Things were pretty rough between us after that. I just sort of shut down on her, completely given up hope that anyone would ever find me. People probably assumed I was dead by that point. I had been missing going on one month. She left me alone for a few days, we just resumed our original silent agreement of her coming to my room to feed and clean after me. I could tell she wasn't satisfied with that arrangement, because that arrangement made her feel like a real monster. Locking a prisoner in a room all day definitely doesn't help the argument that you aren't a monster. She tried to think of ways to get me to come back out of the room, and she got pretty creative.
The Home Renovation
"The Witness to a murder and now the subject of a statewide manhunt. Melony Black was kidnapped by the suspected killer of Antonia Hernandez. Earlier today the chief of police held a press conference and had this to say," I stare at the tv.
"We hope she's still alive, but we are also being realistic. We have gathered a group of volunteers to search all nearby areas for clues or anything that can lead us to Melony. And if you are watching this right now and you have Melony, please bring her back home safely, don't make this worse for yourself. Because we will find you, it's just a matter of when."
I flinch when the tv gets turned off.
"I need your help with something," Dakota said from the doorway.
"What is it?" I stare at her.
"Come here."
I frown but sit up and get off the bed.
She grabs my hand and leads me downstairs to the kitchen. The old burnt oven is gone and waiting on the other side of the kitchen island is a new one but the spot the oven is supposed to be in has been cleaned out. The wall tile has also been removed.
"I was just going to repaint it, then I thought, what the hell, might as well redo the whole thing." She shrugs.
"Okay," I say.
"And, you're going to help me. First thing is first, which color," she hands me a color pallet with five colors on it.
"Do I have to?" I whine.
"Well... no, but I thought we could do it together." She frowns.
"I'm tired," I hand her the pallets back and move to go back upstairs.
"What's your favorite song?" she asks.
I turn back around to face her.
"Why?" I ask.
"Just tell me."
"Okay fine, my favorite song of all time is Bidi Bidi Bom Bom by Selena."
"What? I've never heard that song before."
"My mom is Hispanic, she loves Selena."
"Hold that thought," she walks to the living room and puts the song on, and turns it up really loud.
"Ooh, I love it," she dances over to me.
I can't help but smile at her silliness.
"It's so fun," she shakes her hips to the beat.
I cover my mouth to hide my laugh.
"Ah, I see it, I see your smile." She teases.
She walks over to me and grabs my hands, pulling them away from my face. Then we start dancing all silly like. I start singing along and she laughs.
"Do you even understand anything I'm saying?" I ask.
"Nope, but it sounds fun."
I laugh.
"So you speak Spanish, I would have never thought that about you." She shakes my arms as we dance.
"I may look white, but I'm half Hispanic."
"Interesting."
"What about you, any hidden talents?" I ask.
"I can do this!" she spins me around and dips me to the song.
I laugh.
"Hmm, you don't look tired to me." she teases.
"You tricked me." I pout.
"When music is on, no one can resist being happy."
As the song ends she pulls me in close to her. I feel my heart skip a beat. I think she feels the same because then we quickly break apart.
The next song plays.
"Anyway, which color," she hands me back the paint pallet.
"This one." I point.
"Green, I like it. I was thinking that too. It reminds me of olives and when I think of olives I think food and kitchen, which is perfect."
She walks over to the counter and pulls away one of the paint cans and pops the lid, I stare at the light olive-green shade.
"Did you buy one of each?" I eye her.
"Yeah, so I wouldn't have to make two trips, plus I already have plans for the other colors."
"What?"
"My house is kind of plain, I was going to do an accent color in all the main rooms. And you are going to help." She hands me a paintbrush.
"No one told me getting kidnapped would involve manual labor," I pout.
She laughs.
"Look, one room at a time. Right now we have a kitchen to repair. Now start painting."
"Shouldn't you lay down plastic or something?"
"Oh yeah!" she runs over to the living room and digs through some bags before grabbing the plastic to put on the floor.
