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Kings And Bishops (The List)

Kings And Bishops (The List): Chapter 11


…A month and nineteen days.

I tried not to think about it, I really did, but it just didn’t want to leave my mind. I tried to keep my brain occupied with other things, but this thought was like a parasite – once planted there, it wouldn’t disappear. Even the time I spent thinking of different stuff, this evil little thought, this fucking parasite would just hide in the dark corner of my head, barely visible, but I still knew it was there. It just wouldn’t stop bothering me.

At night, when the doubts and the shadows surrounded me, it would always come back, bringing all those flashbacks and nightmares along. I kept stubbornly fighting with the insomnia, but I was losing the war against it.

Sometimes, when Vic woke up to find out I’m awake as well, he’d come to me and slip into my bed, without saying anything, and just hug me and sing me to sleep. At first it used to bother me a little – it felt strange and somehow wrong, but back then I didn’t know him that well. Now, though, now feeling him next to me, his warm body slightly smelling of mint and coffee, was truly comforting me, I was so used to his soft voice that I’d recognize it anywhere. It would always chase the flashbacks away and help me sleep calmly for at least a few hours.

For the last few days we changed three cars and threw Vic’s phone away, afraid that the cops could track us. From now on, we had to be much more cautious, since that interview with Vic’s ex, and what we did to Ross. He, of course, had complained in the police, and now we weren’t only charged in murder, car theft and robbery, but in assault and battery too. Our crimes were getting more and more serious, and that worried me. Although I didn’t want to, I was slowly turning Victor into a criminal. Well, sure, he was a grownup, what he was doing was his own decision only. But I wasn’t sure how good that decision was. He was putting himself in serious danger, and we both knew it, it was just a matter of time for him to get caught, sued and sent to prison, something that he didn’t deserve at all. Even though I didn’t like it, deep inside I knew I couldn’t let him stay with me for much longer. He was the best friend and the sweetest person I had ever met, but no matter how much I liked him and wanted to keep him with me, I knew that sooner or later, I’d have to let him go. That would be probably best for him. The big problem was that I didn’t want him to leave, and the more time we spent together, the more I wished he could stay.

There was something else, too, though… I was afraid. I was afraid to die alone. I was afraid that no one would know, there would be no one to close my eyes and bury my body.

I blinked, chasing those depressing thoughts away. Don’t think about then, I told myself, think about now.

And now my biggest concern was the shitty coffee I was drinking. Not such a big deal anyway. The last few weeks I had had more shitty coffees than I had in my whole life before.

I looked up at Vic. He was sitting opposite me, eating a doughnut and reading the paper. His long brown hair, now straightened, was falling on both sides of his face, half-covering his right eye. Even though it had rained for hours, now the sun had come out again, throwing a few sunbeams across the café and over Victor’s head. It was from that specific kind of sunlight that you’d usually see early in the morning, or after a storm – weak, but warm, changing the colors and shapes of everything, making it all somehow smoother. It did that to Vic, too; his chocolate-like dark hair now seemed bronze, some locks almost coppery red. I watched the sun play with the shadows on his face, tracing every movement, every little change of his expression, every little smile and frown, as he kept unconsciously reacting to what he was reading. The way he always seemed to build imaginary comments and conversations in his mind, his emotions showing on his face without him realizing, made me smile.

When he felt I was watching him, he threw a glance up at me, and I quickly looked away, hoping he didn’t notice me stare. I felt a light blush attack my face, though, giving me away. Shit… Why was I feeling so uncomfortable, anyway? It wasn’t like I was doing something wrong, I was just… looking… yeah, I was just looking at him, just like that, for no particular reason… But was that true, really?

Thank God, Vic didn’t pay me much attention and went back to reading after a second. I nervously scratched the back of my neck and looked at him again, now curious to know what in that newspaper interested him so much. Suddenly, he giggled at something, slightly furrowing his nose. For some ridiculous reason, his soft laughter made the blush come back.

I raised an eyebrow.

“What’s so funny?”, I leaned across the table to see.

“Huh? Oh. Just reading the jokes.”, he shrugged, still grinning. “Because, what the hell. Enough with all that seriousness, I don’t want to spend my time in constantly worrying about everything.”

