Listen to my voice.

Chapter 5.

"How come you're here?"

She let out a nervous laugh "I ran away."

"What do you mean you ran away?" he whispered.

He opened his mouth slightly but a very effusive girl jumped into his arms.

"f**k, Ley, you gave me the second scare of my life."

"The second?"

"Yeah, the first was when I met Thom."

The alluded frowned and gave him a little tap on his shoulder.

"Hey, I'm handsome, what do you say, silly!"

She laughs.

"Harley, Harley, Harley" Thom kissed her head "stop scaring me like that."

Dereck looked at the girl, gave her a lopsided smile.

"You like being in trouble, huh."

He shrugs "What can I tell you?"

He denies amused "Come here" he extends his arms in her direction and she rests her head on his chest.

"What's going on in this town, Dereck?"

He combs her hair and pulls away from her slightly to observe her.

"Many things, so many that I wouldn't even have wanted to know it" he gives her a sad smile "We'd better go to the hospital, your mother is worried."

They all nod without forgetting the little hug they starred in, they knew something would happen there.

"Sure."

[ . . . ]

"Harley!"

Mrs. Veronica ran to her daughter and enveloped her in a warm embrace, spread several kisses over her face and then cradled her daughter.

"I'm so sorry, honey."

"It's not your fault."

Her mother grimaced "yes it is."

"How were you supposed to know what would happen, this town is crazy!"

She looked over her daughter's shoulder meeting the twins who nodded, while the two friends watched all confused.

"I really did know what would happen, but not exactly!"

"What do you mean, Mom?".she asked rejoining the hug.

"Uh, I think we should go somewhere more private, don't you think?" spoke Alei.

"Should we?" asked Dereck.

"Hello? We witnessed those creatures! Not to mention what Thom saw in the woods!"

"Not that they weren't in the woods?" asked his mother.

"Heh, heh, yeah well, the story is hilarious."

They all made their way to the room where Dereck had been minutes before.

Silence reigned in the room, no one dared say a word.

"So this town has supernatural things?" spoke breaking the silence, Thom.

"Or they put something in our food, tampered with it and we're really high" Alei blurted out.

Harley nodded "That would explain everything."

"So this is all a hallucination?" asked Thom.

"Yes" affirmed Alei. "Who in their right mind would believe that werewolves and more supernatural creatures exist, no one!"

"Nothing happened?" the girls nodded in her direction "wow, it felt so real, are we like in an astral world?"

Dereck, Olivia and Veronica looked at them confused, did they really think they were stoned? Did it really shock them that much?.

"Can we go?"

The girls look at Thom with a shrug "I guess so."

"Welloo."

But before the three teens walk through the door they are stopped by Dereck.

"Let's see, wait" they looked at each other then nodded "they're not drugged" they were going to retort but denied "not in astral travel or a dream either, all the s**t they've been through is real."

"Uhh, does the supernatural exist?" asked Harley.

Her mother nodded "Yes, honey."

"Does that mean I can marry a sexy, handsome vampire who's over a thousand years old?" spoke Alei.

The three friends looked expectantly waiting for the answer.

"Well yeah. Not if he's sucked your blood before."

Olivia gave her brother a little smack "Don't be an idiot."

He let out a snort rubbing the affected part, his twins looked at him saying : I didn't even hit you that hard.

"Yes, Alei, you could marry a vampire."

"Sexy, handsome vampire who's a thousand years ahead of me."

"Why a thousand years?" whispered Thom to Harley to which she shrugged.

"I don't know Because of experience?" she replied in kind.

Dereck rolled his eyes at what the redhead said "You could marry a sexy, handsome vampire, Alei."

"You missed that I'm a thousand years apart."

"You'll be able to marry a sexy, handsome vampire a thousand years apart, girl," he blurted out gruffly, "not without me killing you first, of course," he muttered the last under his breath.

The three friends looked at each other and guffawed, the eldest and the teenagers were looking at everything with a frown.

Now what was going on?

"M-Mom!" she took a breath "W-Why . . . why. . .do you. ..lend yourself to this-this jo . . . ke?"

Oh, no.

"Yes, Ms. Veronica, the truth is I was scared" Thom spoke "it all looked so real."

"That's right. Especially the shadow thing. How did they do that?"

"Are they filming us?"

Alei's eyes widened "Are we on some show?!"

"You should get dressed up" Thom warned her.

She grimaced at him "And you reborn."

He snorted, then frowned "How did they know we'd be in the woods?"

