Sneaking Out

It's not long before night falls and his parents fall asleep. Though Afia is still in her room watching streams and Keita seems to be fixing his hair before going to bed. It's not the first time I've slept over at Knox's, but it is the first time we've snuck out. We usually stay up late, watch anime and play video games until his family members yell at us to go to sleep. But what if his parents are suspicious by how quiet we are and decide to check up on us while we're gone? What if we make far too much noise while leaving and Knox's parents snap at us?

"Are you ready to go?" Knox asks me in a low whisper as he waits by his door. The movement in Keita's room suddenly stops, he most likely is headed off to bed now. There is no difference from Afia's room or his parents' room either. I gaze up and lock eyes with Knox, he's clearly scared, but he really wants to do this for me. I know that it is most likely freezing cold outside but I have always wanted to sneak out and go on an adventure at night. Plus there's a chance that I'll never get an opportunity to do stuff like this with him ever again.

Rising up to my feet slowly to make sure the bed doesn't make a noise, I smile excitedly and mouth, "Yes." Luckily I already dropped off Cerberus back at home so we don't have to worry about him getting all riled up and completely ruining our sneak out operation.

He shuts the door and slowly, we walk over to his window and he slides it open. My face freezes as the cold air blows against it, nearly making me yelp, but I keep it in. He uses his coat-covered arm to smack away the large mountain of snow that usually covers his window, revealing the winter-wonderland of night before us. Almost like two lost, hopeful children looking out of a gutter and into a bright and beautiful world. Their eyes would sparkle and the stars would make their dreams even more heartening.

He steps back and goes down on one knee to help boost me up through the window. The zippers on my coat jangle like bells but I don't think they were all that noticeable. After all, I can hear his father's snoring loud and clear, so I doubt it even woke him up.

I step outside, making space away from the window so then Knox and climb out himself. It's funny watching his large body squeeze through the small window, but he still manages it with a soft grunt. Already I can feel my heart race and the adrenaline kick in. The snowy winter isn't as cold tonight as I initially thought, but it's still best for us to stay bundled up and not stay out long, either that or find somewhere warm to relax for a bit.

"Come on," Knox whispers a little louder than I would've liked. "Let's go." We both carefully step through the snow and head on our way towards our old school. Luckily a lot of the shops around here are twenty-four hours, so we can easily reside in them for a bit.

By the time we reach some sidewalks far enough away from his place, we both break into laughter. I wrap my arm around his shoulders and his around my waste as we attempt to hold each up on the ice. His body is warm close to mine, though the exterior of his coat makes things a little colder. Just to think, we never would've been able to do this if he and I continued to not speak to each other. Even if we get caught right now and yelled at, I've already had enough fun already and wouldn't regret a single thing.

We pass by the tall fence of our old school, this time we're no longer holding each other since the sidewalks around here get salted regularly. "So what do you want to do?" He asks me, his dark eyes glinting with the lights still coming from within the school. I don't get why the lights are always on, isn't that a waste of money? Plus it just seems stupid to always leave the lights on.

"I'm freezing," I mumble as I wrap myself up in my arms, and shiver uncontrollably, my teeth chatter like a train going over train tracks.

"Wanna go back home?" He asks, his voice low as he hesitantly brings me closer to him. Though because of the coats I'm unable to feel his warmth all that easily.

I shake my head, my cheeks already chilly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were rosy almost immediately after we snuck out. "No, I'm having far too much fun."

"Then let's go somewhere warm before you get frostbite," Keita's voice speaks behind me and we both turn to see him and Afia making their way towards us. "You're lucky we managed to cover up the noise of you guys sneaking out."

"Yeah you guys are really bad," Afia laughs loudly and leads the way to wherever they're taking us.

"Wait, did mom and dad hear us?" Knox asks, the panic showing clearly in his voice.

"No," Both of them answer in unison. Keita sticks with walking behind us and Afia manages to walk without slipping whatsoever. "I covered it up with a video chat and Afia with the live streams, plus there's no way anyone can hear anything through dad's snoring."

"What are you guys doing here?" Knox asks as we cross the street, heading further into the city portion of Ottawa.

"You're both sixteen now," Afia smirks, looking over her shoulder for a moment. "We have to join you two on your first time sneaking out."

"It's our first time," I laugh loudly, and Keita joins in till I'm finished. Though it was most likely just to be nice.

"We're taking your first time," Keita mutters just loud enough for me to hear.

