❝Look at that sea, girls--all silver and shadow and vision of things not seen. We couldn't enjoy its loveliness any more if we had millions of dollars and ropes of diamonds.❞

20 || million thousand droople billion dollars

time || past midnight

The lack of strength I feel when I wake up is beyond me.

Then there's the smell of cleanliness that occupies my nostrils as if I've dipped my nose in a tub of disinfectant.

My eyes come in contact with white, and it causes me to squint my eyes.

I'm clearly in a hospital, but I'm laying on a bed clad in the same clothes I was in yesterday. I'm not hooked up to a machine that's measuring my pulse and blood levels. I'm just in one of the out patient rooms.

Beside me in another bed, I see a girl dressed in a red sparkly dress wearing a lot of make up with her blond hair moused up (reminding me of a beauty pageant queen). She's gawking at what looks to be her bandaged up finger. What happened to her? She's deeply enthralled at her injured finger, that I doubt she even notices me staring at her.

I slowly sit up.

What the hell happened to me? Everything on my body remains intact and I don't feel any pain in my anatomy. What if I was just kidnapped and brought here as some sort of test Monkey? That thought alone makes me quickly get up from the bed.

The curtains around me are closed but I'm able to hear voices outside.

I listen closely.

"You haven't been looking after her, Iain!"

"I've been looking after her more than you can say!"

I look through the little opening in the curtains.

Mom and Dad are arguing, though they're not making a scene—thank God!—it still irks me that Mom's here. I haven't forgiven her for leaving and I don't think I ever will. But seeing Dad, makes me angry, too. Yes, he's my dad but it isn't as if he was worried about me when I'd left the house.

Dad's dressed in one of his business suits and Mom is in the same outfit she was wearing at the wedding. Them arguing gives me the urge to sneak out of here unnoticed.

I need to find Brolin... to see if he's okay.

I don't remember much of what happened before I'd ended up here. I know that it'd been night and I was at a protest and Brolin was saying something about us needing to leave. However everything else after that is blank.

Taking a quick glance at my parents I try to slowly ease myself out the curtains but in typical Karen fashion, I end up ramming my foot against the leg of the curtain making a noise. "Fuck," I mumble.

"Karen you're up," Mom comes over and hugs me. I don't hug her back. My foot's now throbbing and this woman who chooses this time to be my mother is making me queasy.

I need to leave this place.

Mom let's go of me but I don't miss the fallen look she gives me as she sees I'm not going to return her affections.

"Karen?" Dad watches me, but I walk pass him, I'm not going to explain to the both of them where I'm going. When they both hadn't cared in the first place.

"Karen, where are you going?" Dad follows me, his steps falling fast behind me. But I end up jogging towards one of the open elevators right before it shuts. When I make it inside, I hold my breath all the way down. Come on, come on, come on... everything seems suspenseful now that I ran away from my parents.

I'm running away again, though the reason is better this time.

To find Brolin.

It's early in the morning as the sky is close to dawn. There are a few people on the sidewalks as I pass through the streets.

I figure Brolin got arrested, and I feel guilty as joining the protest was my idea.

But it wasn't as if he'd told me not to go. He just followed after me and held my hand. That's all.

I head to the police station.

:: :: ::

"He was let go hours ago," the police officer explains to me.

At least he confirmed to me that Brolin had been in jail, but where was he now if he was let go? I press my fingers on both sides of my temples. I can feel a headache coming on.

"Did he say where he was going?" I ask the officer next.

He looks at me skeptically before saying, "No ma'am, and even if I did. It's not my job to give that to you. A man who said to be his cousin picked him up."

Fern.

Fern must've picked him up.

I grin. "Thank you!"

I don't miss the weird look the officer throws my way, but I don't care. By the time I make it to the mall, it'd be open and I could approach Fern at the arcade.

:: :: ::

Dang it.

Why did I have to arrive an hour early? The mall is still closed and I won't have access to it for another hour.

I sit on a bench with my hand under my chin.

I can't just not know where Brolin had went. Not when he didn't say goodbye, not when I didn't know what status are relationship stood on. I'd be too hopeful if I told you that I expected us to be boyfriend and girlfriend. That was impossible. He's four years older than me and I still haven't graduated high school.

I sigh.

"Karen?"

I look up at the person who said my name.

It's Fern who's holding a cup of Coffee from Laney's.

At the sight of him, I stand up and give him a hug. I almost kiss him on the cheeks, but remember that I'm not in France and I don't know him like that.

"What are you doing here—"

"Where's Brolin?!" I blurt out.

I cover my mouth.

He doesn't look surprised by my outburst. He smiles knowingly, and nods his head towards the side door of the mall. "Uh, why won't you come with me and I'll tell you."

:: :: ::

:: :: ::

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