The Unwanted Winter - Volume One of the Saga of the Twelves (105 page)

It had been a simple meal
of tuna fish sandwiches and potato chips with a 32-ounce Gatorade.
At least that’s what Hyun had to drink. The others had something
else. Derek had grabbed a coke and Kimberly a tall Green Iced Tea.
All three of which were cold now. The frigid air surrounding the
mall had begun to seep into the massive structure over the course
of the past few days. They had made their meager, but sensible
dinner around the area they had built up the day before, after Hyun
had discovered there was a storm pounding the mall, effectively
shutting them off from the outside world altogether.

Now, they sat in the
camping chairs Derek had found, eating quietly. Each in their own
world, they were content with the silence for the moment, though
Hyun knew it wouldn’t last long. Of course, it didn’t.

“
So when do you think this
storm is gonna finally blow itself out?” asked Derek, his mouth
half full of food, which he washed down with a large draught of his
soft drink.

“
We don’t know, remember
Derek, since none of us has ever been in a snow storm before, let
alone a blizzard,” began Kimberly, talking around a large mouthful
of her own. The subsequent gulp of her beverage made it appear as
if she were mimicking his movements. Hyun watched them both with a
heightened degree of awareness.

This has been going on for
far too long to be just coincidence… what the hell are these two up
too?

“
I hear some of these
mother f-ing storms can last for like a week back east…,” she
trailed off to take another bite.

“
Shit, man, it’s gonna be
super cold in here if this stupid storm lasts that long,” surmised
the boy, glancing around, giving himself a mock shake at the
prospect.

Hyun wasn’t quite certain
why her eyebrows knitted.

“
There are lots of ways to
keep warm, dude, we just gotta find a few that won’t burn down the
place, you know?”

Hyun knew it was Kimberly
speaking, but this wasn’t the way the girl spoke. She had known her
since they were little girls.
What the
fuck was this shit?

Derek glanced at the girl
over his meal, having taken another bite, but was suddenly
transfixed by her tone, her attitude. Like Hyun, he realized this
wasn’t the usual Kimberly he had come to expect.

Oblivious to their
reactions of her, she kept on eating as though nothing was awry.
She didn’t bothering looking at either of them, consumption of her
meal was much more important.

Hyun continued to gaze
over at the other teen, wondering what she was getting at. Why her
voice was so different? Kimberly’s intentions were a complete
mystery. She was at a complete loss.

“
We could be here for a
long, long time,” added Kimberly, more too herself than to either
of them. Her tongue deformed her speech. She looked over at Derek
and gave him a couple of exaggerated winks. “Ain’t that right, big
boy,” she added her face melting, a crud attempt at being alluring,
falling horribly short.

Derek froze in
mid-chew.

You stupid bitch!
thought Hyun when she suddenly figured it out,
her mind in an uproar at the other girl’s imbecilic behavior. “Oh
my god, Kimberly, have you been drinking?!?”

“
Hell yeah, sista, there
is some ‘long island’ in this iced tea,” she replied holding up the
aluminum can before her.

Before the girl could
react, Hyun sprang to her feet and snagged the beverage out of her
hand.

“
Hey, you douche bag,
that’s my drink!” complained Kimberly as Hyun bent down to sniff
and blinked rapidly when she the smelled the sharp scent of
whiskey.

“
Jesus Christ, Kim, how
much alcohol did you put in this?” inquired the Korean girl,
pointing at the can.

“
It’s my usual blend
whenever I feel I need a little somethin’, somethin’ to chill me
out. I call it a half and half.” Kimberly smiled hugely, her eyes
squinting in an unusual manner.

“
You mean she’s drunk?”
asked Derek, catching on late, though it didn’t stop him from
eating. He merely sat up straighter, peering over at Kimberly as if
she’d gone insane.

“
Yeah, she’s drunk, look
at her.” Hyun motioned toward the Emo-girl as she took a wolf-like
bite of her sandwich, growling and snarling as she did so, as if
she were imagining she was a feral canine. “Aargh, Kim, why are you
always doing such stupid shit?” demanded Hyun, walking over the
trashcan they had found underneath one of the check-out counters
and tossed the drink into it.

“
What’re you talking
about?” mouthed Kimberly, around all the food she had in her
mouth.

“
I’m talking about shit
like this. I’m talking about getting drunk for no reason, for being
a bitch all the time, for being self-destructive, for always so
eager to hide from reality. Should I go on?” Hyun walked to where
they piled some other supplies and ripped open the plastic around a
twenty-four pack of individual water bottles, snatched one angrily,
and stepped over to Kimberly, extending it toward her. “Drink
this!”

“
I don’t want to, wanna
keep this buzz for a little while,” was the girl’s response as she
pushed the bottle away. Her head was cast downward, gazing at what
was left of her food in her lap.

“
Take it!” insisted
Hyun.

“
No,” mumbled
Kimberly.

Derek just looked on not
sure what to do, but still didn’t stop eating. It was like he was
watching a movie or something, mesmerized by what he saw, unable to
stop the basic motor function of bringing food to his mouth and
chomping on it.

“
Kimberly!”

“
I don’t
fucking want it!” she raged at Hyun, standing and dropping
everything in her lap onto the floor, swiping at the water bottle
and knocking it from her grasp. It bounced along the floor and out
of sight. “Why do you always have to try to control everyone, huh?”
She kept coming forward. “Who the fuck cares if I get drunk? Who
the fuck is going to stop me? Who the hell is
fucking
here to even care about me
or you, or him!” She stepped closer toward Hyun, putting a finger
in her chest. “No one, you stupid cow, got it! Did you hear what I
said? Huh? HUH??? I said, NO ONE!!!”

“
Calm down! Get the hell
away from me,” said Hyun, irritated, pushing the other girl away
when she moved even closer and into her personal space.

