by Rue Volley
“That was cool,” he said.
I laughed and shook my head as I rubbed my forehead.
“Classic fail,” I replied.
He smiled and pulled himself up.
The train started to even out and he reached down to me and I took his hand.
“Okay… What now?” I asked him.
He smiled.
“Movie night,” he said.
I looked over at the T.V. that I had completely been oblivious to, and smiled.
“Sweet,” I said.
Johnathan jumped on the bed and bounced. I followed him and he grabbed the remote and turned it on. Immediately the train became my all-time favorite place. I leaned back as the movie started, an old monster flick that had bad acting and was cool enough to be in black and white. I looked at Johnathan and smiled. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows.
“I am glad that we are doing this too,” I said.
He held his arm out and I lay down next to him… snuggling in on his shoulder.
“Good,” he said.
***
Theodore had retrieved Sam and Kai from Coffee and sat them down on the couch. Sam sat there with her legs up on Kai’s lap and Kai rubbed her legs slowly with his hand. Theodore paced back and forth as they both watched him like a tennis match.
“Dude… just give it up already,” Kai said as he grinned at Sam.
Sam grinned and looked at Theo.
“Yea, I mean you dragged us from Coffee, my favorite place to be… other than with Kai here,” Sam said as she leaned over and kissed Kai.
“I love you, Boo,” Sam whispered.
Kai grinned. “Love you too, Snookums,” he replied.
Theo looked at the two of them and shook his head.
He continued to pace and then suddenly stopped and looked at the two of them.
“Sometimes things happen and they are not what they seem,” Theo said as he rubbed his hands.
They looked at him and both laughed.
“Okay… weird,” Kai said.
Sam touched his face and smiled
“You are so cute… I swear,” she said to Kai.
She looked back at Theo and held her hand up to him.
“What does that even mean?” she asked him.
Theo sat down in the chair and stared at her.
“Emotions are a powerful thing… They can make you do things that you would normally not do,” Theo said.
Kai sat up and looked at him.
“I think that you should know that we totally do it, Theo… We are careful, I promise.”
Theo looked at him and raised his eyebrows at him.
“What?” he asked him.
Kai looked at Sam and smiled.
“Yea, Sam and me… we do it all the time.”
Theo opened his mouth and stopped.
“Oh dear…no I… I was not concerned with whatever it is that you do together.”
Sam laughed and poked at Kai’s side.
“You are dirty,” she whispered to him.
“Oh… okay, no. This is not about that,” Theo said.
They both looked at him and Sam popped her gum.
Theo blinked and stared at her.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders at him and pulled the gum out of her mouth.
She stuck it under the coffee table and Theo watched in disgust.
“Did you just retrieve something from your mouth and place it under the table?” he asked her.
She smiled and looked at Kai. She looked back at Theo.
“Yep,” she said.
“Okay then… I fear that you are acting immature,” Theo said to her.
Sam stood up and placed her hands on her hips.
“I am not a child. I can do what I want,” she said.
Theo looked up at her and sighed.
“You are acting like a teenager, obviously that is where your mind wanted to go,” Theo said.
Sam laughed and ran into the kitchen. She opened the fridge up and pulled out a tube of cookie dough and placed it on the table. She pulled a knife and started to cut it open.
“I was just thinking that!” Kai yelled as he ran into the kitchen.
She cut a piece off for him and placed it in his mouth. He licked her fingers as he smiled at her. She raised her eyebrows at him and looked at Theo.
“I don’t even know what you mean… You are like acting so funky,” Sam said as she put some cookie dough in her mouth and Kai leaned in to kiss her.
Theo shook his head as they shared it. He stood up and looked at both of them.
“I think that I will get some sleep. I will continue this in the morning.”
Sam laughed and waved her hand at him.
“Whatever, weirdo,” she said as she stared at Kai.
Theo walked to his room and shut the door behind him.
He rubbed his head and looked at his bed. He could hear them laughing in the kitchen.
“You spend one more night with no worry, love,” he whispered.
***
Johnathan and I laid there watching the horrible movie until my stomach grumbled about an hour later. He poked me in the side and I laughed. I loved hanging out with him. He was like having a cool brother, not that Kai sucked… but. I looked up at him and smiled.
“I think that I have to eat,” I said.
Johnathan pushed himself up off of the bed and looked around the room.
“I think that they bring it to you here… I mean, I kinda remember them doing that when I went to Barrington.”
I shook my head and looked at him. He grinned.
“What?” he said.
“When did you go to Barrington?” I asked him.
He shook his head and walked to my suitcase. He laid it on its side and popped it open.
I watched him and waited for an explanation. I mean, Johnathan never went to Barrington; he went to school with me and Kai. Kai was a year ahead of us both. I clearly remember meeting him in the fifth grade. Johnathan rustled through my bag and then looked at me.
“Uh oh,” he said.
I crinkled my eyebrows.
“What?” I asked him.
“I left your pills in my bag. Theo is going to kill me,” he said.
My heart sped up. Without my pills to even me out, the hallucinations and all the other fun stuff would become like a funhouse. I shook my head at him and bit my lip.
