I rolled my eyes. "Wait a minute, Abbs, okay?" I said, using my pet nickname for her. I turned to Kate. "Do you want anything to eat or drink?"
Abby, who had been chomping down on the family size bag of Doritos like she hadn't eaten anything in months, jumped up.
"Do you have pepsi?" she asked.
"In the fridge." I got up. "Kate, do you want anything?" I asked again, feeling very awkward.
She stared at me as though I had grown an extra arm. "How did you know my name?"
"Long story. Food? Water? Soda?"
Kate sighed. "Anything's fine."
Well, this was going to be difficult. I was not exactly a great hostess any day of the week, but if my favorite character from Lost was turning out to be broody, sulking, and uncooperative, it might not be worth helping her escape. Sure, I had imagined Lost being real and helping out some of the characters. In my imagination, though, Kate was a lot more grateful.
Still, I'd only known this person for what—thirty minutes? She was scared. Had to be. Two deranged teenagers had kidnapped her while she'd been attempting to escape the police. Had it been me, I would have been in tears.
Okay, so I was not really a teenager. In fact, I was a lot closer to thirty than twenty. But everyone thought that I looked like I was still in high school. Even at my job, I got people asking if I was going to remain at the library as a page after my summer job ended.
Breathe, Sarah. Inhale, exhale. Don't blame the convict for your failure to think things through. Or Abby. She was only seventeen—I was the adult in this situation.
Kind of.
Giving Abby a warning look, I headed from the living room to the tiny kitchen, which took all of five seconds. One thing I liked about my apartment was that when I was in the kitchen, there was this wall thing that had been cut in half so you could look out while cooking and see what was going on. Sure, if I had been working at the stove Kate could have attacked me from behind, but at least I wasn't cut off from the action.
I returned a few minutes later with sodas, pretzels, chips, and peanut butter and bread. Also my fruit bowl which contained apples, a very small orange, and three bananas. Plus a lemon that had never been opened and probably never would be. Plus utensils.
Because if I was going to be responsible for Abby for the next several months, I had to make sure she was at least near healthy foods. Doritos didn't count as lunch, no matter how many she ate.
I grabbed some napkins and paper plates from the counter and put everything on the table. Abby was watching hungrily and even Kate smiled a little when she saw food. She took two slices of bread and began to make herself a sandwich. Abby grabbed an apple, Doritos momentarily forgotten. They both helped themselves to sodas.
"Mmm that was so yummy!" Abby announced after she finished hers in two gulps. "Sarah, I cannot believe you do not drink soda."
"Believe it," I muttered.
They ate in silence for a few minutes. Kate finished two peanut butter sandwiches and an apple while Abby downed her second soda and her apple. She was reaching for the pretzels when Kate spoke up.
"So, what's going on?"
Silence. Abby's hand wavered in front of the pretzels.
What were we doing? How could we tell Kate everything without her thinking we were crazy? A very Locke-esque thought popped into my head: was it our destiny to help her?
Stupid. Destiny or not, Kate was here. In my apartment. Eating my food. Opposed to being escorted to some filthy prison by a man who seriously needed to be taken down a few pegs.
People become drug addicts in prison. They get raped. They get beaten up. I'm saving Kate from all of this. Sure, she killed her father, but he had it coming to him. Heck, she probably didn't even know what she was doing at the time. The police who had pursued her had killed and harmed more people than that. The scumbag had it coming. He had probably tried to molest her. Kate was a victim in this whole thing.
"Well," I began, not very helpfully. "Abby and I have heard about you."
Abby nodded eagerly. "But we're on your side. We wanna take down those idiots…"
I cleared my throat. "Abby, relax." I turned to Kate. "We're here to help. You can stay with us for a few…for as long as you need. If you need money or anything, I can probably help you there too. Basically, we know about what you did, and you're not guilty."
I emphasized the last part.
"Yeah, because I mean, that guy was totally a creep and…"
"Abby."
