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Kings And Bishops (The List)

Kings And Bishops (The List): Chapter 7

“Oh, try this on!”, I tossed a T-shirt to Vic.

He caught it and looked at it, eyebrows knitted.

“Hmm, I don’t know… I don’t really like the color. I don’t want it.”

Vic tried to give it back to me, but I stuck it back in his hands.

“Come on, man, try it ooon! It’s a nice shirt!”

“Yeah, but I don’t want it! It’s just… I don’t know, too yellow.”, he shrugged. “Why don’t you buy it for yourself, if you like it that much?”

I grinned.

“Already checked, they don’t have my size.”

Victor just shook head and chuckled, then, still grinning, took another shirt, looked at it critically and showed it to me.

“I like this one, I think I’ll take it.”

I shrugged. “Sure, if you like it. I’ll go take a look at the jeans over there, you pick some more clothes in the meantime.”

Fifteen minutes later, after trying on a few shirts and two pairs of jeans, Vic barely looked like himself. If he was a typical office worker in a smart suit before, now he was looking more like a skater kid from a rock band or something. His new clothes made him look much younger than he really was, and somehow more badass.

We were just discussing if we should buy some new shoes too, when my eyes fell on a shopping stand I hadn’t noticed before. My grin appeared again.

“Dude! Dude, look they have carnival clothes!”

“What? Where?”, he looked around. “Oh, cool. Okay.”

“Let’s go check them out! C’mon!”, I took a few steps towards it, but Vic didn’t follow me.

“Kellin, I think we should just pay and go, we don’t have time for this…” He headed to the fitting rooms, to change back to his old clothes, but I didn’t let him.

“No, get back here!”, I grabbed his wrist, giggling a little. “Come oooon, let’s at least take a look! It’s gonna be fun, man, come on.”

Vic let out a deep sigh, a small grin appeared on his face.

“Okay then.”, he voluntarily let me drag him to the carnival stand. Obviously now he was trying to play the “reasonable” one of two of us, to make up for last night, but honestly, it wasn’t working. Vic was from those guys, who look really sweet and shy at first, dedicated to their work and all, but when you get to know them, they turn out to be much more random, loud and fun than they seemed at first.

The shop wasn’t big, it was just a local second-hand clothes store, because we were trying to avoid the crowded places, such as malls, especially when we knew there would be security cameras around. In our situation the best we could do for now was to stay invisible, so we had to stick to cheap hotels, even cheaper restaurants and small shops like this one. It wasn’t that bad, though – the cheap restaurants offered nice unhealthy food, and, well, here I found myself some carnival clothes, which was awesome enough. Not that I was going to buy anything, but, you must admit, everyone loves trying on some silly hats. I stopped in front of the stand, wondering what I should take first. There were weird sunglasses, fake noses, pirate hats, plastic swords, masks… Even if they had been used before, most of the stuff was in a good condition, they were just as good as new. I grabbed the first thing I saw – a pink princess’ crown, and put it on Victor’s head, grinning widely.

“Here, you’re Queen Victoria now.”, I laughed.

“I’m not, man!”, he giggled a bit, too, taking the crown off.

“You are!”, laughing, I put it back, then added: “…your majesty.”

“If I’m Queen Victoria…”, Vic chuckled and stubbornly took it off again, “…then you’re Kellin Queen.”

As it seemed, it was my turn to wear the crown now. I didn’t take it off right away, instead I gave him the most arrogant look I was capable of and adjusted it on my head.

“That’s right, peasant, I’m Kellin Queen, the sassiest royalty, like, ever, but to you, I’m ‘your majesty’ only. Now kneel before me and beg for mercy, before I get angry and sentence you to death.”, I said in falsetto.

He blinked against me, surprised I played along, then burst into laughter. I made a fake shocked face.

“Hah, look at him! How he’s shamelessly laughing in my face!”, I couldn’t help but giggle and continue in my normal voice. “I said kneel, bitch! Guards! CHOP HIS HEAD OFF!”

Now, as we were both laughing, I put the pink crown back where I had taken it from. I spotted a big sombrero behind it and took it.

