Dear Universe, Up Yours!

Chapter 23

Gerard and I both nodded suspiciously at her and turned back to the books, pretending to browse.

"We could just go to the alley," I said quietly, enough for the employee to not hear me, but subtly realizing that I have given in. "It'll be really quick, we'll run out and go find a boat or something and we'll get away,"

"Okay," Gerard says, sliding a book out of the shelf, which was some George Orwell book.

I heard the clattering of high heels in succession and I turned my head to see the woman come towards the entrance and grabbed her keys, apparently locking the door from the inside, and then she turned the sign that hung on the window the other way so that it read "open" from the inside.

She made her way back to the counter and then grabbed the telephone.

I started to pat Gerard's arm to get his attention as he was looking through the pages of the book he held. He finally turned around and saw the woman with the telephone by her ear.

"The ones on the news, the kids," I froze as she spoke softly into the phone. "Yes, the murder at the motel." Well, at least I knew that the previous phone call really was a pre-order.

Suddenly, Gerard dropped the book and rushed over to the woman as quickly as he could and grabbed the telephone from her hands, putting it by his ear and mouth.

"I did it!" he exclaimed in the phone, slightly stammering. "I did it, I did the murder, but they didn't do anything-(Y/n) didn't do anything, it was all me!"

I think I really love him.

But he can be so fucking stupid sometimes.

"Gerard, what the fuck!" I yelled, rushing toward his side. The woman grabbed the telephone from Gerard's grasp and slammed it down onto the machine. "You fucking idiot, why would you say that!"

"Hey, hey!" The woman interrupted before Gerard could say anything to respond. "Let's all just calm down, alright?" She looked at us, but with actual, genuine sympathy. "I know you two are just kids, and you seem very harmless. There must have been a mistake. The police will have it all figured out, okay?"

There's no way we could trust the police, and mainly anyone at all. I was also surprised by her reaction. If she knows that we just murdered somebody, why isn't she worried about being a potential victim to us?

Gerard and I rushed over to the door in attempt to escape, trying to open it. She locked it from the inside. Then, we rushed to the back of the store, actually finding a backdoor, finding out that she had lied, but it was locked as well.

We went back to the woman and she said, "Look, I'm sure there has been a misunderstanding. You two are Gerard and (Y/n), right?"

Gerard and I nodded silently. If she was aware of who we are and what we did, I thought she should know our side of the story. Maybe she'll let us escape.

"It was me," I said, and it almost came out as a whisper. I looked at her, and then at Gerard, and then finally back to the woman. "The man, he... he killed or hurt someone and he had a gun. He lied about something and then he threatened Gerard and then... I... I stabbed him.

"But Gerard didn't do anything, okay? Please don't let anything happen to him. He did nothing, nothing at all, he just said that in the phone to protect me. If you're gonna tell the cops something, tell them Gerard didn't do anything because he didn't. And he just said that into the phone to protect me, which was a stupid idea!"

"Look, you can explain it to the cops, they'll figure it out," she says.

"You're not listening to me!" It came out to be a louder yell than I expected. I felt panicked because we were stuck here and the cops could come any second. I felt blind to my surroundings because the only thing I could see now is the woman and the bookshelves behind her. "He and I ran away from home, got to that motel, and then he appeared and-"