Smoke You Out; Chapter 1

Paige gets some shocking news about her older brother, the convict. (Explicit language.)

10/5/2013
potsnpans: omfg, paige, no offense but ur mom sucks
turnthepaige: wow, thanks troi, tell us how you really feel -_-
potsnpans: i said “no offense”
mbecker96: it’s okay, paige - it’s not your fault
potsnpans: still sucks though
mbecker96: well yeah
mbecker96: but there’s nothing we can do about it
mbecker96: no point in insulting anyone’s mother
drarryfan77: can u really not do ANYTHING to change her mind?
turnthepaige: trust me - i tried. but you know. rules are rules.
turnthepaige: i’m lucky she lets me go to rehearsals that go until after dark.
mbecker96: admittedly, rehearsals aren’t exactly the same thing as going through your dad’s stuff when he’s not there....
turnthepaige: well i didn’t TELL her that part. i’m not dumb. but she still said no, absolutely not, no going out with friends after 7 PM.
potsnpans: you’d think YOU were the kid in jail!
turnthepaige: WOW
mbecker96: troia!!!!!!
potsnpans: did i cross a line?
drarryfan77: yes
turnthepaige: a little bit
mbecker96: YES!!!!!
potsnpans: sorry. won’t happen again.
turnthepaige: don’t make promises u can’t keep. ur worse than “family guy” with the line-crossing.
potsnpans: and yet you still let me hang around! ;)
turnthepaige: lol, true
turnthepaige: you guys will just have to report back what you find
drarryfan77: i doubt you’ll miss much
drarryfan77: i think this quest is a result of pure paranoia
drarryfan77: (no offense, mila)
mbecker96: none taken. i hope you’re right.
mbecker96: my mom’s got enough to deal with, last thing she needs is her husband having a girlfriend
potsnpans: we go in hoping for the best, but we have to be prepared for the worst
potsnpans: paige said he acts just like a cheating boyfriend in all those romances she reads, tho
potsnpans: right, paige?
Sent at 8:54 PM
potsnpans: paige?
Sent at 9:00 PM
drarryfan77: u still with us, paige?
potsnpans: helloooooooo?
Sent at 9:05 PM
turnthepaige: SORRY!!
turnthepaige: got distracted. someone’s at the door - Mom does NOT sound happy w/them...
drarryfan77: who is it?
turnthepaige: lemme go check. brb.
Sent at 9:08 PM
turnthepage: OMFG IT’S A COP
potsnpans: OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS
turnthepaige: YES
potsnpans: POLICE RAID
turnthepaige: AND ONCE THEY’RE DONE TALKING TO MOM THEY’RE GOING TO TALK TO ME
potsnpans: what about?
turnthepaige: no idea
potsnpans: maybe logan made a jailbreak
mbecker96: troia!
potsnpans: joke.
turnthepaige: well, I’m about to find out. ttyl.
9:12 PM: turnthepaige has logged out.
drarryfan77: probably someone vandalized her mom’s office again
mbecker96: probably.
10:08 PM: turnthepaige has logged in
potsnpans: ....well?
turnthepaige: troia.
potsnpans: what
turnthepaige: you were right.



Sunday, October 6, 2013

Dear Logan,

         Great job, asshole, you have the cops looking for you again.

         Not that I don’t admire you managing to break out. A little offended you didn’t come here, but I guess it makes sense. This does seem to be the first place they came. I asked how long you’d been out - Miami’s a long drive from Stonefaire. The two police officers that came - Officer Blake and Officer Jackson - sort of looked at each other for a second before admitting they didn’t know. They weren’t even sure how you escaped, though Officer Jackson suggested you may have imitated a guard. Until proven otherwise, I’m assuming that’s how you did it. You always did have a knack for acting.

         Mom was pissed, Dad was just in shock. I was shocked, too, but also a little proud. And in a constant state of “what the holy fuck,” which to be honest, still hasn’t worn off. It’s just past 2 AM, and I’m still wired. I mean, just two weeks ago, I go to visit you and you’re there in that stupid beige jumpsuit, in handcuffs, like any other convict. And now you’re out and a wanted felon. I wonder if you were planning your escape, even then. You definitely didn’t look like you were. Back when you were here, back before you got locked up, I could always tell when you had something planned. Or at least, I like to think I could. You’d get this look in your eye that seemed to say, “Don’t tell Mom. What I’m about to do is really stupid, but it’ll be really cool.” Sometimes I’d try to talk you out of it, but you never listened.

