Issues
To Leave It All Behind
Chapter Four
'Cause I got issues
But you got 'em too
So give 'em all to me
And I'll give mine to you
Karolina woke up last the next morning after staying awake into the early hours of the morning. She couldn’t help it. Revelling in the feeling of Nico’s breath on the back of her neck and her arms wrapped around her waist had meant she only received a couple hours sleep before she was rudely awoken by a dinosaur roaring two inches away from her face.
She yelped as her eyes snapped open to meet slitted yellow ones. She jerked backwards only to find her feet were tangled in the scratchy duvet. This resulted in her falling backwards of the bed and face first onto the floor.
“I asked you to wake her up not scare her to death!” Nico’s indignant voice sounded from the other side of the room.
Karolina eventually managed to untangle herself from the makeshift cocoon she had created for herself and popped her head above the edge of the bed.
“You should have been more specific.” Gert shrugged with a laugh as Old Lace returned dutifully to her side and rested her head in Gert’s lap. Karolina was pretty sure the huff of air released from her scaly nostrils meant she was just as amused as her owner.
She dragged herself back onto the bed and grabbed a pillow which she promptly threw in Gert’s direction. She smiled smugly at the disgruntled yell that came from the purple haired girl.
Karolina shifted onto her side and held her head up on her hand as she watched Nico who was in the bathroom. The girl was stood over the sink in front of the mirror as she scrubbed the two day old makeup from her face. Karolina couldn’t help but let her eyes drag down the curve of Nico’s body to her bare legs. The oversized t-shirt that belonged to Chase was the only thing she wore. They hadn’t had the opportunity to buy any sleepwear. Not that she was complaining. Especially when Nico bent over slightly to rinse her eyes…
“Hey! Keep it in your pants maybe?” The same pillow she had launched earlier was returned her way and Karolina, being slightly distracted, didn’t see it coming until it was too late.
Karolina peeled the pillow from her face and shot her second glare of that morning Gert’s way. Her face flushed when she realised her skin had been glowing and she pressed the pillow back into her face with an embarrassed groan.
“Expressing your sexuality is completely normal, Karolina. But please refrain from eye fucking across the tiny shared motel room.” Gert stated matter of factly causing Karolina’s head to shoot up from the pillow with wide eyes.
“What, No!” Karolina squeaked out.
“What? I know that with your childhood you may have been slightly repressed but that doesn’t mean i’m going to put up with-”
“I’m not listening!” Karolina yelled as she cupped her hands over her ears and vaulted the other bed to enter the bathroom. She slammed the door shut behind her and sagged against the door in relief as Gert’s words were muffled.
Nico raised an eyebrow at her in the mirror and shook her head fondly. “Occupied.” she teased as they were squeezed together in the small bathroom.
“Sorry, Gert was being Gert.” She shrugged and straightened up against the door to watch as Nico removed the last of the mascara from her eyes.
The scene reminded her of their conversation in the school bathrooms a couple weeks ago, though now it felt like it had been a lifetime. She still remembered how Nico had seen right through her facade. The smiles and makeup. It was strange how far they’d come since then. Karolina was learning not to hide behind a false sense of happiness and here Nico was with a bare face.
She watched Nico sigh as she finished cleaning her face. The shorter girl looked up into the mirror and frowned slightly as if she didn’t recognise the girl looking back at her.
“Just like old times, huh.” Nico muttered as she continued to stare at herself in the mirror, seemingly uncomfortable with how exposed she was without the heavy layers of cosmetics.
“You look beautiful.” Karolina blurted after a long pause and then cringed at the bluntness of the statement. “I mean, you always do. With or without makeup.” she added as an afterthought because she didn’t want Nico to think she preferred her either way.
Nico met her eyes in the mirror and smiled softly though Karolina could see that her words hadn’t erased the underlying self consciousness she was feeling.
“Oh!” Karolina held up a hand in a stopping motion as she recalled her purchase from the previous evening. “One second.” She opened the door to the bathroom and jogged over to the carrier bag of goods she had bought.
“You know you need to learn to be more open with these kinds of things Karolina. It’s not healthy to-”
She tuned Gert out as she rummaged around the bag and located two small plastic tubes before jogging back into the bathroom and shutting the door behind her.
“These,” she pushed the tubes into Nico’s hands as she regained her breath, “are for you.”
Only the sound of the bathrooms extractor fan could be heard for a long time Nico stared down at the lipstick and foundation with a blank face. As the silence stretched on Karolina began to second guess her actions.