I pointed at him and grinned too. “Yup, good point.”, then, taking another sip from my coffee, I leaned back on my chair, thinking. “You know what, that’s it, fuck it. Tonight we’re gonna have some fun. No hiding in hotel rooms and shitty cafés. What do you think?”

“I like how it sounds, but it might be quite risky… Basically everyone knows how we look like.”, he bit his lower lip. “Going out where people can see us is almost impossible.”

I shrugged.

“Then we’ll just change our looks, y’know? And go somewhere crowded, there no one would pay us much attention.”

“I don’t think this is the right place for this, then. I mean, the town isn’t that big, I guess everyone knows each other. I say, let’s wait ‘till we get to Vegas and then have fun, hm?”

“No.”, I shook head. “We’ll have a lot of work to do in Vegas. The next person on the List is a rich, clever motherfucker. We’d need much more preparation.”

“Who is it?”, Vic tilted curiously head. “You never told me.”

I frowned. Yeah, that wasn’t a subject I liked to talk about.

“The guy I used to work with before. Well, until he tricked me, took all the money we had earned and fled to Las Vegas.”, I rolled eyes. “Now he made everything look legal, so I can’t sue him. However, he fucking ruined my life, so I’m taking my money back.”

Interested, Vic leaned forward, resting his head on his hand, watching me and completely forgetting about the newspaper, which was still in his other one.

“Taking your money back? Does that mean we’re gonna rob him?”

“Yup, that’s exactly what we’re gonna do. We have two options – to rob the casino he currently owns, or break into the bank where he keeps his money. But since I’ve watched Ocean’s Eleven twice, I don’t think that robbing the casino is such a good idea.”, I grinned. “So the bank it is.”

“How are we gonna do it?”

“Well”, I frowned a bit, “I have a few ideas. We’ll see, we need to check the place out first, stuff like that. In the worst case, we’ll do just the usual kind of robbery. Y’know, like, the ‘Put your hands in the air, everybody on the floor, now give me my money, okay, thanks, bye’ kinda thing.”

“Sounds good.”, Vic shrugged. “And… Ocean’s Eleven? Seriously?”, he chuckled. “Do you really think that’s how you rob a casino, Kellin?”

“Dude, it’s one of the best movies, like, ever!”, I said in my defense. “And, I mean, why the hell not, it might not be exactly realistic, but films like that can teach you almost everything about security systems and how to get through them.”

“Mm, yeah, good point.”, he agreed. “I’ve always thought that. If real criminals watch movies like that, they might get some pretty cool ideas.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Why use your imagination, when someone already did it before you?”, I grinned, then finished my coffee and put it on the table. “Let’s leave the planning for later, though. We have about one or two more days until we get to Vegas, but I doubt we’ll be staying there, everything will be too expensive, and we’re running out of money. We might just steal another van and one of us would sleep in the back, while the other one’s driving. Also, we should-”

“Shh. As you said, let’s leave planning for later.”, Vic grinned as well. “So…”, he hesitated, “…what were you saying about tonight?”

“Oh, so you’re up for it!”

“I… guess?”, he shrugged again. “I know we’re both tired of running and hiding, let’s do something interesting. Do you have somewhere in mind?”

“Nope.”, I shook head. “But I, your friend Clyde Badassness here, can always find a fun place everywhere, even in such a boring little town like this. Trust me.”, I winked. “I’m an expert.”

Vic giggled softly. “Okay, then. We’ll see how much of an expert you are.”

He grinned at me, then came back to reading. I opened my mouth to add something, but then closed it, realizing I have nothing left to say. The conversation was over, I could come back to contemplating the sunlight, which was now brighter, as almost all clouds had disappeared from the sky. It was shining directly in Victor’s face now, causing him to frown and narrow his eyes, his pale eyelashes shuddering as he blinked rapidly to focus his look on the paper. I could tell he wasn’t really reading anymore, though, because his eyes weren’t moving behind his eyelids. He was thinking something now. I tilted head, wondering what he was thinking about. Was he thinking about the plan? Was he thinking of what we had been through the last two weeks? Was he thinking of me…?

