Chapter 23:
"My Cell" The Lumineers
"Poison and Wine" The Civil Wars
AN: From the large break to the next is a flashback. It's hard to format, so yeah... anyway some cliffhangers #sorrynotsorry
With love and such...
Maka glanced once more at the clock on the dashboard, her hands clenching and unclenching in her lap. Suddenly, Maka felt Tsubaki reach out and grab her right hand before resting their linked hands on the seat between them. Maka felt the small squeeze of reassurance from Tsu, and she tried not to scream at Kid and BlackStar to go back into the house.
"One more minute, dude." BlackStar's voice was darker than Maka had ever heard before, and it filled the cab of the car with a menace that Maka fully agreed with.
Kid nodded resolutely, not breaking his gaze, which stayed focused on the house that they had only recently vacated. A flurry of movement at the back door caught everyone's eyes.
Before anyone else could react, Maka had unbuckled, opened the car door and was sprinting toward the duo struggling down the back of the deck stairs.
"Maka, wait!" She heard the chorus of her friends' voices calling out behind her, but she could also see Crona's pink haired form struggling with a white-haired counterpart. Without slowing her sprint, Maka ran full tilt into the white haired menace, trying to bowl him over.
"What the fuck, Maka?" Soul shouted at her, as her small form only made him lose his grip on her friend.
Crona, now freed from Soul's grasp, started to flail their way back into the house. "I c-can't. I ne-nee-d t-tto, st-stay." Before Crona had cleared the last stair, Soul had grabbed their ankle.
"Crona! You're alright," Maka gasped at them. Crona turned, and their face and body were a study in divisions. Half was turned away from her and begging her to let them go. The other half was pleading for Maka to make them leave while the slow bruise began to darken their skin.
"M-Maka, I-I have to-to g-ggo b-back." They reached out one hand toward Maka standing at the bottom of the stairs. "I nn-eed him." With these words, Crona's hand dropped so quickly it hit Soul's hand with such force that it caused him to lose his grip on their ankle.
As soon as his grip slackened, Crona pulled their ankle away and scrambled up the last few stairs to the deck. "And, he-he needs me." Crona seemed to settle into this persona and turned to open the door.
Out of nowhere, BlackStar appeared in a flying tackle and grabbed Crona, knocking them to the ground.
"BlackStar!" Maka and Tsubaki screeched.
"I just told him to grab Crona, not knock them out!" Kid shouted as he ran by the girls and up the stairs. "Soul, help me get these two. BlackStar knocked himself and Crona out." Kid was so frazzled he almost ran his fingers through his hair as he continued, "Let's get out of here."
Soul sat in the passenger seat of Kid's Escalade. Why am I not surprised he has an Escalade. Soul shook his head to dislodge the errant thoughts. He glanced in the rear view mirror looking over the car. Maka was in the very back with Crona's head resting in her lap. She had passed out while stroking the hair back from Crona's face. BlackStar and Tsubaki were in the middle row bucket seats. Tsubaki had made sure BlackStar was secure, before also falling asleep, her hand holding BlackStar's tightly across the arm rests.
"Why'd you do it?"
Soul's eyes connected with Kid's in the rearview mirror.
"I don't know." He broke the connection, looking back at Maka again. "I mean I do know. But it doesn't make any fucking sense." He looked over at Kid, whose hands were tight on the steering wheel.
"You barely know her." Kid's voice shook, "How do you know if it was the best decision? We care about Maka, and suddenly she was gone with no explanation."
Soul couldn't help it, and he snorted out loud, which caused Kid to look his way for a moment before turning back toward the road.
"You guys have a pretty odd way of showing it. And I don't know if it was best. It's what I did though because I do know is what it's like when no one else believes you."
Kid started to say something, locked eyes with Soul again in the rearview and seemed to think better of it.
"It alright if I link my phone for music?"
Kid nodded.
Soul plugged his phone into the connecting cord, Kid had linked to his dash and began to scroll through his music. He finally settled on some soft indie rock since almost everyone was asleep.
As Verite started singing through the speakers, Soul lay his head against the window, closed his eyes, and allowed himself to sink back into the memories that had convinced him he needed to make Crona leave.
Soul had met the girl outside the club, and because she had a fake ID they were able to get a bottle of cheap vanilla vodka. Soul had never really drank before this, but the girl kept teasing him for the faces he supposedly made as he took shots from the bottle.
They had bought the vodka and a set of McNuggets and went to the park near the venue. They spent an hour or so taking shots, eating nuggets, and making out on a bench hidden in the high bushes near a statue of war veterans.
Her fingers played with the collar of his shirt, brushing against his skin in small caresses that made him shiver. .
"Would you let me go backstage?" Her words whispered against his lips.
He pulled back a bit, trying to catch a breath of fresh air. He smiled down at her, before pulling her lips back to his own.
"Soul, I'm serious!" She said as she pulled back and playfully swatted his chest. "I would be just sooo grateful if you let me see the stage with you."
Soul's head felt foggy, and he felt a pleasant sort of fuzziness to the quality of the world around him. He chuckled and let his hands drop as he laid his suddenly heavy head back against the bench. "Ouch, hahaha." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"Soul?" The girl's voice sounded out again, her fingers exploring his chest and sparking small flames as they trailed lower and lower.
"We could go now, right?" Her fingers played with his waistband. "I'd just love it. It'd be the best thing that happened to me!" Her voice was bright in the darkness, but a sharp sound against the fog in his head. He twitched slightly, and her hand moved back to tickling across his chest.
