I still had the key to the house in Hollywood hanging on my dog key chain along with the rest of my keys. I never got rid of it in case of an emergency.
I couldn't stand staying in this town, not with all this commotion going on.
"Can you take me to Hollywood please?" I asked a taxi driver leaning into his window. The cab smelt of fast food and cheap cologne.
"Sure can miss, hop in."
I didn't tell anyone where I was going simply because I didn't want them to follow me. The last thing I needed was to hear the opinions of people who say what they think I should do. I truthfully didn't know at all.
After a couple moments of silence we reached the outskirts of town. "You have a strong accent miss, do you mind me asking where you are from?"
"Sweden." I answered him through the mirror. He looked at me strange however, I clearly had a mixed British and Swedish accent but I didn't bother telling him the details. He probably didn't care.
Sebastian slept in a child's seat bundled in many blankets to shield him from the cold rain that pounded outside.
"What brings you to Cali?"
"I am Alisha Crue? Surely if you listen to the radio you might have come by my name?"
"Oh yes, you were suing the WOD company."
I didn't answer. The last thing I wanted to talk about was that. I took the last glimpe of the gray ocean before we turned the corner heading in land.
"You sounds sad today, if it is about Kale Johnson then don't worry, that piece of scum will get what he deserves."
"How can you be so sure?" I asked him. He spoke as if he knew a thing or two about my situation.
"Cause I knew him. I am Jim...
Jim Johnson."
It took me a minute to connect the dots. "You are... brothers?"
"Were brothers..." He corrected me his finger waving in the air, I saw his jaw set in the reflection of the mirror as I it pained him to speak about it.
"My family was never well off and suddenly Kale moved away and began making money as soon as he started this buisness. He felt like he didn't owe anything back to the family or at least didn't want to help us get off the streets so he left us there."
I didn't really know how to respond. "I am sorry that happened." I managed to say.
"It's fine, we are all making out just fine now." Jim tried to smile over his hurt feelings, but honestly how good could be doing driving a taxi?
"No one deserves someone that greedy in your life, even though he had money it was probably better that you don't have to deal with him."
"Ain't that the truth!" Jim laughed and slapped his knee, he was still quite a scriffy guy dispite his efforts to recover from living off the streets. He had clearly needed a razor, haircut, and a new clean shirt. I was beginning to feel dirty as I sat in the back seat.
"This is the third time he has been sued in the past year, I am just glad those damages don't affect me anymore. So, just make sure you have proof of why you are suing him and consider yourself rich!"
Jim pulled the taxi up to the neighborhood and I guided him into the driveway of the house.
"Thanks Jim, how much do I owe ya?"
He pressed three buttons on his old square machine before it came out with a final price.
"Exactly 48 dollars."
I pulled out my wallet and handed him a hundred dollar bill. "Keep the change." I smiled at him and left the vehicle into the pouring rain. If I would have stayed out for more than five minutes I could have expected to be completely soaked.
I glanced back, Jim's face was filled with happiness to recieve the extra cash. He even waited until I was safe inside the house before pulling away.
Atleast it was dry in here, I thought to myself. I took Sebastian out of his carrier to lay him on the floor surrounded by toys.
The house looked the exact same way that I left it. Laundry baskets had still been filled with familiar articles of clothing, our beds still had not been made from the last time we slept in them, even the computer monitor in the hidden room was still on surrounded by all the crud that had not moved an inch since we were last here.
Kale must have forgotten to turn off the monitoring system after we all left the house. I could not pin point the reasons why but that is what it was.
I left the room and joined my child. He had of course not moved from the place I had set him down. His eyes wandered through the room filled with colourful artwork of all kinds.
"Kale, I know you are listening right now, or at least will hear this at some point. since you have been stalking my every move in this house. I just wanted to thank you for what you did for me over the years. You knew it was my dream as a young child of ten years old to become a professional dancer. Since my parents wouldn't let me move the USA to live under your protection, I moved to Sweden where I met my closest friends and the love of my life."
Sebastian laid in my arms listening to my voice.
"I even started my own family... You have called me back to WOD to dance with you which has still to this day has not happened yet, so I began to question your motives. But then I realized what I had that you really wanted... That was a family."
My eyes began to tear up as I looked at one of the 'hidden' cameras in the corner of the room.
"People only get one family, and thanks to you trying to screw mine up I gained the best family of all. You may take away my studio, my home, even my own mother away from me, but this is what you can never take away from me." I held up my child towards the camera.
"And Kale, Mr. Johnson sir.... May you fucking rot in hell."
