Dedicated to Chloe aka cityscape. We aren't friends (please, she's a brilliant writer beside her I'm an amateur) but she has been such a great inspiration and I'm obsessed with her novel. 5:48. It helps me write sometimes. So thank you Chloe for bringing Claire, Jaspar, Drew and Erza into this world.
Chapter 13 : Locked In
Skylar
My mind was reeling, exploding and repeat. I don’t know how to feel about her after she admitted that she named her kids after my idols. It meant even after our spat, she thought of me when she named her kids. I don’t even know what to think anymore. I heard the kids walk away from us after throwing the words, “Sort out your issues, you four.”, casually at us.
I needed to sit down and have a drink. So I did, on the floor. The entire cabin was cleared out except for food items left in a corner, enough last us the entire day. My kids were smart; they knew that I could use practically anything to pick a lock or find a way out. So they took out everything and just left us resources to survive. They even left us a water bag to drink from. A bloody water bag, just so I couldn’t use the plastic bottle to make something. I had to hand it to the kids to think everything through.
“Um…Sky?” I turned to Cassandra. She looked shy; that was new for Cassandra Nolan. She was anything but shy. The Cassandra Nolan I knew was confident and bold but the woman in front of me wasn’t the girl I knew all those years ago. The woman in front of me looked meek and shy.
“You’re staring, darling.” Dylan whispered in my ear. I snapped back into reality. I tried remembering what Cass was like back then but nothing much came up. I closed the door to that part of my past when I married Dylan. Even when I was younger, it was all about the future, never about the past. I always kept moving forward, never looking back.
“The past holds ugly memories.” I blurt out. The three of them turned to look at me.
“Um…sorry, I was thinking out loud.” I apologised and looked away feeling embarrassed.
“Shit, the kids broke her.” Wes and Dylan say at the same time. Awkward. The staring match broke out. Cass sighed sadly. I looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
“Something wrong, Cassandra?”
“It feels like high school all over again. Boys fighting over you and you being completely oblivious. You were perceptive of everything but your love life, social life and boys.” She gestures to both of our husbands.
“What are you talking about, Cassandra? No guys ever fought over me in high school. Everyone adored you and I wasn’t the type to bask in guys’ attention; that was all you. The only guy I ever needed was Dylan. Thanks to you and Wes, I found Dylan and got my happy ending. Happy middle. You know what I mean.”
Even after all these years, some things never change. Cassandra Nolan lives for attention. Is that why she ran off with Wes? For attention? I’m going to kill her if that’s what went down.
“Quick question, Cassandra. You and Wes don’t really love each other do you? I learnt to let go of what you did to me because I thought you two actually love each other, but seeing you two together now. You can barely stand each other.”
“…” She was at a loss for words.
“Ha. I hope you’re happy that you finally got your trophy family, by ripping out your best friend’s heart and backstabbing a lot of people.” My voice laced with bitterness.
“Don’t you dare judge me, Skylar Ellexis Carson. It wasn’t entirely my fault and it’s not like you didn’t backstab me either!”
“What the hell are you going on about? I never backstabbed you. That’s not my style; if I actually wanted to hurt someone, I’d actually stab them. You know that.”
“You got Dylan.”
“YOU LIKED DYLAN?!” I was loud enough to the point the two men turned to us. Wes and Dylan both had their mouths agape.
“You liked Dylan?”
“Cassandra Nolan liked me?” The boys were just a bag full of deductions aren’t they? I rolled my eyes at them.
“As if I didn’t say it once wasn’t enough, dimwits.” I tell them tiredly. I stand up, walk over to the food corner and grab a couple of biscuits. I sit by the food, just munching on the biscuits. I don’t know how much longer I could keep up with this. One conversation with Cassandra and I already want to kill someone, then fall into a coma and never wake up from it.
“What’s wrong, Crumpet?” Dylan asks softly as he sits down next to me. I rest my head on his shoulder.
“I’m just tired from all this bullshit.” I say that last bit loudly just so Cass and Wes could hear me.
“We heard that!” They sounded like a proper couple; Dylan and I started laughing at them. That eased the irritation and annoyance of the situation. Soon enough, the other two joined us. The four of us were just sitting there in silence, munching on the snacks.
“You know they’re not going to let us out until we sort whatever this is out.” Wes breaks the silence after a while. This was the most smartest thing he has ever said in the past 27 years.
“Or we could just let them hang out and we don’t even need to speak to each other.” I say. There’s a knock on our door and then I hear Vanellope’s voice.
“We heard that. You aren’t getting out until you sort your issues out as well. As Tom Hiddleston calls it ‘Thorapy’. Just talk about your feelings or whatever that works.” That girl, I swear she’s becoming more and more like me each passing day. I quickly rush to the door.
“Vanellope, I demand that you let us out. We don’t have issues. People change and drift apart and sometimes there is nothing you can do about it. Let us out and we’ll let you guys see each other.”
“No Mom. What’s the worst that could happen if you guys sort out all the hate? You’ll be friends again, it’s not a bad thing.”
“Listen kiddo, I’m tired and I want to murder two of the three people in the room with me. You just force friendship on people. We used to be friends, now we’re not. You need to accept that. If it counts for something, we’ll be civil to each other if that’s what you want.” I sigh, conveying how tired I really was then. I heard shuffling on the other side and whispering. Finally they had come to some sort of agreement when I heard the lock give a satisfactory click. Dylan, Cass and Wes must have heard it too and came rushing to the door.
