All the Good Girls go to Heaven

[ApplesApplesApples]

Ah yes the I want to take over the world evil eyebrows very nice,very Cayden. 

Rachel

Exactly. 

[ApplesApplesApples]

I was wondering if anyone noticed that this chapter has a lot of references from chapter one. There's Bindi, who Aliyah said in chapter one was her friend who'd died recently and had loved the same man as her. And there's the name Mae, which in this chapter Cayden suggests for their daughter, and in chapter one Aliyah mentions that her now-adult daughter is called Mae. Just little clues I dropped. And they're not the only ones. Thanks for reading! I love you guys.

[alex51299]

I was wondering if anyone noticed that this chapter has a lot of references from chapter one. There's Bindi, who Aliyah said in chapter one was her friend who'd died recently and had loved the same man as her. And there's the name Mae, which in this chapter Cayden suggests for their daughter, and in chapter one Aliyah mentions that her now-adult daughter is called Mae. Just little clues I dropped. And they're not the only ones. Thanks for reading! I love you guys.

I did notice the Mae thing, not Bindi though.

[Teacup Chihuahua]

I was wondering if anyone noticed that this chapter has a lot of references from chapter one. There's Bindi, who Aliyah said in chapter one was her friend who'd died recently and had loved the same man as her. And there's the name Mae, which in this chapter Cayden suggests for their daughter, and in chapter one Aliyah mentions that her now-adult daughter is called Mae. Just little clues I dropped. And they're not the only ones. Thanks for reading! I love you guys.
[/quote
Hi Apples ,glad you liked the A Star ,just  thinking as I was reading (above post) was the story all planned out at the start or has it developed as you have written.

[ratchie]

It could just be the mark of a good story teller to weave all those details into the story. I think it was probably a mixture of the two somethings are planned somethings just happen as the story develops.

Rachel

[loveSims]

Awesome updates! Those girls are so mean. Cayden is very handsome, love the evil eyebrows. Can't wait for more.

[ApplesApplesApples]

Hi Apples ,glad you liked the A Star ,just  thinking as I was reading (above post) was the story all planned out at the start or has it developed as you have written.

When I was writing the first chapter I knew everything that would happen except for the ending. By the time I'd written chapter 3 I already had the main events mapped out. However some things developed as I was writing; for example Gigi and Vanessa weren't in my outline at all. I had to go back and make Cayden and Aliyah as teens again, because I'd already taken them through their entire life.

[ApplesApplesApples]

Chapter 6

"They should start a club," said Cayden.

"Who?" I asked.

"Your mom and mine. The crazy ladies' bridge club or something."



"It's not funny!" I said, shocked that he would laugh at my story. "I told you that she threw away all my homework assignments because she thought they were trash and you laugh?"

"You have to learn to take it with humor, Aliyah. The only other option is to get depressed. At least your mother might get better. My mother won't."

"My mother might get better. There's still the chance that something will go wrong."

"She will." He squeezed my shoulder and kissed my ear.

"Stop it! Don't you know that's uncomfortable? It makes a sound like a gunshot." I gave him a shove in the chest.

For over a year a graveyard silence had hung over our house. My visits with Cayden consisted in commiseration and him talking me through the things I could do to make my mother's erratic behavior easier on our family. The hours I spent in school were torture--Gigi and Vanessa had made sure to transform me from a mildly pleasant person to be around into a pariah in the eyes of my fellow students. I was very seldom happy. Even Cayden only managed to cheer me up on rare occasions.

But then the doctor had said, "It looks like the treatment is working. The tumor has shrunk."

Those two little sentences had completely turned my life around. Sure, my mother still said weird things like "brush your teeth before the chocolate gets angry," but she got out of bed now. She even cooked my father and me our meals sometimes. She usually forgot something essential, like the salt or the flour, but we didn't mind because it made us so happy to see her busy again doing the things that she loved.

Improving didn't mean cured, though.

"She's already better," said Cayden.

"It's not for sure she's going to make a full recovery."

"But it's a start."

"I guess. I just wish she were completely better already. I miss having my mother around."

"Aliyah, you don't know how lucky you are," he said, low and gentle like in all the world there was only me, but I knew he was thinking about his mother, whom he'd taken care of on his own since he was seven without ever seeing the slightest sign of improvement in her.