I left the room without another word, even here at this house I didn't feel like I was alone. Something was still watching me somewhere. That was the flaw of Californa.
I finished packing up my bag and began heading for the door. Accept when it had opened I saw Oscar standing pulling out his keys.
"Hey, how did you know I was here?" I asked him.
"I had a hunch, and you weren't anywhere else so..."
I nodded.. I knew he had the results of the trial within that brain of his but I truthfully extremely scared to find out the verdict.
Oscar had pulled himself inside the house, By now the rain had stopped and the air just remained moist.
"Theres not much to do here I mean there are eyes on us no matter where we go." I flug my arms up hopelessly I had the same enthusiasm as a young child refusing to clean their room. Even though I made the mess I was not inclined to clean it up.
Oscar didnt respond to me however he just nodded and began looking through the CD's that were stacked on a shelf, probably to never be used again because no one ever used them.
"This is where you lived?"
"Yea, Kale bought us the house. Our rooms are upstairs." I pointed over near the front entrance where the staircase was. "And this is the kitchen, the computer room that Omar found....The television that told us you were dead."
There was a moment of silence.
"Well look who rose from the dead!" Oscar smiled at me daringly trying to make lighter of the subject. "Seriously lighten up! I bet you didn't know this but there are going to be fireworks in downtown Hollywood tonight and we have nothing to do until tomorrow so I think we can squeeze it into our oh so busy schedule." Oscar bit his lip trying to exadurate a cheer. I was still not impressed.
Oscar rolled his eyes still trying to smile and sat in front of the television. "Come here my love." His arms were held open along the back of the couch waiting for me. I sat down beside him to snuggle into the crook of his arm. "Lets see if there is anything on right now."
The television had opened onto the news, right where we left it last. I felt a heavy lump form in my throat and closed my eyes hoping not to be fed nighmarish thoughts. I could hear a man speak of the weather in the California area.
"You don't have to worry, my face isn't going to pop up on there or anything." Oscar teased me, but he had no idea how off it felt to be in this house, watching TV....with him here.
Of course as I was expecting there was a updated story about the WOD trial. You fail to impress me news man! I thought to myself.
"As you probably know there has been much contraversary with the World of Dance trial all over the country, many investers with stakeholders...."
"Bla Bla Bla... you guys actually watched the news? It is so boring!" Oscar wined.
"SHHHHH!" I slapped my hand over his mouth so I could hear.
" Kale Johnson and Isabelle Stuart have been pronoinced dead after arriving at the hospital from a major car crash in downtown Santa Monica. Police have now ruled out their deaths as a pre-arranged suicide."
"HAHAHAHA! You don't believe this do you?" I pointed at the screen, this actually cracked me up! As if Kale would have killed himself with all the amount of tormenting he did to me there was no way that he would just give up the way that he 'apperently' did.
Oscar didn't find me funny however, his eyebrows pushed together creating a firm line between his eyes as he looked at me. He didn't respond to my comment, he coninued to look at me until I gave in.
The phone belted through the house which caught us both off guard but thankfully interupted our awkward moment of silence.
"Hello?" I heard Oscar answer he rested his head on the back of his shoulders with his hands on his hips.
"Yes....yea... I did happen to watch the news!" He smiled at me happy to prove me wrong. Meanwhile I could hear a faint voice speak on the other end of the phone, I could not make out what the voice was saying, but I had known Katia well enough to know that the voice belonged to her.
"Alright, we will meet you there then." Oscar continued. "Thanks so much....yea... hejdå."
He hung up and threw the phone on the couch next to us.
"Well, Kale is officially dead Katia confirmed it and signed some papers and other stuff." Oscar balled his fist together pulling towards his body as a cheer of some sort. "You don't need to worry tonight we are free to do as we please." He cracked raising an eyebrow, I knew he had something in mind.
"And what exactly did you have in mind?"
"Well, I think the first order of buisness is to put Sebastian to bed." At this point he was laying on the couch rolled up sleeping away. I took him off the cution and took him to an upstairs bedroom.
"Where are we going to lay him?" I whispered. The bed would be too dangerous and the floor wasn't comfortable.
"Why don't you lay him in a drawer?"
"A drawer!?"
"Yes!" He was dead serious. "I always slept in them as a child, watch." Oscar pulled a drawer out of the container and emptied the clothes onto the floor and filled it with a pillow.
"Just lay him in there, it's fine."
I had never seen this strategy before but it worked. Sebastian peacefully slept away in the bed we created.
I returned down the stairs to find Oscar sitting at the bar in the kitchen holding a bottle of champagne.
"Wow, what are we celebrating to?" I watched him as he span the bottle in his hands looking at the label.
