California Dreaming

by Stacey Johnston

  Did I just hear correctly? “Okay, who are you, and what have you done with my father,” I reply. Shit, I never meant to say that out loud. Laughing, he gestures for me to follow him. “I know I ride you harder than James, but I only want the best for you.” This still doesn’t explain the turnaround, but I will let it play out for now. Hugging me, he sends me in to help my mother pack. We have been told to pack only the essentials, they will organize the relocation of our stuff once we have been permanently placed.

  Heading towards dads study I find my mom going through paperwork. It looks like she is gathering only the important documents to take with us. “Do you need any help?” I ask her, making her jump. I didn’t mean to startle her.

  Looking up, it’s like she is staring straight through me. “I’m good Luke, just go gather what you need. I won’t be long.” Her voice is flat, and her eyes are already back on what she was doing before she even finishes her sentence. It’s like she is in her own little world. Leaving her to finish what she is doing, I move towards my room. I don’t really need anything up there, none of it matters, except for the locket.

  I need to make sure I don’t forget to grab that. I can’t leave that behind.

  “Marcus, what will do about the partnership?” I hear my mother’s voice echoing from the kitchen as I was head back downstairs. Planting my ass on the last step I sit and listen.

  “I will fly back and forth for the time being. I will speak to Gregory about placing me at the Brooklyn office, but that will take time. It’s not an ideal situation but it we will have to manage it,” my dad replies in a strained voice.

  If I’m not mistaken my mom will be in overdrive and it will be grating on his nerves. I really have fucked up royally this time.

  “How could he do this to us?” I hear my mom cry. Yep, it’s back to being my fault. I wondered how long it would take. “It wasn’t deliberate. You know this Jill. He’s our son or have you forgotten that?”

  That’s a surprise reaction, one I wasn’t expecting. Not wanting to hear anymore, I gather my stuff and head towards the door.

  “Are you ready?” Agent Nickles asks once we are all gathered back at the station. “As ready as we will ever be,” Kyle’s dad responds. It’s almost midnight and we are getting ready to be transferred to the airport. Apparently the F.A.C.A is granting us use of one of their jets because there is so many of us. Thankfully Kyle’s older sister is at college as well, so she has avoided this drama along with my brother James. Ben and Stephen are only children so that works in our favor.

  Our parents have organized urgent time off from their jobs to get settled in Brooklyn and take a breather, so they can work out exactly how this witness protection shit is going to work.

  “Great, let’s get this show on the road, shall we,” he says as they are bustling us out through the back of the station to the waiting SUVs. I don’t want to be too sarcastic, but there is nothing stereo-typical or suspicious about four or five black SUVs speeding away into the night at all.

  Do these guys not watch movies?

  I found it funny that each family had their own driver and vehicle, as we slipped away into the night toward the jet. Awaiting us on our arrival at the airport were more agents, who quietly ushered us onto the aircraft.

  The flight itself was apparently going to take around four to five hours so we were told to try and get some rest. How am I supposed to rest and sleep after the day we have just had?

  All I have churning through my head like a revolving door is, why us?

  These agents and my parents don’t understand, I can’t move to Brooklyn.

  I won’t be where I am supposed to be.

  I said that I would never leave.

  I promised to always be here waiting… Peyton…

  Chapter Five

  Kyle

  After what turned out to be a five-hour flight, we finally landed at John F Kennedy airport an hour ago. The drive to Brooklyn didn’t take as long as I expected, with us arriving at their safe house half an hour later. The F.A.C.A’s safe house has actually turned out to be a dingy motel, buried deep in Brooklyn itself. I can’t really tell you much because I have no idea where we are. It was still dark when we landed and they whisked us away that fast, we barely had time to think. Each family has been given their own room, with an agent assigned to them. Our one is talking with my father in what I think is the kitchen.

  The whole size of this little room would fit neatly into my parent’s bedroom back home. It has a double bed in the middle of the room with a lounge suite near the window. There isn’t much to do apart from watching TV on the tiny fucking television screen that is sitting on a dodgy table.

  The kitchenette I think my mother called it, has a sink and a stove and a really old rusted fridge. I was too scared to open it when we got here, in the fear that something might crawl out. I hope to god we aren’t hauled up here long. I think my mother will have a coronary if she has to live like this for too long.

  Curling up on the lounge I listen as the agent tells my father that our stay here will only be for a couple of days, until the department finds us more suitable lodging. There’s an apartment building not far from here that they have placed other witnesses in over the years, so he believed they would look at that first. My father seemed content with that, but made it clear they would have to place all four families together in that building.

  Would that even be possible? I can’t imagine there being that many spare apartments available. You would think the likelihood of this happening to be slim. I fucking hope they can make that happen, I’d hate to be separated from the others.

  I won’t survive here on my own.

  Putting my earbuds in my ears, I search the music playlists on my phone for something to drown everything else out. My head feels heavy, my eyes burning from the lack of sleep as I lay back turning the music up so that I can finally close my eyes.

