Life Goes on, With or Without You

We were at Landon’s house and all he could do was pace with his cell phone in his hand. I just sat where I was at, with an occasional glance to the three souls who have made it a habit to follow me everywhere. Landon quickly answered his cell phone when it rang.
“Hello… Oh hey Janelle,” I saw him close his eyes shut in frustration and put his hand to his forehead. “I’m having a guy’s night out tonight, maybe some other time… I know I’m sorry.”
I was starting to notice that Landon was making a habit of using the word sorry.
“Oh right now… yeah no… oh ok no its fine… I’m fine… see you then babe bye,” he said and then he looked at me.
“I’ll go hide in the closet” I said getting up.
“No, don’t do that you can just wait in my room she just wants to drop something off.” He said
“Yeah, yeah,” I said indifferently going into his room and closing the door behind me.
This room was a mess, not the typical Landon I knew. He had random papers and his clothes was on the floor his bed wasn’t even made. This boy needed to get it together; I had nothing to do so I made his bed. I opened his curtains and his window to let some fresh air in I put his dirty clothes in a hamper and made his desk look reasonable. I saw one of the souls come in through the door.
‘Hide they’re coming,’ she said. I was caught off guard they followed but never spoke but then I heard Landon’s voice.
“No it’s just I’m embarrassed because my rooms is a mess,” he said as his voice got closer
‘Don’t just stand there go under the bed,’ she said and I quickly hurried under there. I heard the door open.
“It’s not that bad Landon you’re just being dramatic,” I heard Janelle say
“Oh well I just wanted it to be perfect for you,” he said. wow smooth I rolled my eyes.
“Do you really have to go; you haven’t spent that much time with me.” She said and I could tell someone sat on the bed.
“Yeah and I haven’t spent much time with anyone really,” he said as matter of fact. Then someone else sat on the bed.
“I promise I’ll spend the rest of the summer with you,” I heard Landon said softly. Then it got quite. Great, I think I was going to be sick… Landon was making out with his girlfriend right above me and what made it worse was I felt the bed move more I could tell they or someone was laying down. I could actually hear them sucking each other’s face off. I tried to block it out but it was very, very, very difficult. Then I came up with an idea, I dialed Landon’s cell phone. It was ringing but I couldn’t hear his phone, damn it he must have had it on silent that son of a- then someone knocked on the door, Jesus truly loves me.
“Landon there’s someone at the door for you,” I heard Landon’s younger brother say.
“Okay, I’ll be there,” he said and I heard them both leave and Landon closed the door behind him.
‘You know they’re gone now,’ the girl said and I realized she was lying down next to me. I closed my eyes and pretended like none of this was real it was just a really bad dream.
‘Julia, get out of there she’s obviously not ready to talk to us,’ I heard a guy say. I just squeezed my eyes shut even tighter. When I open my eyes they will be gone. When I open my eyes they will be gone. I said when I open my eyes they will be gone. They’re gone, they’re gone, gone, gone away.
“May, she’s gone,” Landon called out as he interrupted my mantra. I quickly army crawled out from there.
“Thank god,” I said as I fixed my shirt.
“She’s not a bad person,” he said
“I never said she was I’m just glad that you guys stopped before you guys made love a foot away from me.
“Oh yeah sorry about that,” he said looking away ashamed of his actions.
“So now what?” I asked
“Well Danny is here so he’s going to take us to ‘his’ house.” He said
“What do you mean ‘his’ house?” I asked
“It’s a house that is used for cases like this or for someone who has an assignment within this area,” he explained.
We got into a silver Altima with dark tinted windows. I sat in the back seat, and Landon started talking to Danny in a different language. I tried to see if I could make out any of it but I couldn’t, also I couldn’t even recognize it. I sat back and tried to think of something else, I looked out the window, there were people in their front yard watering the grass. Others just getting their exercise but they were completely oblivious to the fact that two secret agents were in the car driving by them.
I pulled out my cell phone, I wonder if Nick saw this coming. I closed my eyes as I felt my head start to throb. I haven’t had one of these suckers in a while. It felt like the world was spinning, I thought I was going to pass out or something.
We then parked in front of a house, I got out but I really just wanted to take a nap. I noticed that it wasn’t a far drive from Landon’s house which was a very odd thought. Maybe my neighbors could be secret agents…
“It’s nice to meet you May,” Danny said as we walked to the house. I think he was a whole car ride late though.
“Okay May, just follow Danny and we’ll meet up in about 2 hours,” Landon said and he walked into a room and I saw one of the souls follow him. I just awkwardly stood there with Danny.
“Let’s get you all dolled up,” Danny said and I followed him upstairs. We walked into a room which turned out to be the master bedroom. When we walked in, I saw two girls talking and they had a couple of suitcases on the sink counter.
“May this is, Amanda and Lucy,” Danny said and I smiled at them and they just nodded in my direction. “Okay well I’ll leave you guys to it and have her ready in 2 hours.”
“It’s nice to meet you May so just go on ahead and take a quick shower and change into these clothes for now.” Amanda said giving me a light push towards the bathroom. I took a shower when I was done I noticed they had left some essential stuff for me such as a brand new deodorant. The clothes they gave me consisted of a plain grey button up and some boy shorts but the undergarments were a little too fancy for me if you catch my drift. I wrapped my hair in the towel and walked out.
“Let’s see,” they said as they pushed me down in a chair and hovered over me like they were judging a contest entry. “Okay for starters study this and learn it while we put on your make up.”
I looked through the packet; it was all about Lorenzo and Madeline aka Landon and me. They had it all planned out perfectly down to the birthday to our favorite colors. My name was Madeline May Arroyo, I worked at my college and I was studying to become a social worker. My favorite color was sky blue and I loved butterflies. It said here that I met Lorenzo at a high school party with my cousin. It also said that I moved here for college, and that we had been dating for just a month now. It also said that I knew nothing about Lorenzo and how he was working for top notch drug lords.
“Okay I need you to close your eyes and tilt your head up,” Amanda said pushing slightly on my chin. I did as I was told, this was kind of exciting. I was going to a club, but I didn’t have to worry about the work of getting all dolled up. I love how I just went along with all of this; but quite honestly I have bigger problems on my mind. After endless tugs from my hair and a lot of impatient remarks from my ‘makeup artist’, with a sigh they finally told me to change into some dress and put on a pair of heels. It was a nice dress it was simple but elegant all at once, and it had been awhile since I’d worn heels well in my mind it had been a couple months but in real time it had been a couple years.
When I walked out of the bathroom they put some earrings on and gave me some other accessories I think I was pretty much set.
“Here is your purse, it has 50 dollars in it, some credit cards, and your new id,” Lucy said giving me a hand purse. I nodded and opened the purse at first glance I thought it was my regular id but when I read the details they had changed my name. “So Landon will explain anything else to you, but for now tell me what you think.”
She turned me around so that I could look into the mirror, wow they did a real good job I don’t think I could have pulled this off by myself I looked ready to go.