He pulled his head up. "Alright," he laughed loudly and his smile stretched across his face, his eyes shining brightly in the light from the street lamps, "alright." He smiled brightly at her again.
He had never brought a girl backstage before. In part because they still very rarely played double shows, but for some reason B.R.E.W. seemed to really resonate with the small town of Mansfield, Texas. They had been offered a decent amount to play both Friday and Saturday night at the club, and this meant Soul still had a key to the venue.
Usually, Wes closed them out and sent Soul home. So, Soul was pretty unfamiliar with any closing routines that were performed by the bandmates, but it had been several hours since they had closed the club, and he assumed that Wes and the others had gone back to the hotel by now.
So, he was a bit confused to hear murmurs of voices coming from the dressing room. He motioned to be quiet and began to sneak down the corridor, the girl clinging to the back of his shirt. He moved slowly. His head was pounding and he kept stumbling over what appeared to be nothing.
Finally, they made it to the door of the room that had been designated as the band's dressing room, storage, and catch all room. He grasped the handle gingerly, as if it might burn him, while the voices continued in the background in a series of slurred sounds and background acoustics.
"Soul," He turned to look at the girl as she tugged on the back of his shirt. "I think we should go. I don't need to see the stage or anything."
"It's ok." He wasn't sure why he said it because he honestly had no idea what might be happening behind the door. "I'm sure it's fine." He grasped the handle again and pushed down.
"That bear owes me money!" Maka woke with a start. Her head pulled up in a jerk from the headrest. She had semi-shouted, making a person on her lap twitch, and two people in bucket seats in front of her fidget in restless sleep. Kid jerked the wheel a bit, and she saw his eyes glance in the rearview mirror at her. She felt her cheeks burning, and knew she was blushing. Soul had fully turned around in his seat at this point, and a sardonic grin was spreading across his face. It was only about 3 in the afternoon, so she saw his eyes twinkling at her embarrassment. She expected a sarcastic comment but instead he simply smirked at her for a moment before turning back around. She saw him lay his head against the window, his snowy hair falling in the small crack between the window and the seat.
She glanced around the car, making note of Crona, BlackStar, and Tsu. Without realizing it she felt her gaze drawn to the frosty head resting against the window. She half-willed it to turn around, but wasn't sure exactly what she wanted from it. As a slow song began to play she found her glance moving to Kid. She saw his eyes continue to flick toward her, but he didn't say anything. And she didn't either.
Now that Maka was awake, there was a huge amount of tension in the air. Soul could almost feel the movement of Kid's eyes as they flicked continually into the rear view mirror. He found himself chuckling and tried to smother the feeling. Maka's sudden outburst had pulled him from his memories, and he felt a sense of distinct relief. He knew he needed to reflect and come to terms with the memories. But that also meant a huge shift in perspective, and it was daunting.
"Yo, you hungry?" He pulled his head from the window and turned so that he was addressing Kid, before turning more fully to look at Maka in the back seat.
"I could eat." She shrugged, her fingers once again stroking Crona's hair along their forehead. It seemed to calm her, as the blush from earlier had faded from her cheeks.
"There's an exit with a couple options coming up." Kid offered. "Maka, do you want to wake Tsu and the others? I'm not sure how BlackStar and Crona will feel though."
"I guess, we'll see." Maka gave a half shrug and reached over Crona to give Tsu a small shake. "Tsu, Tsu." Maka shook her friend slightly, and Soul turned back around as the girls began murmuring about the merits of waking BlackStar and Crona now or when they stopped.
He turned to Kid instead. With a half whispered murmur he said, "We could fucking sufficate on the tension in here right now," He paused before making an internal decision, "You know, it really hurt her when you said to leave. Maybe even more than Liz."
"I know." Kid's words fell in an equal whisper barely audible above the music playing.
"Well you're going to have to talk to her if you want to fix it." Soul studied his fingers with studied disinterest as he offered the advice to Kid.
Kid's eyes glanced in the rearview once more before he said, "I don't know. It might be too late."
Soul looked into the mirror as well, and his eyes caught Maka studying him before she quickly looked away.
In the end, they let Crona sleep. They weren't really sure how to explain to Crona the entire episode, and honestly Maka felt that most of them were still unsure if they had technically kidnapped Crona or not. They also struggled to agree on a place to stop, so stopped at Wendy's, Taco Bell, and Jack in the Box in order to collect enough food to meet everyone's needs.
"We're lucky it's Kid driving." Tsu said as she dipped some fries into BlackStar's frosty as they lounged on a picnic table. They had stopped at a park nearby the last fast food place to eat.
Maka had found a medium sized rock to perch on near the two and proceeded to cover her quesadilla with an exorbitant amount of fire sauce. "I know! If it were me or BlackStar it would've only been one place or starve." She chuckled and then continued around a bite of quesadilla, "I bet you would've taken us to all the places, too though Tsu." She smiled over at her friend before her eyes strayed to the two anomalies. Soul and Kid were sitting together on a picnic table next to Tsu and BlackStar. They seemed to be in a heated conversation, though Kid would look up when his name was mentioned and offer an appropriate facial expression to match the conversation.
Maka yearned to know what they were talking about, but felt the subject was also deeper than she wanted to currently be involved with, so she had found herself drawn to the rock. It had soaked up the late afternoon sun and was warm to her touch. After she finished her food, she lay back enjoying the warmth of the rock under her and the sun on her skin. She deliberately avoided thinking about anything of importance and focused on the sun kissing her arms and face.
"Maka?" She knew without looking who she would see when she opened her eyes. She took a deep calming breath and opened her eyes.