Somewhere Only We Know . . . (Invite Only)

The past few weeks, just over a month, had been a busy time. In the weeks, New York had been attacked...again..., Gracie's boyfriend's family was slaughtered and now the three of them lived together. Andree didn't mind the set up, she quite liked it really, seeing as she didn't have to pay the rent now. No longer having to pay the rent each month opened up a fairly large amount of money that she had for pleasure. With the spare she had right now, she decided to take a trip down to Florida for a bit. Tampa Bay was the destination that she arrived at that morning. Once the plane had touched down, the mundane airport security began. She walked through the metal detectors a few times, stopped for the metal buttons on her blue jeans setting the alarm off, and the rest of the security checkpoints that they required you to pass through in order to be allowed into the city. Once it was confirmed that she was not a terrorist looking to blow something up, she was allowed to get her bags and leave through the sliding glass doors.

The warm, humid air hit her like a brick wall as she left the air conditioning of the airport and stepped into the open air of Tampa Bay. I like heat but couldn't they keep the humidity away? She asked herself as she tried to adjust to it. Her feet carried her to the sidewalk where she could wave down a taxi. Once she saw one come by, she yelled out to the driver inside. "Taxi!" But, instead of stopping, the drive rolled down his window and yelled back. "Pedestrian!" He exclaimed in reply as he drove past her and away. Oh, ha ha, bloody ha. Andree thought to herself sarcastically, annoyed at the taxi driver. After about twenty minutes, another driver came, this time stopping for her.

She slid her three bags into the trunk of the taxi and slipped into the back seat. She leaned forward and told him to take her to the Twin Peaks hotel. He complied and drove the taxi through the crowded streets. As he did so, Andree continued to try and adjust to the humidity of Tampa Bay. God, turn off the humidifier, please? She asked herself silently, trying to make a joke to distract her from the dryness of the air. The taxi eventually drove up to the front of the hotel and let her out. The humid air was beginning to feel a bit more normal to her as she paid him for his services and collected her three bags.

With the bags in tow, she made her way into the hotel. Her shoes made small clicking sounds against the pavement as she made her way to the glass double doors. After checking in, the bellhop took her bags up to her room on the fourth floor. Andree took the bags off the trolley and tipped him before he left her in peace. Tired from the flight down, she collapsed in the soft bed and fell asleep.

She did not know what time it was when she awoke until she checked the digital alarm clock that told her it was no longer morning and around midday. Assuming that the humidity would have cleared up by now, she walked out into the sunlight. In her white tank top and blue jeans, she started to take a walk down the street. After half an hour of walking, she came across a coffee shop. Feeling in the mood for a nice snack, she stepped inside to the air conditioned heaven. After lining up for her cup of coffee to wake her up, she didn't really care how hot it was outside, she made her way over to find a chair. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a girl, not too out of the ordinary, sitting in the corner and sucking the colour out of her hot beverage. Wanting to know more about the feat that she had just preformed, Andree leaned against the wall next to her and used it to slow her descent down to the floor. There weren't any chairs available by now anyways. "That was a neat trick you did there." Andree told the girl, a ghost of a smile across her face. "It's okay, you can share with me. I can tell you about myself after." She added, awkwardly in an attempt to make the girl feel less awkward. "Okay, those both probably sounded creepy so I'm just going to start again. Hi, my name's Andree." As she finished her greeting, she extended a hand to her to shake.

Blinking her soft, leaf green eyes slowly, Sarah turned to the girl. "Well, hello. . . I'm Sarah. Nice to meet you . . . I come here a lot because I know a lot of people and it's close to home . . . Well, I guess I don't really have a home anyway, but . . . " Sighing a bit, the young teen spread her fingers and the vision of the teddy bear disappeared. "So are you new to town . . . ?"

"What happened to your home?" Andree asked, concern evident in both her eyes and words. Despite only knowing her for a short while, she felt sad for the young girl. Someone losing their home was a sad thing to her, as it should be to anyone. As her dark brown eyes stared at the disappearing teddy bear, she replied to the young girl's question. "I'm here on vacation, actually. That's an interesting trick, never seen that one before." As she spoke, her fingers on her right hand rose and fell in a pattern against the floor, her coffee cup being held in her left hand.

Shrugging in an almost innocent manner and biting her bottom lip mindlessly, she shook her head a bit as if shaking her mind out of her fantasy world to talk to this girl. "Well...my powers are kinda useless so, I like to play with them..." Keeping in the dark fact that her abilities actually could kill someone and drain their life, she took a tiny sip of her coffee.

"My home was hit by lightning...So, you know, it burned and my foster family are in the hospital. I'm staying with a few friends but it's not the same. You know, girls my age would love to live with their best friends, but I am doing that and I can say that it's depressing. I sure hope my parents live though--I don't want to go back to the orphanage, you know...?" Sarah, when nervous, scared, depressed, or rambling, tended to say "you know" a lot. Her last boyfriend thought it was cute but Sarah hardly noticed it. When people pointed it out, she was always insanely embarrassed and then tried to use better vocabulary before slipping back unaware that she was overusing the phrase again. But oh well--it was better than saying 'like' for like every sentance, you know?

Listening to what the young girl had to say, Andree took a sip from the Styrofoam cup that her coffee was being held in. After taking the sip of the warm, brown liquid, Andree replied to Sarah. "Well, they seem like fun to play with, I suppose." A sigh escaped her throat as she finished her response, the coffee had been hotter than she had expected and she was attempting to cool her mouth down a bit. Her hand placed the coffee cup on the ground and rested her hand on the floor.

At the first sentence of Sarah's response to the question regarding her home, Andree's eyebrows shot up in shock and her eyes began to swim with even more concern. "Oh my God! That's terrible!" She exclaimed before staring into Sarah's eyes with pity. "God, I hope they get through it too. Don't worry, I bet they will." Was her response. She only said that she bet they will be okay because she wanted to comfort Sarah, she really had no idea. It just seemed like the right thing to say at the moment. Just to let the girl know that there was a door open if she needed it, Andree told her. "Well, if you need or want to, you can always live with me. Okay, that probably made me sound like a pedophile but you get what I mean, right?"

"Erm, well, thank you." She giggled sheepishly. "it's sweet to know you tourists can be nice sometimes, you know? But I'd never want to be a burden on anyone. My foster parents have it hard enough dealing with me and my crazy abilities, you know?"

"It's been a rollercoaster, my life. But I guess it adds entertainment and challenges . . . But if they die in the hospital, I might consider your offer more, 'kay . . . ? " Born and raised in Florida, Sarah was extremely hospitable and kind to strangers. As long as they didn't seem suspicious and whatnot, she usually talked to them anyway.

"You wouldn't be a burden, I have a lot of issues, I can deal with a few more." Andree said, trying to be nice and hoping she didn't come off as creepy. "I hope I'm not coming off as creepy to you, I'm just trying to help." Her hand could feel that the coffee had cooled down enough to drink and she raised it to her lips and took in the hot liquid. "Yeah, I'm sure they'll make it. I don't want to take you away from them, I just know from a friend of mine that orphanages are no fun. You'd like her, I think." Andree told her, thinking of Gracie back home at the apartment as she did so. As she thought and spoke, her fingers continued their fluid pattern down by her side. Quickly raising, quickly falling. Over and over again.