Harley nodded "that's right, and how did they do to erase the video footage?"

Alei clicked "I want to know that too, and about how Dereck was like a wolf or that."

The twins and their mother grimace at the fact that they don't believe them, even though they didn't blame them it all seemed like a f*****g joke.

"There's something I can't quite figure out."

"What is it, honey?"

She let out a sigh and looked at her friends to which they gave a thumbs up "How" she took another breath " . . . is it that they did the whispers. They sounded so real" - the twins rested their gaze on Veronica.

They had to talk.

"Oh, and another thing Was it necessary to shoot us with real guns?" laughed Thom nervously, at the memory.

Wow, they would certainly have to tell her the whole truth, from the smallest secret to the most dangerous.

[ . . . ]

She entered the school with her headphones on, the trip from her house to the high school took several minutes - that's why her mother insisted that she use her car, but she simply refused the offer - so on the way she listened to music.

Ley took the seat at the back of the class, next to the window, after a few minutes she decided to remove the headphones, because the teacher would be coming in at any moment, a figure was positioned in front of her.

"Hi" the chestnut raised her head to see who it was.

Dereck.

The girl grimaced and fixed her gaze on the book she had put down.

"What's up, Dereck?" she asked quietly . "We're in high school, didn't you get enough of what happened over the weekend?"

"I wouldn't if it wasn't important."

"That doesn't give you the right to watch me all night from a tree, I was with my friends Can't you tell me later?"

"You know damn well I can't."

All the noise of people talking ceased as the professor entered.

"Open the book to page twenty."

Harley kept quiet the entire class, his mind was elsewhere, to be specific, he was thinking about his friends, that class they didn't share and he wondered if they were coping well.

What she didn't realize was that two pairs of eyes were watching her since she sat down, the twins, Olivia and Dereck, were worried, how they had taken it.

Had they been right to tell them?

The class was interrupted by the principal, the teacher stopped the class to approach, he frowned and nodded, after that the principal withdrew.

The teacher took two of his students to the blackboard, then called Harley and told her to leave and go to the exit that he was waiting for her, she confusedly nodded, went to her seat to grab her things, before leaving she said goodbye to Mr. Harris to which he replied with a smile.

The twins were intrigued. Why had she gone out? Was she unwell?

The girl when arriving at the exit found her two friends and a smile formed on her face, they had not noticed her yet, as they were both leaning on the boy's car looking at their cell phones, she slowly approached the girl, grabbed her waist and the red-haired girl let out a scream.

"I'm poor, don't steal from me, please! The car isn't even mine, it's Thom's! He has money!"

The laughter was not long in coming, when the laughter stopped Thom looked at Alei in disgust.

"I'd like to say I didn't expect this from you, but truth be told, I did."

She grimaces "heh , heh, sorry. But you know, survival methods."

"Survival methods" she scoffs.

Ley looks amused at the situation.

"How did they get him to come out?"

Both boys wiggled their eyebrows up and down.

"A wizard never reveals his secrets."

"You don't do magic."

Thom clicks his tongue "and that's true. Well I guess knowing how to hack, serves a purpose."

"You know how to hack?"

"Yeah, I impersonated your mom."

"Oh" he blurted out.

Thom climbed in as driver, Harley as co-driver while Alei in the back, started the car.

"What are we going to do?" the latter asked.

"What do you want to do?"

The girl looked at her friend with a smile "Let's go for ice cream!"

Both boys denied "No, the last time we went for ice cream, you told half the town that we were your parents and we had a dysfunctional family because we weren't together."

"I was just telling the truth, you are my parents and I am your daughter, and dysfunctional because you are not together, because you don't want to" she whispered the last "Besides, when I ask for something you both give it to me You are my adoptive parents!"

They laugh, sometimes she acted like a child.

"No, honey. We're not going for ice cream."

She gave her friend a dirty look but then kissed her cheek.

"Bah, I didn't even want to" she was silent for a few seconds "If we go out of town?"

"Leaving town?" asked Thom.

She nodded "yes, we're going to the next town over, they'd be having a fair, we could come back in the evening what do you say?"

For the first time, everyone agreed.

"And she fell in the chocolate fountain!" river "You should have seen her face!"

Thom looked at her in the rearview mirror and grimaced "You fell in the pool, so don't even talk."

Now it was Alei's turn to grimace.

"It's not funny anymore."

"It is."

"It's not!"

"Yes it is!"

"Of course it's not. . . ."

They were both interrupted by Harley "Ya! Can't they go a day without fighting?"