         Okay, see, this is one thing that never made sense to me. I know you wouldn’t have listened to me if I’d tried to stop you, but I still feel guilty. Like maybe you wouldn’t have done it if I’d gone over to your house that night or called you or... I don’t know, something. But I didn’t. And now I have an older brother who is on the run because he broke out of prison, and Stonefaire, Florida has one less hideous abandoned building. I’m pretty sure they were planning to tear it down anyway, albeit with a wrecking ball or some explosives set by a trained professional. Not... you with matches and gasoline.

         I wanted to go over to Troia, Mila or Karen’s house, but it was way too late to even consider the possibility of Mom letting me out of the house, so I settled for a conference call. Once I double-checked to make sure Mom wasn’t listening in from outside my bedroom door, I said, “They think he’s dangerous. They came here because they thought he might go after Mom and Dad.”

         “Would he?” Karen asked, suddenly sounding worried.

         “No!” I snorted. “It’s stupid. Logan was destructive towards property, but never people.”

         “I didn’t know him very well, but he seemed nice before he got arrested,” Mila said.

         “He is nice,” I said.

         “He’s probably headed out of the state, maybe even out of the country,” Troia said. “He’s not stupid. He’s gotta know the cops are after him.”

         “I guess we’ll have to keep an eye on the news. Won’t be easy for me, though.”

         “Ugh, think your parents will try to stop you?”

         “Yeah. They wouldn’t even let me go to the court when Logan was being prosecuted. I mean, in hindsight, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sit through it without being sick anyway...”

         “You’ve never even seen recordings?” Karen asked.

         I snorted.

         “Oh, come on, they’ve gotta be online,” Mila said. “Everything’s online.”

         “Like I could look it up without them giving me hell for going behind their back afterwards!” I said. “And if I cleared my history, they’d know something was up.”

         “Knowing your parents, they’d suspect you were doing research for keggers and rainbow parties,” Troia said.

         “Did anyone ever actually do rainbow parties?”

         “Nope. But Fox News seems convinced it’s the next ‘big thing’ that teens are using to wreak havoc on society. They’re losing their shit.”

         “Good,” Karen said, “that means we’re doing something right.”

         “What’s a rainbow party?” Mila asked.

         “Let me send you a link to the Wikipedia article...” Troia said. I heard typing in the background, then a pause as Mila read it.

         “...Ew!”

         “Yep.”

         “And people thought we’d actually do that?”

         “My bet is the only people that did were the ones that saw the news stories and thought, ‘What a good idea!’. Getting back on topic, Paige, is there really no way for you to see those videos?”

         “No,” I sighed, “and they’d see if I googled a news article or something. And every time I ask about Logan, or even mention him, they get all quiet and sort of glare at me until I drop it.”

         “Jesus. You’d think he was some sort of serial killer or that he shot up a school or something,” Troia said. “But I guess they’re not used to it like my family is.”

         I’ve only been over to Troia’s house a couple times; her mom’s always working and after finding out that most of Troia’s relatives are in jail, Mom’s forbidden me from being there without adult supervision, even though I’d never do anything to get arrested. I’ve been an accomplice to a misdemeanor or two, thanks to you and Troia, but I’ve never actually done anything.

         “The library,” Mila said suddenly. “You could look up--”

         “I don’t have a library card,” I reminded them. “For that very reason. They want to know exactly what I’m doing on the internet. And if they catch me sneaking around once, they start reading our IMs, too.”

         “Do they read your texts?”

         “Probably.”

         “Shit,” Troia said.

         “Yeah. Don’t worry, Troia, I delete most of yours.”

         “So what do we do?” Karen asked.

         “I guess we... wait for the news to reach me. He’s bound to turn up soon.”

         “Yeah. I gotta go to bed, guys, Paige and I have a long day tomorrow.”

         “Oh, crap, that’s right!” I said, suddenly looking at the clock. “Tech week!”

         “Ah, yes, so begins the week when you two are in your worst moods,” Karen said, sounding amused at the inevitable misery that awaits me and Troia at Stonefaire Civic Theatre tomorrow, where we will spend the next week correcting bad tech choices, messing with faulty lights and speakers, and yelling at actors in our production of “Wait Until Dark.”

         “Shut up, Karen,” I said. “Good night, girls.”

         “Good night,” they chorused back.

         Logan, I know you can’t read this right now, but please, don’t get caught. You already have thirty years in prison on your sentence. I don’t want to see it turn into any more. I don’t want to see you go back to that awful place, even if you did burn down that building. I don’t want to see you the way you were last time I visited you.

         I’ll write again soon.

         Stay safe.

         Love,
         Paige