"I know." I ran my fingers through his hair. "I know that in my mind. But I just can't make the rest of me believe that all this we've been through counts as good luck."

He closed his eyes and lay back on the grass as I continued to comb his hair. In the past year he hadn't lost his patience with me once, not even through my rants and hair-pulling and screaming and kicking. If it hadn't been for him, I wouldn't have gotten through my mother's treatment with my sanity intact. Now that my mother was recovering I had decided to give something back to him. So I packed up a picnic lunch and took us up to one of Cayden's favorite places, close to a little waterfall, with the fish jumping just feet away from us in the deep blue pool.

"I love this," he said.

"Really? I'm not that good a cook. I just tried some of my mom's recipes."

"The salad had too much vinegar and you overcooked the hamburgers. But that's not what I meant. I didn't come for the food." He opened his eyes and smiled up at me. "You know that your eyes are exactly the same color as the sky?"

"Your eyes are exactly the same color as my burnt hamburgers," I said.

Cayden grinned. "I've had that said before." He tapped my chin. "You're birthday's tomorrow and you still haven't told me. What do you want me to give you?"

"Nothing. I don't need anything."

"You're not just saying that because I don't have any money?"

I shrugged. "No. It's just that there's nothing I want."

"Stand up." He got to his feet and looked down at me. "Come on, stand up."

I got up slowly, wondering if he planned to throw me into the pond.

"What's the thing you want most in all the world?"

"I don't know. For my mother's tumor to go away, and for your mother's disease to go away. And you."

"Well, I don't know what I can do about the first two, and the third one hardly counts as a gift, since you've always had it. Isn't there anything else?"

"I want to go to Mars."

"Isn't the world already big enough?"

I smiled and shook my head. "I want to go where no one's ever gone before. I want to walk on virgin soil."

"And meet the funny little red men?"

"I guess."

He nodded. "Close your eyes."

"Cayden," I said. "What are you going to do?"

"Trust me."

I sighed.



With my eyes closed, I listened hard for any indication of what he was going to do. I could hear his breathing and put my hand on his chest. I always liked to feel the air rushing into his lungs, and the vibration his voice caused. It also made sure he couldn't get any closer without me knowing.

"Think about Mars," he said.

"I'm thinking about it."

"Picture it in your head."

"I'm picturing it."

"You have it?"

"Yes, Cayden."

"Okay, good." I felt him lean over sideways and then straighten again. "Open your eyes."

I opened them and found something round and red in front of my nose. For a second I wondered what it was. "Cayden, that's a tomato."

"You're the one who taught me how to imagine things, remember?"

"We're going to imagine that this tomato is Mars?"

"Yes. I can't make you go up into space for your birthday. But this is hope, Aliyah. Think about this. You're going to be able to achieve anything you want because you're an amazing person and you always make everything work."

"What if I want to go to the moon?"

He handed me an egg.

"Now that doesn't look like the moon at all."

"Use your imagination a little bit."

I took the tomato and the egg and turned them over in my hands, trying to imagine them as celestial bodies. "I'm not the one that makes everything work. You are. If you hadn't helped me this past year..."

He hushed me, shaking his head. "I'm just paying you back for what you did for me. How do you think I was able to overcome my sister's death? If you didn't exist, Aliyah, I wouldn't be anything. Whatever I do for you is just trying to return the favor. I never can, not completely. Your blank check with me has no limit."

I wiped my nose. "Thank you, Cayden."

"Those are words you never have to say to me."

The gift from my parents was a little less abstract. They gave me a shiny new light green car and my father took me to get my driver's license. My mother didn't like the idea of me driving around by myself, but she got nervous at anything. Cayden didn't like my car. He hated driving automatic shift. Even though I told him he wouldn't be driving it himself he still didn't warm up to it.

A few weeks after my birthday a scream woke me up in the wee hours of the morning. I thought it was my mom and ran downstairs to check on her, but found her sitting at the dining room table.

"What's the matter?" I asked.

"Your father went to see."

He stomped back in, half-dressed and still in his house shoes, a decidedly peeved expression on his face. "The Moreys have rats."

"In their house?" I asked.

"Yes, of course in their house. They're full of them, and Dana thinks they might have rabies."