I blinked and looked away again, forcing myself to stop staring. It wasn’t like I was doing something wrong, of course, yeah, I was just observing, like before… There was nothing wrong with observing. Right? Right… Besides, Vic was watching me sometimes, too, when he thought I couldn’t see him. So it was alright. Totally.

In a minute Victor giggled at the newspaper again, letting me know he continued reading jokes. I smiled.

Damn, beautiful things like that sunlight and Vic’s laughter made me really not want to go, at least not that soon… They made me realize how perfect life could be, only if I could stay for a little longer…

…Only if… Then I’d…

* * *

I could feel the loud music resounding in my head and couldn’t help but slightly tap my foot to the rhythm, grinning. The new shoes were uncomfortable and a bit too small for me, but I had to wear them – those were the rules, they said. What rules, exactly? “Wear uncomfortable shoes to fail at playing the game and let your opponent win”? Those were some dumb rules, I wanted my sneakers back.

Indeed, the bowling club was filled. Surprisingly how many kids came to places like this, even in such a small city, and, which was good for us, most of them were dressed like us. It was one of those clubs, where you don’t need to be a member to play, so pretty much everyone could come and have fun. I took a sip from my beer as I was watching Vic try to pick a ball. All of them looked the same to me, just colored differently. Hmm.

“Take the pink one, Bonnie, it suits you most.”, I grinned, teasing him. “Come on, the color doesn’t matter, just take a random one and let’s start, I’m beginning to get bored here!”

Vic rolled eyes.

“It does matter, you uneducated outlaw. Every color shows how heavy each ball is. See, here, they have numbers, too, which show their weight.”, he explained.

I shook head, eyebrows knitted. “Weren’t the numbers enough, then, why did they have to add colors too? This is stupid.”

You’re stupid.”, Victor giggled and poked me, then went back to thinking. “…I’m looking for a lighter one… Oh! Here, this one looks fine.”

“It’s orange.”, I noted.

“Yeah, I noticed.”, he rolled eyes again, but I could see he was amused by my remarks. “Who starts first?”

I looked at the screen with the results, which was now showing only our names and a few zeroes.

“My name is written first… That means I start first, right?”

“Yeah, it does.”, Vic tilted head. “Haven’t you ever played bowling before?”

“Nope, I haven’t.”, I shook head. “Ever. So don’t be too hard on me, please.”

He laughed a bit. “I wooon’t, don’t worry. I’ll just sit at some distance and watch you fail, and maybe mock you some.”, his grin widened.

“Because that’s what real friends do, right?”, I said ironically, heading to the lane.

“Right.”, he took my bear and drank a bit. “Real friends can steal your drinks and laugh at you all they want, because they’re your friends.”

“True that.”, I stuck my tongue out at him, then just took a random ball. It turned out to be much heavier than I expected, I almost dropped it on my feet. “Shit-!”

“Careful!”, Vic called out, chuckling. “It’s heavy!”

“I already noticed that.”, I frowned. “But doesn’t matter, it’s not that heavy to me.”

“Riiiiight, I bet it’s not.”, he teased me, taking another sip.

I turned to him and pointed at him, trying to look threatening. “You better not drink all of that. Or your head will get smashed by a bowling ball.”

“That particular bowling ball that you can’t even lift? Aw, damn, that’s scary! Careful while throwing it at me, though, you might break something. Your toe for example.”, he laughed.

“Ha. Ha. Ha. Oh my God, your sense of humor is killing me.”, I tried to stay sarcastic, though I really could barely help but laugh.

“Yup, it kills you with its awesomeness.”, he grinned widely. “Come on, now, play. I wanna see you play!”

I finally laughed.

“Okay, starting now.” I turned to the lane again, watching the pins and trying to concentrate. Now, that had to be easy… I just had to throw the ball and hit them. I mean, how hard could it be? Not much… I sighed, for some reason really wanting to impress Victor, concentrated and rolled the ball down the lane.

At first it seemed to be going straight towards the pins. Then suddenly, only a few feet from them, it took a turn and missed. It didn’t even hit one. I almost facepalmed.

“Dammit.”, I murmured, turning to my friend. “Alright, go ahead, it’s your turn.”

