"Damn it!"

Jared whispered as he rolled his way under Anastasia's bed, hoping that it wasn't Antonio outside.

Not that I care if Antonio comes to meet Anastasia this late, he thought.

He could feel his pulse beating in his ears, adrenaline coursing through his veins as he heard a loud thumping on the door. His heart almost skipped a beat as heard the door creak open till he saw who it was.

Olivia.

Anastasia's cat.

He sighed in relief and rolled out from under the bed. The cat purred affectionately when she saw Jared and he moved to scratch behind her ears. It surprised him how the cat could recognize him just from his eye color. He smiled sadly at the cat, thinking about how he would never get the chance to take her for a walk in the park and how the two of them would never be able to curl up into a ball to sleep together like they used to do. It was strange how Jared felt he would miss the cat way more than Anastasia. He picked Olivia up in his arms as he stood up from the floor, taking his phone out to take one last picture, when he got hit in the face with a tomato.

The window in Anastasia's room shattered from the impact of the tomato, which caused Olivia to meow loudly. Jared, whose balaclava was now soaked in tomato, put a finger to his lips to shush the cat as Anastasia shifted in her bed uncomfortably from all the noise.

He hugged the cat tightly, sat it back on the floor and quickly snapped two to three photos of her. Then he hit play on the MP3 and ran as fast as his legs would allow.

As he ran outside, he could hear some commotion from Anastasia's room and Olivia meowing loudly in distance.

"High-five, brotha!" Fiona cheered, raising her hand up for Jared to slap with his. Rachel, smiling, patted Jared on the back. The three of them then threw in tomatoes as fast they could through all the windows in Anastasia's house.

"Oi!" Anastasia's dad yelled from the house.

Hearing that, the trio sprinted as fast as they could for their dear lives. Their breaths came out ragged and each heart beat sent a jolt of pain through their bodies, but they kept running till they reached a tree, miles from Anastasia's house. They slumped on the ground near the tree, their muscles sore and stiff from all the running, their sides throbbing in pain, as they tried to catch their breaths.

"All of this sprinting reminds me of the time when we were children and used to run after ringing people's doorbells. " Jared said to Fiona, who was taking off her balaclava, to reveal a face as red as tomato.

"Good times", Fiona remarked, smiling.

In the silence that followed, everyone took of their balaclavas and rested near the tree.

"Do you guys have any intention of leaving?" Rachel asked.

"Nope." Jared answered simply.

Rachel sighed, "We have school tomorrow."

"Skipping one day won't kill us."

"My mom must be worried."

"Then tell her you're staying over with us for the night." Jared said, handing his phone to Rachel.

She frowned and said, "We're on the street, Jared."

"No shit Sherlock!" Jared said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"We could get killed!"

"Then at least we'll die together." Jared said, grinning.

Rachel sighed in exasperation but eventually took Jared's phone to tell her mom that she would be staying over for the night with her friends.

Fiona was already asleep on Jared's lap. She really admired that although you could see the siblings telling each other off a lot, they always had each other's backs.

Smiling in contentment, Rachel sat beside Jared, who beamed at her. She closed her eyes and laid her head on his shoulder, thinking that although she had not ended up where she had intended to go, she was there where she needed to be.