"No."

"Yes."

They both spoke in unison, the chestnut rolled her eyes, they were going to fight again.

"Yes we can!"

"We can't!"

Alei punched him in the shoulder "We've been friends for half a year, dummy!"

"Don't hit me when I'm driving!"

"I can hit you whenever I feel like it, fool!"

"Stop calling me a fool, dummy!"

The brunette stared out the window at the scenery while her friends bickered, as usual, how did they manage to be friends for six months. That even they themselves didn't know.

Something caught Harley's attention, a car had been following them for a few minutes, they could take the same road, couldn't they? But for more than half an hour?

"Of course not, winter is better!"

"It's summer!"

"Guys" Harley muttered, not taking his eyes off the other car.

"Winter!"

"Summer!"

"Guys!" he shouted, thus drawing their attention.

They both shrank back in their seats and turned their gaze to their friend "Yeah?"

"That car's been following us since we left the high school."

Alei turned slyly "Oh, I thought I was paranoid, I've seen it too."

"What do we do?" spoke Thom, his eyes straight ahead "Do we lose them?"

The redhead nodded frantically "I don't want to die, Thom! If I ever die I'll pull your legs!"

"No one's going to die!"

In one swift movement, Thom turned left, thus taking another path, the car behind him moved the steering wheel quickly thus being behind them again.

The good thing?

There was no doubt he was being followed.

The bad?

They were being followed.

After a few more minutes-trying to lose the other car, which was a failure-the van warned that it would soon run out of gas.

And not only that, luck seemed not to be on their side today.

"The tire's leaking air!" alarmed Alei "We're out of gas! We're going to die! You said we weren't going to die, Thom!"

"Yeah, well, I guess we should have stayed home.

The boy nodded in agreement with his friend "This all feels like a bad dream we don't want to wake up from. Are you sure we're not on drugs?. I mean the d**g can last a long time in our system and that would explain a lot."

"I already wish this was all just d**g effects" spoke the redhead "But who would put that in our food?"

"Someone who is envious of us" said obvious "They sure envy you, Alei."

She frowned "Me? Why?"

"Because you have super hot friends."

He rolled his eyes.

"Just drive will you. I don't want to die."

Now it was her turn to roll her eyes.

"I can't go too fast because of the tire and no one's going to die."

"We should get off."

Both friends looked at Harley as if he had grown a second head "What?"

"We have to get off?"

"We should get off, any minute now the tank will eventually empty, we can just run for a while and we'd be in town by now, there are people we can spread out."

That was a point in his favor.

"He has consistency."

As they were slowing down, Harley opened the window sticking her hand out and just showed them her middle finger to the other car, Thom's eyes widened wider than usual at her act, while Alei watched her like a mother would watch her daughter when she made an accomplishment, proud.

The three boys got out of the car, grabbing their personal belongings, thus getting lost in the woods.

Several footsteps could be heard behind them, every ten seconds the boys turned their faces to look behind them, and before they knew it they had reached the town.

A large sign adorned the entrance.

Welcome.

Colorful lights could be seen from overhead, people walking everywhere, games scattered, they definitely wouldn't find them.

"Hi! Welcome to Cooperstown! Are you new around here?" a brown girl asked them with a beaming smile.

They nodded "yes, it's our first time here."

"Oh, lucky us! We're having our anniversary today!" she looked for something in one of the drawers and handed it to them. "Here, these bracelets allow you to enter any attraction."

The friends were surprised and gave him a smile "thank you very much, you shouldn't have bothered."

He waved his hands.

"Compliments of the house Enjoy!"

The boys had a lovely afternoon, they went from darts to the registry office. Yes, Harley and Thom had jokingly married, all at Alei's request, to stop being a dysfunctional family.

The people around them were clapping for what happened a few seconds ago while the red-haired girl was jumping up and down with joy.

"My parents got married! I won't have a dysfunctional family anymore!"

People watched the scene in amusement, it wasn't very normal to see two teenagers getting married at a fair at the request of their friend who seemed to be the daughter in their strange relationship.

"Missed the kiss!" shouted a boy in the crowd.

Thom looked at Harley who had reddened cheeks, he just smiled, slowly moved closer and positioned his lips against his friend's cheek, everyone let out an "awwwww". It really was a very tender scene, followed by that, the boy with green eyes with little blue sparkles gave his hand to his friend to walk with their arms intertwined and head towards Alei.

"They are so cute!" she exclaimed when they reached her side "we are already a normal family" she let out a sigh dramatically.

