And it all started with this meet & greet - Ondreaz Lopez

Chapter 52: "Maybe murder!"

Countdown - 5th Chase und James

"Okay, boys. What do we do? I was wearing a plain top and jeans, a cardigan on top. "We're going to the cinema," Chase returned. That wasn't really Chase and James's style. Just to the movies? 

They laughed when they saw the look on my face. "I'll explain later. We're going to the biggest cinema in California. The IMAX." 

 The trip to the cinema looked more like the boys again. While the music was turned up loud, we danced - as far as our seat belts would allow - and sang, he filmed the whole thing. I uploaded a piece of the video to my TikTok account with the signature "Countdown - 5". We also spat papir balls at the driver. 

 In front of the huge building we bought tickets for a movie I hadn't heard much about. "And what are we going to do the rest of the day?" I asked them, as we bought ourselves a Jubo Popcorn. 

 "Watch more movies." I looked at James in disbelief. "You want to go back to that cash register?" We had waited almost twenty minutes. "No, that's the funny thing. We'll sneak into the other movies." He winked at me. 

 While we watched six blockbusters that day, we threw popcorn at people, bothered them because we laughed, ran away from fans and security guards and made a complete fool of ourselves. One time James had run in front of the screen and started dancing, and he did it during the most romantic scene. 

 Thanks to us, there was popcorn hanging from the ceiling in every hall and I wasn't even supposed to start from the floors and seats. And we had a Mentos - Cola - fountain in the ladies' room. 

 In short, we had caused quite a lot of chaos. "Stop!" cried one of the security guys from the cinema and we ran on laughing. "Come on, quick, this way!" said Chase and pointed to a side alley. It was late in the evening and it was dark. 

 We looked around to all sides, then we went onto the grass of the football field, which immediately caught our eye. "Hey," I heard a voice, somewhere to my right. I turned around and saw a guy. Early 20s, maybe. I couldn't really tell in that light. 

 "This is our spot," said a second guy standing somewhere behind the guy whose muscles were clearly visible under his shirt. "And it's a free country," I threw back and put my hands on my hips.

 A third guy joined me, then another guy. Sure, they should at least have a chance, shouldn't they? "You got a big mouth for a little runt like that," it came from way back. Ahh, there were more. That's nice. 

 "At least I give intelligent things of myself." They looked at me a little speechless. Well, not all girls are scared of a couple of guys with creepy tattoos and upper arms bigger than my face.

 "You know, steroids aren't really good for the body, right?" Chase and James stepped up to my side. "Stop provoking her. You're gonna get this whole thing out of hand." I waved James off. "Chill out, Jamesyy. It's cool. Just having a nice chat with some possibly disenfranchised people on an abandoned and not very well-lit football field. Nothing to worry about." 

 With a sigh, my two dates took another step aside. To be honest, this conversation was a little out of sorts for me, but when I saw the gun in one guy's hand, I felt a little queasy. It was a gun. Further back, I even thought I saw a machine gun flashing. Ohoh.

 "Call the police, one of them's got a gun. I'll stall them," I explained so quietly that only Chase could understand, I just let the other gun go. "Okay, guys. What do you want from us?" I asked to distract them. A murmur went through the rows. 

 "Money, I suppose. Phones are okay too," one of them brought out. I opened my bag. My iPhone's in my bra, so that's safe. "Ehh, I could use some popcorn," I suggested, and pulled a handful out of the bag. "Then we've got tampons, but I don't think you'll be able to do much with those. Well, you could stick them up your nose when it starts bleeding, but I think you're more the kind of guys who let it go. Just come cooler." 

 I kept digging inside my bag and pulling out a plastic bottle. The bewildered looks of the people in front of me were just divine. I held up the container that once contained Coke. "Jo, you won't find any use for that either. If it was a glass bottle, you could have slipped it on someone, but this way... Nope." I threw it behind me and it landed a few feet away on the lawn.

  "Guys, this looks bad. "I'm not really from LA. I could tell you... two dollars." I put the two bills in the leader's hand, I don't know if it was him or not, and kept looking.

 "Yeah, well I could offer you another Five Gum Black Edition, but I think you're more into that mentol stuff, so I ate the last one earlier. "Oh, well... jackpot. Here's a piece of almond cherry chocolate. It was on the pillow in my bed at the hotel. Who wants it?" 

 Honestly, I wanted to burst out laughing. "Whoa, you don't appreciate that," I pout and throw the little package into the group. "Hmmm, let's see. I still have a cinema ticket to offer, but you won't get in anyway, so it's kind of unnecessary. Otherwise it looks rather bad. If you don't know anybody who sells Ikea pencils for a lot of money, then I can't help you. I took a few of them.

I'm more of a moocher myself, and I don't have any more money on me than what I just gave you, so yeah... and the currency isn't even valid here, so it's kind of fucked anyway. Thank you for this wonderful conversation, although, admittedly, I haven't heard much about you, but I think I'll duck now."

 With these words I threw myself on the floor as a squad of policemen were grilling the boys. 

 ***

 "Well, how was it?" asked Niki who immediately went to her Chase to give him a kiss on the cheek. My companion for this day looked quite battered. The whole thing just now, had hurt him a little bit. 

 "Oh, quite a bit. We went to the movies and screwed up until we were chased outside by some security guards," I explained with a smile and winked at James and Chase. They nodded and then sat down on the couch as if they were  old mans who couldn't stand. 

 "Yes, and then... Soph has formed a gang that the police have been searching for a good six months for drug abuse, extortion, aggravated assault and robbery. Maybe even murder," Chase added. 

 The mouths of the others flapped open. "You what?!" Jess yelled, almost in a panic. "Chase called the cops, not me. So basically... he turned them in," I defended myself. "But you told me to call the cops. Besides, you've got these criminals who are bloody dangerous and eight of them have been talking for so long that they didn't even notice that there was a SPECIAL COMMANDO coming from behind them," Chase yelled. Okay, he was traumatized.

 "We could have died!" I took a step back. "Chase, they never even touched us. They threatened us - sort of - I can see that, but please don't make a big deal out of it now. I'm fine, you're fine, and I've got $750,000 reward money, which we can now happily share. I thought it was really funny. Seriously, that was a great start to the four days you're going to keep me busy. It was so awesome at the station. Really cool. Don't worry, it's all good." 

 Shit, he was really shit scared. And I... I didn't even have adrenaline in my system. Was there something wrong with me? 

Kouvr came up next to me. "Okay, this... but nothing really happened, so I think we should just go to sleep." Chase took a deep breath, then took it out.

 I went up to him and hugged him. "I'm sorry, I didn't know it was so horrible for you, but I found it a very exciting experience. Thank you for a lovely day." I smiled at him encouragingly, he smiled weakly back. "Good night, Soph. And you don't need to apologize. I overreacted." 

Chase and James went into there room shaking there head, and as soon as the door closed, all the girls looked at me with a smile. "What?" I asked, confused. "In all this action, did you ever think that something could have happened not only to Chase or James and you but to your CHILD as well?", Jess finally yelled. 

 Oops.