Cass gave me a hug before whispering ‘Thank you’ in my ear. The door swung open and we were free.
“That’s all we wanted to hear.” Vanellope said as she came up to me.
“This doesn’t mean you’re off the hook, young lady. I’ll be confiscating your laptop for a month and you’re grounded for two weeks. I’m being lenient so do not complain. At least I’m not taking your phone so you can work on your novels on there and you’re only allowed one phone call per day.” I sternly tell her about the punishment. She hugs me,
“I don’t mind at all, as long as I’ve got my friends. Thanks Mom. I know it was hard for you being with the Smiths but thank you for accepting them for your kids.”
“It’s the least I could do.”
***
Vanellope
Mom was pretty mad at me and Dad didn’t say much. I was expecting a worse punishment than having my laptop taken away for a month and being grounded for two weeks. I think my Mom was afraid I might rebel more if she gave me a harsher punishment. All was good, everyone was happy at the end of the camping trip. Frankly at the end I think both pair of parents got tired of us kids real fast so they told us we could hang out a bit while they went home earlier. Since Blake and I had the Impala, we just fit all five of us in. I was driving so Thomas took shotgun and Henry was left alone to deal with Bianca and Blake in the back seat. We decided to take a ride back to New York and just go to the city to do a bit of shopping and catch a movie maybe. I honestly wanted to bring them over to our place but I think Mom and Dad need their peace and quiet.
So we decided to go to Manhattan for the day. The only reason Blake and I knew our way around was because Mom grew up here before moving to England and once we moved here, she gave us the entire New Yorker tour. It was tiring but somehow a rather fun. Being in Manhattan with the Smiths was a completely different experience from being with Mom, for obvious reason but it really felt like for the first time in my entire life, I had people to count on, make memories and just to have their company felt amazing, because for once these people weren’t my family. It was their choice to spend time with me and be my best friends. I felt elated. We were always moving because of Mom and Dad’s jobs and we never really had friends other than each of our siblings but now to be a part of something bigger than family. It felt great.
Thomas had his arm around my waist, Blake was doing the same with Bianca. Henry almost out of the picture before I brought him back in. We really needed to get him a girlfriend. Blake led the way, he wanted to show us something, specifically me. Soon enough we were at an old beat up bar.
“Blake? What are we doing?”
“Look up, Vanny.” I looked and was greeted with a bright neon sign. MacLaren's.
“Isn’t that the name of the bar in How I Met Your Mother?” My eyebrows furrowed. Blake hated the series and I wasn’t an avid watcher of the series but Mom adored the show and the characters in them. She claimed they were best friends growing up. Aunt Qis hit her when she heard her said that.
“Yep. I was thinking we could bring Mom here next week for her birthday.” I slapped a hand to my forehead. I couldn’t believe I almost forgot Mom’s birthday. With everything going on, who could blame me?
“You forgot her birthday, didn’t you?” Blake jabbed me in the side accusingly.
“Maybe…at least I remember it now. Thank you, brother.” Sarcasm dripped in my voice. He narrowed his eyes at me. Before we could get into our usual banter, our respective partners pulled us away.
“I didn’t know MacLaren’s was a real place.” Henry voiced out. He watches How I Met Your Mother too, no surprise there. I think he knows almost everything about my Mom.
“It’s not. They just made it into a theme park for all the fans who are probably now my Mother’s age or older than that.” Blake explained as he pulled us in.
It was definitely something alright. It was so much bigger on the inside. It was more like a How I Met Your Mother themed carnival inside rather than an actual theme park. I could see the prominent features that highlighted the events in the series. They had a Lily and Marshall booth for couples, Barney’s magic tricks booth, they even had a small exhibition for the long list of Robin and Ted’s boyfriends and girlfriends respectively. They even had an open bar and had the bartenders dressed to look like Carl the bartender.
Mom was absolutely going to love this place.
“Blake. This place is amazing!” For once my brother wasn’t the thickheaded pretty face I grew up with. He has really grown up the past few months. Bianca really has done him some good. The boys decided to go look around while Bianca hung behind with me.
“Thank you.” I say turning to my best friend. She turns to me with a raised eyebrow in confusion.
“What for?”
“Blake. Have you seen the guy? He has really grown up the past few months. Most of it is your doing? Two years ago, he wouldn’t have cared less about Mom’s birthday.”
“Aw come on, I’m sure you pulled your weight as well, I mean you live with him.”
“I have lived with that asshat for 18 years, no sign of change until now. I think you and your siblings are good for us.”
“Even Thomas…” she gives me a sly smile.
“Oh shut up. We’re taking it insanely slow. I’m waiting for graduation before we officially start dating.” I explain.
“A little teacher-student relationship wouldn’t hurt.”
“Get your head out of your fantasy, Bianca. I don’t swing that way.”
“Alright then. Sigh, how did I ever land a guy like Blake?” she sighs dreamily, looking at my brother. Blake better marry this girl one day or I’ll kill him myself.
I scoff lightly at her question.
“Hun, the question is, how did he land a girl like you?”
Finally the boys had finished looking around and Blake was asking the owner about something, probably whether we could have the place to ourselves during Mom’s birthday. With the money we have, I’m sure the arrangements could be made. Once he was done, we all piled into the Impala and this time Blake was driving and I was wedged between Henry and Thomas all the way home because Bianca took shotgun. Thomas most definitely wasn’t too happy.