“Check this out.”, I grinned and put it on, then used a lock of my hair to make myself a moustache. Vic was watching me patiently, waiting to see what I’d do. After my disguise was ready, I made a sad face, and said in what I thought was a Mexican accent: “Buenos dias, my name is Carlos Quinnes and yesterday was a very sad day, because I dropped my beautiful, juicy burrito on the street, and I didn’t have any money left so I couldn’t buy a new one, and I screamed, and cried, and buried it in my back yard, and I planted a cactus to honor it, and on the tombstone I wrote “R.I.P my dear friend Adrian” – because that’s what I had named it, my beautiful burrito, Adrian Rodriguez - “my dear friend Adrian. I wish I could have known you better.” He could be now a part of me, you know, but I lost him, and this is such a tragic story… Why aren’t you crying, you must, and you must be sorry for me, and comfort me because I just lost my best friend, and, and you’re laughing, why are you laughing?! You heartless bastard!”

I lightly slapped his arm and laughed too.

“Dude”, Vic finally managed to take a breath, “That’s not how you do Mexican accent. At all.”

“Yeah? And how the fuck do you know?”, I raised an eyebrow critically, trying not to giggle and ruin the effect.

“Because I’m Mexican, I guess?”, he shrugged, grinning.

“Oh, you are? Then where is your sombrero, huh? You ain’t Mexican, or at least you can’t prove it, therefore, you have no right to critique my perfect Mexican accent. Because I say so.”

“Well shit. You’re right, I’m sorry. But, umm…”, suddenly he reached, grabbed the sombrero from my head and put it on his. “…now I can! HAH, you didn’t see that comin’, did you?”

“Give it back, you jerk!”, I laughed and tackled him a bit, struggling to get the hat back. That got us some disapproving looks from the shop-assistants and the few other clients, so I stopped, because I realized we were attracting attention.

“Okaaaay, here, have the stupid hat.”, Victor sighed when he managed to stop laughing and put it back on my head, but in a way that it was covering my eyes, so I couldn’t see. I chuckled and took it off.

“Thanks, but I don’t want it anymore.” I stuck my tongue out at him and put the sombrero back next to the crown. “And, I say, let’s pay and go, because we attracted enough attention already, what do you think?”

“Sure, good point.”, he smiled.

He put his hand on my shoulder, his eyes met mine, looking for approval. I nodded slightly, letting him know I’m alright with it, so he started leading me back to the fitting rooms, talking about how he’s half-Mexican, half-Irish or something like that. I wasn’t listening to him, because for a moment my eyes caught something which slightly alarmed me. At first I didn’t understand what it was, everything seemed to be just like before… Then I noticed the police car outside.

Oh damn…

Panicked, I quickly grabbed Victor and pulled him in an empty fitting-room.

“Kellin, what the fuck-”

“Shh!”, I pressed him to the wall and gagged his mouth with my hand.

His eyes widened, and I saw this expression on his face again… He was afraid. Of me. I don’t know what he thought, probably nothing, but he didn’t understand what’s going on, and that was scaring him.

I heard the door open, and then footsteps, when two or maybe three people came in. I almost stopped breathing. Police officers… Were there here for us? As far as I knew, policemen didn’t just randomly visit second-hand shops, at least not while they’re on duty. I slowly leaned closer to Vic and whispered, almost inaudible:

“Police. Might be here for us. Be very, very quiet. Okay?”

I felt Victor’s breathing get heavier. He nodded quickly, slightly trembling in my arms. I realized I’m probably scaring him even more this way, so I let him go, but kept my hand on his chest, lightly pressing him to the wall, away from the curtain that was covering the entrance of the fitting-room. Once when his mouth was free, he took a deep, shaky breath and exhaled slowly, trying to calm down. I attempted an encouraging smile.

“Don’t worry too much, though, they might be here for some other reason…”, I tried to comfort him.

A rough voice outside interrupted me. They weren’t talking to me, because, thank God, they didn’t know we’re here yet, but what they said made me shudder.

“Hello, ma’am. I need to ask you a few questions… Do you recognize these men? If you do, it would be great if you tell us immediately, they are armed and very dangerous criminals.”

“Shit! Shit, shit, shit…”, I murmured quietly and closed eyes, hoping this would make me invisible. It didn’t, of course, but at least it helped me concentrate and stop panicking. When I opened them, they met Victor’s frightened look, his tanned skin had become really pale.

“What are we gonna do now?”, he whispered.