Knox and Afia break into a conversation about video games and school as Keita and I talk about today and Daniel. The cold winter night burns my skin, but the sight of the twenty-four hour shops soon comes into sight and I already feel my insides start to warm up.

"Are you excited to see Daniel at school for the first time tomorrow?" Keita asks, keeping an arm on my shoulder to help protect me from slipping on the less-maintained streets around here.

"A little, but it's not like it'll be that big of a deal, after all, it's not like we're going to spend all of our time hanging out everyday," I mention, trying to form the words past the shaking of my entire body.

"Well maybe he'll want to show you off to all of his friends," Keita shrugs and we follow Afia and Knox into a Loblaws, it's bright lights shining down into the world around it. "I know that if I was about to get into a relationship with a girl like you then I'd certainly do that."

"What friends?" I ask, giving him a little jab as a joke.

He smiles and gently smacks my cheek with the hand that's on my shoulder. "'I have friends, I just prefer hanging out with you. It's far more interesting with the things you two get into as well."

As we walk up the stairs of the Loblaws, I notice Afia glance backwards at Keita, her expression was like a warning. Now that we're safely inside and away from the cold and ice, Keita takes his arm off of my shoulder and Knox and I continue to walk next to each other as Keita and Afia look at the shelves full of snacks. All I want right now is a hot chocolate from Tim Hortons, but I think all of the ones around here are closed at this time.

"What did you two talk about?" Knox asks in a low voice as Keita and Afia argue about what's the best kind of doritos.

"Don't you want to join the debate?" I ask with a small chuckle and point at the two of them.

"If you answer my question fast enough then I'll be able to," He smirks, raising an eyebrow at me.

"We were talking about Daniel and if I'm excited to see if tomorrow," I answer at a rapid pace. I place my hand on his back and push him towards the others, "Now go."

His eyes go smaller as he smiles, his deep voice and laughter makes me feel nostalgic and at home. He makes me feel like I'm welcome no matter where I am, he and all of his siblings do, even his mother. As to his father, I'm not sure. He's always working so I never really get the chance to connect to him as much as the rest of the family.

I stand close by, checking out the cans of Monster that get put on shelves for some reason. I haven't seen a new flavour get released in a while, instead they've been putting out different kinds of Monster, like Gatorade types of drinks. I've never tried it, but I doubt it's as good as the original canned drinks.

Knox is on the side with the original nacho cheese doritos, Keita's arguing that the jalapeno ones are the best, and Afia believes that either cool ranch or flamin hot are the best. Based on experience, it shouldn't take that much longer till they turn and ask me which one I believe is the best.

"I'm telling you that the originals are the greatest of all time!" Knox shouts, clearly extremely interested in the debate of Dorito flavours. Here it comes. "Let's ask Alina which one is the best, Alina!" His head snaps over to me and I jump at the energy in the action. "Which Doritos flavour is the best?"

"Come on, man, don't bring her into the argument," Afia mumbles, even though I'd definitely agree with her options. Though all of their favourite flavours are my favourite as well, so I really can't pick.

Knox acts as though he hadn't heard her and continues to stare at me. I hold my hands up in front of me, "Um, this entire debate is really about opinion."

"Which one is the best?" All three of them ask, the energy nearly makes me laugh. You can tell by the way they act alone that they're related. Just wait until they get into a debate about which energy drink is the best. Keita I already know would pick Redbull, Knox would pick the original monster, and Afia would probably pick a Rockstar drink.

"It depends on the day for me," I answer, keeping my hands timidly raised in front of me. "Sometimes I crave the original, sometimes I want something spicy, sometimes I want cool ranch, and so on."

Keita smiles softly at me as the others throw their hands on, resuming their debate among themselves. They all grab a bag of chips for themselves and continue down the aisle, luckily not noticing the shelves of Monster and other energy drinks. An entire section of the aisle is dedicated to a new energy drink called Bang, which I've also never tried. I also never really want to, I've seen people drinking it or doing research into it and I'd rather not put it into my body.

Keita sticks behind, walking beside me as Knox and Afia circle around another aisle. Then I stop in front of the section of the chip aisle dedicated to Pringles, taking down the jalapeno flavour. Keita chuckles quietly and we go to catch up with the other two.

It's not long before we're already sitting on the ledges of the large windows of this Loblaws and snacking on our chips. We've taken off our jackets at some point due to getting too hot. I sit between Keita and Knox with Afia next to Keita. We watch as other teenagers that snuck out walk past us, laughing in their large groups and heading back into the Canadian cold.

