Unknown Friendship

CH4 - Arrest ll

Katie Gardner's POV

Katie had kept an eagle eye on Percy for the past week.

He had seemed... jittery to her, always doing scans around the house, jumping at the sound of a police siren, rushing to pack up the house. Her family, meaning her and her father, were moving to a farm on the outskirts of New York soon, today actually, but it had been momentarily delayed when one of Percy's illegal schemes had gotten them all arrested. Ever since their return he had been on the lookout for something. Katie didn't know what, but she would figure out; almost nothing set Percy off—ever—so something was up.

She lugged a box into the back of her family's bright blue pick-up truck, Percy doing the same. She groaned and flopped into the trunk, her arm covering her face. "This sucks," she moaned, flipping over to see Percy, once again, scanning the area. She couldn't take it anymore; she had to ask. Not just anything could ruin Percy's cool demeanor. "So, what're you lookin' for?"

He started at the sound of her voice, but quickly shrugged it off. "What do you mean?"

She titled her head to the side. Percy was... hard to interpret. She had known him for years, since they were seven, and yet, it was still challenging at figuring out what was going through his head. Sometimes Katie wondered if that was because of what he went through—all that pain had to have some sort of effect on him, like making him unable to show any emotion. What she had figured, however, not even his mother knew: Percy had trust issues; he didn't like getting close to people, because that would lead to a world of hurt—they would leave or be put in danger, which would lead to them getting hurt, and other people hurting caused him to hurt. Percy would never show it, though, because he didn't show pain—he just didn't, couldn't.

Katie said, "You're nervous. Almost nothing makes you nervous."

Percy scrunched up his nose—something he did when he would realize once again that she knew him inside and out, better than most everyone, even if he didn't thoroughly approve—and looked away, still searching. "I'm just...waiting. I just want to get it over with, yet I know how much you don't like it. I don't mind, but you do."

She knew this trick—he was loop-holing. Maybe. She could never tell.

Katie went with her gut instinct, because that helpful nagging feeling in the back of her head wasn't making an appearance. "Liar."

Percy raised his left eyebrow at her, with that all-so-serious look plastered on his face. "No, I'm not lying. I don't mind, whereas you do."

There was that nagging feeling again. Katie looked Percy dead in the eyes, where two different shades of green met, one sea green one grass green. She smacked her lips. "You're talking about something else, something different, not my moving."

Percy tilted his head to the side and closed his eyes, listening, an effect from being completely blind for over three years. "Remember just a week ago, Katie? You didn't like getting arrested. You believed your dad, about me being to blame." His face was an emotionless mask, but she knew his little antics. He was silently snapping his fingers, something he did when he didn't want her to know something, but knew it was for the better. Either that or he was giving her hints on something she should already know, have already figured out or guessed or questioned.

One day she'd be on his level, not on his level of knowing, but of figuring out; she didn't have his ability.

Or maybe one day he will give a straight answer, instead of have me figure things out for myself, she thought. She gave a quiet snort at her thought. Yeah, right, like that would happen.

Katie nodded slowly, thinking about their arrest. "Think about the people," Percy hinted. She thought back to the men: their black suits, their serious expression, short tempers. "Okay," Percy went on. "Now think about how quickly they came to your house." It had been lightning speed fast, unnatural that they had traveled from their base to her home in less than a minute. Nothing came to her. Nothing at all. Yes, it was all unnatural that they could make it to her house immediately after her dad had unplugged the cord to their ancient computer that Percy had used to hack into some sort of cite in Russian—wait a second.