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We stuck our thumbs out like we were pointing at somewhere better than the town that kept swallowing us whole

Your backpack rattled empty cans, a lighter that barely worked and that photo you wouldn't throw away I carried less but somehow felt heavier

Cars blurred past like they owed us nothing like they could smell the kind of trouble we hadn't even gotten into yet

You laughed first said something about freedom being just another word for not knowing where you'll sleep

We walked until the road forgot our names until a rusted pickup slowed like it had been expecting us

The driver didn't ask questions We didn't give answers Just climbed in like it was fate or bad judgment or both

Wind tore through the cab turned your voice into pieces I tried to catch but couldn't keep You talked about leaving for good about oceans about becoming someone else

I nodded like I believed either of us could change that easy

At a gas station in nowhere we split a candy bar like it was something sacred like this moment mattered more because it couldn't last

Night came fast Stars punched holes in the sky and we counted them wrong on purpose

You said "if we keep going, we might disappear"

I said nothing because disappearing with you felt closer to living than anything I'd done before