…She obviously hadn’t watched the news last night, considering that she stubbornly kept flirting with me today, too. Jeez. I looked down at the small piece of paper in my hand with her phone number written on it. Would it be too impolite if I just threw it away? Perhaps. So I just put it in my pocket and hesitantly smiled at her.

The receptionist girl smiled back. Her name was Sandy… or Wendy, or Lizzie, something like that… Or Nina, whatever. It didn’t really matter anyway, I wasn’t going to see her ever again. We were sorting this out at the reception desk, preparing to leave, but she just wouldn’t leave me alone with her questions.

“Yeah, I, um, I’ll call you.”, I promised. Nope, I wouldn’t call her at all, because well, I had other business to do, more important than calling random boring girls. This unwanted attention was slightly disturbing me. It’s just so… awkward and annoying.

Funny how most movies about people dying from a disease are all about them having fun and getting laid with hot girls, but I didn’t even really care anymore. It just seemed somehow pointless, like, yeah, it would be cool, but it would be better to keep the fun stuff for my last few weeks, when the List would be completed and I wouldn’t have anything serious left to do. For now I had to take care of other things.

Today, though, today was special, sort of. Today I think I deserved at least a little cake. But nope, all I was going to get were cheap hotel rooms and many hours spent on the road.

“So do you have any concerts in the area anytime soon?”, Sandy/Wendy/Lizzie asked after a moment. For a few second I didn’t understand what she’s talking about, but then I remembered what I had told her yesterday and almost facepalmed. I felt Vic’s confused look fixed on me.

“Oh, yeah, right, Pierce the Siren. Yeah. Um, no, I mean, no, we don’t have any gigs anytime soon, we’re planning to start recording a new album.”

I turned to look at Victor, who seemed even more confused now.

“Wasn’t it Veil the Sirens?” Sandy/Wendy… whatever her name was smiled a bit.

Shit! I got the name wrong. I tried fixing things up with the sweetest smile I was capable of.

“Yeah, Pierce the Siren is, like, an alternative name. The main one is Veil the Sirens.”

“Ah, alright, cool. Does it have some special meaning?”

“Of course it does.”, I nodded. She kept watching me and I realized she’s waiting for me to explain. Uh-oh… I bit my lower lip, thinking for a second. “Yeah, um, it’s… It’s really deep, it’s like… Pierce the Siren, it’s like… like when you pierce… the siren, like…”

“Dude, it’s actually Veil the Sirens, stop getting it wrong.”, Vic suddenly spoke up.

I glanced at him, hardly hiding my surprise. I pretty much expected him to stand there awkwardly during the whole conversation. He obviously had decided to play along, though. I gave him a small thankful smile.

“Yeah, that’s what I meant, Veil the Sirens, thanks, Vic. So, um, it’s about that moment when you just… Like, y’know.”

Dammit, dammit, dammit, nothing was coming in mind…

“You know what”, I finally said, “Vic can explain this better than me, he came up with our name after all. Right, Vic?”

Yeah, I know, it was really nasty of me to make him improvise, when he didn’t even know what’s going on. Oops.

Surprisingly, he answered right away.

“Sure.” He turned to the girl. “There’s some meaning behind it… My idea was that sometimes behind the beauty, something horrible might be hiding, like, we must look through the veil of fake perfection to see people’s true faces. I mean, you know that sirens have beautiful voices, but they actually lead the sailors to their death. That’s the idea. Looks can be deceiving. Sometimes it’s the opposite, someone seems to be a truly terrible person…”, he looked at me and smiled lightly, “…but then they actually turn to be really nice. So yeah, that’s pretty much it.”

“Exactly my thought, yeah.”, I pointed at him, looked at the girl and nodded. “That’s what I was trying to say.”

“Wow, that’s a cool idea.”, she was smiling at Vic now. He smiled back.

“Thanks, it’s really…”

I coughed, interrupting him.

“Oh, by the way, Sandy…”

The receptionist girl looked back at me, then frowned.

“Ellie.”, she corrected me. “It’s Ellie, not Sandy.”

“Right. Ellie, can I ask you for a small favor? Our band keeps most things about our personal lives private, so…” I took my wallet out of my pocket and took twenty dollars out of it. “…would you please keep our stay here a secret? In case someone comes asking around. It would be…”, another twenty bucks joined them, “…really nice of you.”

She stared at the money for a second, then up at me.

“You can count on me.”, she finally said, as the money disappeared somewhere behind the reception desk.

“Awesome. Well.” I looked at Vic. “We should be going now, hm? Alright then.”