“I just thought you might be more comfortable. They only had the off brand stuff so I hope it’s okay. But It’s not like i’m saying you need it or anything because I just said you look beautiful. Which you do, like all the time…”
She trailed off and clasped her hands together behind her back. Nico still hadn’t looked away from her hands and Karolina was beginning to worry that she had broken her when all of the sudden she was pushed back against the bathroom door.
Before she could open her mouth to say anything her lips were met with Nico’s. The sound of the lipstick falling onto the tiled floor was fuzzy as Karolina’s brain became consumed with kissing Nico.
She felt Nico’s hands loop around her neck pulling her down to deepen the kiss and instinctively wound her own around the shorter girls waist. Compared to their previous kisses this was something much more… aggressive.
Nico broke away as they caught their breath but her lips remained, ghosting over Karolina’s as she whispered, “You’re perfect.” before recapturing the taller girls lips.
Karolina felt one of the hands around her neck ghost down to her lower back and arched slightly into the touch. Just as she went to further the kiss someone knocked loudly on the door. The sound startling Karolina so much that her head ducked forward and she accidently headbutted Nico.
“Oomph.” They both grunted as the source of the knock began talking.
“What are you guys doing in there? I need to pee.” Chase’s annoyed voice called from the other side of the door as he knocked again.
Nico buried her head in Karolina’s neck with an exasperated groan.
“Maybe we should just run away alone?” she muttered.
“Run away from running away? That seems a bit excessive.” Karolina laughed as Chase continued to slam his fist on the door just behind her head. She moved away from the door to prevent to oncoming headache.
“Better than staying with people who don’t know the meaning of privacy.”
“Hey, you love them.” Karolina reminded her with a light slap to the arm before picking up the lipstick and handing it to Nico.
“I suppose.” Nico rolled her eyes at the sentiment.
Karolina grinned brightly and squeezed Nico’s hand before leaving the bathroom, dragging Chase away from the door to allow the other girl to put on the makeup.
Though she hadn’t really noticed there absence from earlier, having been slightly distracted, Karolina could see that Molly, Chase and Alex had acquired breakfast for them. Or what two teenage boys and fourteen year olds idea of breakfast was.
It basically looked like the entire contents of a vending machine had been tipped out on one of the beds. A mountain of food was piled high on the duvet made up of assorted chocolate bars, crisp packets and soda’s.
Chase and Molly seemed proud of their accomplishment and pointed out the pile to her as she walked in, not that they really need to because it was hard to miss.
“What happened to budgeting?” She directed the question at Alex who had been the one to constantly remind them that they were going to have to live off a very small amount of money for an unknown amount of time.
Alex seemed exasperated at the grins of the other two. “Well, technically we didn’t pay for anything.”
“You robbed someone?”
“No! Just a vending machine.” Chase interrupted as if the idea of them stealing from an actual person was ridiculous. He had seemingly forgotten the incident at the pizzeria.
“So what? You smashed a vending machine open?”
“No! It just happened that Molly tipped it over and all the food fell out...accidently.” Chase explained with a smug smile.
“What does it matter. What’s a little petty larceny when you’re being framed for murder.” Gert’s statement silenced the room. They had all more or less pushed the fact that their parents would do such a terrible thing to them to the back of their minds. “Sorry, candidness is a coping mechanism.” Gert muttered guiltily as she took in the sudden tense atmosphere of the room.
“Hey, it’s fine.” Chase reassured as he dropped down to sit next to Gert. Karolina watched as he took her hand and smoothed his thumb over the knuckles. “It’s not your fault our parents are assholes.”
Gert snorted at the statement. “Understatement of the century.” she responded as she leant against his shoulder.
They had decided to stay in the room for most of the day whilst they figured out a plan.
Karolina found it comforting to be surrounded by the five people she cared about most in the world. Not for the first time she noted how much of a family they had grown to be for each
other.
Alex and Nico took charge of planning their next course of action. They were huddled over a wrinkled map Alex had found in the glove compartment of the van and had been debating for hours on where they could go next.
Chase was too busy fiddling with his burnt out fistagons to offer any input. He had kept Dean’s phone from the pizzeria with him and had taken it apart in an attempt to fix the gloves. Judging from the occasional sparks that almost set fire to the room and the frustrated huffs, he wasn’t making much progress.
Molly had entertained herself with the television. Spending the majority of her time staring fixedly at Jerry Springer as he interrogated his guests. Often clinging to Karolina’s arm excitedly as she motioned to the screen during the most climactic parts of an episode.
Karolina herself had been concentrating on controlling her glow. It would be a liability if she were to burst into a rainbow every time she was nervous or mildly embarrassed. Essentially every time she and Nico got a moment alone.
