On the Run

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Damien sat down on the table quietly, with his head in his palms. He looked over in Casey's direction, only to notice the face of the woman opposite him. That was Ellie, wasn't it? He looked elsewhere, as if he had been gazing at something else out of the window. Fortunately, he spotted Alabaster walking past and into the Starbucks, and exhaled. After he had approached them and asked for their order, which was a black coffee and a buttered bacon bagel in Damien's case, Alabaster walked off towards the counter. He lowered his head to the table again, but then he felt a vibration in his jeans pocket. Taking his phone out with his left hand, he looked at it with a perplexed look. The number was withheld. He rejected the call and returned his phone to his pocket, before looking at Drew.

"Skinny cappucinos, huh?" he asked, with a half-smile. "I always fancied myself a full-fat."
 
Drew forced a laugh at Damien's comment. "Yeah... I guess you could say I'm a little health conscious. I just try to keep the amount of fat in my diet to a healthy level." Occasionally unhealthy levels. He looked around, looking at the girl Casey was talking to. It- it- oh god- it wasn't. It couldn't be. Nope. He stared at the table. It was just a stranger who happened to look like her. He was seeing things now. Great. Would they supply hair dye to him in a mental hospital? "Black coffee? Hardcore, man." He teased, wearing a forced half smile.
 
Damien chuckled softly, and nodded, "Yeah, it's strong, but it distracts me from..." He paused and tilted his head forwards slightly, and then he turned his head in Casey's direction and narrowed his eyes. "You see that girl over there, the one Casey's talking to. I know her."

Damien quickly looked back at Drew, unsure whether or not he should introduce him to her. He thought about it for a few seconds, but he changed his mind. It could be a little awkward, what with all four of them - five, including Alabaster - sitting at a table, brought together by fate. Or by the fate of a girl. Personally, he didn't feel that it was a brilliant idea to evoke so many emotions, not at a time like this. He felt it best that he saved the introductions until later, perhaps a few weeks in the future, or preferably never. As he watched one of the staff deliver a cup of coffee to Alabaster, he ran his hands through his hair. Maybe he should introduce them, he couldn't see any other reason why not. Maybe the conversation would do more good than bad. What harm could talking about Amy do? Damien lifted himself up and pressed his palms on the table to push himself to a stand.

"Do you want to speak to her?" Damien asked, as he looked into Drew's eyes. "I think she'd like to meet you."
 
What? Damien knew her too?

And it got worse. Damien stood up, clearly with the intention of going to talk to her. And he invited Drew to go with him. Oh fuck. Explaining why he didn't would be awkward, so he stood up. He stood behind Damien as much as he could, but he had that extra few inches on Damien, so it did nothing. He cursed his blue hair. It made him far too noticeable. Same for his height. He stared at the floor as they walked over, biting his tongue. This was going to be an awkward conversation, and he was going to get out of it using any means possible.
 
Damien smiled when he saw that Drew was following him to her table. "The thing is," he began, trying to find the words to tell Drew. "Her name is Ellie, as in Ellie Harold. She's Amy's sister. She has some big job in the radio now but she used to live around here. She moved away a little while before you and Amy got together, so you probably haven't met her before." As Damien cleared two thirds of the distance to Ellie's table, his mobile began to ring again. He quickly moved his hand to his phone, to see the unknown number once again. Answering this time, he said into the phone, "Hello, who is this?"

'I was hoping to speak to Mr Damien Lowe,' a man on the other line spoke. He sounded older but his voice was neither high nor low. He also sounded somewhat confident in his words. Damien could only conclude that this man was somehow associated with the police. 'Am I speaking to the right person?'

"Yes, you're speaking to him now," Damien said quietly. "What do you want? Are you the police?"

'I have no association with the police force,' the man assured him, but Damien couldn't be too sure. 'However, I do know that you are protecting a certain Mr Andrew Lazarra. I have a single request that I speak to Mr Lazarra, please.'

Damien frowned, repeating, "What do you want?"

'We know that you are with Mr Lozarra, we have seen you together already,' the man said. 'Please can you put him on the line?'

"I have to go," Damien spoke into the phone quietly, before hanging up and pocketing his phone once more. He then turned to face Drew and said in a quiet voice, "I think somebody's looking for you."
 
Ellie heard footsteps and somehow knew that they were approaching her. She closed her eyes and willed them to just be walking past her, towards the bathrooms or another table, perhaps, but she was flat out of luck as they stopped, pulled out a chair and sat down. Ellie recognised Casey easily enough; there had been plenty of photos of her and Amy all over facebook, and Ellie had met her a few times before at birthdays and the like. Her voice was exactly as Ellie remembered it, but he girl seemed to be dreadfully patronising, as if she was actually trying to tell Ellie what to do.