Then she runs back and places it carefully on the floor before taping it down.
"Okay, now paint."
"What about our clothes?"
"Ugh," she whines.
I put the paintbrush down and run upstairs to change into some sweats. When I come back down she's dressed similarly to me.
"Okay, now we paint."
She smiles and nods.
So while listening to music we begin to paint over the burnt stains. Then when that is done she orders food while we wait for it to dry.
"Don't you have school today?" I bring up.
"My professor understands, I mean when your house burns down you are bound to get excused from class."
"You are being dramatic, only your kitchen burned down."
We both giggle.
"Hey what my professors don't know won't hurt them." She spins around in her chair.
The doorbell rings and she goes to get it, I follow.
"Hi!" Our delivery person says.
"Thank you so much!" Dakota takes the food.
"Doing some painting?" she indicates to the clothes.
"Yeah, some home improvements," Dakota says.
"Fun, fun, fun! And you even got your friend to help."
"I've been kidnapped, send help," I say in a joking tone.
She laughs, and so does Dakota.
"Well you two have fun," she walks away.
"Thanks, you too!" Dakota calls back before shutting the door.
"Really?" Dakota eyes me.
"Worth a shot." I shrug.
She shakes her head and we walk back to the island to eat.
"You're going to make all my hair fall out," she sighs.
"At least you have hair," I run my hand through her silky blond locks.
She blushes but doesn't say anything.
We eat in silence before going back to the renovations. She teaches me how to lay the tile and then we clean the floor while we wait for that to dry. She has this mega fan she set on the island and pointed it at the oven spot.
"I'm so not cut out for manual labor," I scrub the floor.
"We still have to paint the rest of the kitchen." She says.
I groan.
She laughs.
It takes us all day to finish.
As the final touch, we move the new oven in place and plug it in.
"There," Dakota smiles at our work.
"Not bad," I admire.
"For a couple of girls who have no renovation experience, not bad at all."
"Now you just have to remember not to burn your kitchen down again"
"I'll write it down somewhere." She jokes.
I yawn.
"Hey, thanks for the help, really. I know this," she indicated to me and her, "Isn't a walk in the park, but I'm trying to make it as painless as possible. Give me some credit for that, okay?"
I sigh.
She does have a point, at least I am not being chained up in a basement somewhere with no toilet and no sunlight. It could be worse. As far as kidnappers go, she's actually not that bad. Were it not for the lingering sense of danger, I could convince myself that she's my friend and I am just staying at her house temporarily.
"Look Dakota, yes this has actually been a pleasant experience as far as kidnappings go, but I would really like to go home now. And I know you won't let me, so I guess you can say I'm just tired. Your hair is falling out because of stress? Well, imagine how I feel. I'm sorry I've been a grouch but I'm just tired, I want to go home."
"I'm going to figure something out," she grabs my hands in hers. "I promise."
"When?" I ask.
"I'm planning a trip, I'm going to flee the country. Then you can leave. I'll just have to be on the run for the rest of my life."
"I'd never tell them it was you," I say.
"Don't make promises you can't keep."
I sigh.
"Just hold on a little longer." She squeezes my hands.
"Okay," I say softly.
"Hey, let's not think about all this okay? Why don't you get washed up and we can watch a movie or something."
"Can we go on the internet? Please! I'm dying here, you can supervise the whole time, I just need my daily fill of random videos on the internet. TikTok, YouTube, hell I'll even take Facebook. Please." I beg.
"Okay," she smiles.
"Yes!" I whoop.
She laughs.
So with that, I run upstairs and shower. She meets me in my room and hands me her iPad where I go into YouTube and watch a bunch of random videos for a few hours. She watches them with me, and we end up falling asleep in my room.
I was trying to pretend so that way when she fell asleep I could send out a message to someone but the iPad ended up dying anyway. That's just my luck. I'll just have to think of something else later.
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