"Did they call an exterminator?"

"No." He glared at me as if it was my fault. "Your friend Cayden wouldn't let me. Who knows why. They can't live in that place until they get rid of the rats. It's no wonder they have them, either. They have rotten food everywhere."

"What will they do until they get rid of them?" asked my mother.

"Can't we ask them to come here?" I said.

"Here?" said my father, his eyes nearly popping. "They can't come here."

Eventually, though, he had to relent. Cayden and his mother had put sleeping bags in their backyard, and he couldn't leave them like that. It had already started to get light when he finally let them in. He hid behind his newspaper when they walked into the living room. My mother, however, quickly started up a conversation with Cayden's mother as if they'd known each other their whole life.

Cayden looked at me. He didn't seem very happy.



I patted the couch cushion next to me. He glanced at my father, but since my father seemed impervious, he took a seat.

"Why don't you want to call the exterminator?"

"We don't have enough money to pay an exterminator."

"I'll lend you some."

He shook his head. "I sprayed rat poison and closed all the windows and doors. They should all be dead soon, and I can ventilate the house for a day or so."

"Why won't you let me...?"

"I don't like this, Aliyah," he said, his voice dropping so I could barely hear it. "My mother isn't good. She's going to do something crazy and your parents are going to see."

"My mom's been doing crazy things for a long time. We're used to it."

He didn't seem convinced. When we left for school he was fidgety, imagining all the things his mother could get up to in his absence.

"How do you usually deal with her when you're not at home?" I asked, glancing away from the road for a moment at his distracting antics.

"I lock everything so she can't get out and leave the TV on and plenty of magazines and books around to entertain her, and some food on the counter and in the fridge, because sometimes she forgets to check one or the other."

"You just lock her in? What if something happens? If there's a fire or something?"

"I either have to take my chances with that or with her loose, getting herself drowned in the pond or run over by a car."

"She's really that bad?"

He didn't answer.

That night at dinner my father was horrible. First he went on and on about his job with the insurance company and with things that none of us understood, just to make himself sound important. He kept dropping hints about what he thought of the Moreys' situation; things like "people who don't have enough money set aside for insurance just walk themselves into a corner. Got no one to blame but themselves." Then he started pestering Cayden about his school performance.

"What classes are you taking this semester, Cayden?"

"Just the usual," said Cayden without looking up from his plate.

"Aliyah's already taking trigonometry. That's pretty advanced for a sophomore, don't you agree, Dana?"

"Yes, absolutely," said Cayden's mom, who was unusually happy after nearly half a bottle of wine.

"What math class are you taking?" asked my father.

"Geometry."

"Really? Here Aliyah's been trying to make me believe that you're some kind of genius."

"He is," I said angrily. "He just disagrees with his teachers a lot. He's smarter than anyone in school."

"I'm sure he is," said my father. "Any idea if you'll go to community college, Cayden, or do you not have any plans yet?"

At that moment Cayden's patience ran out. I was surprised it had lasted that long. He got up from the table without excusing himself.



"Dad, that was completely impolite," I said when Cayden had gone.

"What?" said my father, acting surprised. "I was just curious about the mysterious Cayden. I haven't had a chance to really talk to him since he was eight years old. What was it we said then? Oh, that's right. He called me several names and ran out."

I set down my silverware. "May I be excused?"

"No, you may not. We have guests, Aliyah. I won't have you misbehaving. Stay until the end of the meal."

When I was finally allowed upstairs I couldn't see light coming from the guest room we'd put Cayden and his mother in, so I dragged my feet across my room to my little bathroom and changed into the underwear I always slept in. When I came back out I had a shock to see Cayden sitting right outside the glass doors that led out onto the balcony.



I slipped out. "Don't you like your room?" I asked him, hugging myself.

"It's kind of like someone puked elegant taste onto it, but otherwise it's just fine. Do you always sleep like that?"



"Yep," I said nonchalantly. "Well, you're my guest. I can't just leave you out here. Come into my room."

He raised his eyebrows. "Your room? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"You've never showed me your room before."

"I don't usually like people in there. But it's okay. Come on."

