To be honest, this chapter turned out different from what I imagined but that's okay, because the following one is coming right up!
Chapter title: Smokestacks by LAYLA
Blurryfaces
Chapter six – Throwin' my soul
"C'mon, I want to know!"
"It's technically illegal for me to do what you want me to do!"
"I just can't resist to my curious nature. I need to know if the rumors are justified!"
"Why don't you ask her yourself!"
"Because I don't know where she lives, because she might be mourning her loss and because it would be incredibly impolite of me to do so!"
"I hate it when you're right."
"I know, I love it too."
Charlie penetrates into the room without knocking on the door to inform them of her presence. Todd and Charlie instantly step away from each other and from the computer on the boy's desk. The brunette lets her bag drop on the floor with a thump like she's home.
"Are you two... flirting?" she lets out, half-amused half-astounded.
"No!" Todd spurts out.
"Please." Amy huffs.
Todd squints, Amy doesn't notice. It's becoming a routine, really. Charlie likes routines, but this one tends to never end. But the best things always end, and she hopes this one meets a rather fast ending. She only wants them to be happy.
Charlie closes the door behind her, and drops on a chair too small for a teenager that Todd doesn't want to throw away – he hates to throw away old things of sentimental value, and Charlie likes to imagine that he teared up when his father wanted him to throw to the bin his first shoes. She looks up to the slightly ripped AC/DC poster above his untidy bed.
"So." she begins. "What were you two doing before I arrived?"
But Todd doesn't buy it. "How did you get in here?"
"By the door?" Charlie says, pointing at it like it's obvious.
He rolls his eyes in a perfect imitation of her personnality. "Thank you, Sherlock. But how-"
"Amy texted me, said that she needed me to make you give in." she explains. "So, why am I here?"
Todd opens his mouth to retort but Amy is faster.
"So Lara Da Silva sent a group text this morning to almost all of her contacts – you know how of a gossip girl she is, being Lydia's former friend – to tell me about the rumors that saw the light this morning; about how apparently our favourite Bee has gone missing and Kate Argent, Allison's aunt, is apparently the town murderer; but at first I thought it was fake, because what the hell? Lydia's fine, we saw her yesterday and she was almost back to her former self, and there's no way this town hosts a killer if you forget about the weird animal killings in the area – and, can't forget that, Lara lies, like, very often, so I didn't buy it! But then -"
"She wants me to hack the police department to prove that what Lara is saying is false." Todd sums up.
Charlie's eyes widen and she looks at Amy like she's suddenly gone mad. "What?!"
"That was my exact reaction!" Todd claims. "I'm not doing it, Amy!"
"It's just a little hacking! No one will get hurt!" Amy pleads.
"Can't we wait like everybody else for the Beacon Chronicle to publish the facts?" Todd begs.
"No, because we aren't everybody else. I refuse to be mundane!"
Charlie rolls her eyes. "This is illegal, Amy." she reminds her.
Fire almost sparks out of the redhead's nostrils. "What is it with you all? Todd, you told me how great you were with computers, you told me that you even successfully hacked into city hall when you were thirteen -"
"I don't want to do that again." he sighs.
"Well why?!"
Todd looks over at Charlie, like expecting her to help him, and she shrugs.
"It's your backstory, not mine. Personally, I think she deserves to know."
Amy looks back and forth at her two friends. "What do I deserve to know?"
Todd groans and drops his head on his desk. The only thing he manages to do is hurt is forehead.
"Okay, I'll tell her." he winces, rubbing the red spot between his eyebrows.
Amy crosses her arms stubbornly.
"I was thirteen, yeah, and I did hack into the city hall. It was just a stupid game Danny and I came up with. He got arrested, I didn't, my dad covered for me because, you know, he works there. They dropped the charges, Danny was a minor and he didn't know what he was doing, besides it was me who dragged him into this shit, it was my fault. I got my dad into trouble, he almost got fired. That's why I don't want to do this ever again."
Amy's cheeks slowly turned into a shameful red. She looks down at her cherry red Converses, biting her lip. "Sorry." she murmurs. "I didn't know."
Todd smiles despite himself. "It's okay. It was four years ago. And almost everyone forgot about it."
"But can you still do it?" Amy lets out in a rush. She winces instantly and holds out her hands in peace. "Sorry. Can't help it."
