Babe.

43.

Benny.

It had been two days since Blanca took off and the only way to describe how we were feeling was fucking miserable, "oh gosh, I hope she's alright." Tilly muttered wrapping her arms around herself.

We were all sitting up in Emmanuel's room hiding from his parents who were on a rampage because no one knew how the hell Blanca had manged to out run five US marshalls. Waiting around knowing absolutely shit was a lot more stressful than it was made out to be, on the one hand you never knew when the marshalls would burst in after their rounds and say they found her, or when they would burst in and say her Uncle had and that now she was dead. No knews might have been good news but it was also beyond terrifying.

"You know, I'm so confused," Nika said from where she was sitting on Emmanuel's bay window Yeah-Yeah's arm draped around her shoulders, "who got Blanca her clothes?"

I frowned, "what?"

"How did she get her clothes? They were all the way down the hall, and none of us saw her leave to get them," she repeated, "so how was she wearing clothes when she left?"

Kya nodded, she was lying back on Emmanuel's bed her hand firmly clapsed around his, she'd been glued to his side since her bus trip down here. I couldn't say the same "well someone must have brought them to her," she said pursing her lips, "and that person might even know where she's going."

It didn't take me long to figure out who that person was, seeing as it clearly wasn't one of the seven of us which left one person, my little brother. "Where's Ty?"

Understanding danwed on everyone else's faces, "I think he's in Blanca's room playing her video games," George filled me in.

"Guess again," we all turned around as my brother waltzed into the room looking completely unbothered by all the drama that was currently unfolding in the house.

"Ty," I wasn't sure whether I wanted to wring his neck out because he knew and hadn't old anyone or hug him because he'd kept his mouth shut so well the marshalls hadn't managed to get anything out of here, "do you know where Blanca is?"

My younger brother narrowed his eyes at me as if he still needed to decide if he wanted to tell me or not. I could have killed that little shit. Luckily for us Ty decided we could know, "yeah I do."

"Well do you maybe want to fucking tell us where?" Emmanuel prompted glaring at him.

"I kind of promised I wouldn't," he replied shrugging.

Emmaneul shot him an incredulous look, "I kind of don't give a shit, where's my sister you little asshole?"

"She's at Abuela's cabin, the one that no one's gone to for a million years, you can take the train there," my brother graciously explained as he sat down on Emmanuel's bed, "it's like two hours away by car, so who knows how to drive?"

I scoffed, "you're not coming, it's bad enough if we all leave but if we take you it's kidnapping of a minor!"
"You're not eighteen yet," Ty shot back, "besides I'm the only one of us who knows how to get there so you don't really have a choice."
Unfortunately that was true because while I knew my grandmother had a cabin somewhere I had no idea where it was. I hadn't been there since I was seven.

"So when do we leave?" Tilly asked drawing our attention back to what was important, "and more importantly how do we sneak away without anyone noticing?"
That was a good question, the Marshalls were watching us like hawks because everyone knew we would withhold information if we got our hands on it. We would need to be seriously discreet.

"Obviously we'd have to do it at night, but the real problem is who's car do we take because as far as I know Benny is the only one of us who has a car available that doesn't belong to his parents," Yeah-Yeah pointed out.
I heard something jingle as Kya pulled out a set of keys, "some of us just turned eighteen and have some pretty fantastic parents. We shouldn't have a problem in terms of cars."

I was starting to like this girl more and more. "How about if we don't do it at night?" I suggested suddenly, "what if we do it on the way to school? They'd be far less suspicious of us using the cars."
Emmanuel nodded, "I agree, and in terms of packing clothes will have an excuse for leaving with backpacks."

Nika nodded, "perfect. Make sure you all act like the moody shits we've been these past days so they don't suspect anything. Blanca's parents are going insane downstairs and I'm pretty sure the slightest change would tip them off."
"Oh one hundred percent," Emmanuel agreed scowling, "they've gone into helicopter parent mode."
"A little too late," Ty muttered rolling his eyes, "where were the helicopters when she was losing her shit everyday?"
"Language." I heard myself correct.
"Language," my little brother mocked, "who are you my mother?"
I rolled my eyes at him, "no, thank god."
"Please you're lucky to have me because if I didn't exist Blanca would never have made it out and she'd be in witness protection right now," he shot back, "I'll take my apology in the form of a written note."
"You also didn't say anything to us while we were losing our minds worrying about her so you can stick your apology note-."
Tilly cut me off before I could finish, "we're all on the same team remember. So cut it out we have more important stuff to worry about guys."

Repressing the urge to reach over and throttle my brother I nodded, "Tilly's right we need to start focusing."

Blanca.

People forgot to mention that freedom was incredibly lonely.