"Who's that?" Clara asked in Russian, waving her hand toward Troy. He had already lowered his rifle and was looking at us in silence.
"It's a friend. Don't worry."
"Why the hell does your friend want to shoot me then!"
"Clara, no one wanted to shoot you! He didn't even shoot, unlike you! Why are you here? Why did you leave?"
"I needed to see if Michael was here. And to be alone."
"Great! And you left me even though you knew it could be dangerous!"
"I'm sorry, but I'm not your child to listen to you forever," my sister raised her voice.
Before I could respond, Troy intervened:
"I don't understand anything about your dialog, but I'm Troy. And you are Clara?" He held out his palm to her as a greeting. She nodded and shook his hand without enthusiasm.
"So, did you find Michael?"
"No, as you can see. But you did find someone. Why don't you tell me where he came from?" Clara was still speaking in her native tongue. Troy realized he didn't belong here and left the house.
"I found it when you left me, Clara. I also found a ranch that belongs to his family. It is located just outside of San Diego. All our men are already there. You must come back with me!"
"No, I have to find Michael."
"It's dangerous to stay in the city, and it doesn't look like Michael could be here!"
Clara thought for a moment. After a few moments of silence, she said:
"All right, I must see my parents. But I won't give up the search. And by the way, what's your deal with him?" She pointed her head in Troy's direction.
"Even if there is something between us, so what?"
"Yes, my dear, to find a replacement for Aron so quickly..."
"Clara, I wasn't looking for anyone to replace him, cut the crap."
She just waved her hand and walked outside. I followed her.
A light wind rippled the grass. The sun bathed the asphalt in its rays. I got behind the wheel. Troy reached for the passenger seat door, but Clara overtook him, opened it, climbed in, and finally said in English:
"You're in the back, friend," she emphasized the last word somehow.
Troy raised an eyebrow and wanted to say something back, but then just shook his head and jumped into the back seat. I turned back to him, but he maintained an indifferent look.
On the way out, my sister told me that she had gone around to all the places she and Michael had been in LA, but couldn't find him anywhere. Then she told me about seeing Chris and Andy's company. I didn't bother to tell her about what I did to one of the men. In fact, I hadn't thought about them at all until she reminded me. We were driving down a deserted highway. Everything around us was dry and lifeless. Los Angeles was behind us. With each new kilometer behind me, I was getting calmer and calmer.
"Should I drive?" Troy asked me after a little over an hour of driving, slightly interrupting our conversation with Clara. She beat me to it:
"We're actually talking, haven't you noticed?".
I was already in complete shock at her behavior.
"Clara, what's wrong with you? Why are you acting like this with a man you don't even know?"
"Why do I have to be nice to him? I don't like him."
"Let him, but I remind you: he's the one who owns the place that's become our new home, okay?"
"In his repertoire."
"What are you talking about?"
Clara had already switched to English, so her next words made me not only disgusted but ashamed.
"You always choose richer and more powerful men to get the biggest piece of everything you can! And yet you don't have to do a damn thing yourself!"
"Well, don't be jealous, who's fault is it that they don't fall in love with you?", I tried to hold back and turn the incipient argument into a joke. But my manipulation failed, Clara continued:
"It was like that with Aron and everyone before him," she turned to Troy, "yeah yeah dude, look, do you think she feels something for you there? No, it's just that you have some status in these troubled times, and anyway..."
"Are you out of your mind?" I cut her fiery speech short.
"Are you?"
"I don't understand what you're trying to accomplish? Am I guilty of something?"
"Yes! For example, you dumped Aron as soon as he died and found a new fool! That's your fault!"
"How dare you!" I stopped the car.
"What did I say? Isn't that the truth? Aron died because of you! But you don't care, a year later you have a new 'friend' !"
I barely kept myself from hitting her.
"What does this have to do with Aron? I don't understand, Clara, what's wrong with you?" I was having a hard time keeping my composure. I was literally picking it up inside me piece by piece.
Suddenly she started crying. After a couple minutes of crying, she exhaled, wiped her face with the back of her palm, and turned to me.
"I'm sorry, I just feel bad. I miss Michael, but I don't know what's wrong with him! I can't live without information about him. And when I saw you with Troy. I was so angry... I suffering like an idiot, and you move on. I don't have the strength for it. If Michael is dead, I don't know what to do."
"Clara. I'm sorry, but don't think it's that simple for me."
"You've always had it easy! Don't be pompous! Sure, I've overreached in some places, but you want to know what your life looks like to me? One day, you graduate from university. One, and you're in Madrid working in some cool lab. One, and you're married to a successful, rich man. And even after the apocalypse, nothing has changed! One day, you have a new boyfriend, and what a boyfriend! And I'm looking for someone who dumped me and ran off somewhere as soon as the world started falling apart!"
I hugged my sister. It wasn't very comfortable since we were still sitting in the car, so the hug only lasted a few seconds. Afterward, Clara turned to Troy and said:
"Sorry for the abruptness, you didn't deserve it."
Troy smirked:
"I don't care about you, I didn't get it much at all, but you seemed to mean that Della likes rich daddies?" he playfully poked me in the shoulder, "so I'm not your type then?"
We laughed.
"You know, I actually need to get some sleep, I'm really tired, can I lie the rest of the way in the back?" asked Clara.
"Finally, or I thought I was going to have to throw you out of my seat by the scruff of your neck!" Troy said.
"Speaking of the seat, Troy, I thought you wanted to drive?" I was tired too and wanted to relax.
Clara fell asleep very quickly. Troy drove the car and we chatted. My sister couldn't hear us and was quietly drifting off to sleep in the realm of Morpheus.
We arrived back at the ranch quite late. I was anticipating that now Mom and Alisha were going to say in one voice that I'd done a shameless thing when I'd decided to leave without saying anything. And, indeed, as soon as I got out of the car, my mom pounced on me, but not with Alisha, but with Sr. Clark, who for some reason had decided that Alisha had left with me and Troy, as had Jake.
"Wait, wait, wait! They're not with us! We were looking for Clara!"
My family ran to the back door of the car. They were thrilled to find a fugitive.
Meanwhile, Madison frowned:
"But then where are Alisha and Jake?"
I was about to answer, but Troy came running up:
"Well, they're kind of having a thing... Maybe they decided to be alone. When did you find them missing?"
"I don't know, nobody's seen them since this morning, we've been looking for a couple hours."
"Well, there's no need to panic, Madison, as long as they're together, they're fine either way."
"Yeah, that's what I said too," Nick interjected and continued, shifting his gaze to me, "But you're the one I was really worried about. You left leaving a note! At least you should have said goodbye!"
"I wasn't alone either, so there was no need to worry."
Nick raised his eyebrows:
"If you mean Troy, having him around is more of a minus than a plus," the three of us were standing, just me, Nick, and Troy, "it's safer to be alone than with a psycho."
Troy gave him a sizzling look. They seemed to be on pretty good terms already, but Nick was always sober about people. Even friends.
"Nick, he killed when necessary, just like almost everyone else here!"
"Really, wow, is that what you told her, Troy?"
I frowned, and Clark continued:
"You know, you didn't catch my girlfriend, Luciana, here. She couldn't stand being around him and decided to take off. He wanted to kill her too, do you think he did it for what?"
Nick was ready to say it all, but Troy intervened:
"I thought you and I had it all figured out? Didn't we?"
Nick hesitated, then waved his hand and walked away. Troy gave him an aggressive look.
I wanted to ask what Nick meant, but I realized it was useless to ask Troy. And I didn't have the energy anymore. While my family rejoiced at the happy reunion, I decided to go inside and take a shower.