Culture Shock

Chapter 1: Midnight

My Spanish comes from Google Translate, so please let me know if I screw anything up! 

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They had made plans to celebrate after the competition. The thought of ice cream and spending more time in close proximity had appealed to all, but those hopes were dashed into as many pieces as the phone had been against the sidewalk. 

Camry had never seen him the way she and Saoirse found him then: the palpable fear in his eyes was mirrored perfectly by the way his hands trembled and his breathing came in ragged, uneven bursts. Cam was shaking, too, but for different reasons. Kordelle must have been nearby if she was smelling asphodel and sensing a familiar but fading aura on the air. As much as she knew it wasn't real, her scarred tongue felt like it was on fire. Saoirse drew the other girl into her side without a second thought. "What are you talking about? Your dad knows where you are? How?" 

"That-- That fucker, he called and told him where we are," he ground out, averting his eyes to the remains of the phone that had betrayed him so succinctly. "He ratted us out! Why would he do that? I... Oh, dios, ¿que voy a hacer ahora?" 

Suffice to say, their general mood of pleasant success and accomplishment had evaporated faster than water poured on an embarrassed Relle Phantom. "We have to tell your mom," Saoirse realized. Her outstretched hand withdrew, then moved to cup the back of Camry's head. The shorter girl had turned her face into Saoirse's shoulder and was trying to concentrate on taking slower, deeper breaths of air untainted by asphodel perfume. "Maybe she has a plan for what to do in case this happens." 

"The last time, we packed up and went across, like, half a dozen state lines," he groaned. His hands were over his eyes while his head fell back. "I can't do that again! What about school? What about you guys?" 

"Hey, it'll be alright," Saoirse said quickly, trying to keep her tone mellow and placating. Her hand moved from Camry's hair and extended toward him, beckoning him closer. "C'mere."  

He responded slowly, shuffling forward and taking the offered hand in his own. She yanked him in with a surprising strength and braced him around the shoulders, pressing him into a soft embrace. "You're gonna do what you have to do to keep your family safe, and you're not gonna worry about anything or anyone else. It'll be alright. We'll always be here for you." 

Though he didn't look down to see it for himself, one of Camry's shivering arms sneaked its way over to hug him as well, pressing against the middle of his back and solidifying his place in their trio's bond. The tension in his posture evaporated little by little at the contact, and he hugged back after half of a moment's pause. He smelled, Camry noted, like an odd combination of sweat and the burnt dust of the stage's lights; such a familiar picture was brought to mind from her childhood that her panic was swept away and out to sea in record time. 

They couldn't stay that way all night, however, and with a melancholic sigh he withdrew from them a fraction of an inch. "I have to go. And tell my mom what happened." 

Saoirse nodded, resolute and encouraging despite how the implications obviously pained her. "Do you want us to go with you?" she asked, resting her hand on his shoulder. Camry nodded in agreement, having looked up and gotten her breathing back into a steady pace. 

"No, it's okay," Dude said. Under the pale blue light of the glowing trees in front of and behind them, his black opal eyes were shinier than usual. "If she panics..." 

An impulse that he thought he had gotten control of once and for all surged up from the marrow in his bones then, and before he could think twice to subdue it, he had pressed a chaste peck on Saoirse's cheek and Camry's temple in rapid succession. "I... have to go," he said again. Detaching himself from their arms, he hurried off down the sidewalk lit only by the trees and, eventually, the electric lights shining through the venue's tall front windows.