He followed me inside. I had the feeling he wasn't looking at my room, but I didn't check. However, once I went around behind him to close the door, he stopped and looked around, kind of like he'd just gotten smacked full in the face with something heavy.



"It's pink," he said.

"Yeah, so? I like pink."

"Why?"

"What do you mean why? I just like the color. I always have. It's been decorated this way ever since I was five or six. I've never wanted to change it."

"You don't get tired of the... pink?"

"I'd do it up in black and green-and-tan camouflage colors, but then it would be your room, not mine."

He went over and sat on my bed. I had to giggle at his expression. He'd probably never been surrounded by so much pink in his life. "It's nice."

"Not entirely convincing."

"No? Well, I like pink sometimes. I like you in pink. I like that pink that you're wearing now, for example."

"Thank you." I'd lost all my shyness and gave a little twirl.

He laughed and lay back on the bed, looking around at the posters on the walls. I went to lie down next to him. "It's kind of relaxing after you get over the initial fit of epilepsy."

"It's not that pink, Cayden. You're overreacting."

"Really?"

"Have you ever thought about what you were going to do when you graduate?"

"Yes. I was thinking just the other day that I might apply for a full-time job at the grocery store. There's probably a promotion coming my way sometime soon."

"What about college? A real job? You're too smart to get stuck operating cash registers for the rest of your life. You could be working for Microsoft or Apple or something. Or for the government. You could be a scientist."

He just looked at me.



We talked for a long time, although the conversation was almost one-sided. Cayden didn't say so, but I knew what my father had said to him still bothered him. I don't know what time it was when I finally drifted off, pillowing my head on Cayden's chest, his breathing lulling me to sleep.

I woke some time later as he tried to slip out from under me unnoticed. "What's the matter?" I asked sleepily.

"Go back to sleep," he said, and left the room.

Laughter drifted up to me from the grounds below, and a splash. I got up and went to the window. I could barely make out the shape of someone standing next to the pool.

I quickly pulled on my clothes and ran downstairs and out onto the lawn. Cayden was sprinting toward the pool. I followed him. As we got closer, I saw that the figure next to the water was his mother holding a fishing pole, wearing nothing but her flimsy nightgown.



I slowed down a little, wondering if I was still half-asleep. Cayden raced over to her and took the pole from her hands, throwing it down on the ground beside them. His mother started to thrash and scream, but Cayden grabbed her arms to keep her from hitting him.

"It's okay, mom," he said.

"Let go of me! I was fishing!" she said.

"There are no fish in the pool, mom."

"I have a fishing pole, and bait. Trisha told me to do it."

"Oh, man," I breathed, stopping a few feet away from them.

"What are you doing? You're interrupting the cycle, you ghoul!" said Dana.

Cayden put his hands on her face. "Hush, mom, it's me."

Dana squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. "There is one thing to recover from the water still. It's night, that's the time to do it. I have to tempt her, use bait to bring her back. She's grown gills and she won't want to come out of the water."

I glanced at the fishing pole. On the hook at the end of the line was a worn little waterlogged teddy bear.

"Trisha's gone, mom," said Cayden.

"She's just under the water, waiting for us to fish her back out again."

"No, she's not. She's dead."

Dana opened her eyes and looked down at his face. I could only see the back of his head. "What... why did that happen?"

"It happened a long time ago. She's not going to come back. Her body isn't in the water anymore, and this wasn't where she drowned."

Dana started to cry, a high little whimper like a child's cry. Cayden hugged her and she buried her face in his hair. I knew he was crying, too.



After a while Cayden let go of her and came over to me. "You see what I have to deal with every day?" He still had tears on his face, but he looked angry rather than sad.

"This always happens?"

"It's always something. The lights are on in your parents' room."

I looked back and saw he was right. "I'll distract them. You bring your mother back inside."

He nodded and went back to his mother, wiping his eyes. "Come on, mom. Let's go back. Come on, slowly."

I ran back inside, wondering how Cayden could ever have dealt with his mother all these years, and what the future could possibly hold for him other than another lifetime of the same thing. And for the first time, I saw the incredible distance between us, and how forever might not really mean forever. I had college, a professional job, and anything I wanted ahead of me. Cayden had only this.

[MoonsAreBlue]

I don't know what to say other than how sad... but beautifully written. Keep it coming, Apples.