Let it go, El, she's just trying to be nice. In her own, ignorant, bitchy way.

Ellie paused after Casey finished speaking and opened her eyes. "Thanks for your concern, Casey, but I'm alright," she replied, looking up, and around the Starbuck's for the first time since she arrived. She spotted Damian, whom she had known for as long as Amy had done, even if they had never been all that close. Ellie was quite used to him dropping by to visit Amy when she had lived at home with her, so she knew his face as well as any of her own friends. Stood by him was a boy with blue hair. Hadn't Amy been dating a guy with blue hair? What has his name? Dan? Drew? Drew sounded right. That's what she remembered her mother telling her. Ellie narrowed her eyes, squinting, almost as if the prescription of her glasses wasn't quite strong enough. "Are you here with Damian?" she asked the girl. "Is that other boy, um, Drew? As in, Amy's Drew?"

Before Casey could answer, the two boys turned around and Ellie finally got a view of Drew's face.

Shit!
 
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Drew's stomach took a nosedive into hell. He was in major shit. New level shit. She was her sister. Amy's sister. Oh god. He had screwed up. He had majorly screwed up. As Damien answered his phone, they made eye contact. And she recognised him too. He was pretty sure that they were both thinking the exact same thing. Drew's stomach twisted unpleasantly.

And then Damien's news didn't help. "I think someone's looking for you." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair, looking out the window. "Judging by that phone call, it's not the police wanting to question me more, and I am in even more trouble." He realised that he'd said even more, and realised that he should probably bluff. "I don't need anyone beside the police questioning me." His stomach was still twisted, and his feet felt like they weighed twice as much as they actually did.
 
'Alabaster is here, okay. That means we are ordering and leaving soon. I could use some sleep and so could everyone else. Should Ellie be coming with us? Ugh, five is a crowd. But...'

Casey watched Ellie carefully as she noted Drew and Damien. 'Wait... She knows Drew? But she moved away before. I hardly ever got to see Drew and I was Amy's best friend. What is this?'

"Yeah, I am here with Damien," Casey looked over at Drew and Damien, something seemed to have happened. She saw earlier that Damien had gotten a phone call and now he didn't looked to pleased. That had to mean something but what it meant, Casey wasn't sure. So Casey continued to talk to Ellie, "And yes, that is Amy's Drew. Well, I guess he's not really hers anymore." Casey's voice dropped a little, she didn't mean to tac on that last part, it just kind of came out of Casey's mouth. Insensitive, Amy often called her that.

"Have you actually met Drew, Ellie?" Casey asked Ellie, suspiciously.
 
Damien quickly continued his journey towards Ellie's table, visibly unnerved by the phonecall he had just had. However, he decided to put that to the back of his mind for now. He took a seat beside Casey without asking for their permission to sit, and turned around to see Drew standing behind him sullenly, while Ellie stared at Drew in horror. Damien leaned forwards in his chair and smiled at Ellie.

"I don't believe she has," Damien replied to Casey's question for her, pointing to a spare seat on the table. "Ellie, this is Drew. He's Amy's boyfriend... Ex-boyfriend... No, former..." He shook his head, unable to find the right words, but nonetheless continued, "Drew, meet Amy's big sister Ellie. Now I know you've probably heard a lot on the news or perhaps directly from the police suggesting negative things about Drew, but I can assure you, he loved Amy with all of his heart. No matter how much they insist, there was no way he would ever hurt her."

He signalled Drew to take a seat at the table by subtly craning his neck in the direction of the chair, and rapidly changed the subject from Amy's death. After all, that was most definitely not the reason Ellie had come into this Starbucks in the first place. Small talk was a horrible option, but anything was better than the first one. "How have you been, anyway? How come you're back here?"
 
Drew was inventing new swear words in his head as they approached and Damien introduced him. He forced a half-smile on his face and grudgingly sank into his seat. He probably should be worried about who was looking for him and if he was in danger, but right now, he had more pressing things to deal with.

He traced the grain of wood with his finger, not meeting anyone's eyes. It was times like this he wished he was half a foot shorter and took up approximately half the space he did, so there would be less of him to feel uncomfortable.
 
Ellie shuffled uncomfortably as Casey asked if she had met drew before. She shook her head, loosening some of her long hair and not bothering to brush it away from her face, hoping to hide behind it. "No, I," Ellie coughed, "That is, Amy never introduced me to Drew."