  “Dude, wake up.” I hear as someone grabs my earbuds out of my ear. Turning over to ignore them, I snuggle back down into the lounge suite. Whoever is trying to wake me can fuck right off.

  “Come on Kyle, get up man. We have to go,” the voice grunts.

  Man am I tired. Why do I need to get up?

  Where the fuck are we going anyway?

  “No, I don’t want to,” I whine like a three-year-old, but I don’t care, I just want to sleep.

  “Get up Kyle,” my father booms from across the room.

  Okay, there’s no avoiding it now.

  Sitting up slowly, I rub my eyes to regain focus. My eyelids are still heavy, and my head is fuzzy due to the lack of sleep. Obviously, there something going on otherwise my father wouldn’t be harassing me.

  “All right, all right I’m up, what’s so fucking important?”

  Owww… The slap across the back of my head means I said that out loud and one of my parents must be close by. Shit!

  Looking up, I find my mother standing next to me giving me a dirty look. Yep, that wasn’t very fucking bright of me. “Watch your mouth, son. I’m not opposed to washing it out with soap.” She scowls at me.

  I deserved that, I really need to think before I speak some days. “Okay, now that everyone is here,” a voice from the kitchenette area calls out. “We can discuss what is going to happen next.” It sounds like agent Nickles has arrived, but I can’t see him because our parents are flanking him.

  I raise my chin at Luke, Ben and Stephen as make their way over to me, each grabbing a spot on the lounge suite.

  “Where do you reckon they will place us?” Stephen mumbles. He has been biting his nails since he sat down. He only ever does that when he is nervous, and we should definitely be feeling nervous right about now. “Maybe we will get one of those huge big houses with the cute little white picket fence, for all of us to share.”

  Yeah, I can’t see that happening.

  “I overheard the agent we are stuck with say something about an apartment building close by. We will probably be placed
there,” I confide. There is no point pussyfooting around the obvious. We all know our lives are never going to be the same, we might as well accept the reality of our situation.

  “They are moving us here?” Ben voices questioningly. “I thought we’d end up somewhere else. I never pictured it being Brooklyn.”

  Laughing at his naivety, Luke tells him he has been watching too many movies. Slumping into the lounge, Ben’s face pales and his eyes become colorless as though he is in mourning. It is like death, when you think about it, especially when the reality of our situation finally sinks in. There’s no escaping this, no hope that we can wake up tomorrow and everything will be as it was. Sinking into a pained silence none of us say a word. What’s there to say anyway, we’ve always been good at creating trouble, but never to this magnitude?

  My parents haven’t said much about it, but honestly, everything has happened so fast we haven’t had a chance to stop for long at all. I have no doubt it’s coming, I am just waiting for the smoke to settle.

  When Agent Backe calls us over, we move slowly. Gathering around the small table our parents take a step back allowing the agents and ourselves room to move. I am still struggling with how surreal the past twenty-four hours has been. If you were to ask me what I was going to be doing today, when I woke up yesterday, this definitely wouldn’t have been it. I’m supposed to be back at school today, starting as a junior not sitting in a dingy motel room in Brooklyn with a dozen F.A.C.A Agents surrounding me.

  After taking our seats, we are informed that they believe the professional hitman would be long gone, so the initial threat no longer stands. Agent Nickles stated that their contacts at the C.B.I had been informed and were dealing with the dead kid as we speak. From what we have been able to learn, both of these departments have been working together for years to find this guy. They don’t want this death to make the news, so they disposed of the situation quickly.

  I had to look at him when he said - they disposed of the situation, because that kid was a human being, not a situation. Letting them continue we are informed that we will be placed in the apartment building I mentioned to the others, in a few days. We will be kept close together seeing this was a stipulation our parents demanded.

  When Luke asked how it was possible to do that, all they offered in return was, it is a government owned building. That still doesn’t explain the schematics of how it all works, but I’m not really in a position to question them either. The feds will organize the packing and shipping of our belongings, which will arrive by the time we move into our new homes.

  For the time being, we will be based in this crappy motel, but are free to move around the city. They don’t believe we are in danger here and want us to adjust to our new surroundings before we start at our new school.

  This is so not how I expected our summer break to end, but in seven days we will be in a new home, going to a new school.

  Yep, this is definitely not how I saw my day ending when I left home yesterday morning.

  Ben

  My head is still reeling, the last few days have been surreal. After all the excitement died down and we had time to adjust, we decided to explore our new city, our new home. It’s nothing like Laguna, the people here are nowhere near as friendly and our parents have us on lockdown. Yep, that’s right, we are under strict orders not to venture far. Whatever little trust they had in us is long gone, that ship has sailed – as my father put it.

  At least we are out of that disgusting motel we started in. I was more concerned that the cockroaches were going to carry me away while I slept. We were finally placed in our new homes yesterday. I don’t know how the feds managed to pull it off, but in all honesty, after what we have been through, I don’t think I want to know. Every little demand from our parents had been fulfilled without any argument at all.

  At least some of us got what we wanted.