I nodded at Ellie, smiling politely.

“Have a nice day.”

Then I took Victor by the arm and before we could waste anymore time, I led him out and straight to our car.

“Thanks, man.”, I said when we were finally inside. “Really, you were very convincing.”

Vic shrugged, smiling a bit.

“It wasn’t a big deal, I was simply improvising.”

I started the car and after a moment of hesitation, I locked the doors, just in case. Not that I was afraid he’d leave, but I suppose it just made me calmer, knowing that no one was coming in or out. It kind of made me feel safe. Vic’s eyes glanced at the locks, letting me know he noticed what I just did. For a moment his face went pale, his fear slightly showing again, but now it was much less obvious than yesterday. Dammit, Kellin, I thought, this is not how you earn someone’s trust. You don’t simply lock your future partner and possibly friend in the car, it’s just not how it works. But he was also a hostage, I reminded myself, and as a proper kidnapper, I couldn’t just let him go whenever he wants. I needed to keep him under control, more or less.

“Yeah, maybe, but you did it well.”, I grinned slightly and drove off.

He just shrugged again awkwardly and changed the subject.

“Where are we going?”

“We’re heading to California, that’s where Ross lives.”, I answered, as I took a turn and found myself back on the main road. “It would take us some time until we get there, though, it’s pretty far, it might take a few days. Besides, we’d be stopping a lot, to make sure no one’s after us. Tonight we can find another hotel, but before that, we need to stop somewhere else.”

“Yeah? Where?” He turned to look at me.

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I plan to get some cake.”

“Cake…?” Vic knitted eyebrows. “Why?”

I hesitated.

“Well, you know, birthday cake”, I murmured. “From the one you eat on birthdays.”

“Today is your birthday?” His eyes widened slightly, surprised.

“Yeah.” I nodded and glanced at him. “…Put on your seatbelt.”

He ignored my remark, still watching me curiously.

“Happy 27th birthday, then.”, he smiled.

I looked at him again, but this time I kept my eyes on him for longer. I couldn’t help but notice that if he remembered my age, then he must’ve listened to the news really carefully last night. Observant and a good listener… A person you should watch out for.

“Thank you.” I smiled back.

“So.”, he clapped his hands. “How are you gonna celebrate it?”

“Celebrate it? Vic, I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but we’re being chased by the police. We need to get as far from here as possible, so I don’t really have time to party.”

“But…”, he frowned. “But you should, somehow, it’s your last birthday after all… You know, before you…”

“…die. Yeah, I know.”

I looked out of the window again. Yeah, of course I knew that. My last birthday. That was one of the main reasons I didn’t want to celebrate it, most of the time I was just trying to forget… Gosh, how I hated this.

“I told you, we’ll have some cake, we’ll llisten to some good music, and we’ll stay alive. Such a good way to spend my birthday, isn’t it.”, I sighed. “Now put on your seatbelt, please.

He ignored me yet again.

“No… No, this is stupid, you must do something special-”, he paused then corrected himself, “…we must do something special today. Something really fucking awesome.”

“Okay then, if you say so.”, I shrugged. “Any ideas, party-boy?”

“Hmm… Not really right now, but I will think of something… It could be anything, I mean, now when we’re officially criminals, we can basically do whatever we want.”

“Whatever we want…” A grin slowly appeared on my face. “Then we’ll do what we want to, yeah. I think I might have an idea.”

“Awesome, what is it?” Victor leaned forward, interested.

My grin widened.

“You’ll see.”

Then I suddenly turned the wheel, going back the same road. I did it so fast that Vic gasped and almost hit his head in the window. I giggled.

“I told you to put on your seatbelt.”

* * *

The waiter was obviously having a bad day even without two masked man robbing his pastry shop. His hair was messy and there was some chocolate on his shirt, even though he didn’t seem to notice it. The expression on his was so bored that he looked like someone who’d rather get hit by a bus than spend another hour at work. When we entered the shop, he jumped, startled, and tripped in his own shoelace, turning over a tray covered with food and drinks, and breaking some cups. I would laugh if I wasn’t supposed to look dangerous and scary at the moment.

His cheerful yellow uniform looked ridiculous combined with his horrified face, but, well, it looked ridiculous anyway. I felt kind of bad for the guy, I mean, it wasn’t his fault that some idiot decided that bright yellow is an extremely fitting color for gloomy waiters.

Right now this particular gloomy and really scared waiter was trying to hide behind the counter, desperately looking around for a better hiding place. He couldn’t find one on time, though, because in a second, there was a gun stuck in his face.