Todd and Charlie stay silent as she gets into deeper waters the more she tries to explain herself. She's almost at the bottom of the ocean when Todd, who's been trying to silently communicate with the brunette, sighs and raises a hand.
"Okay, I'll do it."
Both girls turn so suddenly their heads to the boy that their neck almost snap. "What?!"
"I said I'll do it." he repeats, like emotionless.
Charlie closes her eyes and masses her temples. If this is some stupid game to win Amy's heart... "Just a second ago, you were against this idea-"
"I changed my mind, that happens."
"No." she says firmly, shaking her head. "You don't change your mind. Ever. You're almost as stubborn as Amy." The redhead snorts incredulously but Charlie rolls her eyes. "You're making up nonsense, Todd!"
He turns his back on them, trying to make his face as unreadable as possible as his fingers drum on the keyboard of his laptop, gaze focused on the black window on the codes appearing on the screen.
"Todd." Charlie says, stepping closer from him threateningly. He's trying to impress Amy but clearly he's being more stupid than anything, perhaps he - "Todd, what the hell has gotten into you?"
She just hates it when people chose to ignore her purposefully. It makes her want to smack them. She doesn't, obviously, because deep down, she isn't that fond of violence.
Even Amy seems gobsmacked and stares at the incalculables lignes of coding. Charlie's patience wears out.
"Todd-"
And that's when it hits her, when she observes his eyes transfixed by the screen and the numbers and the incoherence that used to be his favourite hobby and the tip of his fingers hit mercilessly the keys
bam bam bam bam
"You never quit, did you?" Charlie lets out almost too softly. "Not one second."
She isn't bitter, not at all. She's just disappointed.
He had put so much effort in quitting. He had told her that he could, that perhaps if he spent less time in front of a screen, that perhaps if he trained more for the lacrosse team, if he was more present for Amy and her, maybe he could stop eventually. He had told her. He had promised her. And he finally, with a sigh of relief, had prompted that he was finally detoxified. But he had lied, straight to her face, and she had believed him. He that hated so much lies.
Did that make her an idiot for putting so much trust in that boy? She hadn't believed for one second that he could have had stretched the truth.
She steps back from him, slowly, and his hands hover above the computer, not touching the keys anymore.
"I don't understand." Amy, sweet Amy, breathes out.
"It's normal." Charlie says slowly. "You weren't there yet." Todd seems frozen in front of his computer, torn apart between defending himself and liquefy. His silence speaks for himself. "He used to be a little genius hacker back then, until he stopped because his dad almost got fired. But you know that story." she explains, and the smile she flashes to Amy doesn't reach her eyes. "What you don't know, is that he's also an addict. He told me that he literally couldn't spend a day without this stupid shit." She doesn't realize it, but her tone flames. She is slightly bitter after all. "Before the city hall hacking, he got into private institutions bank accounts, violated people's private lives and sent threats to 'bad people', as he said."
"They were bad people, okay? Remember this guy who beat his-" Todd tries to argue.
"I don't care, you interacted above the laws, you trespassed them and twisted them so you could act as you like, you were the bad person back then! And now..."
"You broke your promise, Todd." she spits. "You freaking broke it!"
He suddenly turns his chair and faces her, his hands grabbing the armrests and his raw nails biting into the fake leather. "I've always made sure that this stayed secret and it did, Charlie! I never tried to drag anyone into my own troubles, that's why I didn't tell you-"
"You should have fucking told me!" Her voice is rising, and she can't do anything to stop it; it's out of her power now. She remembers thinking that she wasn't angry. She was wrong. Guess she wasn't only wrong about her issues. "You're my friend, whether you like it or not – you're basically my only friend since middle school because I'm too unsufferable to be liked by other people-"
Todd is caught short on that one. "I know I'm your friend, and it's not that I don't like it, Charlie, why the hell would you think about that?"
"Oh, I don't know. Maybe I feel a little lonely after all, I have no idea."
("I still have to find a Krum. But for now, I'm going to pretend to like loneliness for a while.")
Memories of the formal come back to him like a storm and he lets out a heavy breath.
