♥Chapter 1: ᴡʜᴇʀᴇ ꜱʜᴇ ꜰʟɪᴇꜱ ᴛᴏ ɴᴇᴡ ʏᴏʀᴋ♥

✿Kennedy✿

It's been a year since I've been home.

A year since the car crash. A year since mom and dad died. A year since I've been admitted to the hospital.

I missed a whole year of my life.

I thought after this I'd finally be able to go home but when the doctor told me my dad's friend invited me to live with him in New York, I was completely confused.

Because A, I don't remember dad having any friends from New York.
B, why am I not going to my own home?

I mean I'm nineteen years old so shouldn't I be allowed to live alone now?

The nurses help me pack all my stuff in the hospital room, getting ready to finally leave this building. If I knew better, I'd say they are more than glad to have me outta here. One of the nurses literally looks like she's going to cry with joy while zipping up my bags.

In other cases, I would have doubted them all and called the cops thinking they were shipping me off to Jamaica. But the doctor is my friend and I trust him although he always makes annoyed faces when coming to check on me.

He always comes to check on me and takes the usual tests. I tell him stories about my childhood toys and how much I love anything that's the colour yellow. Not pee though. He then politely asks me to shut up.

His name is Dr. Gabriel.

I call him Gary. Gary the snail.

The nurses led me down and out of the hospital building, calling a cab and making me sit inside.

Right when I thought the cab would drive off, the door opens again, and Gary slides in beside me in the backseat.

"You're coming with me?" I ask, confused yet excited.

"I'm just making sure you get safely to the airport." His brown eyes cast down to his lap as he mutters.

The cab drives off while I gaze at the hospital until it was out of my view. I've been in there for a whole year now. A sad feeling washes over me. I'm gonna miss it.

"I'm going to miss living in that crap hole," I tell Gary.

He gives a nod but doesn't say anything else. He keeps staring out the window. Dr. Gabriel is a tall man with black greying hair and with a face as if someone killed all his seven cats.

"Do you know this man?" I ask him.

"What man?"

"The one who calls himself my dad's friend?"

He gives a nod. "His name is Alex Knight and apparently he was your dad's childhood best friend."

I know dad was from New York. But I didn't know he had friends there. He never much talked about New York. I do know he moved to California when he was eighteen for college. It all started when my mom met my dad and they fell in love and had me. Hi, I'm Kennedy and my life is kinda crazy.

Yeah, Gary tells me to be aware of the stuff on Tiktok. He doesn't like it because he said his 'for you' page were filled with videos of women breastfeeding and belly dancing when he first joined.

Not gonna lie, my 'for you' page was also filled with weird horror-type stuff before.

But I still use Tiktok.

I lived and grew in California my whole life. My dad was a photographer while my mom was a lawyer.

"You remember how you came to me three months after the car crash?" I ask Gary as my mind submerges into memories.

He blinks at me, then slowly nods. "Yeah...why?"

"You told me mom and dad died and that I had been unconscious for those three months."

He gives another nod.

"Then you told me I probably had severe lung damage and needed to be admitted to the hospital for a long time."

"I remember." Gary gives another nod, impatiently waiting for me to get to the point.

"Then you told me my asthma got way worse."

"The point?" His eyes narrow in annoyance.

I blink in confusion. "What point?" I ask. "Did something poke you?"

He puts a hand to his face, taking in a deep breath. "Where are you getting with this? Get to the point."

My mouth opens in realization. "Oh okay, that point." I nod and clear my throat. I open my mouth and pause, remaining silent for a while. "I forgot what I was saying..." I mumble.

"Thank God–"

"I remember now!" I jump.

He groans.

"You big meanie." I feel tears form at the back of my eyes. "You always bring bad news. You're a bad influence in this world."

"That was your point?" He asks.

I nod.

He gives a big roll of his eyes, turning away from me again.

I continue talking about how I'm nervous but also curious about who my dad's childhood best friend is. He pretends to pay attention, occasionally throwing in a 'please stop talking now.'

When the cab driver rolls into the airport parking, Gary pays him the money and got out along with me. I breathe in the warm weather of California and gaze around me at the crowd of people. It's been so long since I saw a big crowd.

