Life Unimagined (Wattys)

She's 2000 Light Years Away

     The next day everyone was sitting around on Billie’s bus just hanging out. Bella and Hedda were cleaning their shoes, Billie tuning a guitar, Mike reading a comic book, and Jessica and Tre cooking lunch. Caitlin was on Mike’s laptop looking up apartments for cheap in the Oakland area.

“Caitlin why don’t you just wait till we get to my home, that way you can actually visit and take a look on the insides of them and talk to the owners personally.” Billie asked pausing from his guitar a moment. She just bit on her necklace and scanned the monitor. She let the charm fall from her mouth.

“I don’t know. I just wanna get a little heads up at what kind of prices we’re up against before arriving, And I’m looking outside of Oakland.” The girls stopped what they were doing and looked to her as her eyes flowed across the screen.

“Out of Oakland? Why?” Bella asked.

“I don’t know we might get a good deal.” She said looking up to her.

“Trust me you want get a good deal anywhere in Cali. If you want something cheap you gotta go to somewhere like Oregon or something; a state in Middle America.” Mike stated flipping the page of his comic.

“Eh,” Caitlin said click on the mouse pad buttons.

“Time to eat!” Tre said turning to everyone. He had oven mitts, a chef’s hat, and an apron that said Mr. good lookin’ is cookin’. Jessica turned holding a tray of grilled cheese sandwiches.

“Tre why did you wear all of that if this was all that was made?” Billie questioned looking at him blankly.

“Because! I’m awesome!” He said with a huge grin. Jessica smiled and rolled her eyes. She set the tray on the table and grabbed some napkins to pass around. Hedda and Bella came to the couch from their beds grabbing a sandwich. Caitlin closed the laptop and joined everyone.

“This is really good, thanks guys” Mike said pulling off a corner to eat.

“Of course it’s good! We made it!” Tre said grabbing Jessica’s shoulder.

“It’s delicious and will go down in history as best sandwich every made.” She said holding out a glass of milk.

“Well I don’t know about that but it’s pretty damn delicious!” Billie said with the cheesy tasted bread smashed to the side of his jaw. They all nodded and continued eating. Billie’s phone rang. He pulled it out to look at the number. “Oh! I gotta get this! Very important!” He stood and ran outside as he answered. The girls looked at each other with their eyebrows raised. Jessica shrugged and continued eating. Caitlin ate but slowly as she looked at the tray trying to her Billie. His voice was too low to here the important details. “That we’ll be great! And just in time for the holidays!” He said with excitement. Caitlin turned to look out the window. After moving around she finally saw him. He had a hand in his pocket and a big grin. He started kicking at the front wheel lightly with his foot. He smiled and nodded while speaking but she couldn’t hear what was being said. She saw him pull the phone down and hit a button over and over. She turned back. Bella was cleaning up crumbs from the table. Jessica and Hedda were doing the dishes. Billie stepped back on board.

“How was your important call?” Caitlin asked with a curious look. He looked to Mike, who had an eye on him, then looked back to her.

“Swell!” He smiled and rubbed his hands together as if to warm up.

“That’s good.” She actually wanted to know more but didn’t want to seem nosey.

“What was it about?” Jessica asked as she soaped up a pan. Caitlin could always rely on her when it comes to wanting to know others business.

“Um… just.. financial things… uh mostly about Christmas… stuff.” Caitlin watched as he looked to Jessica Telling her as he fidgeted a bit.

“I don’t believe you but ok!” She continued. Caitlin didn’t believe him either.

“I think I’ma call Jay.” Caitlin said stepping to her bed for the phone. She started dialing and ut the phone to her ear as it rang over and over.

“Hello?”

“Jay.”

“Oh hi Kate!”

“Hey so how are you?”

“I’m good, doing better. Most of my bruises have completely disappeared!”

“Wow that’s good!”

“Yeah, miss’s Vicky is actually being kinda nice. She’s been putting Epson salt in my bath so I can heal faster, and allowing me to eat good food.”

“Oh wow! What happened?”

“I don’t know? Maybe its like the story of the Grinch and she’s actually starting to get a heart or something, but then again she’s not treating the others with such warmth, so it’s kind of scaring me.”

“I don’t know. Don’t be scared though, take advantage of it.”

“I am! So how was your concert?”

“It was fantastic! Oh my god Jay if only you were there!”

“I actually got to see some glimpse of the concert online! You guys look damn hot! And so did the boys...” Jay let out a little giggle. Caitlin smiled.

“That’s so awesome and thanks! We have another concert tomorrow!”

“Awesome I know you’ll do great! You guys belong on stage.” Caitlin felt touched by her words.

“Thanks, so what did Icky Vicky think of us being onstage?”

“Oh she wasn’t watching, I snuck to the computer in the middle of the night and luckily someone recorded part of the shoe.”

“Oh ok, be careful doing that.” Caitlin said motherly.

“I will. Well I have to go, Vicky is taking me to the doctor for a check up on my arm. Send the girls my love!”

“Ok bye love ya and good luck with the arm.”

“Love you to and good luck at the concert! Bye.” Jay hung the phone up. Caitlin pulled the phone down and hit the end button several times. She sat and wondered what Vicky was up to. She gave up and walked to the couch where everyone was doing what they originally had been doing only Tre and Jessica where now talking about some spongebob episode as they ate sour gummy worms.  She joined them and told them everything Jay said. Even the Vicky being nice and taking her to the doc.

“Oh wow that’s really weird. Maybe because it’s Christmas.” Bella said.

“Yeah but when has Vicky ever been nice to us on Christmas?” Hedda asked Bella. They thought for a minute.

“Never.” Jessica said with her eyes scrunched.

“Well at least she’s getting a checkup. I hope everything’s ok, and nothing bad happens.” Billie said.

“Yeah me too.” Caitlin said. The other nodded.

     They spent the rest of the day getting everything ready for tomorrow’s concert. When everyone said there goodnights and went to bed Caitlin laid there staring at the ceiling in deep thought. She was trying to remember why Vicky was nice to any child there. The only thing that came to mind was four years ago when a girl named Anna was being sent to a new orphanage up state at a high price. Vicky was able to buy a new house with the money she got, and Caitlin lost touch with Anna, until she learned she was killed during a robbery in a convenient store. She had heard that the orphanage upstate had lots of money but was in a bad neighborhood. She couldn’t stop thinking about the high possibility of her being moved, and staying in a dangerous area. “Oh Jay.” She said to herself almost in tears.