"Please believe me that I couldn't tell you, both of you" he adds, looking up to Amy who's staring, confused, at their fight, a hand over her mouth. "because I hate seeing the ones I care about fall because of me. Hell, it was my freaking fault Danny got locked up for twenty four hours. He wouldn't even speak to me the few months after it. It just sounded... easier to be on my own for this one."
Amy suddenly positionates herself hover Todd and stares at him right in the eye, and for a second, he has never looked so scared in his life. She shoves a finger into his chest at every of her sentences. "You don't get to chose to be alone, sweetie. That's not a choice to make. That kills a man. You don't get to be alone, ever, as of now." She straightens, her hard stare scrutinizing his green one. "You got me?"
He swallows and nods, defeated.
"I didn't hear you." Amy adds.
"I get you." he replies weakily.
"Good." she says almost joyfully as she pats the brown mass on his head. She then turns her heels and plops down on his bed. "I get it, he used to think he was above the laws and that was bad. Now can someone explain to me what is so evil in coding?"
Charlie and Todd continue to throw daggers at each others with the power of their eyes (the girl confesses that she is way more involved in this activity than the boy).
"He's on drugs." she snarls.
"What?!" both exclaim.
Charlie breaks the stare-fight by rolling her eyes. "I didn't mean it like that. Todd's dependant to his laptop."
"I'm still in the room." he points out.
"You're still dependant to your laptop." she corrects.
He crosses his arms. "Fine. Maybe I am. But what can you change? Besides, it's just a laptop."
"Don't play dumb with me." Charlie says softly. "It's what hides inside it that worries me."
"I told you!" he gasps out. "I'm not hurting anyone!"
"Todd." Amy blurts out. "You were used to hack institutions but what are you hacking now?"
He looks up at the ceiling. "I'm not hacking anything – okay, I tried with the Beacon Hill's bank before it closed its doors, but that was once and I was done with my math homework."
"You hacked the bank." she echoes, dumbstruck.
"Once." he repeats as if it makes a difference. "Nothing happened!"
Charlie presses her thumbs against her eyelids. She sees fireworks but no salvation for him.
"Okay." she whispers, before clearing her throat. "Okay." she repeats louder. "I just hope you're not the reason the bank closed." She looks up to meet Todd's frozen stare. "Please tell me you're not the reason the bank closed!"
He shakes himself like a wet dog. "Oh, no. They were stealing from their clients anyway, misappropriated money. I just anonymously revealed this information to the cops who went on site to check if I was right and I was, is all."
Amy and Charlie glance at each other before both explode in very different ways.
"You did what?!"
"It's amazing, you're a bloody vigilante!"
Todd, of course, only memorizes Amy's words.
"I only did this once." he smiles, before frowning. "No, hold on, I also warned the local animal services when I saw Mr Johnson beat his wife's cat, but I didn't use my computer for that."
Charlie's suddenly torn between yelling at him and shake him like a tree until finally some sense comes back to him, or applaude for his bravery. Amy doesn't take the time to think too much, and almost jumps around the seat the boy's sit in in excitment. She only thinks about the good things, which can be sometimes bad. Optimism is blind.
"Cheer up, Charlie!" the redhead grins. "I want to see your shiny smile!"
Charlie drops herself once more on Todd's little chair. She rubs her hands over her face. This weekend wears her down. Lydia's accident, Lydia's disappearence, the possible discovery of a presumed killer, dead people, Todd drunk, Todd still coding... Amy being a complete daredevil... Charlie's a person who naturally needs more sleep than most and she feels like she could get insomnia from all that is happening, and it's most certainly not on her bucket list.
She scratches her eyebrow just because she needs to do something with her hands. "I don't like the idea that you picked up on your bad habits, Todd, and I'm not going to stand for you, you get me?"
He nods, once, and she knows he understands the consequences even though he prefers to leave them behind his back so he can't look at them. She understands, doesn't mean she tolerates.
"But he saved a woman's life, and people's money!" Amy cries out.
"Yes, but he also could have gone to jail for hacking into the city hall three years back!"
Amy huffs loudly. "He could have." she insists. "He is fine today!"
"I like following the rules, Amy." Charlie confesses. "I like it because it makes me feel comfortable and safe. The last thing I want to happen to you is for you not to be safe any longer because you broke the rules."
Amy's eyes do that horrible inflation thingy, like exactly every time she's crushed. It makes Charlie's stomach flutter, and it's really not what she needs right now.