[alex51299]

I agree with Moons, beautiful but still sad.

[Teacup Chihuahua]

Touching,Haunting,,Beautiful and Melancholy
    Apples,your story ,your writing WOW

[loveSims]

I almost cry it was so sad. Cayden is a wonderful son.

[ApplesApplesApples]

Chapter 7

Mae called just a moment ago, interrupting my recollections.



"Mom, I just remembered. Do you have a frying pan?"

"Of course I have a frying pan, Mae. I have all of your grandmother's cooking things. Most of them haven't been used for fifty years, but they're old-fashioned, made to last."

"That's what I thought. Good, because I'm heading straight over there after I finish up at school. One more thing. Are any of Tita's friend's coming?"

"She didn't mention anyone."

"Well, you know how Tita can be. Spacey just like her mother. And ever since Bindi died she's been spacier."

"Why don't you ask her?"

"Urgh, she won't pick up. I've been trying her. Are you okay, mom? You seem a little distracted."

"Just thinking. There are a lot of ghosts in this house."

"Tell them to go away."

I smiled. "I wish I could."

"I was wondering..." I knew Mae had something difficult to say because she took a few seconds to come out with it. "Have you heard anything from dad? Is he coming to the funeral?"

"I don't think he even knows, Mae. We haven't really spoken for..." I couldn't even calculate the length of the eternity that had passed since I'd seen him last, walking out my front door without a glance back. There were other times since then, of course. The last time was when we both went to see Marcus in a school play. He took his new girlfriend, who would later become his third wife. I didn't like her. If I'd had a bit less dignity and some spitballs I would have thrown some at the back of her neck, since she sat just a few rows in front of me. But we hadn't exchanged more than a polite "hello" and "how've you been." "Don't you speak with him sometimes?"

"Yeah, just not recently. Not since we had that fight about Sam. I know you don't like my husband, but at least you try to tolerate him. Dad doesn't even try."

"He never had much patience." I laid a hand over my eyes to ward off the ghosts that wanted me to hang up on Mae and dive into my memories again.

"Well, the least he could do would be to come. He's just two hours away. Maybe I'll call and tell him. He was friends with Bindi, he should be there. Unless it makes you uncomfortable?"

"No, I'm past that. He might not want to see me, though."

"Okay, I'll call him. Thanks, mom. I'll see you this evening. I hope the ghosts leave you alone."

But they didn't, of course. As soon as Mae hung up they appeared again. So here I am once more, a few months after the last event on my timeline, on the day I tortured the butterfly for Cayden.

I'd gone to pick up Cayden after detention, so he wouldn't have to walk home. When he came out he didn't want to get in the car, though, and he paced and paced across the sidewalk. I watched.

"What were you put in detention for this time?"

He shrugged.

"I'm always amazed at all the creative methods of getting into trouble you have."

"Yeah, I'm a troublemaker." He sneered.

I sighed, deciding he was in one of his nasty moods. "Let's go sit down." I directed him toward a bench next to the school wall. "Are you going to talk to me or are you going to snap?"

He started playing with my hair, trying to seem calm, I'm sure. But he couldn't disguise his emotions and kept jerking the hair he held in his fingers, nearly pulling it out by the roots.

"Ow! Stop it," I said, swatting him away.

He just started again on the back of my head. "Have you ever tried revenge?"

"I guess so."

He put his arms around my neck and rested his forehead against mine. "Look behind me."



"It's Bindi Brightman."

"One of your little group of hilarious friends that thought it was so funny to torture me a few years back. Remember?"

"Sure, of course I remember."

"You know, Aliyah, you never properly punished those girls for what they did to me. You just yelled at them. I bet their mothers do the same thing to them every day. What you really ought to have done is get them back in the same way."

"Cayden, I don't do that." I squirmed uncomfortably.

"Not even to please me?"

"That was two years ago. It's all forgotten."

"I've never forgotten." His voice was rough and violent, like he might explode and attack me at any moment. I was almost afraid of him, but not quite. It was hard to be afraid of someone I knew would never hurt me. I didn't know back then that he would hurt me more than anyone else is or has been even capable of doing.