I just shook head and put my finger to his lips, to show him he must stay silent. He didn’t object, his eyes slightly crossed when he looked at my finger and then back up at me, and blinked, to let me know he understood. After a moment of hesitation, I let him go completely and took a step closer to the curtain, to take a look outside and see what’s going on. One of the cops, the tallest one, was still talking to the shop-assistant, another one was standing near the door, and a third guy was walking around the store, suspiciously looking around. Suddenly I spotted my bag on the floor – I had left it there when I tried a jacket on. And in my bag, there were some more bullets, and… oh God, the List was there… I felt my heart start beating faster, as the fear and panic took control over my system. If the police found this bag, they’d know where I’m going next, they’d know everything, and all my further plans would be ruined… I bit my lower lip, to stop myself from cursing at myself for being so stupid. What an idiot I was, really, how could I just leave the most important thing I had like that…

That’s when I realized that the most important thing here was Victor, not the stupid List. I had to protect him. After all, he was my responsibility, I got him into this, and I couldn’t let him get caught. So I resisted the urge to run out and grab the bag, and stayed inside. The cop kept walking around, while the other one was interrogating the customers. I think one of them remembered seeing us near the carnival stand. Damn, we really shouldn’t have attracted so much attention, that was probably the dumbest thing of all. Slowly I was going from really scared to angry at myself.

The suspicious cop looked up in my direction. I quietly gasped and even though my legs were shaking, I quickly stepped back, strongly hoping he didn’t see me. Vic’s hand pulled me to the wall next to him again, desperately gripping my shirt. Feeling him near me was making me a bit more confident, his presence was comforting me, and slowly, after I made sure no one noticed us, my breathing came back to normal. I went back to listening to the tall guy’s questions.

“…Yes, the men from the news. We found their car outside, a few blocks away, and we’re checking all the shops on this street, so if you’ve seen anything unusual, you must tell us…”

Of course! The car, of course… I buried my face in my hands. Sure, I had changed the number plate, but I hadn’t re-painted the car or anything. It would be easy to find it… Perhaps a “concerned citizen” noticed it and called the police. Awesome.

I heard the footsteps approach. The suspicious cop who was patrolling around was coming closer… I tried to breathe as quietly as possible and unconsciously gagged Victor’s mouth again. His grip tightened, when the police officer stopped near us, just a few feet from us, and right next to my bag. If he looked down he’d see it… Don’t look down, don’t, you motherfucker, don’t look down… I looked at Vic, my eyes open wide, almost as much as his. He shook head slightly, not knowing what to do.

The curtain, which was now the only thing separating us from the cop, wasn’t long enough, it didn’t reach the ground, so we could clearly see his feet outside. He was still standing there. What was he waiting for? Go away…

But he didn’t go away. Instead, the bastard looked down and spotted the bag. After hesitating for a few seconds, he cautiously took it. I closed my eyes, expecting him to find us, expecting him to call his colleagues, expecting him to do… anything… I completely stopped breathing, afraid that even the slightest movement would draw his attention to me.

So that’s how it would end…

Suddenly Vic poked me and I opened my eyes just in time to see the policeman walk away, carrying my bag. Still afraid, but curious to see what he’d do, I moved a bit closer to the curtain again and peeked out. The guy headed to the others, but on his way, he threw the bag on the bag stand. Oh, thank God. He had thought it’s for sale and it just had fallen on the floor, he didn’t even open it. When he was far enough, I let out a deep, relieved sigh.

“Alright,” I whispered to Victor, letting him go once more. “let’s go, quietly. We’ll grab some hats on our way out and put them on, to cover our faces.”

“How about the clothes?”, he whispered back. “How are we gonna pay? Now the salesgirl knows who we are, she might recognize us.”

I frowned slightly, then reached and tore the label off his shirt.

“Who said we’re gonna buy anything?”, I said, serious look upon my face. “Those are our clothes, we were already wearing them when we came here. Right? We didn’t get them from here.”

Vic blinked. “But… But we didn’t…”, suddenly he realized what I was trying to say and grinned slightly. “Oh. Yeah, of course. Those are our clothes, totally.”

“That’s my boy.”, I grinned too and patted his shoulder, then I tore off all the other labels, threw them on the ground and cautiously moved the curtain a bit, to look out.