"Sorry." She resumed munching on the pretzels.
Kate looked like we had told her we were flying cows. "Wait, you both know and you still want to help? You sure you don't have the wrong person?"
Abby spoke up. "Well, you're kind of wanted for murder and setting your house on fire. You killed your dad."
Kate nodded. "But I'm innocent."
"Well, duh."
Thank you, Abby.
"I wasn't even near there when it happened. But I'm not going to report the person who did." Kate paused. "I just want to clarify that I'm innocent. You're not helping a murderer or arsonist."
"It doesn't matter if you did," said Abby. "We're still gonna project you."
I sent Abby a glare. What was it going to take to get my cousin to shut up?
She got the message.
Okay, time for damage control. Kate was not guilty. At least, she said she wasn't guilty, and given that she thought we were going to help her when we believed that she was guilty, she had no reason to lie. If anything, Kate could have let us believe that she had committed these crimes because for all she knew, we were psychotic like that and enjoyed helping wanted murderers escape.
So, she was not guilty. Not guilty. But how?
"The alt timeline," I muttered, hoping Abby could hear me but Kate couldn't. "She's innocent."
Abby nodded in understanding, but Kate was starting to get paranoid.
"If my innocence is a problem…"
"It's not." Abby smiled. "We know about you. We just didn't have all the facts straight. Your stepfather, who turned out to be your father, did abuse your mom, right?"
Kate's reply was terse. "Yes."
"Then you're the person we're supposed to protect."
"Supposed to? Are you two working for someone?" Ever so carefully, Kate eyed the room, no doubt checking to see how fast she could escape. Or what she could use to knock me and Abby out if we tried to stop her.
No, Kate wouldn't hurt us. It was stupid of me to think that she would.
I cleared my throat. "We just met and we probably don't totally trust each other. Right?" I aimed the last part at Abby. "So, just know that you're safe here, but it's not like we're holding you captive. You can leave if you want."
Obviously, I hoped she wouldn't.
Kate nodded. Maybe she thought we were on the run as well. Or that whoever had killed her father (my guess was Juliet) had orchestrated her escape. Via us.
Man, this was way too confusing.
Then, she smiled. "Well, you two seem safe enough. I'll stay here."
She didn't add "for now", but she may as well have.
Oh well. "For now" was a whole lot better than not at all.
Plus, the fact that I was not really sheltering a murderer meant I didn't have to worry about going to hell if I couldn't make it to confession next Saturday. Of course, I wouldn't be sorry for sheltering Kate so the confession would be no good…
Didn't matter. Kate was innocent. Abby and I were helping someone who needed it. We were kind of heroes, when you thought about it…
My train of thought was interrupted by Abby bouncing around and squealing. "This is gonna be so much fun! Okay, first we gotta take you to the mall because you need new clothes. No offense, but people will notice if you're always wearing the same thing. Um, Sarah, should we get her hair dyed? I bet she'd look good with red hair."
Kate practically growled, "You're not touching my hair."
For once, Abby was speechless. I grinned for like the millionth time that afternoon.
"We'll get the clothes online. She can stay here for now."
"I can't ask you to do this…" Kate began. "I had money but…"
It was Abby's turn to interrupt. "Kate, this experience is worth sooo much more than money. Besides, Sarah's loaded."
"As you can tell by my great apartment," I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "But yeah. We're going to help you unless…"
Before Kate could reply, a large brown and white cat entered the room and plopped down on her lap.
"Meow," he greeted, stretching out on her lap.
"Kate, meet Sawyer," I introduced. "He's usually pretty shy, but it looks like he likes you."
"Of course he does, Sarah. He's Sawyer."
"You know you two are crazy, right?" Kate asked as she began to stroke Sawyer's back. He began purring loudly.
Yup. We were definitely insane.
Authors' note: See, Sawyer made an appearance! Well, kind of. Don't worry, we'll be bringing the real Sawyer into the story soon. Just not yet.
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