But nevertheless, Cayden had pulled all the right strings on me. Guilt has always been the best way to come at me. I started feeling so responsible for everything I hadn't done back when the girls had been mean to Cayden, for all the other times I hadn't defended him, for letting him face taking care of his mother alone, that I forgot the vague impression I had that Bindi hadn't really participated in Gigi and Vanessa's attack.

"What do I say?"

"Anything," said Cayden. "Dig deeper wherever you see it hurts most."

I stood up and walked over to Bindi. "Why are you coming out so late?" I asked.

She started as if I'd shouted "boo" and turned to me. "Oh, nothing. Just... um... I had to finish up some schoolwork."

"So you're actually doing schoolwork now?"

She looked at me as if trying to decide if I had meant it as an insult. I'm sure my tone wasn't very convincing. "I'm trying to do better in school."



"That's funny, because this is just the time people come out from detention."

She blushed a furious red. "Oh, I, um..."

"Did they put you in detention for dress-code violations? Where did you get those clothes, anyway?"

"My... grandfather bought them at a used-clothes store."

"Oh, that explains it." I had started to get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, but I ignored it and plowed on. "The same place your mother got your father from, right?" It didn't entirely make sense, but Bindi's lower lip started to tremble.

"I don't know what I did to you, Aliyah. I always liked you."

"I always thought you were an annoying little bimbo, except you're not even pretty. You've got the brains of a bimbo, though."

She turned away and put her face in her hands.

I looked at her horror-struck, trying to remember if the words had really come out of my mouth. I glanced back toward Cayden, whose expression was unreadable, and at Bindi again.

Then I ran for my car. I drove three blocks before I had to stop to calm myself down. I felt like a disgusting bug of a human being. I couldn't believe Cayden had made me do that. I couldn't believe I'd let him make me.

I drove home and went upstairs to my room, answering my mother's offer of supper with "I'm not feeling well. I'm just going to go lie down."

Once in my room I really did feel sick. I went to the bathroom and tried to vomit but nothing came up. I stood there, breathing heavily, trying to convince myself somehow that what I'd done was justified in some way. I wasn't able to.



I went back into my room and lay on the floor looking at the ceiling for some time. In fact, by the time I moved again, I couldn't hear voices coming from the dining room anymore, and the sky outside had darkened considerably.

"Aliyah!" came a call from outside.

I ignored it. I knew it was Cayden. I wasn't interested in what he had to say.

"Aliyah! Please answer me!"

When I didn't, something smacked against the glass doors that faced the balcony. I sat up, my heart beating hard, and realized he'd thrown a shoe. My father had had the gardener remove all the rocks from the grounds years ago, when I still played and fell on my face in the grass.

I opened the glass door, picked up the shoe, and walked to the edge of the balcony. Cayden stood below.



"What?" I said.

"I need your help."

"Help yourself. I've had enough helping you for one day. That thing you made me do to Bindi, Cayden, that wasn't funny or nice."

"I never said it would be."

"Go away. I don't want to talk to you." I threw the shoe back down to him and was heading back inside when I heard the far-off screech of sirens. I stopped and looked back down. "Cayden, you aren't running from the police, are you?"

"I'm sorry, Aliyah. I wouldn't come to you if I had anywhere else to go. If you tell me to go away, I will."



I ground my palms into my forehead. "This is unbelievable, Cayden. You're unbelievable. It's less than three hours since I saw you. How did you manage to get the police after you in that time?"

"I'll explain."

"Fine. Come around to the front."

I crept down the stairs, trying not to make a sound. I heard my parents talking in their bedroom, which was right next to the living room. I walked across to the door, looking around me, making sure no one was watching.



I unlocked the door and let him in, putting a finger over my lips and pointing to my parents' bedroom as he came in. We went back up to my room.

"Why are the police after you?"

"Because I robbed a bank."

I shook my head and sighed. "Okay. Why did you rob a bank?"

"What? I can't do it just because it's fun?"

"Let's start with an easier question. How did you rob it?"

"Oh, I just hacked into their servers, redirected the signal from the security cameras and unlocked a few locks." He shrugged. "Easier than binary code."

"Okay." I crossed my arms. "And how exactly did you hack into their servers if you don't even own a computer?"

"I don't need a computer. Their security system is prehistoric; I could've done this when I was three."

"If their security system's so bad how did you get caught?"

