𝙽𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚂𝚊𝚢 𝙳𝚒𝚎 | The Goonies

Chapter Thirteen | Alibi

The Fratellis weren't so artful with hiding their next warning to Lacey.

The innocent piece of paper was placed right on the centre of her pillow - right next to a knife-sized tear, from which feathers had pulled free. There were two indentations on either side of her once beautifully-made bed, too; someone had knelt on her bed and stabbed her pillow, right where her sleeping head would have been.

Final warning, sweetheart.

For some reason the pet name made her feel sicker than the warning itself.

She slid it into her bag alongside the other one, and fetched a needle and thread from her mum's sewing basket. When it was done, she turned the pillow over.

Out of sight, out of mind.

***

Lacey kept herself purposefully busy all week, throwing herself into her studies. Mikey checked up on her every day and gave her whatever small updates he had, but apart from that she only saw the four boys to say hello to in the hallways.

Thursday afternoon came around sooner than Lacey had expected. She and Jude were just heading inside from lunch, when Lacey quite literally walked into Mouth as he came out of the building.

He caught her arms and balanced her, then let her go.

"I was looking for you," he informed her. "I came to invite you over tomorrow night."

Jude's eyebrows shot up, and Lacey pursed her lips. "Are you sure?"

"Why would I not be?"

She darted her eyes to Jude, and then looked pointedly at the door. Ever the wing girl, Jude nodded knowingly and excused herself to the bathroom. Lacey knew she'd have a lot of lies to spin when she met back up with her.

"I figured it's probably safer at Mikey's than yours," Mouth admitted, once Jude was out of earshot. "It's movie night on Fridays. And I promise it's fun as long as Chunk doesn't pick something cissy."

"I don't have anything on tomorrow," she said, "so alright. But if Jude says anything to you, what are you going to say?"

He lifted a shoulder. "The truth."

She opened her mouth to tell him he couldn't possibly, but he cut her off.

"I invited you over for a movie, we ate a bucketload of popcorn, and it was great." He cocked an eyebrow. "Unless you want to come up with a more elaborate story?"

"No, no that sounds fine."

"I mean, I could say that we cuddled on the sofa all night and when you fell asleep you drooled all over my shoulder, but-"

"The first one was fine," she said, a smile playing around the corner of her lips. "I'll see you tomorrow, then?"

"Straight after school," he confirmed. "Tell your parents you're at Jude's for a sleepover or something."

"I'll figure something out."

When Friday evening came around, Lacey was all set to go to the Walsh's house. She'd packed her overnight gear (she assumed that Mouth had meant for her to sleep over, since he implied she'd have to have an alibi for the whole night) and the overnight bag also convinced her parents that she was staying at Jude's. She'd even persuaded her mom to get her some popcorn at the shops, and stashed that in with her pyjamas in her schoolbag. She'd forgone her folders for the day, resolving to work in a notepad and stick the pages in later to save room and weight for the walk to Mikey's.

It was a little awkward trying to balance herself on her bike with the two bags, so she decided to walk the distance this time. It took her all of twenty-five minutes, but she got to see scenery that she never noticed usually so she didn't mind.

"Lacey! I can't believe you actually came," Data greeted her at the door. "Mikey said you said you have popcorn?"

"Of course." She handed him her schoolbag when he offered to take it, and he placed it along with everyone else's at the side of the room.

"Hi guys," she greeted, choosing a spot on the end of the sofa. "Everyone okay?"

"We're okay. What about you? You've been busy, Mikey says," Chunk said, pausing from rifling through a stack of DVDs.

It seemed like they all paused what they were doing to listen to her answer. "I have been busy," she answered truthfully. "I procrastinated all of my other work because of..." she gestured at them all, "so I kind of needed to catch up."

"Yeah, that's fair," Chunk agreed, and then went back to looking through the DVDs. "So what kind of movies do you watch? Romance?"

She giggled. "No! I like watching action movies with my dad. And we watch CHIPS whenever it's on TV."

Data's eyes bugged. "You watch CHIPS? That's my favourite series! All the gadgets are amazing!"

"Not to mention the kicking ass," Mouth added.

"Language," Mikey muttered, going to undo a can of soda. It fizzed and overflowed, and he cursed as  he jumped to his feet, his trousers soaked.

"Mouth!" Mikey fumed, as the other boy howled with laughter.

Mouth only pointed at Chunk, who shrugged ruefully. "I thought Mouth would be greedy and take the first one."

Mouth gasped. "You take that back!"

A pillow soared in Chunk's direction, and Mikey leant towards Lacey. "They're always like this," he said long-sufferingly. They watched as Data laughed at something one of them had said, and got two pillows in the face.

"Not fair, guys, not fair!"

"I'm going to get a cloth," said Mikey.

"I'll get it," Lacey said, standing up. "You go get changed. I can do the popcorn while I'm in the kitchen."

He smiled in thanks and started for the stairs, while she pulled the popcorn out of her bag. She dodged a flying pillow with ease and snagged the soda can on the way to the kitchen, to avoid it spilling any more.

WORD COUNT: 955

PUBLISHED: 27/05/19