Gary finds a trolley and stacks my two suitcases on it. He then wheels it to the airport while I follow him, looking around at people fascinatedly.

"Now listen," Gary says turning around to face me.

"Listen!" He snaps when I don't pay attention at first.

"Huh? Yeah?" I look at him, coming off my trance at marvelling all the people around me.

"Don't talk to anyone until you reach safely where you're supposed to. I mean it, kid. Not a single soul. They could be bad people." He states.

I stare at him.

A flat look appears on his face. "You're gonna talk to all of them, aren't you?"

I nod. "You're the reason I don't have any friends."

Gary sighs. "Fine. If you do wanna talk to someone, make sure it's a little kid. If you find anyone suspicious, run away immediately and for God's sake, keep your damn mouth shut and don't try being friends with them."

"How suspicious exactly? On the rate of 1-212?" I question.

"It's a five-hour flight." He ignores my question with a look of boredom. "There's a book in your bag if you get bored." He gestures to the messenger bag over my shoulder and across my chest.

I narrow my eyes at him. "You won't stop being mean, won't you?"

He knows I can't read.

I mean I can read but not without someone's help. I'm just really distracted.

"You can try reading." He says. "Or just name the alphabets."

"Which book?" My hands reach the zipper of the bag, but Gary slaps it away.

"As I was still talking and you were intently listening." He gives me a pointed look. "You missed the last year of high school so you're gonna be attending that last year. Your inhaler is in your bag too. Carry it everywhere, you get me? Also, your parents left you a great amount of money which I have transferred to a card. The card is also in your bag."

"Ooo which colour?" My hands reached the zipper, but Gary slaps it away again. I look up at him with a scowl. "Who put you in charge?"

"Your soon-to-have-been-dead body."

My face drops. "You're mean."

"There's a new phone with my number already saved. If anything happens, call me." He says before adding, "if it's an emergency. Only emergencies."

"Is stubbing my toe an emergency?" I ask. "It's a genuine question," I say when he narrows his eyes.

"You'll be late for your flight." He says.

I look at the entrance then at the security guards at the checking points before turning back to Gary. "You're not coming with me?"

His body stiffens as he tries looking away from my eyes. "No."

Tears fill my eyes, and I open my arms to hug him.

"Ugh no. No hugs." He winces while holding his arms open for me. Weird guy.

I wrap my arms around him, my face on his chest as I sniffle.

"I'm going to miss you, Gary."

"It's Gabriel." He grumbles.

"Gary," I repeat.

He rolls his eyes and I pull away, wiping my eyes.

"Now go before you miss your flight or else I'll have to spend God knows how many more days with you."

A laugh comes out of my lips.

He tried ushering me away and I finally unlatch from him, rolling my bags to the bag checking thing.

After a lot of confusing ways and directions, I'm finally sitting on my seat on the airplane. I got the window seat!

I take out the phone from my messenger bag and marvel at the sight of the new screen before sliding it open and ringing Gary.

"Emergency!" He snaps when he picks up.

"I'm going to miss you," I say softly.

The line on the other end remains silent for a while.

"Same." He replies finally.

It's been long since I've been on a flight and my heart literally climbs my throat when the plane takes off. The whole flight goes by me trying to read the book Gary picked for me.

Something tugs my hair and I gasp. I turn my head to see a small hand tangled up in the long messy curls of my red hair. The hand belongs to a boy who looks no more than five years.

"Oops." he laughs, trying to untangle my hair from his fingers. "It got stuck."

A wide smile comes on my face and I almost gush. He's so cute.

"Want me to help?" I ask.

He's mid-nodding before his mother looks over and gasps.

"I am extremely sorry for him." She rushes before scolding the small boy.

"It's alright," I say immediately with a polite smile. "It's been long since I saw kids. At least the ones who are not sick or dying or in a coma."

The mother's mouth drops open at my words before she silently snatches the boy's hand out of my hair and turns away.

I stare at them in confusion.

When the flight lands, I gather all my stuff and walk out of the plane and towards where I had to collect my bags from. After collecting my two heavy suitcases with the help of this man beside me, I look around.

Now what?

