Subjects

46 - Lies And Surprise

The garage is way messier than Emily remembers it. Makes sense, because normally she was the only person who made sure to keep it tidy. Besides that, nothing really changed. The one person she is looking for is here, so the rest is maybe not as important. Chris is here.

He is working on a small Kia, she can only see his back as he is leaning in to examine the engine. As always, the radio is playing loudly in the background. There are three more workers besides Chris. One of them must be new because Emily doesn't recognize him. She is standing at the entrance, not sure how to approach her brother.

Roger and Angie are standing out in the street, street meaning a part of the garage without a roof. Emily takes one more step inside. She remembers how she used to run in here after school, taking her usual spot behind the shelves at the back.

"Do you need help?"

This is the new worker. At first, Emily doesn't understand what he was saying. She processes his words and then says, "no, I am here for Chris."

"Chris!" The worker yells over the sound of the radio.

Chris is too focused on his work to care, Emily can tell. She knows by the way he tilts his head that he heard, but he doesn't want to answer right now. The worker, thinking that Chris must have not heard him, goes to talk to him. At first, Chris doesn't react. Then the worker says something that makes him turn back and drop whatever tool he was holding in his hand.

"Emilia!" He runs to her, hugging her and lifting her off the floor. Emily laughs, for the first time in a while, a real laugh. "You're back!" Chris puts her back down and messes her hair up.

"I am... Only for today," Emily tries to smile. "We got only one day in the city before we have to go back."

"Everything okay, Emi?" Chris can tell that something is off about her, call it a big brother instinct.

Emily nods as convincingly as she can and puts on an even bigger smile. "I just need your help, I can't go home right now. If mom knows I'm back she will be sad when I leave again, you know how she is. I need some things from home, that's it."

"Alright..." Chris glances at Roger and Angie. The two standing not too far from them, looking like Emily's bodyguards. "You know them?"

Emily looks back, "oh, yes. They're my friends."

Chris nods, his mind suddenly somewhere else. "Gabby is back there, working. Maybe she can help you with whatever you need?"

"Gabby works here?" Emily tries to picture her eleven-year-old sister holding a screwdriver, and fails.

Chris smiles. "Yeah, she got in a fight with kids from Danny's class so I told her she has to work with me for a month. She doesn't like it at all, but I told her if she-"

"Can get into fights, I can fix cars, I know," Gabriella, more commonly known as Gabby, shows up behind Chris. "Emi, you're back!"

Emily kneels to hug her sister. "What happened this time?" Emily asks the girl.

"It wasn't my fault, they were being mean to Danny."

Gabby always got into trouble defending her twin brother, at least so she says. Most of the time Danny didn't seem to be bothered by the so-called bullies.

"I have a mission for you, Gabby," Emily tells her, and the girl nods. "I need you to get me some clothes from home, whatever you find in my closet will do. I am leaving later today."

Gabby frowns, "why can't you stay?"

"I have a flight back to the island," Emily grits her teeth as she lies. "Who's going to count all the birds if I'm not there?"

After Gabby goes running to their house, Chris takes Emily aside to talk to her. "What's going on? I know it's hard to communicate over there but I didn't think you will not talk to us for months."

"It is just so busy all the time, and I thought that if I talked to you... I will start missing home too much," Emily explains. "It's easier this way. I promise I will tell you everything when this is all over."

"Whatever you want, sorellina," Chris hugs her again. "As long as they pay for you to go to university next year."

Emily holds on to her brother and says nothing. It is harder than she thought to see him like this. Emily actually feels better when they finally leave the garage. She told Gabby she will be back in the evening to pick up her bag.

Roger leads the way to his best friend's house. He has mixed feelings about going to Max but he knows that this is his only option. Max is the one opening the door and Roger is grateful for that. Max's mother would probably have questioned Roger, or even talked to his mother about him showing up.

"Roger!" Max smiles widely. "I thought you still had, like... Two months at least."

"I'm here only today," Roger says. He, unlike Emily, has more trouble hiding his stress. Good thing Max is not the most perceptive tool in the shed.

"Cool, you wanna come in?"

Roger looks back at Emily and Angie standing on the other side of the street, a motion that Max misses as well. "Yeah, sure," Roger says.

They go straight to Max's room. Before opening the door, Max was in the middle of setting a new record on some game (far from it, actually, but it's good to have goals). Max hands Roger the second remote and restarts the game.

"I need a favor," Roger says when he realizes Max isn't going to ask.

"What is it?"

"I need some clothes from my house," Roger hopes he doesn't have to explain himself. "I can't go there myself so that's why I'm asking you."

"Oh, okay. Umm... When do you need them?"

"Today, actually," Roger doesn't join the game that Max started. "And you can't tell anyone I'm here. Just tell my parents you need to get some project we did together."

This gets Max's attention and he pauses the game. "Wait, why the secrecy?"

"It's very complicated."

"You don't want to tell me," Max seems a little offended.

"No, I..." Roger truly thought he could get away with not telling Max anything. "Things are... Crazy, right now. I am in some trouble, and if people know I'm here... It will be bad."

"What kind of trouble?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Roger," Max is suddenly very serious, Roger has never seen him like this. Not even when he had to explain to the headmaster what happened to the freshmen's hamsters. To be honest, it is not very easy to remain serious while talking about freshmen, I mean hamsters. "I'd believe anything you say," Max says. "You are the truest person I know. When you tell me something, I know you're not lying."

"I, I just..." Roger stumbles upon his words. "I don't want to get you involved."

"Fine," Max turns away. For a moment he thinks whether Roger is still the same person he knew, but then shakes the thought away. "What do you need?"

After they set up a time for Roger to come to get his things, the group goes on to the next destination, Angie's mom. Ben and Eva meet them outside the law firm office and Angie leads the way in. The girl goes straight to the woman at the front desk. The underpaid intern jumps up from her chair when she sees Angie.

"What are you doing here?"

"I am looking for my mom," Angie answers.

The intern looks at Angie with a mixture of amazement and disbelief. "She isn't here," says the intern. "She left after you disappeared. I don't think she left home for... A long time."

Angie only nods and turns to leave, but the intern stops her. "Where have you been? We were so worried about you. And the police couldn't find anything."

"I, um, I..." Angie doesn't know what to say.

"We need to get her home," Ben gets involved. "Come on." He takes Angie's hand and they walk out before the intern can stop them.

"What do we do now?" Emily asks.

"I think we don't have a choice," Eva says.