“Don’t do that,” he muttered to me.
“Do what?” I asked him.
“Look at me that way… I don’t want you to freak out on me.”
I grinned and tilted my head at him.
“I don’t freak out,” I said.
“Well, you don’t even remember that I went to Barrington for a whole year, Rue,” he said.
I looked at him and leaned against the headboard. I didn’t remember. I tried to smile, but he knew me. I knew that he knows that I know that I am not always well. I smiled as I tried to say that sentence ten times in my head.
“Rue,” Johnathan said.
I looked at him and opened my mouth up.
“I am just fine,” I said, so far from the truth.
I had managed to search my mind and I found nothing to trigger a memory of Barrington. Nothing at all.
“We have to go back,” he said.
I sat up and held my hand up.
“No… no, we are finally on our way to school. We can just get some vitamins when we stop.”
Johnathan stood up and smiled at me.
“You need more then vitamins, Rue. I know that and so do you.”
“Well… hey, call Theo then,” I said.
Johnathan snapped his fingers as the light went off in his head. Well, the light I turned on. He pulled his phone out and pressed the button. He stood there, biting on his finger in true Johnathan fashion as he waited for Theo to pick up. Obviously it went to his voicemail.
“Theo… Listen, it is Johnathan… I uh, wel
l… I left Rue’s pills in my bag, which just so happens to be in my car at the train station. I wondered if you or maybe Sam could um… get them and meet up with us along the way… or even at the school. I know I am an idiot. So please if it’s Sam, tell her that I…”
Johnathan stopped as the voicemail cut off his message.
He lowered his phone and looked at me.
“Theo is gonna be pissed,” he said.
“I would be more concerned with Sam,” I said as I laughed.
If one thing was true about Sam, she loved to point out stupidity, like it was her job.
Johnathan smiled and put his phone down.
“Well, I think we should at least eat,” he said.
I pushed up from the bed and walked to the table. They did have menus; I opened it up and started to look at it. Something caught my eye out the window and I looked up. I looked out and thought I saw a boy running in the field, matching the speed of the train. I blinked and he was gone. Freakin awesome. I guess I really do need those pills. I looked back at the menu and cleared my throat.
“Okay…so, it’s pizza, hamburgers, pasta, salad,” I started to read off.
Johnathan yelled out, “Pizza!”
I had to agree. It was almost evening and we had successfully ignored food for most of the day.
I looked at Johnathan and raised my eyebrows.
“I would guess that you want the biggest one, with everything that they can pile on it?” I said to him.
He nodded and I looked at the red phone on the wall.
I picked it up and it immediately started to ring. I held the menu in my hand as I waited.
“Kitchen,” a voice on the other end said.
“Yea… this is uh…” I looked at Johnathan and rolled my hand.
“314,” he said.
“Cabin 314… We are in dire need of this pizza on the menu.”
The voice on the other end sighed and I waited. I thought that he was going to say something.
“And what would you like on the pizza?” the voice asked me.
“Well, whatever you have… minus anchovies,” I said.
Johnathan nodded his head and dropped down on the bed.
“Okay… everything no fish,” the voice said.
“Yes… and um… ranch dressing,” I said.
Johnathan flipped through the channels and I looked back at him.
He grinned at me and I waited.
“A half hour,” the voice said.
“A half hour, what?” I asked him.
“It will be there in a half hour,” the voice said, just as emotionless as the rest of the conversation.
“Okay then…wait… Could you bring vitamins?” I asked him.
He paused, like I was messing with him.
“Vitamins?” he asked me.
“Yea, iron,” I said.
He laughed and waited for me to say something.
“Hello?” I said.
“You are joking right?” he asked me.
“No, I have this deficiency in my blood; I need to feed it,” I said.
He stopped laughing and then cleared his throat.
“Um… there is a shop, by the restaurant… They may have what you need; tell them that Jack sent you,” he said all low, like he was cupping his hand over the phone.
“K?” I said.
The phone clicked and I hung it up. I looked back at Johnathan and raised my eyebrows at him.
“What?” he asked me.
“That boy, he was all weird about ‘vitamins’,” I said.
Johnathan shrugged his shoulders and looked at his watch.
“How long did he say it would be?” Johnathan asked me.
Of course he would be thinking of his stomach.
I looked at him and placed the menu on the table.
“A half hour. Hey listen… I am going to go that shop he mentioned. It must be like a ‘have everything’ place, k?” I said.
Johnathan flipped onto something he liked and started to listen to it.
I stared at him and waved my hand.
“K?” I asked him.
He looked at me and waved his hand. He didn’t really hear me. I didn’t care. If I can at least get something to help me not see things that don’t exist, then I was. I walked to the door and opened it up.
“I will be right back,” I said.
He stared at the T.V. and laughed. I rolled my eyes and stepped out into the hallway. I turned and looked down it was really long and it looked bigger and stranger now. No one was in it; I could hear laughing behind me and knew that Johnathan was all about whatever he found on the T.V. Who knew?
