I'm sorry that so many of you guys hated Carlie after the last chapter; I was hoping that you'd see where she was coming from. Oh well………
I know that I said there would only be about six chapters to this story, but now I'm almost positive that there will be eight.
Also, I've never ridden a bus besides a school one, so forgive me if prices or whatever are way off.
(outside of Carlie's POV)
Angel, who had been standing in the exact same position for several minutes, suddenly started to move toward the stairs. Collins, who had been sitting on the couch with his head in his hands, suddenly spoke.
"No," was all he said. Angel kept moving toward the stairs, not listening to him. "No. Don't go after her yet. She needs to calm down," Collins said again. Angel kept moving as if she hadn't heard him. "Angel………" Collins said softly, almost pleading. Angel turned around when he said her name.
"I can't………" Angel started to say, her voice shaking. "I can't………" Suddenly, Angel started to break down, burying her face in her hands. Slowly, Collins got off the couch and walked over to her. Angel let herself fall onto Collins, who wrapped his harms around her. She thought that she could feel tears fall onto her shoulders that weren't her own.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(back in Carlie's POV)
I had stopped running after a couple minutes, but with every step I took, I could still feel my stomach churn more and the lump in my throat rise up and down. But the funny thing was that I still hadn't cried. Maybe I was just in too much shock. Or maybe I was just too upset to cry. I wasn't sure.
I kept walking until I reached a bus station that I had remembered passing with my parents a few days ago. I checked my watch; it was 9:02. So I'd been on the run for over two hours. It felt much shorter than that. And much longer too, somehow.
I walked inside the bus station, unsure of where I wanted to go. There was a very tired looking lady with frizzy brown hair sitting behind a counter. Nervously, I walked up to her.
"Um………excuse me?" I asked. She looked up at me. "Um………do you have buses that go to………New York?" Now where had that come from?"
"Where in New York, kid?" asked the lady with an exasperated look.
"New York City." I replied, wondering why I had just said that.
"There's one leaving in about half-an-hour," she answered.
"O-okay. Thanks," I replied, walking over to a bench to sit down.
"Don't you want a ticket?" she asked as I turned away.
"Oh, right," I answered as I walked back over to the desk.
After buying a ticket, which cost forty dollars, I walked over to a seat and tried to organize my thoughts. My stomach was still flipping, and whenever I thought of what I had said to my parents just hours before, I felt nauseous. But for some reason, knowing that I was going to New York seemed to calm be down a little. Although I would never have admitted it to myself, I knew why I was going to New York. I wanted to be found. In the back of my mind I realized that going to New York was going to mean I was going to end up with Mimi, or Mark, or another of my parents' friends, so I knew that my dad and Angel would eventually find me. The only problem was I wasn't sure how the three of us would react when we met up again.
The half an hour that I spent in the bus station went by very slowly, probably because with each passing minute I doubted whether I was doing the right thing. It was hard to imagine that only twelve hours ago I had been talking with Kathleen in art class. But still, at nine thirty I boarded a bus along with five other people, and was soon on my way to back to Alphabet City.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(outside of Carlie's POV)
After what seemed like hours, Angel slowly started to move out of Collins' arms. She looked up at him for a moment, and then, without speaking, the two of them slowly started up the stairs toward Carlie's room. Once they were outside her room, Angel squeezed Collins hand at she knocked on Carlie's door.
"Carlie honey?" Angel asked. "Sweetie, we need to talk to you." There was no answer.
Collins used his other hand to knock. "Baby, I know you're upset, but you have to come out sometime." No answer again.
"Carlie?" Angel said again, this time sharper and more urgent. "We need to talk to you." When there was no answer again, Angel tried turning the doorknob, but it was locked. Collins started searching his pocket for something. Wordlessly, he pulled out a safety pin and inserted it into the lock.
"Carlie, if you're not going to let us in, we're going to come in anyway." When the only answer he received was silence, he turned the safety pin around until they both heard a click. "Carlie, we're coming in," he said. Angel and Collins exchanged looks as Collins slowly opened the door.
Of course, there was no one in there, just an empty window.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(back in Carlie's POV)
I spent the entire time on the bus in that awful stage when you know that the thing you need more than anything else is to just cry, but you can't. I could feel the lump in my throat grow every time my parents' shocked and saddened faces popped into my head, but I still couldn't cry. The other thing I desperately needed was sleep, but my stomach had decided that it wasn't it the mood for that, because it wouldn't stop flipping.
Finally, at almost two in the morning, I arrived back home in New York City. Even in the dark, I still felt more secure there than I ever had in Connecticut. I set out walking slowly toward Alphabet City, even though I knew that it was several miles away. I was absolutely exhausted the entire time, but I knew that if I just kept walking another block, another two blocks, I would eventually get there, and everything might turn out alright.
It was after four by the time I reached our old apartment building. For a minute, I just stood there, looking at it, and wondering who I just go to. My first thought was Mimi and Roger, but since Mimi was Angel's best friend, I knew that she was either going to know, or very much want to know, what was going on. My next thought was Maureen and Joanne, but then I remembered that they had moved out of the building and into a nicer apartment when Joanne had gotten a promotion a year ago. So that just left Mark, but since he and I had never been overly close………
Irresolutely, I fished my old key out of my purse and unlocked the door to the building. Slowly and hesitantly, I climbed the stairs, not quite sure of where to go. Finally making my decision, I walked up to the door of one of my parents' friends' apartments and, as quietly as I could, slid it open and slipped inside.
A familiar sight of cluttered tables, duct-taped couches, and a forever flashing answering machine met my eyes as I walked in. I had started to creep over to the couch when I accidentally tripped over a shirt lying on the floor. "Shit," I muttered as I heard movement in the bedroom.
"Roger, how many times do I have to tell you that you shouldn't wake me up in the middle of the night to get condoms," he was saying as he opened the door. His eyes, looking very small without his glasses on, widened when they saw me. "Carlie?" he asked disbelievingly.
"Hey Mark," I answered.