He sighed, shook his head, and walked out onto the balcony. I followed him. "I made a stupid mistake," he said, not looking at me. "I didn't think to look and walked right out the door. There was a policeman standing right outside. He looked at me for a moment and then I started running and he started chasing me."

I couldn't hold back a laugh. "Did he see who you were?"

"No, I had on a mask."

"Okay, let's go back to the initial question. Why were you robbing a bank?"

"For my mother."

"She needs money for medication?"

"No." He looked away. "For a clinic."

"What?"

"I found one, just half an hour out of town. It's got a good reputation, it's affordable..."

"Well, sure. Everything's affordable when you have stolen bank money!"

"The monthly fees are affordable. Once I'm not paying for her medication anymore I can reduce my other expenses. I'm going to mortgage the house, and between that and my salary I can get the payments together. It's the initial fee I can't pay."

"Cayden... I'm rich! My parents have boatloads of money!"

"They're not exactly going to lend me any, are they?"

"But I could have! I have an allowance..."

He rolled his eyes.

"And I also have some saved up for my college fund..."

"No," he said firmly, glowering at me.

"My parents are going to pay my tuition anyway. This was just in case, for other expenses I might have. It's not like I won't go to college if I give you a little from there..."

"No, Aliyah."

"Cayden, sometimes I don't understand you. Do you want to be with me? If you go to jail..."

"I'm not going to jail."

"Where is the money you stole?"

He propped his elbows on the balcony railing. "A safe place."

"Return it."

He looked at me like I'd gone completely insane.

"Return it anonymously, and I'll find a way to get you the money for your mother."

"No way, Aliyah."

"Then it's over." I threw my hands up in surrender. "I give up. I can't do this anymore."

"Do this? Do what, exactly? Our 'thing'? You can't give up, Aliyah, and you know it just as well as I do. What are you going to do, break up with me? We're hardly two separate people. You can't break up with me, and you can't give up on us, because it isn't us you're giving up on. It's you. I'm you as much as myself, and you're me as much as yourself, and it's always been that way, and it always will be. If you leave me, you not only break me. You break yourself. And there's no replacement parts, no one who does repairs. It's over for both of us."

I pressed down on my eyes, wishing I could tell him he was wrong. "What do you want me to do, then?"

"Nothing. I'll deal with this myself."

I huffed in frustration and started to head inside, but he grabbed me and pulled me close, resting his forehead on my shoulder. "Don't be angry, Aliyah. I didn't want to involve you in this."



"This can't end well," I said.

"I know. But it's going to be better once it does end. I promise you that."

Cayden spent the night at my house. The next day he convinced me to go to school, telling me he'd be fine, but to come back straight afterwards. I didn't. Instead, I headed over to Bindi's house.

I parked in the driveway and got out of the car, starting to head up the steps and into the house when I noticed that someone was rooting around in the trash can. I approached and saw striped tights and a miniskirt.



"Bindi?" I asked.

"Ah!" she said, pulling her head out and looking around wildly.



"It's me, Bindi. Aliyah."

"Oh." She dusted off her hands and stood facing me warily.

"I came to apologize for yesterday. I was mean for no reason."

She shrugged. "It's okay."

"No, it's not. I'm really sorry. I felt awful about it afterward."

She smiled and came over. She smelled a bit like garbage. "Don't worry about it."



"I don't think you're an empty-headed bimbo."

"Okay. Thank you."

"When you came over to my house two years ago and everyone started attacking Cayden I just got so upset."

"I didn't attack him!" she said. "I was angry at Gigi, too. But they were my only friends. I hoped you would be my friend instead of them afterwards, but then you were never around. I actually like Cayden. I remember when everyone at school found out about my mother. I was in first grade. There'd been rumors before but no one really knew. And then it came out all of a sudden because a girl overheard the teachers talking about it with me and everyone started teasing me and making fun of me. I was in the playground one day and everyone was around me, laughing and pointing at me. Cayden was there, and he didn't make fun of me. He even showed me how to get up into the tube slide where no one could get at me."

"Really?" I said. I'd never known about this, and Cayden usually told me everything. I wondered if it had been before we'd become friends.