“
No, Hyun, I’m not going
to get away from you. I’m gonna get all up in your shit just like
you like to get into everyone else’s - real nice and close, the way
you like it.” Kimberly came forward again, her eyes stretched wide,
trying to get nose to nose with her.

“
I said step the hell
back,” Hyun pushed her back a second time, at both shoulders,
harder, firmer.

“
Why, little miss rich
girl? You don’t like it when other people get in your face, get
into your business, asking all kinds of stupid, fucking questions
all the time? Huh, what’s the matter? Why get all squirmy and icky
all of a sudden, I thought you liked getting close up to the shit.”
Again, Kimberly came close.

This time Hyun didn’t
hesitate. She shoved the other girl back as hard as she could,
making Kimberly stumble and lose her footing as she tripped and
fell over the chair she had been sitting in moments before. She
fell to the floor, making a long series of crashing noises, sending
everything in the immediate area in all directions.

Derek came to his
feet.

“
I don’t like people with
nasty ass alcoholic breath getting in my face, dumb bitch,” replied
Hyun seething through clenched teeth.

From the ground, Kimberly
spun around onto her butt and glared at her with unadulterated
fury.

This chick has lost
it…

“
I’m gonna rip your
fucking tits off!” A moment later, Kimberly scrambled to her feet
and lunged at Hyun, a low-pitched guttural growl rasping from the
bottom of her throat.

Alright, bitch, you wanna
fight, let’s go!

Hyun changed her footing,
one foot behind the other, balled up her fists and was about to
lung for the other teenager, when Derek shot in between the both of
them, using his body to shield one from the other.

“
You guys, stop!” he
shouted as Kimberly slammed into his back, clearing intent on
getting around him at Hyun.

Her hands were curled into
claws, her teeth bared, her eyes wild with a kind of malice far
deeper than the situation warranted.
“I’m
gonna kick the shit out of you, Hyun!” she rasped, spittle drooping
from the corner of her mouth.

Hyun felt Derek’s hand
resting on her chest just under her neck. She flung his arm away,
but didn’t move any closer.

It took all that Derek had
to keep Kimberly from getting around him until finally he spun on
the balls of his feet, grabbed her by both of her shoulders and
shook her violently.
“Kimberly, stop! Stop
it now!” He was staring directly into her eyes.

She glanced up into his
for a split second. Her face twisted into an ugly grimace as tears
began to fall from her face profusely.

“
Calm down, Kim, calm
down, ok.” He lowered his voice, but still held onto her
firmly.

She looked at him for a
second time, her eyes less clouded with rage.
“Uuurrgh!” she screamed and twisted out of his grasp, ripping
his hands from her body with every ounce of strength she could
muster.

He instantly stepped
before Hyun, blocking access to her, but Kimberly wasn’t advancing
in their direction.

“
You both can go and suck
each other’s cocks!!!” she wailed through her tears and ran off,
away from their small ‘home’, out of the fish market and into the
mall proper. Even as she farther strode away, they could still hear
her cries and explosive sobbing for quite some time.

“
What the hell was that
all about?” asked Derek after Kimberly’s howls had diminished to
almost nothing, rubbing his hands together, the force she had
applied on them must have made them ache.

“
I’m not sure,” sighed
Hyun, relaxing the tension in her shoulders, a tightness she hadn’t
even realized she had sustained. “There’s a lot my old friend
hasn’t told me. She hides everything now, you know, as if she can’t
bring herself to tell anyone, not even me.”

Derek mulled on this as if
he tasted something exotic for the first time. “She’s a nice girl,
under all of the bullshit she’s hiding behind,” he uttered quietly,
his tone devoid of inflection as if he’d verbalized a
thought.

“
She is much more than
that, Derek,” retorted Hyun, her eyes sliding over toward the
fourteen-year-old boy.

He didn’t turn to stare
back. He kept his gazing toward the last place they’d both of them
had seen Kimberly.
“Do you have any idea
what happened to her?”

It was the concern in his
voice that made her frown and stare at him more intently.
“No, I wish I did. And yet, at the same time, I
wish I didn’t have to know. But, if it would bring just a little
bit of the girl I used to know back, I guess I would listen to the
worst of the worst. If it meant I could have back my childhood
friend, then I would.” She spoke woodenly, though inside her heart
was clenching. She knew she was on the verge of understanding the
truth. It would take no more than a clue or two more and she would
unearth what had happened. She knew even then, it wouldn’t be
pleasant.

Derek’s brow furled bit by
bit as time passed. His dark eyes filled with emotion as
well.

Hyun watched, breathed.
She let his expression slowly reveal itself, knowing if she spoke,
inadvertently, he’d change it. Her own orbs locked on the teenage
boy standing next to her. The realization hit her so hard, she
gasped.
He likes her!
She tried as quickly as she could to stifle it with a fake
cough.

Derek looked at her, half
expecting her to throw-up on his shoes or something.

Holy shit, all this time,
since day one!
It all clicked into place
and made sense. That was why Kimberly was so mean to him. That was
why Sonny had been so jealous of him. It wall made perfect sense
now.
Holy shit, this has been a twisted
triangle since Derek had first asked Kimberly for directions. He
had liked her all the way back then… and ever since! The little
bastard never said a god damned thing to me!

“
You think she’ll be ok
out there. I mean, it’s getting awfully cold in here?” he said
totally unaware he had just let the proverbial cat out of the
bag.

“
She’ll be ok, it’s cold,
but it’s not so cold that it’s deadly,” assured Hyun, patting him
on the shoulder. There was a gleam in her eye he didn’t see,
because he never looked her way. His attention was only for the
tipsy girl who had run away in despair.

This just gets weirder and
weirder with every passing hour.

*****