hold me really tight (until the stars look big) - I

Tate on Charahub (unfinished, but with pics)

Mica on Charahub (mostly finished)

Mica

She frowns. "Jael, honey, just... c'mon.' She drags the girl into the first store.

Jael

She laughs a bit. "I'm serious, though. I'll pay him back."
After a few days of isolation she has to get used to being amongst other people again. She's still nervous, afraid they'll recognize her.

Mica

He won't let you, she wants to say. He feels way too guilty to let you pay him back. But she doesn't. Instead, she pokes the girl in the ribs and says: 'No one's gonna recognise you, I promise.'

Jael

She smiles nervously. "I hope so," she blurts out, and then bites her lower lip. "I mean—I don't—" She doesn't want Mica to know about what happened at home, that night.

Mica

'Don't worry about it,' she says, smiling reassuringly. She picks out some clothes, shows them. 'So... what kind of shit is your style?'

Jael

She can't help but laugh. "I like comfortable clothes. Sweaters and simple jeans and shit like that." She smiles brightly. "I'm not a 'fancy dresses and cute skirts'-person." Then she spots a pair of jeans somewhere in the back and races away towards them after letting out an enthusiastic 'oh my god I need those'.

Mica

She smiles and follows, picking up some long-sleeved shirts and a few sweaters as she goes.

Jael

She picks three sizes, because she's never sure what size she'll fit. Along the way to the fitting rooms she takes a few more clothes she likes and then looks behind to find Mica.

Mica

Mica drops a bunch of dark coloured jeans and long sleeved things in Jael's arms and pushes her gently towards the "FITTING ROOMS" sign.

Jael

A few hours and almost twenty shops later she drops down on one of the soft couches in a cute lunch room. "I'm exhausted," she sighs. There's now eight bags full of jeans, shirts, sweaters, shoes, even some lingery. They spent a hell of a lot money.

Mica

'Same here,' she moans. She's only carrying one small bag, a present for herself that will both benefit her and Vinnie. He's always liked her in dark blue.
'So,' she then says, standing up, 'what do you want to drink? We kind of also need to eat something, really.'

Jael

She stretches, her muscles sore. "I want something coffee. I don't mind what kind. Oh," she sits up straight, "and you need to buy two of those chocolate pancakes because they are delicious."

Mica

'Alright. Coffee and chocolate pancakes. Watch the bags.'
Fortunately, the line is short. She gets two mocha lattes and five chocolate pancakes (because she can eat her weight in chocolate, okay) (also, maybe they can take one home and give it to Tate), and smiles as the girl behind the counter says she has pretty eyes.

Jael

Her eyes scan the lunch room and then she notices herself. A picture in one of the newspapers in the magazine rack. She remembers exactly when it's taken: last summer when they were in Europe. She'd begged her parents to let a friend come along with them, but they'd refused and despite Europe, it was the worst holiday ever.
Funny how they chose that picture. As if they want to remind her what kind of hell it is at home.
'I want to contact my parents,' she says bluntly as soon as Mica's back. 'I know Hale won't let me, so I need your help. In exchange for mine…?'

Mica

She smiles, relieved and something else. 'I was waiting until you'd bring it up,' she says, like it's nothing, like this isn't the girl her best friend took hostage, like this couldn't get him killed. 'I want to know something first, though.'

Jael

Here it comes…
'Alright,' she nods, already happy Mica wants to help her. She'll be stunned when she realizes what she's really planning.

Mica

'Why don't you want to go home? I mean—You want to get away, yes, but not home. I can't figure it out.'

Jael

She smiles a bit. "Home is hell," she simply says.

Mica

She smiles, understanding. 'Then why would you want to...' She doesn't finish the sentence, instead makes a non-committal gesture with her hand. She shoves a bit of the pancake in her mouth with the other.

Jael

"Well... I'd love to pick up some personal things. And tell them I won't be coming back home for a while. I don't want to let them think I'm dead or something, I'm not cruel like that." She takes a big bite of her pancake, studying Mica's reaction. She's not sure if either Mica or Tate would want her to go home, even if it only were to get some of her stuff.

Mica

She frowns, eyebrows knitted together in thought. 'We need to figure that out,' she says. 'Tate won't be happy about it, but if you pick up personal things and show you're alive, everyone will think you're just another runaway... It would be beneficial for everyone involved.' She absentmindly places her hand on her abdomen and smiles. 'We'll figure it out, darling.'

Jael

She shrugs. "I think it would be for the best if they stop looking for me. I'll be out of the news, you know." She makes a vague gesture towards the magazine rack.

Mica

Her eyes shoot towards the "MISSING" on the front page and she smiles, slightly. She walks up to it and takes it, putting it on the table to read the interview with Jael's mother.

Jael

She can't help but laugh a bit seeing a picture of her seemingly distressed parents. "So pretentious," she mumbles.

