[Just a thing: I've never been to New York, so this won't be completely accurate. Just go with the flow, guys]

"I'm back!", I announced as I closed and opened the door 7 times to later take Tobi's leash off.
Vanessa's head peaked out from the doorway to the kitchen, with a concerned smile on her face as I began to untie & tie my shoes 4 times.
"You saw my note, right?", I asked, starting to worry that they hadn't seen it. "I-I put one on the fridge, and on the floor in front of your door, and the wall, and-"
Vanessa cut me off with a reassuring smile.
"I saw it, don't ya worry, Niñita", she said, as she squatted down to pet Tobi who was jumping up and down from excitement.
"Happy Valentine's Day!", Lin jumped out behind Vanessa, kissing her on the cheek.
I giggled at their cuteness, while collecting my things.
Lin's hair was a mess, and he was still wearing his Mario Cart pyjamas, with a groggy yet excited voice like he'd just gotten out of bed. Which was most likely.
"You too", Vanessa brightly smiled, turning the kiss on the cheek to a kiss on the lips.
Sebastian came running past me with his play recorder, that would let him record stuff he said. Right now it was singing some take on Muffin Man, which was quite adorable.
"Happy Valentine's Day to you too, my little man!", Lin managed to say in the few moments that Sebastian swooshed by, as he actually accomplished to stroke his son's hair.
"Happy! Valentine! Valentine! VALENTINE!Day!", Sebastian started to shout happily, running back to his room with Tobi right behind him.
The little recorder was now shouting "Valentine! VALENTINE! Day!"
I giggled, hanging my coat on a hanger as I walked into the kitchen & took an apple from the counter, to have it after my meds.
But right before, Vanessa seemed to catch me by placing his hands my shoulders, telling me to hold up.
"Wait a little-", she began, smiling at me "Happy Valentine's Day, Niñita", Vanessa finished to say, and a feeling of happiness & appreciation poured through me like in an hour glass, where the sand fell through a little time after time.
The sand hadn't all fallen through, but soon I was there.
Soon everything would make sense.
I turned around, grinning.
"You too", I said warmly. "Happy Valentine's to you too"
Soon, I'd belong here. At least I hoped.
Hopefully they didn't see me skip breakfast.
Because if I didn't the picture of them dead wouldn't leave my mind palace.

"And I'm off again!", I said about an hour later, all from making sure I had everything in my backpack and because of the deadline that Carson had set on me, which I obviously was in time for.
"Huh?", Lin said, just a bit confused.
"Yeah, mine & Carson's sightseeing of New York begins in like five minutes...", I looked at my phone for the time. "Four. And I will not be late", as I was quite stressed from nothing, I was halfway through the doorway when Vanessa asked the next thing.
"You sure you'll be alright?", she knew how excited I'd been for this.
In fact, me & Carson would be the mainstream tourist that visited New York every once in a while. Since I'd been living here the major part of my life, but never went to look at those great things that's every visitor's dream to go see - I was going to show him, the newbie in NYC, around.
I was rather excited.
"Yeah - I mean, it's Carson. I'll be alright. I just wanna go be a tourist. Taking photos of everything", I laughed their question away, avoiding the seriousness in Vanessa's warm tone of concern.
I mean, having someone I knew around me helped. Not that the thoughts wouldn't haunt me.
I think my laughing-away-the-question strategy actually worked.
Lin broke out into a big smile, standing up and running to go get something.
"Take my camera!", he announced, handing a big, & that looked very professional, camera to me. A bit bluntly and surprised, I took it.
"Really?", I asked worriedly, barely holding the camera so carefully in my hands, as it was about to break at any moment.
My arm was finally cast free, since yesterday.
Were we celebrating today? Yes.
"Yeah! I barely use it, and everyone needs to document when sightseeing", he forced the camera onto my hands, to encourage to take it, while giggling, since I'd tried to give it back
"Oh-Okay", I said, hesitating.