Gary did tell me that Alex, my dad's friend, would be here to pick me up.

Well, where is he?

A teddy bear in a shop's display catches my eye and I skip towards it with a smile. I always wanted a teddy bear. I grab one of the many teddy bears from one of the racks and bring it to my face, feeling its softness.

The feeling of something squeezing my lungs shoots through my chest. Rapid coughs erupt from my mouth while my chest burns. My face turns hot and probably purple as I lean against the rack to balance myself.

People in the shop turn to look at me as my hands fumble with the zipper of my messenger bag to pull out my inhaler. I force myself to stop coughing as I took in a few pumps from the inhaler.

After a few seconds, I stop coughing and turn to the people in the shop. "I'm okay!" I smile with a scratchy throat and watery eyes.

They turn away from me, giving me a few weird looks.

I take the teddy bear and head towards the cashier. The cashier beeps it then looks at me, waiting.

Oh I had to pay, didn't I?

A laugh comes out my lips. "I forgot I had to pay you. That's what happens when you get locked up in a hospital for a year. Worse if your doctor's name is Gabriel."

The cashier smiles at me that looks kinda fake.

I search through my messenger bag for the card Gary talked about. He better had not been lying to me- found it!

I hand the cashier the card, smiling. "It's the colour blue."

"I can see that." He replies.

Maybe he doesn't like talking. Imagine having to stand all day and beep things with people forgetting they have to pay.

He hands me back my card and the teddy bear which is the size of half my body.

I walk out of the shop and push my trolley with my bags while looking around for a guy who looks like an Alex. How do Alex's even look like?

Looking around at all the people walking by, I grow a bit uncomfortable. Am I lost?

Right when I was deciding to call Gary, someone approaches me from the side. My eyes widen when I look at him. He's big with huge muscles and a tall height. He has brown hair and blue eyes with a very good-looking face. He also wears a police uniform.

"Hey." He says once he nears me. "Are you Kennedy Kinsey?"

My eyes widen in surprise and I nod. "How did you know?"

A huge sigh of relief escapes his mouth as his shoulders slump. "Thank God." He mutters before looking at me. "I thought I failed at this job before you even landed. I forgot to send in my picture or home address when they asked me to."

I smile at him, a little confused.

A look of realization comes on his face. "Oh, I'm Alex." He introduces. "Your dad was once my friend." He smiles.

"Hi, I'm Kennedy and I sure do love some warm hugs," I say, referring to Olaf from Frozen.

I take in his big height and muscles once more. He looks around thirty with a 6'3 foot body. I'm 5'2. Can I body slam him to the ground?

"Well, I'm glad you're finally here. I got worried I lost you before even getting you out the airport." He mutters tiredly while grabbing the trolley and pushing it rather smoothly than how I did.

I follow him. "Are you a real cop or is that just a Halloween costume?"

He looks down at his uniform and smiles. "I'm a cop. I forgot to stop by and change before coming here."

"Do you have a gun?"

He falters for a bit. "Uh...yeah."

"Cool." I smile. "Where is it?"

He gives me a look of hesitation but doesn't answer.

I've always wanted a gun. I'm going to take over the world someday. I need a gun for that so people can fear me.

Alex rolls the trolley to a black Toyota truck and places my suitcases in the trunk.

"Is this your cop car?" I ask, climbing up the truck to the passenger seat.

"Yup, this is my cop car." Alex answers while getting into the driver's seat.

"Where is the button to the flashy lights?" I ask, excitedly, inspecting all the buttons in the car.

"Why don't you just buckle up for now?" He asks, placing a hand on my shoulder and gently pushing me back into the seat.

"Okay." I deflate while internally giving an evil laugh.

I'm gonna find those flashy lights and his gun. Just you wait.

✄ ✄ ✄ ✄

When you people joined tiktok, what was the first thing you saw on your 'for you' page? For me it was same as Dr. Gabriel...

Istg Tiktok shows the weirdest stuff sometimes.

Anddd, that was the first chapter.

What are your thoughts on the first chapter?

I hope you people continue reading despite it getting weird ass cringe sometimes :)

Words: 2,600

Date of posting this chapter: 16th March