AN:Not much to report. Except I've come up with an ending. And the rest of the middle. And I've written them on my wall so i won't forget.
That's good though, because all my other stories were just randomness. I never had and end before.
YEEEE!
Alena's POV
I was standing in the shower at Caleb's mom's house. I still have yet to see a single adult on my trip since I've been here, unless you count Molly's sister driving away as she kicked Kaylee and Molly out of the car yesterday morning in from of Caleb's.
I put my hands by my sides and let the water hit my chest, thinking about all the events of yesterday. I still didn't know what to do about my parents.
There was a knock on the door and Caleb came in. What is it with these people and invading upon my privacy? But I didn't mind.
"I could have been naked," I called through the curtain sarcastically. He pulled it aside and stuck his face in.
"You are," he said as his climbed in and clasped his arms around me just under my collar bone.
"You aren't," I said. "I think I'm at a bit of a disadvantage here. And your studded belt is killing my ass." He laughed and pulled his belt off, throwing it over the shower curtain in one swift movement.
"So I was thinking," he said.
"Good job."
"I was thinking that you should have the baby." I stopped smiling. This was exactly what I was afraid of. If Caleb wanted to keep it, I couldn't get an abortion. I wouldn't bring myself to do it if he wanted to see that bloody, goopy thing pop out from between my legs.
Since when did I become a martyr?
I twisted around in his arms so that I was facing him. " I can't. My parent's would kill me. They'd never let me see you again. Ever." He paused for a minute, looking upward, as though he were calculating exactly what to say.
"Then, just don't go home. Stay here with me. We can go to New York, or… or Chicago. LA! Maybe even Santa Cruz!" he said, his excitement growing more and more obvious with the thoughts of us walking together down the streets of some bustling city, hand in hand.
I let this potion sink in for a while. I could see what he was. I could imagine me, with a big pregnant belly, walking down the street with him, and we'd go out to dinner in fancy modern restaurants, and we'd sit on the beach, laughing like we did that first day we met. There was nothing I'd like more than to be that girl. But sometimes, what you want to do isn't always the right thing to do.
"I can't. I couldn't do that to my parents." I slipped down and sat on the floor of the shower, enjoying the feeling of the water pounding my back.
"I could move to Vegas," he said simply. I looked up at him, and he bent down to sit across from me.
"Your parents would never let you! My parents would never let you," I said, shaking my head, but maintaining eye contact. A pained look came across his face and he raked his hair with a dripping hand.
"Alena. I have something I never told you. I should have told you, but I didn't."
"Oh god. You're a vampire!"
"No. I—,"
"You have to live forever because you drank some enchanted water?"
"No, it's—,"
"Your uncle entrusted you with the difficult task of destroying a ring with incredible powers?"
"Do you thing Greg would have a ring with incredible powers, Len?" he asked. I shook my head. "I'm legally emancipated. To the government, I don't have parents. My mom's drunk, and my dad's in jail. Which is why I can drive, and why there aren't any adults, and why I can afford plane tickets to just about anywhere."
I tried to muster an intelligent response, but all I could say was "Huh?"
He laughed and stared at the ceiling again.
"When I was fourteen, my dad went to jail. Grand larceny, Grand theft auto, assault with a deadly weapon, and murder in the first degree. I guess you'd know what those all, mean, right? In terms of years in prison."
"Practically household names. Your dad is either already on death row, or in prison for the rest of his life."
"Right. It wasn't a big deal, my dad and I were never close. But when my mom started drinking, it just intensified things. I had to take care of her. When I'd hear her coming in late at night, drunk, I'd have to help her back to her room, and make sure she slept on her sides so she wouldn't drown in her own puke."
My mouth might be open right now.
"So know, the government gives me a check every two weeks, and my mom still has to pay a settlement amount, which should last until I turn 18. Once that comes, I'm on my own."
"Holy shit, Caleb! Why didn't you tell me before?" I asked, reaching to grab his hand.
"I don't know. I guess, when I was with you, it was like it didn't happen." He looked up at me again. His expression had changed dramatically. Where two seconds ago, his eyes seemed hollow and his face was dull, his eyes were now alight with excitement, and he looked eager. "So do you want me to go with you back to Vegas?"
"Of course I do! I just don't know if that's the best option for you." I reached behind me and shut off the water. Standing up, I pulled a towel around myself. "You're soaked," I said, reaching forward and twisting a corner of his shirt out.
He pulled me closer and wrapped his arms around me. "You can do this. I know you can."
"Says the man who doesn't have to shove a human being forth from his crotch." I stood there for a few minutes, resting my head on his wet chest, listening to his heartbeat. I kept asking myself one question over and over again in my head, and I came up with a hundred different answers.
Is this the heartbeat I want to listen to for the rest of my life?
Sara's POV
She'll be back tomorrow. That's just what I keep telling myself. Why is it harder to let go of her now, for four days, than it was to let go for a whole month when she left for Santa Cruz?
It all has something to do with that Caleb kid. I have no idea who he is, but I keep getting the feeling that he's not a good influence. But then again, if Alena picked him, he has to be alright. She knows what's good for her and what isn't.
She's a good girl. She's not going to get into any trouble. She'll be fine.
But… what if she isn't fine?
Images storm my mind like flies around a dropped piece of pizza. What if she got kidnapped, or pregnant, or raped, or murdered? This was the aspect of my job I liked the least. So many different situations I would never imagine, and every single body I saw in the morgue, I saw Alena. I saw Nick. I'd even see Kaylee and Molly. Things like that could happen to anyone.
I just hoped it wasn't my daughter.
Alena's POV
I walked into Caleb's room wearing pajamas and my cow slippers, holding a bowl of Ben and Jerry's. "Hey," I said with my mouth full of phish food.
"Hey, yourself," he said, looking up from the TV as I sat next to him on the bed. "A tire just hit that woman in the face," he said, gesturing to the TV with the remote.
"Caleb. We need to talk."
"Look, they showed it again! Good god! Look at that—,"
"Caleb!" I said frantically. He looked up at me, and flipped of the TV, positioning himself so he was facing me better.
"What's up?"
"I've decided."
"About the baby, or about us?" he asked, tilting his head slightly towards me.
"Both," I said as he reached for my hand. "I'm staying. I'll stay here, and I can have Kaylee and Molly go back and tell my parents I'm safe, and we'll go somewhere. New York. Chicago. Maybe London, if we can afford it."
He smiled at me, and then tackled me in a hug, but the momentum caused us both to fall off the bed. There was a pound on the wall to the living room.
"Keep it clean, Caleb!" called Molly from the opposite side of the wall. "If you injure her, I'll stab you in the jaw!"
We laughed, and he helped me up. "Well, it's just like having my parents here," I said, brushing my hair back into place with my hands. "Only less violent."
"So where do you want to go?" he asked. "London sounds fine with me. So does New York. So does anywhere. As long as we're there." He bent over to my stomach and half-yelled "All three of us."