The police officers were now outside the store, talking. After a minute, which seemed more like nine million minutes, they finally left, probably off to check out the other shops around. I went out of the fitting-room, then waved at Victor to follow me. No one noticed us, all the clients and saleswomen were gathered around the counter, discussing what had just happened. I grabbed my bag and a baseball hat from the stand, then tossed one to Vic and went closer to the others.

“…Bastards like them should all go to jail!”, a woman was just saying.

Yup, I thought, and the one, who designed your horrible hat should join us. Manufacturing such ugly clothes must be a crime itself, and selling them to people – even a bigger one.

“Yeah, I know.”, I sighed and shook head understandingly. “Horrible, horrible…”

Surprisingly, the woman didn’t even look up at me, just nodded in agreement.

“Truly horrible. But don’t worry, I’m sure the police will get them soon.”

“The cops won’t do anything.”, a young man, about my age said. “In the end, we’d have to do their fucking job. It always ends up this way.”

“Yeah, I bet. They’ll never find the fuckers.”, Vic agreed.

And here we were, now just a part of the crowd. No one really looked at us, we were just two more citizens, scared and shocked by what happened, and no one cared who we actually were. Important thing for them was that we agreed with their opinion, and we simply gave them a reason to keep talking about it. I thought this is a good moment to sneak out, so I gently took Vic’s hand and led him out. Nobody noticed we left, and if they did, they didn’t give a fuck.

“Now what?”, he said, once we were out.

“Now we’ll go to the hotel, to pay and give the key back, stuff like that. Then we’ll have to find ourselves a new car, and we’re leaving. Does that sound okay?”

“Yeah, sounds good.”, Victor nodded and looked down. I realized I’m still holding his hand and quickly let him go, blushing lightly.

Why are you blushing, you idiot?! I almost facepalmed.

He smiled a bit at me, noticing this, and for my surprise, he took my hand again.

“Come on”, he said, “Let’s not stand in the middle of the sidewalk like this, it isn’t the best way to stay unnoticed, don’t you think?”

I chuckled and glanced down at my hand in his awkwardly.

“Yup, I see your point here.”, I grinned. “Let’s get the fuck outta here.”

* * *

But in front of our hotel, another unpleasant surprise was waiting for us, just to make my shitty day even shittier.

At first I didn’t notice the police cars outside, until Vic pulled me behind a van parked near the sidewalk.

“Vic, what-”

He simply pointed at the cars. When I saw them, I felt the fear return, but this time it wasn’t that horrible, because the danger was far enough. I turned to Victor.

“Shit, what are we gonna do?”, he murmured and looked up at me hopefully. “You have a backup plan, do you?”

I didn’t reply. I was thinking. How did they find where we were staying…? I doubt they checked all the hotels for such short amount of time, it was just physically impossible. Therefore, they must have known exactly where we were…

Suddenly I slapped myself.

“Idiot! Stupid, stupid, stupid idiot. The car! I left the fucking key in the fucking car. I’m officially the dumbest criminal in the history of humanity.”

“You’re not, don’t worry.”, Vic absent-mindedly put his hand on my shoulder, still watching the cars. A few cops came out of the hotel, one of them talking on the phone. Victor threw a glance at me. “…But yeah, you really are a stupid idiot. What are we gonna do now?”

“I don’t know…” I furrowed eyebrows. Then my look fell on the van we were hiding behind. “Though… I might have an idea…”

“Yeah…?”, he looked at me. “…Kellin, I don’t like the look on your face. What are you up to?”

“Mmmm…”, I tilted head slightly. “…What do you think about… stealing a car? Does that sound too crazy to you? Yeah, it would get us in even deeper shit, but I don’t think we can just catch the train now, not anymore.”

“Hmm. Yeah, I guess.”, Vic smiled bitterly. “Well, fuck this. Let’s steal one, we did enough of bad things already. We’re going to jail anyway.”

“No, we’re not. I’ll die before they get me, and you, well, you’ll get out somehow. I’m sure.”, I gave him an encouraging smile.

“Maybe… I hope so.”, he sighed. “Are we really doing this, though?”

“We are. Just… let me think for a second.”

Okay… It was 3 p.m., in the middle of the afternoon, stealing a car would be difficult to do… Or at least, that’s what I thought at first, but then I realized that the van was unlocked – we could easily slip inside and drive off. I smiled slightly, feeling confident in myself again, then I stood up and opened the door, trying to look like I had the full right to be there, as if the vehicle was mine. When I got inside, followed by Vic, I noticed there were no keys. I frowned.