Damien arrived on the scene, with Drew in tow and answered Casey too. Ellie bit her bottom lip and looked up at Casey through strands of hair, "It's a little awkward for me to meet him now, when I've heard so much that I should feel like I should be able to recognise him anywhere."

Inside, Ellie burned as she desperately avoided looking in Drew's direction, unable to look at the man that had been declared the number on suspect in her sister's murder... Among other things. She'd heard stories from her mother, and, like a good older sister, she had tried to scour for Drew on facebook, but if he had a profile then she couldn't find it and there were no pictures of him. She had the odd comment from Amy, usually a status update about how much she hated him (presumably after a fight) or how much she loved him (presumably after they had kissed and made up).

Damien was talking about how much Drew had loved Amy, but Ellie was far from convinced and, if she wasn't afraid of finding him staring back at her, she would have given him a glare. She just wasn't that confident. It was why she had worked in radio, instead of television.

She shuffled around on her seat, to better face Damien, whilst also turning her back in Drew's direction. "Well, I don't know what Amy told you, but I never moved all that far away. I've got a flat about two blocks away, but right now, I just don't really want to be alone in there." She closed her eyes and absent-mindedly brushed her fringe back behind her ear, clearing the strands off of her face, "I'm sure you know that feeling. Anyway, I just wanted to get out, so I went for a walk and, after a while, I found myself here. I figured I'd sit in for a bit and then head home later on." She forced a smile, "So what are you three doing here? Isn't this a bit far for you guys to come?"
 
"It's a long story," Damien sighed, shrugging his shoulders as he decided to tell her anyway. "I took in Drew for a bit but then I lost my flat. Casey hasn't told me why, but when I saw her later, she asked to join us. We slept rough for a couple nights in my car but now one of Amy's tutors reckons he can give us a place to stay for a while. Just until we can get back on our feet, you know?"

He then turned to Casey and smiled before looking back to Ellie and saying quietly, "I saw your mum last week. She asked me to hold onto something of Amy's, but I honestly don't know what to do with it." He moved his hands to the side of his bag and, in a small now-unzipped pocket, he revealed a silver locket which contained a picture of both Amy and Ellie from their childhood. "I thought it would be better off in your care."
 
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Ellie listened to Damien's summary of events with an incredulous look on her face. The three of them had been sleeping rough for the past few nights? Why? Surely they had friends, or parents that they could have stayed with? She thought about how her own parents - Amy's parents - would probably have put up Damien and Casey for a little while if they needed to. She wasn't sure how accommodating they would be of Drew, but that was besides the point.

She was considering the idea of inviting them to stay with her, instead of some unknown tutor, when Damien said something that really took her by surprise. He thrust the silver locket into Ellie's palms and she recognised it immediately, flipping it open and staring hard at the old picture. She could still remember the day that this was taken, on their Uncle Andy's farm, halfway across the country. Ellie must have been about eleven at the time, and that would mean that Amy was only five, or maybe she had just turned six. It was a vivid memory of a happier time, but it felt as though it was a lifetime ago, as if the memory belonged to someone else and Ellie was just being allowed to view it now.

With a sigh, Ellie closed the locket and forced it back into Damien's hand. "I know that you know what this locket is. It was Amy's, but my mother didn't ask you to give it to me, she asked you to hold onto it. I may be her sister, but in the last few years, with work and living on my own, I've barely seen Amy. You probably knew her better than I did." Ellie coughed, feeling her throat tighten as she fought back the urge to cry again. She closed Damien's fingers around the locket, "You've got just as much right to have something to remember Amy by as I do, and this was given to you."

Ellie tried to give Damien a warm, supportive smile, and hoped it worked.
 
Ellie smiled at him but he could sense the emotions welling up inside her - her eyes were a dead giveaway, so Damien moved his other hand towards Ellie's and took her hand between his, softly squeezing it a little as a way to thank her and comfort her in one move. He then gently moved his hands away from hers and carefully returned the locket to the side of his bag. Once he had finished this and zipped up the pocket, he smiled back at her.

"Thank you," Damien lowered his head, as his mind was filled with images of Amy from their childhood. He then quickly stood up. "I'm going to go and see what's taking Alabaster so long. I'm sure you guys have a lot to talk about."
 
