes off the wall in front of them. Cynthia reached into the bag and pulled out a can of blue spray paint. She placed it in his hand. Laurent thanked her before shaking the can and taking the cap off.

“Laurent! Trespassing is one thing, but vandalism too? We’d be breaking another law!” Edamura frowned nervously.

“Relax. The only people who ever come in here are losers like us. People only come here to vandalize or smoke weed. Nobody is gonna care.” Abby held out her hand as well and Cynthia gave her an orange can. She shook it and uncapped it.

“Wanna join us?” Cynthia smirked as she reached into the bag and held out a green can of spray paint. Edamura looked at the can for a few seconds as he debated in his head. Other people had vandalized here. There was nobody around. It should be fine, right? Edamura reached for the can and shook it like the others had. He took the cap off and aimed the spray towards the wall. Cynthia took out her own can of red spray paint.

As soon as the first drop of paint left the can, Edamura felt absolutely amazing. He felt free for the first time since he was a kid. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he sprayed the wall with the rest of his... friends. Maybe he did want friends after all. This was a lot more fun than studying at home for hours.

Once they finished, everyone stepped back to admire their work. Laurent and Cynthia had simply put their initials and Cynthia had added the date to hers for whoever saw this years from now and could be amazed at how long ago it was painted. Abby had sprayed freaks and weirdos only onto the wall.

“What does yours mean, Edamame?” Cynthia asked. The four of them studied his work. It simply said “alive and free.”

“They’re words I wish could describe my favorite people. Today I realized that you guys are right. I need to start living a little so I can avoid becoming my parents. I always want to remember this feeling, so I captured it on the wall for eternity.” Edamura smiled.

“Whatever that means.” Cynthia chuckled.

“Oh, to be smart like Edamame!” Laurent sighed.

“Why’d you have to get all deep, just write your initials like a normal person.” Abby rolled her eyes.

After that, they continued walking through the second floor that they hadn’t explored before going upstairs. They found a wall made of glass windows inside. A rock sat next to it. Cynthia eyed the rock with a smirk.

“Don’t even think about it! That gonna be so loud!” Edamura yelled.

“But I’ve always wanted to break a window!” Cynthia whined.

“This is a bad idea!” Edamura warned anxiously. “Come on! Abby, Laurent, back me up!”

“I say go for it.” Abby shrugged, probably just to spite him. Laurent whistled innocently while looking away. Edamura face palmed as Cynthia picked up the large rock.

“Someone record this!” She waited for Laurent to take out his phone and start recording. When Laurent gave her a thumbs up, she chucked the rock into the glass. A few pieces of glass broke off, but it was mainly just a super loud bang that echoed throughout the building.

“That was so loud!” Edamura yelled as Cynthia laughed crazily.

“Wait, guys. Quiet.” Abby stiffened and walked toward the window facing the back of the building. She peeked outside and cursed.

“What’s wrong?” Laurent asked.

“There’s a cop car outside!” Abby cursed again. Edamura wasn’t sure if it was because he was in shock, but he didn’t feel scared at all much to his surprise.

“Let’s go!” Laurent ran towards the stairs, ducking under the windows to make sure they wouldn’t be seen.

“This way!” Cynthia gestured for them to go left once they ran down the stairs. They found the door they had entered through and began running towards the car. Before Edamura could go further, Abby yanked him backwards. Before Edamura could scold her for it, she pointed at the cop car that was currently parked between Laurent’s hidden van and where they currently were.

“Fuck! What if they took my license plate? They could’ve already called my mom by now!” Laurent cursed.

“Calm down. She’d be calling you now if that was the case. They probably didn’t even take your plate number, so calm down. They probably either can’t see the car or they just think it’s a neighborhood car.” Cynthia tried to reason.

“How the hell are we supposed to get to the car? They’re gonna see us walk from the building to get there and arrest us for trespassing.” Abby pointed out. Suddenly, Edamura had a thought.

“Follow me.”

“What? No fucking way!” Abby whispered.

“I have a plan that will work. Trust me.” Edamura had an extremely serious expression on his face.

“I trust you.” Cynthia told him without a doubt.

“Well, I don’t see anyone else with a plan so we don’t really have a choice.” Laurent replied, oddly serious and nervous.

“Fine, but if we get arrested I’ll kill you.” Abby glared at him. Edamura turned the other direction and began running stealthily around the edge of the building.

