CH 2: The Long Way Around the Block

I didn't get so much as a minute of sleep last night. I watched the clock as it turned to four... five... six in the morning.

At that point I decided to get breakfast. Every little noise made me flinch, and laying down wasn't doing me any good.

I throw a couple waffles in the toaster. Out of syrup... just when I thought things couldn't get any worse.

I admit it was a little more comfortable with the dog here. Pickles might be annoying, but she is also very big. If the criminal does return to the scene, he won't even think about staying after he sees that beast of an animal.

Then again, I can't be sure the man is even criminal. I've come to think he's a thief, after grandma's valuables, but he could be anything from a cold-blooded killer to a senile man at the wrong address, looking to buy some pottery. Actually, the more I think about it, he may not even be a 'he'.

I tend to jump the gun and assume things. When I first saw the Black Jet running across the lake, I assumed that person was a 'he' then too. I'm not saying Tori's the one who broke in, but the fact of the matter is, there's no telling the identity of the culprit.

The side door swings open, and I nearly fall from my seat at the sound of the door slamming. I rush behind the counter, and hear the door connected to the house close.

Pickles was behind me, and sniffing my hair. I push the large dog to the side and hope whoever came in sees her.

The dog barks twice, then runs forward.

"Easy, Pickles!"

"...Tori?"

I emerge from the counter, and see gran's dog licking Tori to death.

I approach the dog and pull her off her by the collar, then help Tori up.

"Thanks." She groans, then wipes off her clothes.

I punch her in the shoulder angrily.

"Ow!" She glares. "What was that for? I came back!"

"I didn't punch you because you left." I snap. "You were cheating on me!"

She looked concern. "Jade, I wasn't!"

"Don't fucking lie to me Vega!" I shout in rage.

She looked confused, and a little worried. Then I smile. "I saw you getting some serious tongue action with Pickles just now."

She smiles now. "I see you've calmed down since last night."

"Barely. I haven't gotten any sleep." I respond.

"I... didn't either." She admits.

I can tell… her eyes looked a little tired, now that she's mentioned it.

"I was worried about you all night Jade. I know I was pretending like it wasn't a big deal and all, but you were so scared, and I didn't want-"

"Oh my god, I was not 'scared'!" I protest.

"Yes you were! You were totally freaking out!" She reminds. "I shouldn't have left last night, I knew you were upset, and I ignored it for my own sake." She explains.

She looked sincerely upset over her mistake, and maybe a little frightened herself.

"I thought if I didn't think about it, maybe I wouldn't feel so bad about leaving." She sighs.

"...you don't have to feel bad, you know." I mutter.

"Too late. I already feel terrible enough, so I've decided I'm staying."

Did Tori just say she's staying?

"Yeah." She nods, as if she could read my thoughts. "Until that burglar is found, I'm not leaving your side." Tori declares.

Really, it was sweet, but I couldn't ask her to do such a thing. First off, she has school. Plus what would her parents say? And it's not like her uncle wouldn't know to look here for his missing niece. As a matter of fact, this is the first place he'd check.

"There's no way." I conclude. "I don't see how it would work."

"I don't care." She sasses back. "There's nothing you or anyone else can say to convince me to leave you here by yourself."

I try to argue it, but there's no point. Once that girl sets her mind on something, well, there's no changing it. She tells me she has to go so she can pretend to drive home, but she'd be back as soon as she could be.

"So you're just gonna drive your car here then?" I question, still reluctant to let her go.

Tori removes my hands from her waist. "I'll be going the long way around the block, but yeah. …really, it won't take more than ten minutes!"

She returned ten hours later.

Apparently, she got side-tracked. Apparently, she 'accidentally' drove all the way back home, then turned around and, apparently, came right back.

"Really." I huff, my hands on my hips looking at her with an angry stare.

"Sorry!" She cries, slouching her shoulders. "It's just such a habit when I leave that way… and there's no turn around on that express way until, like-"

"Fuck it, I don't want to hear excuses… you forgot about me."

