Chapter 3: Calling the Cops


New York was large. He could tell that already. And full of diversity. People of all shapes, sizes, colors, and stages of normalcy dwelled in this city. And most of them were staring at him like when a despised reletive gives you a fruitcake for Christmas. He needed different clothes, and soon.

He stopped in front of a Chinese restaraunt, and decided to stay in one spot for the time being. If he got lucky, someone would pass and help him.

Though, by the looks of things so far, not many would be willing to help. And he hoped that strange girl Nikki wouldn't catch up to him. Somewhere deep inside, he had hoped that I would walk by, and throw myself into his arms and we'd be together forever.

Well, I suppose both of us were wishing that, but Legolas had a little problem first. The fact of actually finding me.

The owners of the Chinese restaraunt were getting a little testy by having a long haired freak with weapons standing outside their restaraunt, so they did the only thing they felt they could do.

They called the cops.

*****

"Alex," I said. "Why are you following us?" We were still a little ways away from the music store. The girls were shooting him glances.

"Well, my roommate and I originally came out together, but he ditched me. I hate to be completely rude and selfish, but do you mind if I invite myself along with your little group?" He asked, looking totally adorable while doing so. I narrowed my eyes. I wasn't fooled.

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, lay off it, Aubrey," Merry said. I turned to her. This was out of character. "Let the poor boy join us. Lord only knows when the next time something like this will happen."

"What on earth-" I started, but was cut off by Ellette.

"So, Alex is your name?" She shot me a warning glance. Merry was grinning her strange, mischievious grin that no one except the Fellowship of the Fanatics and her own family could recognize.

"Yeah, Alex Martin."

"You are not going to hook us up, Merry," I hissed so Alex wouldn't hear.

Merry gave me a look of true confusion. "What?"

I blinked, and realized what was going on. "You are evil, Mer."

Merry grinned again. "Oh, I know. That's part of being Meredith."

I shook my head. Merry had let him come along because she had a strange perverse delight in torturing strangers. Yes, she was going to freak this poor guy out. And there wasn't anything anyone could do to stop it.

"Aubrey, I'm sorry if you think I'm being too foreward," Alex said. "I'm not trying to pull anything, I'm just a bored, rude person wanting to have a good time."

"Hey, don't talk to me about it," I said. "I never said anything about not letting you come along. The more's the merrier, right?"

Alex smiled. "Right."

Heather, who had been almost completely oblivious to this (she was ogling the clothes in the window behind us) turned. "What? Alex is joining us?"

I nodded. Heather smiled. "Good. We need a hot guy around us more often. Ever since Leg- the last guy left, we've had no one to torture."

I shot her a warning glance. She'd almost slipped up. Alex raised his eyebrows. "Torture?"

As if on cue, Heather, Ellette, Merry and I giggled simultaneously. Alex shook his head.

******

Legolas nervously started unbraiding his hair. He'd forgotten elves were not common here. He smoothed the golden locks as he looked this way and that. People would walk as far away from him as he could. He hoped Nikki wouldn't suddenly appear again.

Two police cars pulled up to the curb where he was standing. Four officers stepped out, and sized Legolas up.

They approached him, and Legolas took a cautionary step backwards.

"We've had a call of complaint from the owners of this restaraunt," one of the officers said, scrutinizing the confused elf. "We're going to have to take you in, sir."

Legolas blinked in confusion. "What?" he asked.

"What's your name, sir?" another officer said, taking his arm and pulling him to the car. Legolas pulled back, and he was stronger than the cop had thought. Another officer grabbed his other arm, and they firmly yet gently pulled him towards the car. The third one pulled his weapons off his back.

"LET GO OF ME!" Legolas yelled, and tried to wrest himself from their grasp. "What are you doing?"

One of the other officers whipped out a pair of handcuffs and started putting them over Legolas' wrists. "You are under arrest. You have the right to remain silent-"

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" Legolas yelled once again, straining his arms against the cold metal of the cuffs. A large crowd was gathering, watching the events. No one moved to help him. Nikki, the fangirl, had caught up. She was screaming something about elves and idiot police officers. The guy she was with tried to calm her down.

The cops tightened their hold on the squirming elf (they hadn't noticed his ears, thankfully), and finished telling him the Miranda Rights. The shoved him into the backseat of the police car, and shut the door after him. Legolas struggled against the handcuffs, but to no avail. He was completely and utterly confused. What was happening? Apparantly, by the lack of motivation to help him from the gathering crowd, these people in uniforms were supposedly to help keep the order. But why him? He wasn't doing anything!

He slumped in the seat, and tilted his head foreward, his long blonde hair falling into his eyes. Not good.

********

By this time, Alex was integrating himself rather well with the four of us. Well, actually, I refused to say anything to anybody, and I could tell it was getting on everyone's nerves. Merry was constantly scaring Alex with her antics.

"I'M A PAPYA!" Merry yelled, skipping ahead of us. Several people on the street stopped and stared. Heather, Ellette and I were used to this, and we weren't embarrassed easily. We just smiled and shook our heads. Alex, of course, wasn't, and he turned a bright red, and seemed to shrink behind Heather, who was the tallest of us.