"We are safe, Charlie." she replies softly, taking a step forward to her best friend with a little smile. "We're never going to stop being safe! Just because there's been a few murders during the schoolyear doesn't mean we should all barricade inside our houses. And I'm sure Todd can hack into the police station and come out of it unharmed. He's a little genius!"
Charlie can argue to that, but Todd seems pleased by Amy's compliment so she lets it go.
On an other thought...
Maybe he is a genius. But then only in hacking. His grades are fine, not excellent but certainly higher than McCall's, so he doesn't have to worry about them. Sometimes he says incredibly dumb things and she almost facepalms, but an other second she finds him bragging about a specific video game he completed the night before or a new program he downloaded (quite illegally as well). He and Amy are keen on playing zombie games until late, even during school nights, while Charlie has to call them via Skype to tell them to quit their crap and go to bed.
God, she feels like a mother.
A very exhausted mother.
Amy's leaned on the desk and bores her eyes into the screen, and Charlie awakes from her thoughts just as Todd lets out a victory screech.
"Found it!"
Amy high-fives him with a beam.
He quickly searches for the keywords so it's easier to find the article, and starts reading aloud.
" 'Lydia Lorraine Martin, five foot three, green eyes, strawberry blonde hair, disappeared last night from the hospital after the nurse Melissa McCall and her father Jeff Martin hear her scream. She was last seen by her father as she went to take a shower, and seemed to have flown out the window and vanished into the woods nearby. The girl might be found with no clothes on. Temperatures will be dropping the night, approaching under 40 degrees.' Holy frick, she's going to go hypothermic!" he cries out, eyes widening.
"Does it say why she disappeared?" Amy asks eagerly. "Abduction?"
"No..." he replies, scrolling down. "They don't seem to know. Maybe she panicked?"
"Maybe she had a fugue state." Charlie suggests. "It happens sometimes when you went through a traumatic experience."
"Thank you, Miss Know-It-All."
She rolls her eyes. "I just read."
Amy turns away from the computer and starts biting her carefully black-painted nails. "It's horrible." she murmurs, on the verge of crying. "I can't imagine what she might be going through... roaming the woods naked? Can you imagine yourself in her body? She must be terrified, and freezing to death..."
"I can't imagine that." Charlie says quietly, trying not to think about a very naked and panicked Lydia.
"So Lara was right about this thing." Todd says, soothing Amy by skiming her shoulder. He turns back to the screen and searches for other keywords. "She also didn't lie about Allison's aunt."
"So she really is a psychopath?" Amy shouts almost too excitedly, forgetting the Queen in the woods.
He nods. "Apparently they're going to tell the news by Monday just like we thought they would, so it's not official, but yeah... All the proofs are there: she set the Hale house on fire, burning alive everyone in it... except the uncle who's been lethargic during six years... and Derek Hale."
"Wasn't he in custody at the beginning of the year?"
"Yeah, the police accused him of killing his own sister, who wasn't there during Kate Argent's psycopathy phase... but apparently this murder was also caused by Kate. Wow. She really had a grudge against this family."
"Why this family in particular?" Charlie asks.
He shrugs. "No idea. They seemed nice. Remember when we were kids? I forced you to go to the skate park near the old gym with me, and Cora Hale was there."
Charlie snaps her fingers. "Yes! I remember, her older brother was trying to make her learn how to skate. He was good at it. You were so jealous, it was hilarious."
Todd winces and Amy eyes him with curiosity. "What happened?" she asks.
He sighs and opens his mouth but Charlie beats him to it.
"He bet he could kick his ass at basketball!" she laughs. "But he had no idea the Hale kid was actually in the Beacon High team... he took a trashing! What was his name..."
"It was Derek." Todd admits, defeated. "And I was eleven. I wanted to impress you, you were my first middle school friend and you outsmarted me in almost every class, I had to do something!"
Charlie tilts her head to the side, the past betrayal fading away. "Ooh." she smiles sweetly. "It's so cute."
Todd desperatly looks at Amy who does her best not to burst out; it would be severely inappropriate since Lydia Martin is currently running into the woods, butt naked, and Allison Argent just lost her aunt.
"I have a feeling Monday is going to be really turbulent." she says like a promise.