“No, it’s not.”, he shook head. “You have a second try.”

“I do?”, I blinked. “Why?”

Vic raised an eyebrow. “How the fuck am I supposed to know? I didn’t write the rules, dude. You just do.”

“Well, thanks for informing me, then.” I made a face, then glanced at the score board.

The second try wasn’t much better than the first one, I hit only one or two pins, and they weren’t even the ones I was aiming at. Vic patted my back as he approached me to take my place.

“Awesome, this was fucking brilliant, Kellin. Well done.”, he applauded me, then poked me in the ribs. I giggled.

“Shut up.”

“No, but really! You’re making such a quick progress…”, he kept teasing me.

“Shut up.”, I repeated, trying not to giggle again.

He just gave me a playful half-grin, then took the ball he had been so carefully picking earlier.

“Watch and learn, kiddo.”, he winked.

I took my bottle only to find out it was empty.

“Heeey., you drank my beer! I told you not to do that.”

He glanced me. “I’ll buy you another.”, he said. After that he threw the ball, hitting almost all of the pins. I raised eyebrows, impressed.

“Wow, man, how did you do that?”

He shrugged. “Nah, it wasn’t a big deal, I could do better. Watch.”

Vic got another ball and this time he rolled it more carefully, throwing down what was left of the pins.

“You’re so damn good at this.”, I noticed.

“Mm, maybe. The secret is in the wrists, man. See?”

He reached for a third ball, to show me.

“Uh-huh, it’s my turn!”, I chuckled and took the ball from him.

“Oh, fun. Go on, then, I’d love to see you try.”

“This time I’ll do fine, you’ll see.”, I declared.

…But I didn’t. Well yeah, wasn’t as worse as my first two attempts, but it was still bad enough. Even though I was doing worse than any of the other players in the club, it was still fun, Vic and I were joking and teasing each other all the time, and got some more beers, so we didn’t have to share one. Vic let me fail for awhile, but after he stopped finding mocking me so amusing anymore, he decided to try to teach me. Unfortunately, it seemed that explaining me wasn’t enough, I wasn’t making any progress, at all.

That’s it. I’m not born for this shit.

“Dammit, man, concentrate, my great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother would be better at this if she tried.”

“I doubt she’s alive, though.”, I chuckled.

Exactly. Even a dead person would do better than you.”

“Hey, that was rude.”, I did an upset face, trying to look sad. Vic obviously didn’t understand I was pretending, though.

“No, shit, I’m sorry, Kel, don’t take it personally, I was just kidding…”, he bit his lower lip.

“I know.”, I smiled at his suddenly worried expression. “It’s fine, I know you weren’t serious, I was just acting.”

“…Oh. Okay.”, he smiled back awkwardly. “Yeah, sorry. Now, let me try to show you once more, okay?”

“Alright.”, I tried to hand him a ball, but he didn’t take it.

“No, keep it. I want you to throw, I’ll just direct you. Okay? Okay.”

I looked at the lane again, trying to remember my previous mistakes and not to repeat them. Suddenly I felt Vic standing right behind me, his hand slipped down my right arm and gently took mine, helping me hold the ball right. I didn’t expect him to do it, I didn’t know that by “direct you” he meant this, so my heart started beating faster from the surprise, and… from something else, whatever it was. His body was so close, so damn close to mine, his other hand on my shoulder, making me stand in the correct position.

“Here…”, he murmured, his soft voice somewhere close to my ear. “That’s it…”

I looked up at him, only to find his face a few inches away from mine. He glanced at me, smiling a bit and for a minute, we just stood like this, watching each other. His look unconsciously slipped down to my lips and then back up, his eyes meeting mine. Speechless for a few moments, I couldn’t react, I just stayed there, waiting to see what he was going to do. That reminded me of my birthday and that drunken kiss in the car. No, no, don’t thin about that, Kellin, it’s dumb. I had promised myself to forget about it. I noticed the distance between us was getting smaller and smaller, though…

Vic sighed softly, his breath tickled my nose. I quickly looked away and sneezed, breaking the awkward silence, then, with Victor still holding my hand, I rolled the bowling ball down the lane. It hit a strike.