I pace over to the couch by the fireplace and sit down. Tori was still for a moment, but approached me again.

"I did not."

So maybe she really didn't mean to leave me alone for long, but she did forget about me, and I don't doubt my parents have by now. I just felt a little abandoned… who could blame me with the night I had?

"Common, I'll make it up to you." She smiles. "Ice cream's on me tonight."

…well she is here now.

"Alright." I sigh. Technically it's on me, since I'm fairly certain she'll be using my five bucks from our bet. Which, technically, should be invalid since last night. "I still have to eat dinner though, so later."

She looks at her phone. "It'll be closed if we take much longer."

"It's only nine fifteen!" I reason, looking at my phone as well as an indicator for the time. "It's not like I'm cooking a twelve course meal!"

"I know, but, it'll take us at least ten or fifteen minutes just to get there."

"Tori, it's the Marina." I remind her. "It's right across the lake. We'll just hop on the Jet after we eat, it shouldn't take any longer than a minute or two."

She rolls her eyes. "We have to walk there Jade."

"Why?" I question.

Ohhh, right…

She nods when she picks up I understand. Of course, the Black Jet is at her uncle's house.

"So we going?" She asks, tapping at the time on her phone.

Instead of walking, as she suggested, I remind her we had the paddle boat. All week I'd been trying to convince her to take it around the lake with me, but the lazy girl always countered with 'we'll just take the Jet'. This time she didn't have a choice.

It takes a lot of work to get it moving, and steering it is confusing as hell, but on the upside, I can actually hear her when she's talking to me. The soft patter of the water rotating under the propeller was a big step down from the roar of the Jet, and actually made the trip rather peaceful.

"You're sure you locked the doors when you left?" I ask Tori, now that we're halfway across the lake.

"Yes, Jade." She sighs. I'm sure she wished she couldn't hear me right now with my constant paranoia. "Will you just settle down? Everything's gonna be fine!"

Easy for her to say…

It was nearly ten when we finally arrived, since we didn't leave until about nine thirty. I knew we didn't have to rush, since Barb would let us in one way or another.

"My dears, I was going to close early today." Barb greets as we enter. "Please don't tell me you're here for dinner."

I shake my head. "Just ice cream."

She wipes her forehead. "Phew! For a second there I thought I'd have to do actual work! What can I get for you young ladies?"

We order our usual, and take a seat next to the jukebox.

Barb and the crew were cleaning up as we ate; wiping down the tables and floors, putting the ice cream in the freezer, ect ect, until our older friend decided to take a break and lounge with us by the windows.

"I've been thinking, girls… shouldn't you two be home by now?"

Tori laughs. "Yeah, we're supposed to be."

I nod, and take another bite out of my frozen desert.

"Now I've heard of some crazy trouble you two have gotten yourselves into, but skipping school and lying to your parents?"

So we end up explaining the whole ordeal to Barb; about the psycho thief and my grandma and everything. It was well past closing by the time we'd wrapped up our explanation.

"My my, you're just a magnet for danger, aren't you Jade?" Barb inquires, taking a deep breath. "And you're staying with her Tori?" She clarifies. "Well ain't that a nice thing of you to do."

Tori smiles and shrugs. "Aww, well!"

"Now you know you're always welcome here, girls. If you ever feel uncomfortable at home you just say the word and I'd be more than happy to let you stay as long as you'd like-"

"Barbra!" The manager calls from across the counter. "You're shift's up, time to go home."

She hops up. "Yippie! Okay, ladies, out you go!"

"What?" We were both shocked. We stood up reluctantly, and Barb pushed us out the doors.

"Nice seeing ya, thanks for the visit, buh-bye!"

Before I knew it we were back outside, the Marina doors slamming behind us as Barb skipped off to her beat-up car.

"…I didn't even get to finish my ice cream." Tori complains.

Yeah, because that's the problem here.

"We can always come back tomorrow, you know." I point out. I mean, I guess it wouldn't be fair to keep Barb there all night just because we weren't comfortable by ourselves.

"Okay, tomorrow." She nods, and we start back to the paddle boat.