PAST JESSICA : N/A

HOUR -3 : 1:00, MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2122

RICHMOND 5 : BAR 1 : CHARLIE

Opening the driver-side door, I finally got out of the mobile pollution machine right where I’d badly parked it in front of the downtown FBI office. Well, technically, it was in front of a billboard, in front of the office.

The billboard seemed to want estate-planning to feel sexy. Spread out before me was a slightly blurred picture of two giant thirty-somethings pillow fighting in vaguely business-casual pink pajamas. Feathers flying everywhere, they were concentrated in a diagonal line slashed with darker pink text saying ‘Nothing turns on the ladies like a reserved urn’. Underneath it all was a blue background with ‘(287)425-7924’ in white letters overlayed on top of ‘(BUR)IAL-SWAG’ in red.

Below the larger, weirder one, there was a smaller, far newer LED billboard showing how to download the facebook to pay for street parking.

Nah… It was only a few hundred dollars per hour on the eventual ticket if you didn’t pay. And it wasn’t like I didn’t want the FBI to find their car. If it really was theirs… Which I was pretty sure by now that it wasn’t. Hopefully, this would all end with Mikey detained by the real FBI while James and I got the fuck out of the country. And if I was wrong, I’d just landed myself a grand theft auto charge. Actually, that was true either way, huh?

My stomach tightened.

Holy shit. I was wanted now, wasn’t I? Maybe not actively yet… But I was literally on the run right now. Wait a fucking second… Was that cool?

I licked my lips. “I’m on the Ruuun…” Holy shit. I think I’m officially cool! Oh yeah… Also… “FuckFuckFuckFuckFuckFuc-” I was in such serious shiiit…

For the love of god, get it TOGETHER!!! Okay. Okay, just… Just one thing at a time.

First things first…

Taking out my phone, I closed all the facebooks I’d used less recently than the spider toy’s controller. I’d been using a feature that blocked certain ones for 30 minutes after you used them. It was the only way to stop myself from checking to see whether my lives or whatever had recharged every minute for the next half hour after I played a game. But in this case, I was just making sure I could launch a spider blind again.

Second things… Second?

I requested a Rydeshare. I used my own account and credit card for this. Unfortunately, I only had one card. It wouldn’t get charged with the prepayment James arranged for today, but I still had to put in a valid card and doxx myself or the facebook wouldn’t even let me see the menu I needed. I would’ve loved a backup way to pay for things all sneaky-like. But good luck convincing James. God knew I’d had none. Hopefully the ‘FBI’ guys didn’t actually have the ability to track me that way.

Except… Peters had known exactly where I was sitting in class… Which meant… “Fuck!”

Okay, third things third, then.

I went into Settings and flipped on the phone’s VPN switch. God damn it, that should’ve been first, not third. Operation Perv Escape went off without a hitch and then I went and let Rydeshare basically tell them where I was going? Well, no helping it now.

Because fourth things fourth…

I still needed to actually go there. Maybe throwing Mikey off my trail wasn’t worth the risk of him arriving first. But if I beat him to the pier, I could hide where he’d never find me. That was even the literal plan right from the start.

Less than a minute of muttering under my breath while walking briskly uphill to my pickup point later, and I was already exhausted. And sweating. And even then, I just barely made it up the hill by the time my car arrived.

Exactly as planned… Ish. I hadn’t counted on being quite that out of shape. But it wasn’t like I was gonna just patiently wait outside the building filled with people who would rush to snatch me up from off their doorstep if they knew I was there.

I opened the Rydeshare door very specifically opposite of where I was sitting in that last car, and climbed into the front-right seat.

“Good afternoon, Jessica.” The disembodied voice came from the empty driver’s seat next to me. “As you may already know, I’m Peter.”

My stomach clenched again at the reminder of that other driver I just ditched. Outwardly, I didn’t respond.

“Going to the marina, are we?”

“Yep.” I put as distracted of an undertone as I could into that solitary syllable.

The car started moving. Which was good.

Unfortunately, that was also when the man started talking. “So. How’s your day been going?”

Aaand I was apparently unsuccessful. Why did these companies do this? The car was driving itself, so I was basically just on an obligatory audio chat session with customer service.

I’d really rather not talk to anyone almost any of the time. But especially not when I’m sweating. And especially not today. “Sorry man, not very well. I have a lot going on right now. But if I can get to the pier and finish planning the rest out by the time I get there, it’ll all be okay.” That was as honest as I was willing to get with this particular corporation.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

Hopefully he’d take the hint and abandon the idea of this ride involving a conversation.

I just needed to run through my plan again, and-

“Oh. I’m sorry. That sounds rough. Maybe I can help you plan?”

Son of a bitch… And he was even being sweet about it. Sounded genuine and everything. Which was nice and all, but it also meant anything else I said to stop this, could only make me sound like more of a dick. And I really did need to get my plan straight.

Alright, fuck it.

Relaxing a bit, I let my filters lower enough to show how I truly felt. How worried I obviously was. How tired. How… So, so tired. Okay, maybe I was overdoing it a bit. Peter had a video feed in his cubicle or wherever he was watching me, right? “My brother’s in a lot of trouble. If we don’t get some cash in time, we can’t buy his meds.”

Suddenly evoking the feeling of profound regret of the conversation topic, Peter gradually winced out a reply. “What kind of meds?”

So I told him. As I talked, my story got darker and darker.

Most people would’ve cut out by now. Damn it, why’d Peter have to be good at his job?

