FicWad

21st July 2018

'Sophie, get up,' I opened the door to her room, entering without permission.

'Go away Lottie,' I heard her mumble into her pillow. I walked over to the curtains covering the window. Responsible for the lack of lighting in the room.

'No. We need to talk,' I opened up the curtains. A Central California sun filled the room. I squinted a little as my eyes adjusted to the scorching sun. Fuck, it got really hot here in the summer. Already, I was only dressed in shorts and an oversized Fall Out Boy t-shirt. In my five years of living with Sophie, I had never gotten used to Sacramento's weather.

'What, who's dead? Is it me? If I am then don't try and get me back with all that fucking Ouija board, voodoo shit.' she had now gone from mumbling into her pillow to stretching like a cat when it awakes in the morning.

'No, you're not dead. Fortunately for me. You're still here.' I walked back to her bed and sat cross legged on the end. She turned over onto her back and sat up.

'Then what's wrong, hun?' I smiled when she called me hun but then went back to being serious.

I mean it wasn't everyday you had to tell your best friend that there was a guy out in the streets of California who wanted to take over LA. The USA. And eventually the world...

And that guy had killed her best friend last night. My ex boyfriend.

Well, shit..

Here goes nothing... I thought as I held out my hands, she took them and we held hands over the covers. About two feet from each other.

'Now hunny, it's all going to be okay. You know that right? Everything's gunna be okay eventually. But last night, a very strange and evil man started a riot. It was...' Her mouth was open and I could see the look of shock and confusion on her face. My throat went suddenly dry and I started crying. This was going to push one of us over the edge if we argued after this.

'What is it Lottie?' her voice a mere whisper. I had to tell her, why did I have to tell her? I stared blankly and choked out the words.

'Tommy's dead. Sophie.' I broke down, I didn't like Tom as much as I had when we were in England. We broke up after a few weeks of 'going out'. Nothing ever really happened. And we were just acquaintances afterwards. But I had feelings for him in the past. And when I woke up on the couch to find his face grinning at me through a TV screen. I couldn't help but feel guilty for every single thing I'd said to him since we broke up.

Sophie wasn't even crying, she just looked at me with the same confused look she gave me before I told her. Except for the new presence of pain. Fear, and pain. She'd only just gotten over Faye moving to Canada for university. Leaving the three of us to fend for ourselves. She was like the mother to us. Always there to clean up our wounds and apply pressure when needed.

And now this, I wiped the tears from my eyes and breathed heavily before trying to speak again.

'Sophie, it's going to be okay. You want to leave Cali? We'll leave right now. You wanna go back to England? That's fine. I'll buy plane tickets right now. Whatever you want to do, I'll sort it out. Just tell me.' She buried her head in her hands. I felt strange on the other side of the bed. It was almost like there was a million miles between us. I shuffled over so I could sit beside her and comfort her. Or at least try.

When it came to things like this, it was literally impossible to get anything out of her. She could go for days, living in silence.

'Sophie, bunny. You gotta say something.' I put on hand on her back, literally being clueless as to what to do or say.

'Who was this guy?' she looked at me with heart broken eyes. I was a little confused, she interrupted my questioning 'The man that killed Tommy?'

I sighed, I didn't want to tell her, but I went ahead anyways, 'Bunny, this man, his name is Korse. No one knows his full name, he's the head of that big corporation Better Living? I don't know what he's trying to do. But it ain't pretty. Tommy wasn't the only one to go. This man, he killed everyone who tried to step in and stop the riot.'

'So Tommy was trying to help out?' she asked me, quietly. Her voice unsteady and her whole body shook.

'Mmhmm, yes he was. So we've gotta be proud of that, okay? He died for us, for Cali.' I smiled, proud that I knew such a great guy.

'Okay, what do we do?' she asked, I heard the genuine fear in her voice. I didn't know. Honestly, I didn't know at all.

'We stick this out. We're going to have to stay together. We go with Korse or against him,' my voice suddenly shook. I didn't want to be part of this shit. I wanted to run away. But nothing was going to get better if I ran, 'and I think for now. We should just obey.'

'O-okay...'she sobbed and I hugged her without thinking. I hated seeing her crying, we were going to be okay. I knew we were. We always were. With all the shit we'd been through. We'd be okay. I held her tight, just breathing. Not saying a word. Until she spoke again.

'What about me? Will I have to be Ollie again?'

'I don't know.' I said, very truthfully. I just didn't fucking know. I didn't know whether Korse like trans girls... would he be okay about chicks with dicks?

'I don't wanna be him. I'm Sophie. If I go back to him I'll be me in 2012 again. I'll want to die. I don't wanna do that Lottie. Not to me. Or you. I can't. I just can't. I put us all through hell.' she turned to me and buried her head in my shoulder.

'Shhh bunny, it's okay. It'll be okay. I promise. Shhh.' I rested my head over hers and stroked her hair. I'm sorry I'm so useless... I don't know what to do.

'No... No it won't.' she sobbed.

'Listen, You can be Sophie as long as you can. If they try and stop us from being ourselves. We'll run, okay?' we'd talked about running before. That's how we got to Cali. We ran. She was twenty and I was seventeen, not caring about my future. We saved up, bought tickets and disappeared on the first of September. My parent's probably think I'm dead.

'Run where?' she questioned. Mumbling into my shoulder.

'Nevada.' I answered without hesitation.

'N-Nevada? Like... the desert?'

'Yeh, if it get's that bad. We run. As far into the desert as we can.'

'Are you serious?' I couldn't believe she was doubting me.

'You can run away with me anytime you want. You know that.'