“Hate to break it to you, but the car is that way!” Abby whisper yelled.

“Just trust me!” They followed him around the side of the building that was out of sight to the cop. Once they were on the complete opposite side, they carefully slid down the steep hill and onto the road.

“Now what? They’re still gonna see us if we run to the car.” Abby deadpanned.

“That’s why we walk to the car.” Edamura told her.

“Are you crazy? That leaves even more time for them to see us!” Abby hissed.

“So what if they see us? They have no proof we were in the building. We were just going for a nice stroll through the neighborhood.” Edamura grinned.

“Edamura, you’re a genius!” Cynthia smiled. They walked down the road and towards the car as inconspicuously as possible. Edamura threw in some extra acting skills when he saw the cop looking at them and pointed to the building with wide eyes, as if he hadn’t just been inside of it.

“What are you doing?” Abby asked.

“The cop is looking at us!” Edamura said with an excited expression to make it look like he was talking about how cool the building looked. Luckily, the car was parked so far out of sight that the cop didn’t even know there was a car over there. They quickly got in the van and drove away as fast as possible.

“Are you a theater kid or something? How are you so good at acting? You had that cop completely fooled.” Laurent grinned at him.

“I guess I’m just kinda used to lying and acting.” Edamura shrugged. He often acted on his best behavior and like he wouldn’t be too high maintenance whenever he was interviewed by a couple. Still, even with that he was never chosen.

“I don’t know about you guys, but I’m hungry as hell after that.” Cynthia patted her flat stomach.

“I could eat.” Abby replied.

“McDonald’s?” Laurent asked. Abby and Cynthia nodded and they all turned to him.

“Oh, I’m fine with anything. I’m probably not gonna get anything, I didn’t bring money.” The truth was he had exactly zero dollars in his name. That’s why he only owned one pair of jeans and a couple worn out sweaters. His allowance from Linda went into keeping up with his glasses prescription. Linda offered to pay for his eye exams and glasses, but Edamura felt guilty letting her do that since she was already running low on funds and had to provide all the children in the orphanage with enough food while also paying the bills each month.

“That’s okay, I’ll pay for you.” Laurent smiled at him through the rearview mirror.

“You don’t have to-“

“Just accept my offer. I’m rich so it doesn’t matter.” Laurent interrupted.

“It’s true, he is.” Cynthia giggled.

“I’m paying for you too, Abby.” He told her.

“Thanks.” Her glare seemed to soften slightly.

They pulled into the drive through and everyone told Laurent their order. Laurent ordered everything and pulled up to the window. He handed the dude who looked to be their age, his credit card. Afterwards, they got their food and Laurent parked in the parking lot. Laurent handed everyone their food.

“Is this really all you wanted?” Laurent asked as he handed Edamura his six piece chicken nugget and his small fry. He also passed back his orange soda.

“Yeah, this is what I normally get.” Or it used to be when he used to come here with his parents.

“Next time, don’t be afraid to order more than a kid’s meal. I mean it when I say money isn’t a problem. I mean just look at what Abby ordered.” He chuckled. Edamura looked to the side to see Abby eating a Big Mac. She also had a twenty piece chicken nugget and a large fry with a large soda. The others seemed to have large meals too. He wondered how much they worked out in order to have such great bodies while eating like that.

After eating their food, Laurent turned to the back seat to face Abby and Edamura again.

“Do you have to be home at a certain time?” Laurent asked Edamura.

“My curfew isn’t until midnight.” Edamura told him.

“Alright, Cinderella. Let’s go to Target just to waste some time.” Laurent pulled out of the parking lot and began driving the fifteen minutes it would take to get to Target.

On the highway, Laurent rolled all the windows down again. Abby continued sipping her soda while staring out the window. Cynthia once again had her hand out the window riding the wind. Laurent was singing along to Out of my League, which was blasting on the radio this time. Edamura loved the feeling of the wind in his hair. He truly felt alive today. He was honestly glad Laurent, Cynthia, and Abby had kidnapped him.

“Let’s play a game where we find random outfits for each other and we have to try them on!” Cynthia suggested after they had arrived and entered the store.

“That sounds fun!” Laurent agreed. They headed towards the clothing section. They all chose outfits for each other together and forced each other into the dressing room one at a time. First was Cynthia.