If she could admit one thing her mother had done right it would be giving her the bracelet. If she hadn’t then Karolina was sure she would be hidden away in Area 51 being experimented on by the government. She regretted leaving the bracelet behind because she hadn’t realised what a struggle it would be to keep herself in check.
At some point in the afternoon Molly’s Springer marathon ended as daytime television moved over for the news.
They all glanced up simultaneously as their faces were one again broadcast on national television.
It was the same report as before, recycled into a new script as the news always did with ongoing stories when they had no actual news to report.
“Molly Hernandez is likely to have been kidnapped by the five teenagers although their motives for doing so are unclear-”
“Oh my god!” Alex exclaimed as he shot up and pointed at the television, startling everyone in the room as he did so. “Did you hear that?” He gestured at the television and stared at them as he had his epiphany.
“Yeah? We’re murderers and kidnappers, what else is new?” Chase asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Exactly, Kidnappers.” Alex emphasised the word as he pointed at Molly. “They think we kidnapped Molly.”
“Nothing new there, dude.” Nico muttered, her face showing the same confusion of the other four.
“They don’t think Molly had anything to do with the ‘murder’.” He explained with wide eyes. “Molly’s totally innocent to them which means she can go home!”
“What?” Karolina, Chase and Nico all say simultaneously.
“No!” Molly’s indignant cry was louder than all of them put together as she stood to glare at Alex.
“Think about it guys. They can’t charge Molly with anything because she can just confirm we kidnapped her. We’re already being charged for murder so what does it matter anyway. That way she can go back to L.A and live with that lady she was living with.”
“But what about our the Yorkes’. Our parents. Jonah? They’ll go after her as soon as she gets back to try find us.” Chase argued with a skeptical frown.
“That lady you were with didn’t trust the Yorkes’ right? You can tell her what happened and she’ll keep you safe. There will be so much press about her return that our parents wouldn’t dare go after her and by then she’ll have moved out of state or something.”
Karolina watched in shock as Chase seemed to agree with him. Even Gert began to nod at the idea.
“No way! I won’t go back. We’re a family, remember?” Molly protested as she balled her fists tightly. Karolina could tell there were tears building in her eyes.
“Molly, this is your chance to get out. Who knows what will happen to us, we could be going to prison tomorrow for all we know. This way you get a life.” Gert was convinced and Karolina couldn’t believe her ears.
How could she seriously consider sending Molly back whilst Jonah was still out for blood. She had faced the man head on and knew the risks of leaving Molly out in the open were way too high to gamble with.
“I don’t want a ‘life’. I want to stay with you guys!” Molly’s chest began to heave as she grew frustrated. Gert tried to move closer and touch her but Molly batted her hand away, eyes flashing yellow momentarily before she took control of herself.
“Molly, you’re too young to understand now but this is the best option.” Chase offered in an attempt to calm the girl down but his condescending statement only seemed to further rile her. Karolina understood why.
“No, we’re supposed to be in this together! You guys keep doing this and i’m sick of it.” Molly screamed so loudly that Karolina was scared one of their neighbours would come to investigate soon if she wasn’t calmed down.
“She’s right. There’s no way our parents or Jonah will leave her alone if she goes back. It’s too dangerous.” Karolina cut in as she moved to stand by the smaller girl and placed a comforting hand on her back. “She stay with us.”
“She’ll be fine with the press watching and maybe if she tells that lady they could work on clearing our names as well. Molly knows about the murder dungeon and everything.” Alex tried to explain but the longer he went on the more tense Molly felt under her arm. She was pretty sure the girls eyes would be burning a bright yellow by now.
“They’ve been doing this for years and they have a bribed branch of the L.A.P.D at their disposal. They aren’t getting caught anytime soon.” Karolina argued desperately.
“We have to at least try!” Chase cried out. “Our lives are ruined but Molly’s might not be.”
She knew they were trying to do the right thing but unlike her they hadn’t experienced a full on conversation with Jonah. From the brief interactions she’d had with her biological father she already knew that he wouldn’t let this go. He would do anything and everything within his power to find her and if Molly was a casualty then so be it. Karolina wouldn’t allow Molly to be harmed in his insane search for her.
“This is ridiculous.” she turned to Nico who had been silent the entire time and met her eyes beseechingly. “Nico?”
There was a long pause where Nico maintained eye contact before she spoke.
“He’s right.” she said, finally. “Alex is right.”
The slowly uttered words were like a punch to the gut.There was a sinking feeling in her chest as she realised it was four against two and Nico wasn’t on her side.