slowly drifting ★ circa waves

XII.

-

"i try to catch my breath,
i try to say the right things."

-

leaving eleanor with kieran, sam and colin and emma headed back towards the motel—emma had left her car there for the sleepover and forgot about it during their getaway. sneaking around the side of the building, they desperately tried to stay hidden.

sam spotted the car (a beat-up-white-washed volkswagen emma got from her parents), next to a huge tree that would offer some shelter from the potential enemies.

colin, even from only spending a couple days with her, had picked up eleanor's instinct of scouting for cameras. which proved to be useful in their pathetic attempt at being sneaky. it wasn't even that pathetic, actually.

until sam started sprinting to the car.

and then all of them were sprinting.

emma drags colin along behind her and heaves both of them towards the edge of the car park. sam is screaming for the keys, which emma tries to throw to him but lands underneath another car. without hesitation, sam crawls and retrieves it, before quickly starting up the car.

still quite far behind and running out of breath, colin and emma are slowing down as they weave through the cars in the lot. sam drives the car closest to where they're at, and stops to pick them up. slowly, before they've reached him, the window of the car is rolled down and-

"behind you!! the hotel security!! run your little arses off!!"

emma and colin speed up and dive into the back seat, telling sam to hit the pedal (heavy mETAL SHOW ME YOU CARE).

and then they're off. and even though they were out of breath, what they thought was mission : impizzable turned out to be a success.

-

with sam driving the car, colin and emma proceed to play a continuous game of rock, paper, scissors. emma was losing.

"hey, instead of mucking around, why don't you tell me where your apartment is?"

out of panic!, they'd driven far out from where they needed to go, and kept going from there. anything to escape the police.

emma informed him roughly of the direction of the apartment she shared with eleanor, and sam turned the car onto a long, winding road.

"yo, sam," colin began from the backseat. "what happened back there? with the whole 'i'm a raging lunatic' thing? why'd you do that?"

an exaggerated sigh came in return. "i did it for the lolz."

"for the lolz?"

"yes."

colin looked at emma, who was trying not to smile. he narrowed his eyes as she turned to face out the window. he simply sighed and turned back to sam.

"u suck."

"but not for free ;)"

-

after about a million and a half years later, emma had directed sam to their apartment. it was surprisingly close to the brighton pier. eleanor had specifically wanted that, she loved everything about the carnivals and the food and even the sea gulls. emma had a slightly different view, but as long as she was allowed to decide the colour of the walls, she was satisfied. and secretly, she kind of like being close to the shore. even if the sea gulls kind of scared her and the rocks from the 'beach' would get everywhere, waking up to the sound of the waves was fabulous. but then again waking up to loads of squawking was not.

"frigging bird poop," emma mumbled to herself as she climbed out of the car parked at the side of the road. she shook colin awake and took the keys from sam. "home sweet home, guys."

"it's beautiful," sam said, extremely sarcastically. emma rolled her eyes as she peered up at the building. they were on the first floor. it was the cheapest one; working in an ice cream parlour wasn't exactly a high paying job.

"hey, knock it off. our place in liverpool was a dump compared to anything here," colin rationalised. sam shrugged and took step behind emma, who was making her way up the steps to the front door. she fiddled with the key and shoved the heavy wooden door open.

"this is nice. it's cozy, y'know? like my grandma's house. i love this table. that's a nice table."

"colin, stop."

"soz. i mean, sorry. sozzles."

sam looked around the kitchen/living/dining room with furrowed brows. "so where's this infamous 'lucky' necklace?"

emma nodded her head towards a hallway. "probably down there. her's is the one on the left. i'm going to go and make some tea."

the other two nodded and ambled towards eleanor's bedroom. they quickly found the necklace with a four leaf clover on it, downed their tea, and hopped back into the car on the way to the van.

"do you think joe will be back yet?" emma wondered out loud. colin gave her a sad smile.

"don't worry. he's not going to ditch the band. or leave you." sam nodded along to colin's words of wisdom. emma shook her head.

"it's not that, it's just...i don't know. i guess i'm worried about him. not about him leaving me, kind of just about him."

they nodded understandingly.

"for two idiots you guys aren't half bad."

-

this is just a filler chapter. you'll see what happens to eleanor next chapterrrr ayyyyyye. hello to new readers i see you ;) and hey emma ;)

(song is catch my breath by circa waves)