The All Time Crime

Anna and Jack walked back into the house laughing and joking around, arms full of grocery bags.

“Wow, you two look like you had fun,” Amber said. She was sitting on the couch watching TV.

Anna grinned and began putting food away and Jack bounced downstairs to talk to his band mates.

“Anna, you have to let them go,” Amber said all of a sudden.

Anna shook her head vigorously. “If they go, they will go back on tour and I will lose Jack!” she said.

“Anna,” Amber said desperately, “you have members of three out of the five bands on that tour! We’re going to get caught if you don’t let them go, and then you will have much bigger problems than losing Jack.”

Anna didn’t say anything, but pretended not to listen.

Amber decided to try a different approach. “Jack seems to really like you. I bet you he would come back for you after the tour,” she said.

Anna stilled and thought for a moment. “Fine,” she huffed. “Tomorrow I will let them go.”

Amber sighed in relief. “Thank you!”

Anna gave a half-smile before retreating to the basement with everyone else. She planned to spend as much time with her prisoners as possible before she had to give them up.

******

Anna woke up on the couch in the basement, with Jack Barakat’s face only inches away. His eyes were wide open as he watched her.

“Is it true?” he asked once he had registered that she was awake?

“What?” she giggled, pushing him away from her.

“Are you letting everyone go today?”

This reminder immediately made her stop laughing. “Yeah,” she said quietly before standing up. “You guys have people waiting for you to tour.”

“No! I won’t leave you!” Jack wailed as he fell to the floor and latched onto her leg.

Alex groaned from across the room. “Seriously? Jack, she kidnapped you! Now she’s letting you go and you are going to refuse to leave?”

“Alex!” Jack responded in the same tone of voice, as if the other person were a child that needed an explanation. “She’s the most incredible thing in the world! She’s my neon angel! I can’t leave; I’ll never find anything like her again.”

Alex shook his head. He knew that once Jack had made his mind up about something it was impossible to change it. He was like a stubborn little boy. Usually Jack’s antics amused Alex, that was part of the reason that they were best friends, but they had to finish the tour. They had probably already lost a lot of money refunding tickets to shows they had missed.

Pete spoke up. “Jack, we have to leave. We have fans that are counting on us.”

Jack shook his head. “I won’t go!” he said stubbornly, holding onto Anna’s leg even tighter.

Alex and Pete shared a glance. They knew that this meant everyone would have to gang up on Jack just to get him out of the house.