In running away from home, Charlie runs into more than he bargained for

The night that Charlie Bascomb's parents announce that they are separating, he knows that even though they aren't saying that horrible word divorce, it's only a matter of time. He can't bear the thought of his family breaking up and decides that it's up to him to do something to keep his parents from making a terrible mistake. In the middle of the night, he creeps out of the house and into the darkness, determined to stay away from home for only a day or so, to scare them, to show them, to make them change their minds. But a chance encounter with another runaway, a girl with troubling secrets and a stolen car, leads Charlie farther from home than he'd ever intended to go. Soon Charlie begins to see that it is he who has made the terrible mistake, one that he may not be able to undo, and that there are far worse things that can happen to a kid than his parents getting a divorce.