Casey watched the exchange between Damien and Ellie. Her eyes looking curiously at the locket, it almost made Casey smile to see Ellie's expression at the locket. Casey was sure that the locket meant something special but, honestly, Casey didn't care about sentimental things unless they directly involved her. Other people's happiness didn't matter to Casey if it didn't effect her directly. Casey isn't one of those people who get happy by other people's happiness. Casey also couldn't comprehend the compassion between Ellie and Damien, how Ellie gave back the locket and the small physical touches of comfort.

Casey let out a sigh and said, "Look, Ellie, I don't know what I'm trying to get at by talking to you. I honestly-" Casey stopped mid sentence, she was going to say she honestly didn't care about Ellie's happiness. Casey stopped herself because it seemed rude to say to someone after a death in the family, so she continued on with a correction, "I honestly don't know what their is to say to you. I can't comfort you but I'm glad to see you're still around. Amy would of liked it if you and I, and Damien, were friends. I know that's not something you may want or need right now, friends, but remember we cared about Amy as much as you. We understand." Casey sighed, sentimental words were not her thing. But pretending to be someone else, someone who can act like they have it all together and comfort someone, was someone Casey could at least pretend to be.
 
Alabaster? What kind of a name is that? It must be a nickname or something, maybe he's another one of Amy's friends? I'm sure I'll find out if that's the case.

Ellie listened to Casey's "comforting words" and fought the urge to shake her head, or sigh. In truth, Ellie had never spent much time with Casey, she certainly wasn't as familiar with her as she was with Damien, and even he was little more than a complete stranger. That said, he was coming across as nicer and more trustworthy, whilst Casey wasn't doing herself any favours and came across as someone rather patronising and even a bit arrogant. Ellie was hardly the most confident person in the world; that had been a trait that her sister had been more blessed with, but she was twenty-three years old and she wasn't interested in letting some seventeen year old girl give her a pep talk.

"Well, it's not as Damien and I were whispering," said Ellie, turning to face Casey. "I'm sure you heard what I said to him; I understand what you're going through because I've lost someone, too." She paused, biting her cheek to stop her saying anything else and then turned back towards Damien, "Look, I don't really know any of you all that well, but I do know that I'm not going to let my sister's friends struggle if I can help it. So, if you are all in need of a place to stay, then you can come back to my flat. You might have to make do with sleeping on the couch or the floor, but it's dry and there's food in the fridge."

She turned back to Casey, sneaking a glance at Drew, taking relief in the fact that he wasn't look back, "It's the least I can do, really."
 
Drew kept staring at the table throughout the exchange. He did glance up at the locket, frowning a little. He couldn't particularly remember Amy wearing it. Then again, she hadn't exactly been best friends with her sister. He hadn't been introduced to her, and he hadn't seen any photos of her around the house. Well, he probably had, but they tended to be a bit... busy. He almost winced as he heard the memories of the argument in the back of his mind. He'd told the police about it, and had severely regretted it. His lack of an alibi, combined with the fact that he'd argued with her, had just made things a lot harder for him.

His stomach twisted unpleasantly as she suggested they could stay at hers. Guilt shot through him like a bullet, remembering the argument again. "I'll be back in a minute." He said apologetically, standing up and heading for the bathroom. He ran his hands under the cold tap and ran them down his face. She even fucking looked like her. The guilt was bringing up memories of them screaming at each other that night. If he could have kept his cool... If he could have apologised... then maybe he wouldn't be here.
 
Alabaster walked back up to the table, carrying a huge amount of coffee in both hands. "Sorry, guys, something happened with the machine. They fixed it. Did I miss anything?" He passed out food as he spoke, a fake smile plastered on his face. He could keep up a smile, but he couldn't hold back a few tears, some falling down his cheeks as he spoke. Alabaster sniffled and sat down. (Sorry, no BB codes, posting from my mobile.)
 
"No, nothing much," Damien said quietly to Alabaster, as he watched Drew leave the table. Ellie's offer was flying around in his head, and he didn't know quite how to respond. He knew Ellie much better than Alabaster, to say the least, and as Amy's sister, she had more in common with him. He didn't know Alabaster so well, but assumed that he lived alone, as he had seemed quite happy to take on three people he barely knew. When he looked up at Alabaster, he could see a tear rolling down his face, so he looked down at the table. "Are you okay?"
 
Drew leaned his head against the mirror, running his hands down his face. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't hide in here forever. He straightened up, fixed his hair a little, before heading back out to the table. Alabaster had returned, and Drew took his coffee, taking a sip from it. It was strong enough to stand a spoon in. Perfect. But when he looked up, Alabaster looked upset. Drew dipped his head, staring at the table and taking another mouthful from his coffee. He didn't want to interfere. God knows, he'd made enough of a mess of things already.
 
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