Decisions

Posted on Thu Nov 24th, 2022 @ 2:28am by Unawakened James Corrigan

Mission: Tales of the Unawakened
Location: Various
Timeline: After "Tough Choices"

The weekend went without incident. The trio checked into their hotel rooms – one for James and one for the girls – ordered room service, and then turned in for the night.

The next morning, they left early, wanting to be as near to the front of the line as possible at Disneyland. For that reason, they had decided to eat inside the park. After that, the girls split off, meeting back up with James for lunch. They finished the day together then returned to the hotel. That night, they ordered from a local restaurant before calling it a night.

On Sunday, they moved on to Six Flags, using the same arrive-early tactic as before. This time, however, they stayed together for the whole day, riding pretty much every ride in the park, some more than once. Then they drove back to Bakersfield, stopping to eat on the way.

All in all, it had been a good time.

Pulling up behind Karen's apartment, James stayed in the car while Kat walked her friend to her door. While he waited, he tried to figure out what they should do. He had hoped that letting his mind work on the problem without the interference of his conscious mind would result in a solution. It had not.

When Kat returned to the car, James could tell that she also had nothing. She sat next to him in the front seat and looked over.

"What are we going to do?" she asked.

James sighed heavily. "I… don't know." The truth of the matter was that he was conflicted. On the one hand, he would be quite happy to take the Chicken Exit his mother had given him and get as far away from his dad's constant verbal abuse as was possible. On the other hand, he was not at all sure that it was fair to Kat to drag her along, away from everyone she knew. But would it be any more fair to her to leave her todeal with the fallout of him leaving? Another heavy sigh left him, and he closed his eyes for a moment. After that moment, he opened his eyes and looked at her. "I know what I would do if it was just me, but it isn't. What do you want, Kat?"

So he was putting it on her? How could she make that decision?! It was too heavy! The look she gave him said as much. "I… can't decide for you, James," she near-whispered.

James put a hand on her shoulder gently. "I'm not asking you to decide for me, Kat," he answered softly. "I just… I don't think it'd be fair of me to do what I want without considering what you want."

What she wanted? What she wanted was for none of this to even be necessary, but that was a fruitless wish, so she pushed it aside and nodded, looking down at her hands clasped tightly in her lap. "I don't want you to stay for me, but I know what will happen if you go and I don't," she began very softly. "At the same time, I don't want to leave everyone." Tears clouded her vision. "I don't know what the right thing to do is," she admitted.

James didn't answer immediately. After a moment, he gave her shoulder a squeeze. "There is no right thing, I don't think," he admitted. Except for dad to stop being such an asshole maybe, but that's as likely as snow in this desert town! he mused bitterly to himself. "I think we just have to do what's best for us. I mean, if it was wrong, I don't think Mom would have given us the choice."

Kat nodded. Like her brother, she trusted their mom. It just all felt so… wrong. But then, the way things had been at home up 'till now wasn't right either. Maybe James was right. Maybe there was no right answer.

"I… guess going is… better," she finally said. "But how long can we last on Mom's card?"

That was the one question that neither of them had considered until that moment, and James winced when she asked it. "I… don't know," he admitted very softly. And if it was just him, it wouldn't matter; he would just get a job. But he had to consider Kat too. "I can get a job wherever we go. And if we use the cabin like Mom suggested, we won't have certain bills." He was thinking aloud now rather than talking to his sister. But if she had any thoughts, he definitely wouldn't mind them.

Kat nodded, frowning. "Yeah, but Dad knows about that place. He'd send the cops there looking for us, wouldn't he?"

She sounded worried, and James couldn't blame her. He sighed again. "Yeah, likely." But then what could they do? Where could they go? He suddenly felt the urge to bang his head against something hard until either he fell unconscious, or a good idea came to him. He discarded the idea almost immediately, though, as the former was far more likely than the latter.

Kat stared at the dashboard blankly, her mind working over the problem as James was. "James?"

James looked over at his sister. She sounded as though she had some kind of idea. "Yeah?"

"Can we just wait until tomorrow when Mom and Dad are at work and go get our stuff from the house while they're gone?" she asked. It wasn't a full plan, no, but it was a beginning.

James actually smiled a little. "Good idea. Glad I thought of it," he jokingly took credit for her idea.

Kat saw the joke for what it was and felt grateful for the lighter mood. She stuck her tongue out at him, then they both laughed a bit. James started the car again, and they went to find a cheap hotel for the night.

They now had a place to start.

TBC>>>