Omega: the Sequel

Chapter Eleven

So I’m back to school :P life sucks.

Sorry, let me restart positively. Hello! How are y’all?? So glad I can update for you guys – you have no idea what the feedback you’ve been giving me means to me, I mean, every time I log in I see new votes and comments and I just start tearing up. You guys are amazing. And now that you’re all completely convinced that I’m insane, here’s chapter umm eleven I believe (don’t judge me; I’m currently writing chapter 13 I think so I get confused). Also, I may not update again until I finish like I dunno the next chapter or so meaning I’ll be on chapter 15 but you won’t…well that wasn’t confusing. Now I’m lost. But whatever, basically I may not update for a week or two, although I have been writing loads lately, completely irresponsible cuz I have exams next week, but whatever. Theorems of triangles only get you so far in life anyway.

Gracias! <3 vb123321

Chapter Eleven

♥         Astrid       ♥

Finding a motel in Detroit was, predictably, easier than finding one in Ann Arbor, although admittedly they were less nice. We crashed somewhere in the outskirts of the city, slept clear to the following morning, and woke to find the world covered in a foot of snow. As I was born and raised in Michigan, I knew that this occurrence was something that would either happen once all winter or again in March, and so I resigned myself to the fact that the airport would likely be closed for the day. I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go as it was.

Joel, of course, wanted to go and play in the snow, but as he didn’t have boots or snow pants or even hat and gloves, that was out of the question. We spent a miserable morning in the motel room until Josh broke down and drove the kid to a nearby Wal-Mart and bought him a pair of gloves and a hat. He also stopped at an ATM for some cash – “to satisfy you, Astrid” – and bought a few other items he thought we needed.

While Joel messed around in the snow banks of a park, Josh joining in with an occasional snowball now and then, I sat on a bench and watched them. Wondered what it would be like if we had stayed in Michigan, not become what we were but just friends goofing off in the thrill of a snowy afternoon. That kind of thinking generally got one nowhere, and so I resorted to staring at the messages Pierre had sent me the day before.

I know you don’t want to talk to me, but there’s something I need to tell you.

Astrid? This is important. It’s about that guy you know, Jay.

I had managed to forget that Pierre knew about Jay. What did he have to say to me that had anything to do with Jay? If this had anything to do with Alan Young and his target on Jay…or was Pierre’s mysterious agency – if it did exist – involved as well? I didn’t see how I could answer these questions when I didn’t even know from where they were coming. I was realizing for the first time how little I actually knew about Pierre, not to mention Jay. And yet I couldn’t bring myself to text him back.

That sort of thinking didn’t get one anywhere either, and so I tried to put it out of my mind over the next few days as we loitered around Detroit. Joel seemed happy enough, bouncing everywhere as we toured random places and slept the mornings away in the motel room, but I knew Josh was restless. I saw it in his eyes as we looked at a work of art in the Detroit Institute of Arts, saw how they moved with some frustration to me as I avoided his gaze. He wanted to be doing something, for that was how his mind worked, and I didn’t know how to admit to him that I had no idea what to do next.