Mica

'Your mother seems really worried,' she points out, and she isn't sure if it's a sarcastic comment or not. 'Please bring back our girl, we just want her to be safe,' she reads out loud.

Jael

She takes a deep breath. "My turn for girl-to-girl talk," she decides. She takes the newspaper out of Mica's hands and scans over the text, then puts it down and folds her hands over the picture of her parents.

Mica

She raises an eyebrow. 'Alright, go for it.'

Jael

"My parents are dentists. Really rich and wealthy dentists. They want me to study Medicine so I can become a doctor." She shakes her head a bit. "I don't want that. I have money to spare, I want to live my life. I want to travel the world, to meet other people, I want to play my music and to party and dream and live." She breathes in. "They made me break up with my last boyfriend because he would've been a bad influence. When I refused, they took away my money and my guitar and my dog and said they'd shut me down completely if I didn't break up with him so I did. I miss him every single day because he was the one that managed to get my mind of my past boyfriends. He was my fucking therapy and they took that from me." She doesn't look at Mica at all. She's speaking to her hands. "The night Tate took me, I had a big fight with them. I threatened to run away and my father hit me and I ran outside to cool down."

Mica

Mica takes her hand, says, 'hey, it's alright', and thinks about how her mother made apple pies when she was younger, when Jeremy asked do you still love mom? after fights and her smiling and answering always, kiddo. She thinks about her father, saying we'll be okay after her first seizure, about Jeremy's sixth birthday party when he almost drowned in the pool, about her mother asking what she wanted to be when she grew up, princess, she said, no no an astronaut, or or a movie star. Flashes and memories keep going around and around and around and she tries to think about Jael, changes the memories to her mother saying you're becoming a doctor, to her father saying I don't want you seeing that guy instead of inviting Vinnie over for dinner, and she shudders. 'First things first, we're going to make you get your personal belongings. Is there any way you can sneak in, get stuff and leave a note to dim suspicions about you being dead or kidnapped?'

Jael

She wipes away her tears and nods. "Yes. I can sneak in easily. But I need my keys and Tate has them." Her parents are barely at home. It would be easy for her to get her stuff and leave a note.

Mica

Mica smiles. 'Alright then,' she says. 'Tate isn't going to like it, but he'll have to deal with it. It's the best thing.'

Jael

"I also want to take my dog... My parents don't like him and I'm afraid they'll bring him away when I leave." She bites her lower lip. "I'm not sure if Tate will like that, though."

Mica

She rolls her eyes. 'He'll be fine.'

Jael

She laughs a bit. "I hope so." She's relieved. "Thank you, though."

Mica

'No problem. We should get back though.' She wraps the leftover pancakes in the foil they came in and puts them in the paper bag.

Jael

She gathers the bags and puts back the newspaper with the article of her parents. "They were good, no?" She points at the pancakes that are now in the paper bag.

Mica

She nods. 'Yeah.'

Jael

She grins. "Let's go." She's a whole different Jael now she's apart from Tate. "I wonder how he'll react, though. There's really expensive clothing in those bags."

Mica rolls her eyes. 'Honey, if you see the presents he buys his family every year... This is nothing, compared to that.'

Jael

She laughs a bit. "He's really generous, then." She gives Mica two bags she can't carry on her own and starts toward the elevator to the parking lot.

Nina Cooper

Flynn Harvey

Kirsten Wilde

Emily Harvey

Mica smiles. 'Only if he cares.' She stalks towards her, skips, dances a bit. She feels free. Somehow, this Jael is different. Less... locked up, less fucked up. She laughs, out loud, just for the heck of it.

Jael

Only if he cares.
"Are you saying he cares for me?" She turns to her after pushing the basement-button and looks straight at her, a slight smile crossing her face.

Mica sighs. 'How many times do I have to spell it out for you? He trusts you. He cares. He doesn't show it, spoiler alert the boy's a dick, but he does care.'

Jael

'I'm sorry,' she says with a deep sigh. And then she freezes. 'Oh my god Mica, those people overthere are friends with my parents.' She starts to panic.

'Where?' Mica asks, looking around.

Jael

"Overthere, with those flyers." She grabs Mica's wrist and pulls her into the elevater, that arrived in the meantime. "I know I dyed my hair but they know me and they'll recognize me."

Mica pushes the CLOSE DOORS and the BASEMENT button at the same time and counts to five while holding them down. The button with the bell on it glows red and the doors close.

Jael

She sighs in relief and then looks at Mica. "I'm sorry. Did I hurt you somewhere?" She hadn't been quite gentle pulling her inside.

Mica smiles, does some weird wrist-movements and shakes her head. 'I'm all good.'

Jael

She laughs a little. "I'm probably just paranoid," she admits, playing with her blonde locks. Her eyes wander off a bit as she's lost in thoughts.