I started to walk and it was just a little disorienting. The train moved, making me sway a little. I passed by one cabin door and heard whispers behind it. I sighed and kept moving forward. I was not big on being alone, especially in strange places. It made my hands sweat and my mind wander. I guess that I could chalk it up to the weird thing in me that made me sick. Well, I didn’t know if I would call it ‘sick’…it’s more like weird. I never exactly understood it completely, but I know it’s there.
The cabin door to my left suddenly opened up and a man stepped out. A woman laughed in the room behind him. He stared at me as I stopped and looked at him. He was dressed very nicely, but his shirt was undone from his pants and he was barefoot. I grinned and he looked me up and down. I could smell the alcohol on his breath.
“Oh… and how are you tonight?” he asked me.
I took a breath and started to walk by him; I could feel his eyes on me.
Gross. He was like old enough to be my Dad.
“I’m fine,” I said as I glanced at him.
His eyes shimmered, just like the little girl’s. Weird.
I heard the woman in the room call out to him. I looked down and passed him by.
“Baby… get more to drink,” she yelled at him.
He looked back at her and laughed. I heard the door close behind me and the woman yelled something out. I heard moaning… grossness. I started to pick up my pace. One thing I was not good at is hiding how I felt. In fact I usually said what I was thinking. I was impressed though, that I did not say ‘gross’ in his face. Maybe it is the fact that his eyes shimmered. I mean, they looked like they did.
I came to a door and slid it open. I stopped as I scanned the room and saw people sitting along the walls in booths. It seemed like the chattering stopped when I walked into the restaurant area. Well, the chattering got lower. I guess it is just in my head… like I would stop a room from talking… right.
I walked towards the bar and felt weird about the fact that I was underage. The bartender continued to clean a glass in his hand and glanced up at me. The light from the bar lit up his face in a weird way. It reminded me of some old scary movie I must have watched. I smiled and stepped up to him. He set the glass down and looked at me as a grin started to appear on his face.
“Thirsty?” he asked me.
I shook my head no.
“I uh… I talked to Jack. He said that I could find some vitamins in the shop. I just need to know where the shop is,” I said.
A woman behind me fumbled with her glass and it hit the floor rolling across the floor from the movement of the train. I reached down to get it and a hand beat me to it. I looked up and smiled as Johnathan stood there and smiled back at me. He turned to hand the glass to the woman and she was gone. I looked back at the bartender and he was gone too. I looked at Johnathan and shook my head.
“What are you doing here?” I asked him.
He looked around and smiled.
“Well, I realized that you left… The pizza came and I didn’t know what you were doing.”
I looked at him and crinkled my eyebrows.
“I told you… You were all into the T.V,” I said.
“I know… it’s a problem,” he said.
That was Johnathan, immediately admitting to his faults. I guess it avoids arguments, but sometimes I wish he would a
rgue. I would like one go back and forth with him. I would. I stood there and pointed to the bar.
“I don’t know where the bartender went. I asked him where the ‘shop’ was and then you got here… Now he’s gone and I still don’t know where I need to go,” I said.
I heard a throat clear at the other end of the room and Johnathan and I looked. A boy stood up, dressed strange for his age. I bit my lip and he walked towards us. He stopped and looked me up and down, as Johnathan noticed and shifted his weight so he was somewhat in front of me. I looked at the boy and his eyes looked funny too. I really needed some pills. That was three times now. I had to be suffering the effects of not having my medication.
The boy crossed his arms and grinned.
“You are the girl who needs something for your blood?” he said.
I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders.
“I was told by Jack that there was a shop down here… with vitamins. I need some,” I said.
The boy looked at me and continued to grin.
“Need or want?” he asked me.
I felt the train shift. I mean, I hoped it was the train… or it was me getting all loopy from the lack of my pills.
“Um… need, I guess,” I said.
I suddenly felt like I was in a different conversation then the one I was in.
“Follow me,” he said.
I looked at Johnathan and he took my hand and we followed the boy. We stepped from the restaurant, through another door, and I looked around. All I saw was more hallway.
“Um… where is the shop?” I asked him.
He turned and grinned at me.
“Impatient are we?” he asked me.
I looked at Johnathan and he kept his eyes on the boy. We walked three cabins down and he stopped at a door. He raised his hand and tapped three times, pausing and then tapped one more.
“Need or want?” I heard behind the door.
I looked up at Johnathan and he squeezed my hand.
The boy looked at me and smiled. His eyes caught the light and I looked down.
“Need,” he said.
The door opened and smoke billowed out of it. Johnathan waved his hand and I looked at him. I shook my head ‘no.’ Johnathan shrugged his shoulders and started to pull me in behind the boy who had already disappeared into the room. We stepped in and I held onto Johnathan’s hand tightly.
The room was dark, smoke everywhere. It smelled sweet, almost like vanilla. I looked over at the table and four people sat there, two girls and two boys. The girls were kissing and one boy was leaned back touching his chest. The other one was reading a book. I coughed and the two girls looked at me and grinned. I narrowed my eyes because it looked like the one girl had something red on her lips. I couldn’t be sure though, because the light sucked in there.
