Dear Journal,

So you know how I was saying that I was going to talk to Rex and get him to let me talk to Hansen? Well, that was a few hours ago, so as you might have guessed, that didn’t quite go the way I thought it would. It feels like it never does anymore.

First, I didn’t even really have to talk to Rex to get to talk to Hansen. When Bryce and Jared didn’t come back to bed, I decided okay, I was actually going to go to take my mom’s room because why the hell not, right? And right as I was in the hallway, Hansen came out of his room, and with the way he came right to me, I could have swore that he had come out to look for me! And I was going to talk, but before I could say anything, he pulled me into my mom’s room.

I thought it was going to be way more romantic than it was, though, journal. Instead of just like making out with me, he just gave me a sort of half smile and was like “Hey, Garrett said you’d been looking for me?” and I was like “I don’t know if I’d call it looking for you because you totally run away every time I get a chance to talk to you” and he was like “yeah, it’s kind of difficult because of my dad and all.” He explained that his dad had told him that he should stop talking to me, and since his dad was like the leader of the power plant, he basically had to do what he said.

I told him that I thought that was a stupid reason to stop talking to someone, and that if I stopped talking to someone just because an adult wanted me to, I would have never made it through high school. He said it wasn’t the same because in school, the most they could do is give you detention, but his dad could kick him out of the power plant for breaking his rules, and if he did that, there was nowhere that he could go.

I don’t think that Hansen’s dad would ever kick him out of the power plant, because that’s super ridiculous just for talking to someone who’s a bad influence, but who knows what everyone’s family is like. So instead of trying to argue with him, I told him yeah, he does have somewhere that he can go! We could run away to the coffee shop, and I bet we could get Garrett to join us, and maybe even Jared and Bryce (even though I wasn’t sure that I actually wanted them to join us right now, because if I saw Jared making out with someone as cool as Bryce, I might throw up). And really, wouldn’t it be so awesome to have an entire group that was just teenagers? Without the adults to hold us back, we could actually get a lot of stuff done, and we’d be thriving in no time! And yeah, I’d miss my mom, but I could always come back to visit, because there was no way my mom would let me be banned.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Hansen kind of just smiled sadly at that, and he was like, you can’t even be in the coffee shop, though? And I was like, yeah, I can’t right now, but I’m pretty sure we could clean it up, and if we got the blood cleaned up and removed the glass, it wouldn’t be the big of a deal. And it was ideal because there was still plenty of food that we hadn’t gone back to get. And he was like, even if we managed to clean it up, though, there’s no way my dad would let us go like that, so it’s pointless.

So I told him, well, if you won’t leave, then I guess the only choice we have is to ignore your dad. He looked shocked at that and was like, no, we definitely can’t do that, even though we were technically doing it right then. And I was like, why not? What’s the worst that could happen? And he again said his dad would kick him out.

I told him that that would never happen, and he said he wasn’t so sure. And I kept pushing him because that seemed like such a weird fear for him to have, and eventually he told me that he was worried about it because it had already happened. It turns out that he and Garrett weren’t the only two cross country members that were on that run that day, but there was actually another guy named Daniel who went with them. And Hansen, Garrett, and Daniel were kind of friends, but Daniel was a bit of an outsider and he liked trying to break the rules. And then Daniel had broken too many rules, and eventually his dad had had enough, and he told Daniel to get out and never come back.

Apparently he did at least give him a small pack with food and water so that he wouldn’t die like immediately, but then Rex escorted him out himself. They walked far enough that they were gone overnight, and then Rex had come back alone. And Hansen couldn’t actually believe it - he had thought his dad was bringing him out there alone to scare the shit out of him maybe, but he had never believed that Rex would actually make Daniel leave. But they’d never seen a sign of Daniel since, so he must have started running and never looked back. Hopefully he’s still okay somewhere.

But anyway, after telling me that, Hansen understandably looked super upset, and I said okay, I wouldn’t try to get him to break his dad’s rules, but he said it was cool if we still met in private though, because he missed hanging out with me and at least this way we could chat. He suggested meeting in his room, but I told him that that probably wasn’t a good idea since it was right next to his dad’s room and sometimes you can hear things through the walls, but that that was fine because my mom had pretty much abandoned this room anyway, so we could always meet in here.

And I’m sure you get it, journal, but it was really great talking to Hansen again, even if it was more like catching up with a friend than talking to probably the hottest guy still on Earth. He said he was really glad that I’d started getting closer to Garrett, and even if he didn’t act like it, Garrett at least thought highly enough of me to talk about me to Hansen, so that was pretty cool. Turns out, Hansen hadn’t really been doing much else last week either, although he was going to go scavenging later in the week, but I was cordially not invited. While that kind of sucked, at least I wasn’t getting super stir-crazy anymore. I think being outside, even if it is right by the door, and looking out into the wasteland has really cured my desire to go traveling anyway.

I still really want to talk to Rex about why he wouldn’t let Hansen talk to me, but I guess I’d better not risk it. While I know my mom would never let Rex kick me out, I don’t think I could say the same for his own son. Maybe someday, he’ll get over whatever’s bugging him.

Love,

Kayla