“Er, how do you do that thing with the wires… You know, starting the car when you don’t have keys. I think you must do something to the radio…”

I reached to try, but Vic stopped me.

“Let me.”, he said. “I’m good at that stuff.”

I shrugged and spread arms. “Go ahead, be my guest.”, I grinned. He grinned back, then, after thinking a bit, he poked the panel, first carefully, and then just pulled it, opening a part of it. It didn’t look as impressive as in the movies, and there were much more wires than I expected.

Concentrated, biting his lips, Vic took two wires, hesitated, then connected them. At first nothing happened, then the radio turned on, blaring some loud rap music. We both jumped, startled.

“…AND I SAID YO, ALL THE BITCHES LOVE ME, ‘CUZ I HAVE A BIG-”

Vic quickly disconnected the wires, before the rapper could finish his so beautiful and full of wisdom sentence. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear the ending, probably not.

“Oops, sorry…”, Victor chuckled.

“No, you should’ve left that on, it was such a pretty song. So much wisdom.”, I laughed.

“Oh, so you want me to turn it back on? Okay then.” He grinned and pretended he’ll connect the wires again.

Instead, he continued carefully poking the others. I was watching him, interested. I wasn’t sure he knew what he was doing, but whatever it was, he was doing it well. He started the car on the fourth try (after turning on the windshield wipers and the air-conditioning). I raised eyebrows, impressed.

“That was kinda fast. Ever done it before?”

Victor’s grin became wider. “Nope, never, I have no idea what I just did. Beginner’s luck, I guess.”, he shrugged.

“Well, you did a good job.”, I grinned back, then threw a worried look at the policemen. I don’t think any of them had realized that something wrong was going on.

I drove off slowly, and mixed with all the other drivers, all of them hurrying for somewhere – work, home, whatever. Vic pulled his hat down and put his sunglasses on, to cover his face, then looked out of the window.

“No one’s following us. I think we’re safe for now.”, he announced.

“Good to know.”, I nodded, fixing my own hat. “…Daaamn, that was close.”

“It was… But it’s over now. We’ll be more careful next time.”

“Yeah…” I went silent. “…Vic?”

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

I didn’t reply immediately, I stayed quiet for a few seconds, picking my words.

“I… Thank you. You know, you could… I don’t know, go to the cops and tell them you’re innocent or something. They’d catch me and you’d be free.”, I looked at him. “…But you didn’t do it.”

“Of course I didn’t.”, he rolled eyes. “This whole situation, it’s crazy, but I’m on your side, Kellin. I won’t betray you like this, I mean, that’s what friends do, right? Support each other?”, he smiled slightly.

I couldn’t help but smile back.

“Right, exactly.”

We just stayed like this for a minute, smiling in silence. Then, before this silence gets awkward, I turned the radio on.

“…HIGHER THAN THE SKY, OH WAS I SUCH A FOOL THAT I FUCK’D TH’ BITCH IN MY SWIMMIN’ POOL-”

“Nope.”, we said in the same time and I changed the radio station to something more listenable.

I shook head. “Shitty rap music, dude. Gotta love it.”

“Yup.”, Vic chuckled, then looked out of the window again, humming along with the song. This one was much better, and the lyrics actually meant something. Well, at least something different than having sex with lots of girls, getting high and drinking a lot of alcohol.

After an hour spent in avoiding the main roads and trying to make a huge van remain unnoticed, we left the city. For now, everything was alright. I looked at Vic, who was still singing along with the radio and smiled.

And maybe the shitty day wasn’t that shitty after all…

* * *

…So if we're heading there together at the same time,
You sing while I drive...


END OF CHAPTER SEVEN.

Notes

Alright, a few things:

-Kellin's favorite color really is yellow, that's why he picked the "too yellow" shirt for Vic XD

-The sombrero part was inspired from this video: [link]

-Vic is really from Mexican and Irish descent (but he wasn't even born in Mexico, he was born in San Diego, as far as I know)

-About the shitty rap music, I got the idea from this interview: [link] (you can skip to 5:40, that's when they talk about this)

-The lyrics in the end are from PTV's "I Don't Care If You're Contagious"

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