  Not long after the feds handed over the keys, Kyle, Luke, Stephen and myself sat on the steps of our new apartment building and watched as two moving trucks pulled up. Fuck it was a funny sight, watching them trying to find parking spaces. Out of the four families, only mine, and Stephen’s parents chose to transport their furniture out here. Luke and Kyle’s parents decided it would be easier to start afresh.

  I can’t say I blame them, because the stress it caused my mother, flying home to sort it all out was pretty bad. Both of my parents have aged considerably in the last few days. When I asked what they would do with our house, my dad mentioned that his cousin had offered to housesit. They didn’t want to sell, in the hope that we could one day return to it. Stephen’s parents had put an old couple in to take care of theirs, until they could make a decision on what to do with it. Both Luke and Kyle’s parents left theirs in the hands of real estate agents to rent them out.

  Kyle: Be there in five

  Buzzing on my dresser distracts me from my thoughts. Although there isn’t much to look at, I have been staring out my window for the last few minutes, almost dazed. Turning around I notice my phone vibrating on the wooden surface. Grabbing it, I see Kyle’s message. It’s our first day at our new school, and I’m not overly excited at all.

  Me: Sure, see you soon.

  The four of us agreed to walk together after scoping it out yesterday. When we walked through those gates with our mothers to organize our transfers, I felt like I was five years old all over again. It was the worst feeling, especially when we had everyone staring at us, as we were dragged across the courtyard. Thus, explaining my late of motivation this morning.

  “Ben, breakfast,” my mother yells. It’s going to take a bit to get used to the set up here, seeing our home was two stories and massive enough to get lost in. This apartment reminds me of that Pink song where she says I can fit your whole house in my swimming pool.

  Yes, our apartment is that small.

  Leaving my room, I head to the kitchen to find my mom sitting at the table staring at her phone. “Are you waiting for something?” I ask in passing.

  “Your father promised to call this morning, I am waiting for that,” she replies. When she looks up her face is pale and sullen. The pressure has definitely taken its toll on her.

  “I’m sorry,” I whisper, walking over to hug her from behind. She grips my hands and hugs me tightly as if she is too scared to let go.

  “I know darling, we will get through this. Please do not worry.”

  Breaking the contact I move to sit down, staring at the toast before me. How can I not worry? If it wasn’t for our stupidity she wouldn’t have to be living four thousand odd miles away from her home. I will make it up to them one day.

  I just can’t promise when.

  “I will see you this afternoon,” I call back as I head out the door. I don’t hear her response as I close it and make my way down the stairs. Each of us has been put on a different floor, and although we are on the fifth and there is an elevator, I have taken to using the stairs. Back home, we had a gym room that the boys and I used to use almost daily. Right now I am using these stairs to keep up my fitness until we can find a gym or somewhere else to continue our training. It’s all about staying fit and toning up, we are too young for anything else.

  Reaching the bottom, I can see I am the last to arrive. “Dick,” Luke shouts over at me. “What took so long?”

  God, he’s an impatient prick. “My mother,” was all I had to say.

  He nods and gestures for us to leave. Following them out the doors, we make our way towards our new school.

  God help us.

  Luke

  I can’t believe how different my parents have been since we were relocated. No sooner did we get settled in our new home, my father left to head back to California for work. They didn’t want the stress involved in moving our stuff out here so they left it all behind, with the exception of all our personal belongings. My mom flew back with Ben’s to gather what she wanted and then organized for an agent to take care of the house. When she returned, she ended up orderin
g all new furniture for this tiny ass apartment we are now living in. I expected the worse, once all the heat died down, but I received nothing.

  Not one word.

  It makes me wonder if the realization that something serious could have happened to me has changed their outlook maybe. I don’t really fucking know, but I’m rolling with it for now. Who knows when they will change their attitudes towards me again.

  It doesn’t change how I feel about them, though, or what they did. Some things are unforgivable and can’t be taken back. It also kills me to know I won’t be there to keep my promise, that I am just another letdown, another person who can’t be trusted. I can only hope that our time here is minimal, so I can get back to where I need to be. I am thankful to have Kyle, Be, and Stephen or I don’t think I’d survive. They are my brothers, and without them, my life would be even emptier than it is now – if that is even possible.

  Just another good thing I would be forced to give up.

  I need to focus and get a grip.

  It’s time to shut out the shit and concentrate on something else…

  Well, hello, sunshine…Now that’s a distraction, I wouldn’t mind having wrapped around my cock. I know I’m not supposed to be thinking shit like that, but those are my thoughts as I watch a tall brunette seductively saunter past me. Stopping to get a good look, I find my staring at a goddess, whose legs have my attention right now. It’s as if they are long enough to go on for fucking ever.

  Fuck me, that’s hot.

  What I wouldn’t do in this instance to get a look under those tight, little pair of shorts she has hugging her even tighter ass.

  A sharp pain in my shoulder snaps me out of my thoughts. “Oi fucker, what was that for,” I curse, turning to see which ass-wipe hit me.