"What time is it?" Afia asks between eating her cool ranch Doritos.

"Uh," Keita mumbles, taking out his phone. "Three in the morning."

All of a sudden the tiredness floods into my consciousness like a wave that never recedes back into the ocean. There's a moment of silence between the two of them as Knox also checks his phone, a notification immediately popping up, another Twitch subscriber.

"What time would be best for us to head back?" I ask, glancing between both of them. I feel like a child asking a professional for help.

"Dad wakes up for work between four and five," Afia answers, looking as though she's mentally calculating how long it should take us to get back. Which would be twenty minutes.

"Best to start heading back right now," Keita nods and we all get up on our feet, heading straight for the door as we pull our coats back on. I'm already dreading the freezing cold.

We head out of the Loblaws, the freezing cold immediately punching me in the face and making me wish I wore my face mask. I'm honestly surprised that I haven't been wearing my mask all that often. I mean, it looks really cool, but I guess it does make sense too. It takes a lot of work to put on and make it actually look good. It's a really cool black and red skull face mask, the skull being red and the rest of the mask being black.

With the three of them being slightly taller than I am, they easily protect me from the wind, taking it to the face like a shield. They talk about how they're going to sneak back in as I tiredly walk beside them, looking exhaustedly down at the snow in front of me. It honestly wouldn't be much of a surprise if someone looked at me and thought I was depressed or something, but I'm not. I'm really happy hanging out with all three of them right now, I'm just tired, and a little sad that tonight is already coming to an end.

"You doing okay?" Keita asks me quietly, nudging my shoulder.

I nearly jump at the suddenness of his voice but manage to contain myself. Nodding, "Yeah, just really tired."

"I'll pick us up some coffee and energy drinks on the way to school tomorrow," Keita offers and I can't help but give him a hug. He smells nice, most likely put on some more of his cologne before he left. The warmth of his body nearly makes me pass out in his arms, if I could, I would, but I can't. We need to keep going. Plus I'm about to start dating Daniel and I doubt doing stuff like falling asleep in Keita's arms would be seen as loyal. Though I can still see some excuses for why it might be okay, but not now, I need to stay awake.

"That sounds amazing, thank you so much," I mumble in his chest, then muster the strength to let him go. It seems that Afia and Knox didn't notice, which is good.

Keita's eyes linger on me just a little bit longer, then he bends down next to the snow bank and picks up a huge handful of snow. Quickly forming it with his palms before he chucks it straight for my back. The cold luckily doesn't affect me due to the coat, but the shock of it certainly jolts me awake.

I hear a mixture of laughter, confusion, and battling take place behind me, and by the time I turn around the three of them are already in a full-blown snow-ball fight. Knox stands in front of me like a shield and holds some snowballs behind him for me to take.

I grab them, choosing to ignore the increasing cold as it reaches through my leather gloves. Then we stand beside each other, launching snowballs at Afia and Keita and watch as they laugh and the fear in their eyes as they finally notice that Knox and I have teamed up.

"That's not fair!" Afia shouts, protecting her face from the flying snow. "You're both on a team!"

"Then team up with Keita!" I point out, gesturing to Keita as he starts making more snowballs, handing some of them to Afia. They chuck snowballs at us and we dive and take cover, waiting for openings to fire back at them.

We make our way home, having a huge snowball fight all the way there. As I glance back at the path we took, I can't help but notice all of the chunks of snow and ice riddled all throughout it, some even stuck to the trees.

We all sit in a large snowbank, getting a breather before we head inside and act like we were asleep the entire time. Knox is laying at the top of the bank, resting on his back like a Snorlax. Keita is on the opposite side of the snowbank as me, places armfuls of snow on top of Knox, and Afia is next to me, laughing as we watch the two of them bicker.

"Let's head in now, we got twenty minutes till it's four," Afia mentions, climbing up the bank to announce it to the two idiots.

"Alright," Keita, nods and smacks one last snowball into Knox's face, then scurries away like a little rat.

"Get over here!" Knox shouts and chases after him.

Both Afia and I laugh to ourselves as we follow them, walking at a normal pace beside each other. "Did you enjoy your first night sneaking out?" She asks with a calming tone.

I smile wide, knowing for a fact that my entire face is most likely completely red from the cold, "I absolutely loved it. We should do it more often, though preferably in warmer weather."