“Holy shit.”, I grinned. “Hah! Hah, did you see that? Strike! I’m fucking awesome, dude!”

“Yeah, you are.”, he smiled, pulling back. Was it just me, or I caught a glimpse of disappointment in his eyes?

This reminded me of something else, something else I wanted to discuss with him. Suddenly we both spoke up at the same time:

“Kellin, listen…”

“Hey, Vic… I’ve been thinking…”

We stopped and I chuckled awkwardly at the situation.

“You go first.”, he shrugged, reaching for his beer.

“Okay… So, I’ve been thinking about the robbery. In Vegas.”

Vic took a sip, shaking head slightly. “Yeah, what about it? Is there something wrong?”

I hesitated.

“We’re not doing it.”

He raised eyebrows, his eyes widened. “What? Why? But, the List…”

I’m doing it. Alone. I think I have a plan about how we’re gonna get you back home and prove you’re not a criminal. If it works out fine, you’ll be safe.”

For a second he just stared at me, stunned.

“I… You thought… What?!”, he blinked. “Why?!

I knitted eyebrows. “Why, why what? What don’t you understand?”

“Well… Kellin… Who the fuck told you I want to go home?”, he shook head again. “What about the List, what about the others, what about… everything…”

“I can do it alone.”, I interrupted him.

“No… No, you can’t. You need me.”

“No, I don’t. I can do just fine by myself.”

“But… You can’t just get me through all of this, and then… get rid of me, just like that. You do need me, Kellin, we both know it…”

“I don’t need you, dammit!”, I yelled a bit louder than I intended to. Vic flinched back at my voice, startled.

I took a deep breath, to calm down, regretting I talked to him like this. The people around us were now staring at me, wondering what was going on.

“…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to… I’m sorry, Vic… Look… you’re right. But what are you gonna do after I die? You’d get caught, and I don’t want you to… We must do something about it while we still can. Remember when you told me you care about me, but I didn’t trust you? Well… I do now… And I care about you, too, that’s why I don’t want you to get hurt, I want you out of danger, so I think getting you out of this now is the best decision, if we wait more, it would be too late.”

“How about you? What are you gonna do?”

I shrugged. “What I would do anyway. Complete the List. Die. Just the usual stuff.”

He opened his mouth to say something else, but I raised my hand. “No, no, don’t. You’re a smart person, man, I know you know I’m right.”

Vic was about to automatically object, but hesitated, then sighed weakly. “Yeah… I know. But I don’t like it.”

“Me neither.”, I frowned. “But often what we want to do isn’t exactly what we need to do. Right?”

He just nodded silently, staring at the floor.

“Um, so… What were you gonna say?”, I changed the subject after a minute of silence.

“Huh? Oh, nothing…”, Victor smiled bitterly. “It doesn’t matter anymore anyway.” Then, before I could keep asking about it, he quickly added: “So, I say, let’s finish our game and get a few more drinks, maybe some nice food too, hm? We’ll discuss the other stuff tomorrow. Let’s not ruin the fun.” The smile came back on his face, he patted my shoulder. “Come on, it’s my turn.”

I smiled back, taking the bottle from him, and wishing that tomorrow would never come…

END OF CHAPTER 11.

Comments

OMG I know it was written a long time ago, but this is the best fanfic i've ever read<3

elena580 elena580
10/8/14
Hey I've read this whole story twice, and have you ever heard of a book website called Quotev? Well I have an acount and a story called 'Queen For A Day' Maybe you can help c:
hihihiiii hihihiiii
12/2/13
oh my god i just read the end of this again and i'm all choked up

ATTENTION WORLD THIS IS THE BEST KELLIC OF ALL TIMES

I still have yet to get over this, even though there's a sequel.

send help
clairephernelia clairephernelia
10/6/13
@fuentits

Thank you, thank you, I'm really glad you liked it so much!

There is a sequel, by the way :3
KingForADay KingForADay
8/2/13
Okay, finished. And it only took like two and a half days, wow.

Seriously, I smiled so wide as soon as I read 'Somewhere in Mexico, Harry was trying to cook breakfast. And failing.' I was like YES omfg so badass!

Seriously...so perfect **round of applause**
fuentits fuentits
8/2/13