Runaways and dreamers

Chapter 21- Moving on

Romona shook Katie violently in the morning, trying to wake her. Groggily Katie sat up, last nights events playing back in her mind. But instead of the usual pain she felt at remembering things, she smiled at her last time with James and the closure she had now.

Though she couldn't say the same for Romona who was going psychotic, freaking out about where James was. "Did you see him?" Romona began bombarding Katie with questions the second she sat up, "Where'd he go? Did he tell you he was leaving? Was he abducted? What happened?!" A sob escaped Romona as she dropped down onto the bed, sitting with her head in her hand and tears flowing openly down her pale, dirty cheeks.

Katie bit her tongue, realizing if James wanted to be found he would've told Romona that he was leaving, why he was going and where. But he hadn't; he'd left her in the dark, instead patching things up with Katie before disappearing for good. Katie couldn't believe her own thoughts as she decided to lie for James's sake; a thing she would have never done if it hadn't been for the coincidence of them both being sleepless and regretful.

Shaking her head, Katie masked her face with a look of surprise, lying, "No, he didn't tell me a thing. Why would he?" In a way, Katie almost felt bad for Romona, but she knew she was underhanded and strong enough to make it without James. She might've felt bad if she didn't still feel the bad blood between them.

Nodding Romona relented, "Yeah, I don't know why I even thought he would've. After all you guys aren't on good terms."

We kind of are now, Katie thought, but she couldn't feel guilty for not saying it to Romona. Sure, they'd been best friends once, and up until last night see liked Romona better than James, but it dawned on her now that without Romona her and James would never have had problems in the first place.

She felt no guilt for lying to her now, a betrayal for a betrayal. Now they were even and Katie could leave with complete confidence that her past would now only ever be her past. Peace with James and an even score with Romona.

Katie didn't doubt that Romona would search endlessly for James, but even after all the years, Romona didn't know how James thought and Katie did. After all, even if James had cheated on Katie with her, he and Katie had always talked more and known each other better. The majority of James and Romona's relationship had been physical rather than verbal. At the end of the day, Romona had always been the most self absorbed of the three, and never stopped long enough to really know someone. Even if James had tried to make his thoughts apparent, Romona would've never taken noticed. James knew her, Katie knew her, James and Katie knew each other, but Romona really only knew herself.

Katie knew with certainty that if James didn't want to be found, no one would find him. Cause after all, she had the same ability, they had a very similar thought process aside from James's sometimes more twisted motives and devious ways.

"Why would he just leave though?" Romona asked in a broken, hurt tone.

Shrugging, Katie got up, changing the subject quickly, "I don't know, but it's time to show Jace and I where we're gonna stay, then you can go scour the planet for James." You won't find him, but you can try, Katie thought but didn't bother saying aloud.

/*\*/*\*/*\*/

Romona started to walk away, leaving Jace and Katie at their new place to stay, but Katie stopped her.

"Goodbye Ro." Katie said with a sense of finality, giving her a quick hug for old time sake and to cement it in her mind that her past could no longer chase her.

Surprised, Romona hugged her back, murmuring, "Goodbye Katie, good luck." The last part surprised Katie, but her last couple days had been full of unexpected happenings. Maybe James and Romona really had changed. The idea that people can and are capable of change was another thing Katie had previously refused to believe, out of hurt, but now was beginning to.

Romona walked away, leaving for a hopeless search that would no doubt be the end of her. She would chase his shadow till her feet would allow her no further steps. It was a sad thought to Katie that Romona would waste the rest of her days looking for something she wouldn't find, chasing someone she'd never catch up to. On the other hand, she could smile at the thought of James being happy and free, now that they'd made peace. It occurred to Katie that in the upcoming years, Romona would come to understand the terrible burning feeling of not knowing why. The feeling that had entrapped Katie for longer than she cared to remember. Katie sighed and turned away, walking into the new place with new problems.

The betrayers of her past had left her, she'd finally parted with them and the memories that'd left her scared for so long. Saying goodbye one last time to each of them, before locking the memories away in a back corner of her mind never to haunt her again, was the final piece, final answer, to the puzzle of questions she had been trying to piece together for far too long. She would never forget James and Romona, or what she had learned from them and their betraying her, but she would forget the pain.

But they hadn't been the only things in her past that haunted her. There were other things, more pressing now that she had made her peace with Romona and James... perhaps they had been her distracting pain, awful but allowing her to overlook other pieces.

"This is great." Jace announced with a nod as they looked around the small clean house. Katie nodded, trying to clear her head but there was still one thing that was pricking at the back of her thoughts. Jace didn't know about Tommy and Katie didn't know if she had the strength to tell him and risk it all by pinning it to the hope that he would follow through on his promises of loving her no matter what.

She wasn't ready to take that chance, she was all for spontaneous but not when it risked everything she had left to care about.