"Tonight we can celebrate freedom." He popped the cap and poured us glasses of the gold drink. I personally had never drank in my life because I had never found a reason to but it felt really special to be doing drinking with Oscar.
"To Freedom." He announced and we clicked glasses. The sun had just finished setting for the night and the after glow was barly visible on the horizon. We sipped in the dark enjoying each other's company.
Oscar set his glass down on the counter behind him and he placed his hand softly on my arm, running his fingers along to my elbow skipping to my stomach pulling me close to him between his knees. His eyes stared into mine as if he was searching for something and he moistened his lips.
I planned to make him work for it. He bowed towards me finding my lips but I innocently turned my head away taking another sip of my chmpagne.
He laughed through his nose, and I continued to move away from him to move closer to the short CD shelf in the living room. This whole game I was playing with him was amusing to me. I picked up a CD labeled 'Popular Love Songs' The most cheesiest thing I could think of. Though the glass hanging on the wall I could faintly see him finish the rest of his champagne. But I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing that I was watching, so I looked down to be safe.
A sharp sound startled me, it was Oscar's stool he was perched on, it slid against the floor creating a short profound screech. I could hear him bound up from his place and run across the room and stop directly behind me. His breath warmed my bare shoulder from the heat escaping his nose. His body pinned me to the shelf.
I could feel fingertips traced the silhouette of my arms softly becoming more abrupt the more he did it until he firmly gripped my arms whirling me around to face him and sliding myself on top of the shelf.
I drew in one last breath of excitment before he propelled himself forward joining his lips to mine. He was very intense with his embrace, I guess it has been a long time since we were last intimate with each other, I had a lot of making up to do.
He kissed me deeper and deeper, my hands flew up away from my body and into his hair tugging him closer to me.
He moaned egarly, I felt his tongue lightly graze my lips and his skillful hands slide up my lap under the edges of my black skirt and reefed on my nylon socks. I could hear them tear through his fingers down my legs again. The threads of the fabric pushed against my skin leaving little red lines as proof of our venturesome moment.
Oscar pulled me to my feet and pulled my shirt over my head in the process. Before we knew it we both stood bare revealing ourselves to each other.
"Come with me." He swooned and lead me outside. The wind was chilly at night my hair began to blow in all different directions so I pulled it over my shoulder. He took my hand and lead inside the outdoor hottub.
"Ooh how romantic." I smiled.
Right on cue the fireworks began in dowtown Hollywood, lighting up the sky.
"I can't believe I am here with you." I snuggled into his arms.
It truly was a miracle I found Oscar and planted myself here, there were so many ways I could have done something else and not met him entirely. The moment could not have been more perfect. Fireworks of all colors exploded creating all kinds of amazing designs staining the sky.
"I love you." Oscar whispered in my ear.
I closed my eyes and smiled his lips found the side of my jaw where he planted little kisses making it nearly impossible to appreciate the sky.
The sky lit up bright blues, greens, whites and yellows. All different shapes and sizes impressing me more and more the longer it carried on. Then the air had become quiet as no lights exploded in the sky, but it soon changed, a whole army of light blew into the sky making my surroundings look as light as day. This concluded the finaly of the show.
"Well that was beautiful." I sighed nothing could make this night any more perfect.
"Alisha." Oscar took my hand between his holding it close to his chest. "I promise to love you forever, through good, bad, and hormonal outbreaks."
"I promise to keep myself open to you, to let you see through the window of my world into my innermost fears, and feelings, secrets and dreams."
My eyes began to tear up from his words, they were so powerful to me.
In bright red letters flew into the sky with only reading abilities for a short moment.
"Will....You...Marry...M- Oh my god Oscar!" I span around to face him and he sat back holding a ring within his fingers.
"Well I can't exactly get on my knees in here but-"
"Yes!" I interupted him, I couldn't care less if he was on his knees or not.
He took hold of my face gliding to towards his. We shared the longest most sincere kiss. This new feeling of marriage could be dwelled upon later, because, for right now, I was completely content to feel his breath come and go with mine.
I giggled, his hands were shaking just as intensely as my own if not more. He laughed back and slid the ring on my vibrating fingers.
The ring was absolutely beautiful the gold band wrapped around my finger and twisted around three beautiful diamonds.
I was completely speechless, I couldn't even think all I was able to do was cover my face with my hands.
"Come with me." Oscar had hopped out into the freezing air. "Ah! Come on!"
"Ok ok! haha." We both bolted back into the house killing our selves laughing at the fact we were naked.
"Följ med mig min älskare." He winked at me and lead me upstairs into an empty room.