The time read six in the evening, so the sun had already set, the young people had no way to get back, the car was stranded somewhere, out of gas and with a bad tire, although that didn't worry Thom, his family had enough money to buy three cars better than the one they had.

What worried them was how they would get back.

"I had a great time! Thanks guys!" squealed the red-haired girl.

"I had a great time too! Thanks for not leaving me alone!"

Thom draped his arms around his friends' shoulders "thanks to you, Ley. You give us the honor of being your friends."

She smiled gratefully "oh, I love you guys."

She had only known them for six days, but she felt like she had known them all her life, the feeling was reciprocal, even though they had known each other for such a short time, they already knew everything about them.

The moment was interrupted by Harley's cell phone, a name graced her screen.

Mom.

His friends nodded, he answered the call.

"Well?"

"Harley! Where are you?"

"Oh, yeah, uh, you see, we're not in town" his friends motioned for him to continue "and we had car trouble, one thing led to another and we're spending the night in the next town over."

"Oh, that's all right, I guess, but are you all right?"

"Yes."

"Dr. Veronica!" a third voice was heard.

Her mom let out a sigh but before she said anything Harley stepped forward- Don't worry, I can call you later and explain.

"Sure, take care, honey."

"You too."

Without further ado she hung up the call.

She let out a sigh "I thought you'd be upset."

"The ones who will be upset will be mine" the girls looked at Thom "Well, maybe they won't be upset."

They nodded "your parents are cool. I gave mine a heads up and they said no problem, as long as I checked in every so often."

"Uh, uh, our parents are cool."

The boys continued walking until they found a hotel, they asked for the biggest room, it consisted of two double beds, so they would all be together.

When they were about to go downstairs to have dinner again, a cell phone rang, it was Harley's. Her daughter told her everything that had happened.

Her daughter told her everything that had happened, worrying her mother a little - although she calmed down when she knew they were fine - their relationship had been affected a little by what had happened, Ley resented knowing that her mother kept so many secrets from her and among them the real reason why they moved.

He still wouldn't tell her why and he didn't plan to yet either, he just limited himself to telling her that little by little she would learn the truth, only if they wanted her to come in.

Things with the twins weren't...so bad. Dereck had insisted that Harley couldn't go out alone anywhere -that's why he was in charge of spying on her from a tree at night- something that annoyed the chestnut, with Olivia things were getting better and better, they had made one more sleepover with Alei and they got along wonderfully without taking away the fact that the day after what happened they had gone for ice cream, something that helps both girls to know each other a little more.

"Do you guys want me to pick you up tomorrow?" asked their mother on the other end of the line.

Thom smiled, though Veronica couldn't see it "if it's not too much trouble, that would be great."

A soft chuckle was heard.

"No bother, guys."

"Harley, your mom is the best!" squealed Alei "by the way Mrs. Veronica, there's something your daughter hasn't told you."

"Veronica is perfect, ma'am makes me feel old" sighed "what hasn't Ley told me?"

the chestnut and Thom denied to which her friend nodded effusively.

"Harley and Thom are married! we're not a dysfunctional family anymore!"

her mother shrieked "what do you mean they got married!!! they didn't invite me to the wedding!"

"Mom, Alei was just kidding right?"

"No."

Thom gave the redhead a dirty look "In town there was a fair and a certain friend of mine made us go to the registry office."

"Uh, uh" she denied amused "but still, they got married, and they didn't even invite me, that counts as treason. They got married on the sly, I wasn't going to refuse the wedding."

they laughed amused.

"Wedding? what wedding?" a fourth voice was heard on the phone "are you talking to Harley?"

"Yes, and Harley married Thom!"

a squeak was heard "and he didn't invite us!!!?"

"That's what I told him!"

"Too bad, Harley, you don't do that to a friend!" the friends had a smile on their faces, they had missed talking to her "oh, that's why they went out before high school! because they wanted to get married on the sly!"

"No!" they were quick to say "we got married at a fair."

"same! I wasn't invited!" he took a breath "at least they recorded the moment!"

The redhead nodded to which Thom gave her a lapo "Ouch and why is that?"

"We're on a call, they can't see you."

"Oh, that's right" river "yeah, I got the whole moment on tape! Thom even bought her a ring!"

all three boys rested their gazes on the gold ring that adorned her hand, no doubt it was a beautiful ring, before they were married, Alei told him it wouldn't be valid if he didn't buy her a ring, so they both wore one.

"Did he buy her a ring?" they both asked "we need to see it!"