"Does she always do that?" he asked me.

"Yeah," I said. "Sometimes, she's even worse."

Alex blinked, and looked at her. Merry was currently doing cartwheels down the block. "Holy crap...The girl is doing cartwheels, in New York. And it's not like we're even in Central Park."

"Get used to it if you wanna stick around any length of time," was all I said.

Heather stopped suddenly, and Alex ran right into her. "Sorry," He said, stepping away. Heather was staring at a clothes display in a window.

"OH MY GOD! That is so cute!" She said, her mouth practically salivating.

"No, Heather," I said, grabbing her arm. "Later, ok?"

"Where are we going, anyway?" Heather asked, tearing her eyes from the clothes.

"We're going to the bookstore," Ellette said. "You said something about needing to buy books for your summer experiments."

"Oh, good," Heather said nodding. She looked at Alex. "I'm a Chemistry major, ya know."

Alex nodded. "I can believe it."

I looked down the road aways. I noticed the familiar Chinese Restaraunt we sometimes went to. There seemed to be some sort of scene going on. Two police cars, lights flashing, were parked by the restaraunt. A large crowd was gathering, blocking the cops and whoever they were arresting from her view. Some girl was screaming in an annoyingly high pitched voice.

"GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!" a voice cried out loudly, distorted by his struggles. I saw the cops push a guy with long blonde hair into the car.

"He looks like Legolas," I said, half heartedly, pointing to the crowd.

"Aubrey, just let it go," Ellette said suddenly. The police cars drove off.

"Elle's right," Merry put in. "You said so yourself, you have to move on. He's not coming back."

"What are you talking about?" Alex asked. We had forgotten he was there.

I paled. "I...I had a boyfriend who reminded me of Legolas from Lord of the Rings," I said, fibbing just a little bit.

"I...see, I suppose." Alex smiled at me. "What is it about that guy anyway? Do girls really like pretty guys all that much?"

Ellette, Heather, Merry and I all looked at each other, and cracked up. "Alex, Honey, you don't know the half of it," Heather said.

Alex shrugged. "I dunno, he just seemed kind of girly to me."

Merry shrieked, "BLASPHEMY! Legolas is NOT girly! He's a manly elf..."

"Can elves be manly in the sense you mean?" Ellette asked. "I mean, look at Aragorn, now there's manly."

"Shut up," Merry and I answered simultaneously.

Alex looked at Heather, who held up her hands. "Don't look at me, I'm not a Tolkien groupie."

"Ah," Alex said. "My brother's obsessed with Tolkien. Has read all the books so many times, he lost count."

"Sounds like these fools," Heather said, pointing her thumb at the two of us.

"Hey, it's good literature," I protested. "I'd like to see you try to write something so good."

"I'd fall asleep writing it," Heather said.

"Again, Blasphemy," Merry said. "Tolkien is a god."

"You really are into this, aren't you?" Alex asked.

"How dare you ask such a question?" I asked in mock offense. "I will always be a Tolkienite, to the day I day."

"And more," Heather muttered.

"What was that?" Alex asked her.

"Nothing, nothing at all," she answered with a smile. She gave me a pointed look though. I didn't catch her meaning.

We came upon the bookstore, and Ellette and I both rushed inside. Books always made me feel better. I went straight to the fantasy section, and browsed. I wasn't sure what I was looking for, but I was certain I'd find it.

Alex came up behind me. "What are you looking for?" He asked softly. I jumped, not expecting him. I whirled around, my heart speeding up. I was reminded of Legolas' and my last day together, at Waldenbooks at the mall back home.

I didn't answer him, just walked past him and made my way to the blank books. I didn't want to talk to him right now. I looked at the colorful covers of the notebooks, itching to fill their pages with words. It was the same syndrome...Whenever I saw blank books inspiration flooded my mind. I could think of a thousand stories I wanted to write. Character's lives and loves played out across the pages. I fingered the beautiful cover of a black book with silver stars and a moon. I had special story in mind that I wanted to write. The book spoke to me, begging me to write it.

The only person who really understood my strange fascination with blank books was Ellette, because she felt it too. The need to tell a story. I tucked the blank book under my arm and moved to check out the classics.

I dunno, I suppose my depressive mood was weighing on me, because I picked up a collection of Poe's works. I had a sudden urge to completely devour each macabre poem and short story written by the morbid and tortured man.

Heather was in the non-fiction section, flipping through any book even remotely related to chemistry. Merry was in the graphic novels, reading manga. Ellette was browsing the new releases. Alex was still in the fantasy, watching my every move. There was just something about that guy...

I couldn't place my finger on it, so I went to the cash register, and bought my books. The Lord of the Rings gift cards caught my eyes. For some reason, I had never seen a Legolas one, just Aragorn, Frodo, and the Ring. I sighed softly, remembering Legolas.

I grabbed my bag and headed for the door. It was a custom with us. Whoever bought their books first would leave, and start reading them on the bench while they waited.

I sat down, and started in on the dark, brooding works of Edgar Allan Poe.



Chapter Four

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