“So I need to get down to the docks to do s-” I tried for a believable sniffle. “Some…” The next word came out almost too soft to hear. “Work…”

Peter was silent for a moment after that. “Wow, that’s… Wow. I’m sorry you’re having such a rough time of it.” But then, miracle of miracles, he seemed to have run out of words. The rest of the ride was probably pretty awkward for him.

I was actually sorry for that. Nor could I blame him for responding the way that he did. I was counting on it, in fact. These days, nobody had his job if they also had enough money to throw at a random charity case and still get by. Not to mention the fact that Rydeshare would fire him the instant he started handing out cash to customers. I’d never been great at predicting human behavior. But I’d read the news. A couple articles. Skimmed them… Point is, I really hadn’t given the guy a choice.

After a mostly silent ride, I thanked a still-silent Peter, got out, and finally reached my mom’s friend’s bar facing the dock. I tipped him 100%. With how fucked up I made that story, I figured he’d earned it.

“Hi friend, how’s-Hey! No kids allowed in here. Sorry, but I really do gotta to be firm on that.” The only person in the place looked a bit closer at me from behind the bar. Stopping halfway into pouring something brown into a glass, she just stared at me like I was an alien. “Jessie? Is that really little Jessie?”

Oh god, that nickname… I felt like I was seven again. Sure, it was twin to the one I still called James. He hadn’t called me mine in so long… I’d nearly forgotten. “Y…yeah?”

Charlie waved her other hand over my frame. “And you’re so tall now!” She held her pinky halfway to her thumb. “I remember when you were this big. You must’ve grown at least…” She seemed to do some calculations in her head. “Seven feet since the… Since I saw you last.”

Well, that wasn’t exactly stealthy now, was it. I could see she was still avoiding any mention of a funeral…

Freezing in place, the redhead dropped the bottle entirely. “Oh my god…” She started trepidatiously walking from behind the bar. “You’re too early. Way, way too early. School isn’t even out yet, is it? Are you alright? What happened? Were you followed?”

“Hi Charlie… And no. I mean I don’t think so. I mean…” Nope. I had nothing. I’d just spent the last hour improvising my way out of maybe-FBI custody, and then improvising a worse day than I was already having. Apparently, two was my limit. Standing here, in the bar, in front of the closest thing to an aunt I’d ever known… What was I even supposed to say?

James and Charlie had planned out this whole day. Together. Without me. Despite my protests, I was just supposed to go to school and head here right after to meet back up. End of my involvement. But with everything else going on, I’d neglected to consider the inevitability of having to actually talk to her for the first time since elementary school. For the entire time I’d been a teenager… She’d stayed away. Even though she was here the whole time.

After a long internal battle, my mouth finally started doing words. “There’s nothing t-” But no. I couldn’t keep bluffing my way through this. Partially because of how badly I was failing at it. But mostly because this was Charlie. And suddenly, I remembered. I could always tell her anything. I knew that even now. Except for the part about the explosives. I distinctly remembered she liked to confiscate things that I was too young to have.

But otherwise, I didn’t leave anything out as I spilled the whole tea set.

Charlie’s eyes blurred into focus at a name. “‘Mikey’? Oh my god… Your brother mentioned that name a lot. How’d you get away?”

“There was a guy shooting a gun in the parking lot, and Mikey went out to deal with him.”

“And then?”

I blushed just like how I always used to. “I kinda maybe stole their car.”

“Oh dear lord in heaven.” She rubbed her temples for a moment before blowing out a resigned sigh. “Alright… Where’d you leave it?”

“In front of the FBI building downtown…”

Otherwise keeping her severe expression, Charlie chuckled. Then she guffawed. Then she burst into laughter. “Holy Shit! You got some balls kid. I was afraid you just drove it straight here. Well, then… Good-ass job, little lady.”

“Now you just hide out in the basement till your brother gets back.”

Oh good, maybe now I could finally get some sleep… No, wait. Problems didn’t go away just because you slept through them. “Actually, can I maybe hang out on the roof? At least then, I can keep an eye out for the boat. If nothing else, it’ll keep me from going stir-crazy.”

Charlie met my eyes. “Are you plannin’ to throw shit on my potential customer’s heads?”

I flinched back. How did she know? I probably wouldn’t have actually done it. But I mean, she did just catch me fantasizing… “N-nooo?”

“’Kay then.” Charlie tossed me a key. “All ya ever had to do was ask, kid.” She practically slumped into a bar stool. Where did that come from? Hadn’t she been all chipper just like a second ago? “Look, I’m real sorry for never visitin’.” Oh. “I just miss yer mom so goddamned much.” After a moment, she scooted over to a closer stool.

Before I knew it, Charlie was already hugging me. Tight.

I didn’t resist. I was trying too hard not to break down in tears while automatically hugging her back with all my strength.

“Lookie here, Jessie. If you EVER need ANYTHING from me, you just come runnin’. An’ you go on and tell your brother the same, alright?”

Eventually, Charlie broke the hug to look me in the eye again. After an extended session of whatever that was about, she went right back to chipper, quick and easy as flipping a switch. “Just don’t make a lot of noise or throw shit like I said.” She seemed to consider something for a second. “In fact, how ’bout you stay at least… How tall are you..? Maybe five? Yeah, five feet back from the edge of the building. Besides the staircase, I mean. Deal?”

Still fighting to maintain composure, I nodded as I croaked out a broken whisper. “Deal.”

Without another word, I shuffled my way over and up those very stairs in the back of the kitchen. It was hard to see for some reason. I couldn’t have told you why. It wasn’t like I needed that hug or anything. “Shit like that only happens in bad writing…” Taking out my phone, I looked into the camera. “It only happens in bad writing.” I rotated it to landscape. “Only in-”