BEARTH

-Deception-

Chapter 4 

With spread out limbs and her mouth wide open Alicia quickly wakes in a fright to see it is now early morning. Scared and out of breath, she wipes her mouth and finds herself alone. Alicia turns towards the table to hear Adam talking softly to Jenifer. Unnoticed, Alicia stays quiet to listen to their morning conversation.

Adam hands Jenifer a steaming mug made of clay as she sits at the table now wearing a long white gown.

“Did you get any sleep at all?” Adam Questions Jenifer.

“I did, and then someone woke me up all early in the morning.” Jenifer rolls her eyes.

“Oh I’m sorry babe; I thought I was quiet getting up this morning.” Adam apologizes.

“No, not you, your little toe headed friend.” She clarifies as Adam stops to think.

“Wait, that’s right. Where is that kid?”

“He left.” Jenifer subtly informs.

“What do you mean, he left?”

“Well was I supposed to stop him?” She questions Adam rhetorically.

“When exactly did he leave?” Adam wonders.

“I’m surprised you weren’t quick to wake up; he was making so much noise going through your stuff.” Adam stares at Jenifer as he tries to make sense of it all.

“Wait… what stuff?”

“What other stuff do you have, Adam… your tools.” Not regarding Alicia who he thinks is still sleeping Adam starts to speak at a normal volume.

“Aww Shit!” Shocked to hear this, Alicia sits up.

“Who are you two talking about, where’s Harvey!?” She questions. Leaning over the table with both his palms, Adams turns to acknowledge Alicia.

“He’s around back taking care of business.” Alicia hesitantly fallows up with her next question.

“And Quin?”

“What do you think… he took off with my shit.” Adam says as Harvey enters the tree.

“Did Quin really leave us?” Harvey questions while overhearing the current conversation.

“Seems to be the news of the morning.” Jenifer says into her mug as she takes her drink.

“He took Adam’s stuff, Harvey.” Alicia quickly informs as Harvey looks to Adam with guilt and confusion on his face.

“Something’s not right, there has to be a good reason; there just has to...” Jenifer lowers her mug to face Harvey.

“Yeah, your friend’s a thief, explanation enough?” Harvey turns away from Jenifer and again faces Adam.

“Adam, I’m sorry. I swear, I thought he was trustworthy.” With both fists now on the table, Adam stares at the ground and shakes his head.

“It’s my fault. You’re all nothing but newborns-” He looks up at Harvey, “-and I’m not looking to adopt, so after we get people moving, we split the chicken tree and go our own ways, you got that?!” Adam says with obvious anger directed towards Harvey. Alicia notices the fault pointed at Harvey and gets angered herself.

“There’s no need, we can leave now! We don’t need no stupid tree, you can have it all!” Alicia gets up and pats herself off. “Let’s go Harvey.”