The first outfit Cynthia came out in was an oversized purple shirt. It went down to the middle of her thighs and the sleeves went down to her elbows. She also wore baggy ripped jeans and white sneakers. She accessorized with a gold chain necklace, a little black purse, a black pair of square shaped sunglasses, and a black bucket hat. Her red hair cascaded down her back.

“It’s a nice outfit, but it doesn’t really suit your style. Seems more like something Abby would wear.” Laurent observed.

“Agreed. Time for outfit number two!” She went back in to change. The next outfit was a white t-shirt. Layered on top of it was a black and white sweater vest. She also wore black jeans and black sneakers. She wore a gold necklace and left her hair down once again.

“That one looks like Edamame’s style.” Abby said.

“Hey! I don’t dress like that!”

“Yes you do. All you wear is the same pair of jeans every day and the same two worn out sweaters.” She rolled her eyes.

“Last outfit!” Cynthia came out of the dressing room in a white sports bra with a light gray jacket over it. She wore light blue mom jeans and white sneakers. She also wore a gold chain and a pair of dangly earrings with the black sunglasses from the first outfit.

“Still not your style. You have a more elegant style.” Laurent told her.

“Edamura’s turn!” Cynthia giggled as she pushed him into the dressing room after changing back into her normal clothes.

Edamura hung up the outfits his new friends had chosen for him. He tried the first one on and looked in the mirror self consciously. He sighed before exiting the dressing room. He wore a gold chain with a lock on it, a dark green champion sweater layered on top of a white collared shirt, black pants that he tucked the sweater into, a knockoff Gucci belt, and a pair of white sneakers.

“You look like a million bucks!” Cynthia praised his looks. He blushed slightly.

“You don’t think it looks stupid?” He asked.

“You should untuck the sweater and ditch the belt. Looks stupid that way.” Abby deadpanned.

“I think you look great, Edamame.” Laurent winked at him. Edamura went back into the dressing room mostly to hide the blush on his face. The next outfit was a light gray sweater layered on top of a white collared shirt once again. It was paired with a pair of tan plaid pants with a chain. He also wore white sneakers and a silver chain around his neck. He exited the dressing room.

“Sweaters are definitely your style if you bought some that actually looked nice and learned to style them!” Cynthia grinned.

“I agree. You went from looking like a loser nerd to a sexy nerd. The kind of nerd girls who are into nerds would date.” Laurent chuckled.

For his final outfit, he wore a black t-shirt tucked into a pair of tan khakis. They were held together by a leather belt. He also wore a black jacket over the t-shirt, and black socks. He wore dark brown dress shoes. When he exited, Cynthia and Laurent were blushing.

“You look so handsome!” Cynthia gushed.

“You look like the type of guy I’d rail.” Laurent smirked with no shame.

“Gross.” Abby scoffed. Edamura blushed bright red.

“You should buy that outfit!”

“I’d never wear it anywhere. It’s a bit too formal for school.”

“I guess you’re right.” Cynthia pouted.

Laurent and Abby tried their outfits on, and Laurent actually ended up buying a blue and white striped button up he tried on. Later on, Abby ended up buying some snacks from the food isles and Cynthia bought some stuff from the skincare isle.

“You aren’t getting anything, Edamame?” Cynthia asked as they were checking out.

“Nah, there wasn’t really anything that caught my eye.” Which was half of the truth. The other half being that he had no money whatsoever.

“That’s a good thing, you’ll never waste money that way.” Laurent chuckled as he rung up his shirt in self checkout.

“Not like you have to worry about wasting money.” Abby mumbled as she rung up her gushers.

After that, they began driving home. Laurent turned down the radio on the highway and rolled up the windows so he could hear Edamura.

“Where do you live, Edamame?” Edamura looked at him with a questioning look. “So I can drop you off at home.”

“Oh, you can just drop me off at the park next to where you kidnapped me.” Edamura answered.

“Are you sure? I can drive you all the way home if you want? It’s no trouble at all.”

“No, it’s fine.” Edamura responded.

“If you say so.”

After Edamura waved goodbye to his new friends, Laurent drove off.

“Why do you think he asked to be dropped off at the park?” Cynthia asked.

“He probably doesn’t trust us with his address.” Abby answered.

“That’s true. I mean who would after we kidnapped him today.” Laurent chuckled.

“I like Edamura.” Cynthia smiled.

“Me too.” Laurent agreed.

“I don’t.” Abby interjected. The other two didn’t say anything, knowing she’d probably warm up to him eventually.