"When Gigi and Vanessa were being mean to him I wanted to intervene, but I was so glad that they let me hang out with them and that I finally had friends that I couldn't. Just before Cayden ran away he looked at me and I could see how angry he was that I didn't do for him what he'd done for me. I felt really sorry."

"Do you have any friends now?"

"Not really. Gigi and Vanessa got tired of me and told me to stop following them around. But I've got my grandfather and Zach, and they're all I need." She gave me the kind of wispy smile that made me wonder if she was entirely lucid and held up a little plastic action figure. "My grandfather accidentally threw this away and Zach went crazy. I had to go look for it in the garbage."

"Bindi!" said a little voice from behind me. A little boy of two or so had tottered onto the front porch and held out his hands expectantly.

"I found it," said Bindi.

I followed her as she went over to give it to him. I had a bad feeling. "Bindi, he's not... yours?"

"What?" she laughed. "No, he's my brother. Half-brother, I guess. My mom was back here again a year ago for a few months and left him when she went away again."

"Oh." I watched Zach chewing on the head of the action figure. "Should he be putting it in his mouth when it's just been in the garbage?"

"You're right. Here, Zach, give it back." She took it away and he started to cry. "Oh, Zachy, I'm just going to wash it and then you can play with it again."

"Can I hold him?" I asked.

"Yeah." She handed him to me without warning and the little boy nearly squirmed out of my arms trying to get back to her. I started tickling him and he stopped, giggling.



"He's a cutie," I said. I noticed Bindi's dejected expression. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing."

"Hey, Bindi. I'll be your friend if you let me."

"You don't really mean that, do you?"

"Of course I do. Maybe we can even get Cayden to not be angry at you anymore."

She brightened. "Thank you, Aliyah. I've always wanted to be your friend. Can I give you a nickname?"

"Sure."

"How about Leah?"

I laughed. "My grandmother used to call me that."

"It's good?"

"Absolutely." I happened to notice the time on my wristwatch. "Hey, Bindi, I've got to get home. But we'll get together soon, okay?"

"Whenever you want," she said, beaming, and took her brother back.

When I got home I tried to slip into the kitchen to get some food to take up to Cayden, but found my father talking on the phone. I tried to listen, wondering if it was the police.



"Thank you," said my father, and hung up. I tried to leave before he saw me, but I was too slow. "Where is he, Aliyah?"

"Where's who?" I asked innocently.

"What's the matter?" asked my mother, coming out of the bedroom.

"Nothing, Lily. Go back to bed." My father dragged me into the living room. "I just got off the phone with the police. The bank was robbed yesterday evening, and they think it might be Cayden. They've been everywhere looking for him, but haven't found him. The police officer seemed to think you might know where he is."

"I saw him at school today. I went over to a friend's afterward, but he's probably back at his house now."

"If you're lying, Aliyah, you're not just lying to me. This is a serious matter. The police are after him because he's a criminal."

"What proof do they have? Or do they just suspect him, just because? Did anyone actually see him robbing the bank?"

"I don't know all the details..."

"No, you don't, so stop assuming things." I started to leave all in a huff.

"That's no way to talk to your father, Aliyah. Do you think I'm worried just because I want to be contrary and keep you from doing what you want? I'm worried about you. I've always wanted the best for you."

I bowed my head. "I'm sorry, dad," I said, feeling a little guilty for having lied to him, but no more than a little.



"All right. Supper's in an hour. If you don't eat with us tonight I'm going to have to take you to the doctor."

"No, I'm better now. I promise." I ran upstairs before he could question me further, but I didn't find Cayden in my room. I looked for him all over the second floor. All was quiet. He must have left.

I plopped down on my bed, trying not to imagine everything that could be wrong. If he'd gotten caught, or if despite his words last night he'd decided to just take off, get on a bus out of the city.

Something crackled under me. I pulled out a piece of paper I appeared to have sat on. It had just a handful of words written in hurried but familiar handwriting.

Going to do what you told me to do. Hope you hold up your end of the promise. Cayden.
Thanks for reading!

[Teacup Chihuahua]

Oh another great cliff hanger Thanks for another great update
  I'm glad things got sorted out with Bindi ,very curious about Cayden and Bindi in the playground

[MoMoll]

Thank you for the update! BUT, I hate cliff hangers! LOL!