“Get the fuck up, sir, we’re here to order some cake!”, one of the masked men shouted and lightly poked him with the gun.

The guy (who, judging by his name-plate, was called “Hello! My name is Garry!”) let out a quiet whimper and raised one hand in the air, still gripping his silly yellow hat, a part of his just as silly uniform, with the other. The hat itself was too small for his head, and now it was all covered with hot chocolate.

“Come on, I said, get up!”, Hellomynameisgarry received another poke with the gun. The words finally got from his ears to his brain and he slowly stood up, his legs shaking.

The other waiters gathered around their colleague, moving carefully and watching the guy with the mask cautiously.

The masked man poked Hellomynameisgarry’s forehead for one last time, then turned to me. I nodded at him, then, after hesitating for a moment, I climbed on a table, raised my gun in the air and pulled the trigger. The clients, who hadn’t left the pastry shop yet, screamed and hid under the other tables.

The guy with the mask, who was actually Vic, climbed next to me, as I yelled:

“Attention, attention, ladies and gentlemen! I’m Kellin, and this is Vic, and we’re here to fuck shit up!”

“Aaand, this is a robbery!”, Vic added. This is when he was supposed to shoot too, but we couldn’t find any decent plastic guns in the toy store, so he just waved his fake gun in the air dramatically. “We want you to put your hands in the air, keep your mobile phones deep inside your pockets, and remain calm. We won’t hurt anyone if we don’t have to, but if we do have to, I promise we will. So be good, children.”

I nodded, grinning, then turned to the counter again. All the waiters were staring at me frightened.

“You!”, I pointed my real gun at the silly-looking waiter. “What’s your name?”

“I-it’s w-w-written on here, sir, see…”

“I don’t fucking care, I can’t read it from here.”, I frowned theatrically, but then I remembered that my mask was covering my face. Well shit, this way the whole effect was gone.

“Yeah, tell him your name, fucker!” Victor jumped back down.

“G-garry! It’s Garry, my name is Garry, please don’t hurt me…”

The poor guy was so panicked that he was almost crying. For a change, I decided to play the good cop (or, in our case, the less bad criminal), and came back down too.

“Alright, Garry, we won’t hurt you if you do what we tell you to.” I turned to the other waiters. “You, help him out.”

Garry wasn’t listening to me, he was just mumbling something quietly, staring at us horrified.

“H-here, I’ll g-give you the money, I c-can, I’ll, I-I-I’ll do whatever you want me to, p-please…”

“We don’t want your fucking money, you dumb fuck, if we wanted your money, we’d take it ourselves.” Vic let out a deep, annoyed sigh. “We want something much more special.”

“Yeah, so, listen to me carefully.”, I continued. “I won’t repeat.”

“He won’t repeat.”, Victor agreed. “Listen to him.”

“Very carefully.” I emphasized and keep speaking slowly, so he’d understand me. “What we want is… for you to… take two pieces of each kind of cake and pack it for us, please.”

“And two coffees.”, Vic added.

“Two coffees, too, yeah.”, I nodded.

For a few moments everyone around us froze and stared at us, wondering if they misheard us, or we really said that. Garry’s eyes widened even more, and for a moment I got scared that they might fall off and drop in one of the cups on the counter.

“C-cake, sir…?”

“From all the kinds you have.”, I specified. “Now, hurry!”

“O-o-okay! Okay, okay, it’ll be ready in a m-minute!”

…And he rushed to do what I had ordered.

And indeed, in a minute, we had two big bags full of boxes with birthday cake. I grinned widely. I didn’t know how I was supposed to eat all that, but it didn’t really matter, did it.

“Thanks, Garry, that was very sweet of you. Here.” I took a five-dollar bill out of my pocket and handed it to him. “Get a new hat.”

I winked, then I glanced at Vic.

“Would you take the bags? …Thanks.”

I took the coffees, myself, and we headed to the exit, leaving the confused clients and waiters wonder what had just happened. I stopped at the door and turned around.

“Well, thank you, ladies and gentlemen, it was really nice meeting you! Have a nice lunch, and thank you for the cake! Oh, and…” With my free hand, I removed my mask, revealing my face. “If the police comes asking around, tell them that Kellin Quinn says hi! Thank you, and goodbye.”

Vic couldn’t help but laugh a bit, then he opened the door for me and we ran out.

…Hah. That was probably the weirdest way to order cake, like, ever. But the most fun, too, so it was worth the trouble we’d have later.

So far my birthday was going great.

* * *

END OF CHAPTER 5, PART 1.

Notes

Had to split this chapter on two, because it was turning out too long. Oops. XD