Take the street

Christina hadn’t tried climbing a fence since she was a child, and never had the best of luck with it, and that was with clothes on which stopped her from getting scratched up. She worried that if she took the alley she’d fail to get over the barrier and she’d have to run back to the street anyway.

Turning to her right, she picked her way through the woods, being careful to keep a large tree between her and the road whenever she heard a car approaching. She felt she was too deep in to be seen easily, but she couldn’t bring herself to chance it.

Soon she found herself as close to the street as she was willing to get. Her street was across from the park, not the woods, and she was ten yards east of the crosswalk and where the park began. She’d have to run diagonally across Madison Avenue get to the curb where her street began.

She inched towards the street, listening for cars. She was able to see a good distance up and down the sidewalk and no one was walking towards her. The street was busy enough to keep her in place, but she knew it tended to be sporadic- it was a thoroughfare from one larger boulevard to another, but there were far busier thoroughfares around.

I’ll wait here until the middle of the night if I have to, she thought. I’d much rather get a big gap soon though…

After a few moments of waiting she realized her chance was arriving. Three cars passing from her left and one on her right, then it looked clear on both sides. She couldn’t see as far as she wanted, but as engine noise started fading and not picking back up with more approaching cars she felt this was as good of a gap as she’d get before ten at night.

Christina’s hands slapped across the front of her body as she ran the last several yards out of the woods, over the sidewalk and into the street. She sprinted as fast as she could across the road, looking left and right in panic and seeing no one. A short bit of relief, but not enough to stop feeling another deep blush cross her face.

She made it to the corner of her street and kept running, seeing her home three doors down on the left, then looking around as quickly as possible. No one in their yard, no one in the windows I think, I hope, I hope… Dashing past one neighbor’s yard she approached the second house, Mrs. Dawson’s place, her next door neighbor since Christina’s family had moved in. She kept a row of well maintained hedges lining the sidewalk.

Looking back forward she saw the corner of a car start coming around a bend in the road. She stopped dead in her tracks and turned around, cutting up Ms. Dawson’s driveway a few feet before rounding the corner of the hedge, ducking down behind it.

Did they see me? Oh god I don’t know if I was fast enough…

The car kept driving past, no change in speed. Trying to peer through the hedges was futile, they were too thick for Christina to tell if the driver was looking her way or not. But regardless the car didn’t stop. She slowly stood back up, hands back in place over her body.

“Christina!”

Spinning to her left she saw Mrs. Dawson leaning through an open window on the second floor.

“What the hell are you doing out-“

“It was a prank, Mrs. Dawson,” Christina stammered, trying to be loud enough that her neighbor could hear but not loud enough to draw more unwanted attention, “I was in the gym shower and someone took all the towels and my clothes, and-“

“Alright, I think I get it.”

“Please don’t tell anyone you saw me like this.”

“I won’t, but hurry up and get home!”

Christina didn’t need to be told twice. She turned and ran behind the hedges through Mrs. Dawson’s yard and into her own front yard. Glancing around she ran for the side of her house where per parents kept a spare key in a fake rock. She didn’t see anyone else, didn’t hear any cars coming in the distance. Snagging the rock she paused long enough to pop it open and grab the key.

She rounded the corner of her house, past the driveway, slightly bent over in embarrassment, her hands pressing hard against her breasts and vagina. She turned towards the front door, onto the porch, key in hand.

The door opened, and Christina’s mom stepped out, then stepped back, startled, at the sight of her daughter covering herself with just her hands.

“Hi mom.”