Don't forget to open and close and lock the door seven times to make sure it's locked.
Otherwise someone may break in.
And Seb and Vanessa and Lin will die.
I'll never be satisfied.

I could hear my phone doing a loud "Ping!", as I never wanted to miss a text.
I let out a happy laugh. Carson.
His preciseness was always on point when it came to fun stuff.
According to him, he was late to every meeting. Because he find it boring.
"And that's Carson - Gotta go!"
And with that, and a few more seconds of opening and closing and locking the door, I was off and away into the world.

"Hoi hoi, my guide of NY!", Carson said as he met me up outside the bodega about 300 meters from where I lived.
Before I could speak, Carson had spotted the camera around my neck.
"I have the best idea. Can you do a British accent?"
I looked at him, rather confused while blinking a few times.
"Uh- yeah?", I questionably replied, leading to a grinning Carson.
"Brilliant! Cuz I am smashing at it-", he proudly said. "Where are we going first?"
I, a bit perplexed by his sudden idea that were not to be told, just went with what I'd planned. I knew it by heart.
"The Alexander Hamilton home", I smiled, happy with my choice. Carson chuckled, mouthing a 'yes!' while throwing his fist in the air. I think he'd secretly hoped for that.
"I mean, Lin would've killed me if we didn't go there. He doesn't know we're going"

As we were about five metres from the entrance, Carson shouted at me to hold up. I confusedly stopped, tapping my thigh.
Did I step on any cracks?
Don't think so.
Tap.
"Put your best British on, my friend"
I nodded, a bit surprised, as I eyed Carson walking towards a woman in her mid 40s, looking at a map.
Blink 23 times and she won't get mad.
"Excuse me-", he said to her, with a very distinctive accent that could never be seen as fake. Which it was. "Could you be as lovely as to take a photo of me and my girlfriend, in front of the Hamilton Grange?"
I almost choked on my drink, 3 metres away from him.
"Absolutely! Are you a fan of the musical? Hamilton: an American Musical?", she asked, sounding pretty much like a New Yorker, but also talked to us like we were two English Idiots as she clarified what she meant. Or to be more precise, American Idiots.
I held in a laugh, handing her Lin's Nikon camera.
"Yeah! We've been rather obsessed with it, but couldn't manage to get tickets-", I quickly said, remembering to do the accent too. "But, to be honest, no one seems to get tickets!", I giggled - mostly at the weird situation.
"Oh I love it! My daughter is obsessed with it", she nodded, agreeing with me. I smiled at the thought of her daughter never finding out about this.
"Hop up on my back, Rue!", Carson said while we were standing right in front of the building. I quickly did as he said, posing with big smiles and pointing at the building.
She snapped a photo.
I hopped off, jogging towards her to collect the camera.
"Thank you!", I said cheerfully.
"No problem, sweetheart. You two are so cute!", she told me, and then went back to her map.
"Thanks, but unfortunately me & Rue have to get going!", Carson easily finished the conversation, and we walked inside the 18th century home.
The woman waved us goodbye, and as soon as we got inside the building we burst out into laughter like the world had never seen it before. The receptionist looked at us with a suspicious look, since we were the only ones there because we'd decided to get there just as it opened. He was basically third wheeling two crazy teenagers. And Peggy.
"Your girlfriend. Never. SHE COMPLETELY FELL FOR IT!", I exclaimed between fits of giggling. My heart was pounding at 100 miles an hour.
"WE ARE BASICALLY ACTORS NOW", Carson shouted back at me.
This receptionist were definitely really annoyed by now.
"NEXT TIME: AUSTRALIAN!"
The guy in the lobby looked like he was about to scream at us.
He shushed us violently.
We closed our mouths in pure panic, shutting up by the millisecond.
"Sorry", I breathed. He didn't seem satisfied with that.
Tap the wall 265 times before going inside.

After a quick trip to the Empire State Building, Federal Hall and looking at The Statue of Liberty from far away, and a few small sights of statues and libraries, leading to Cars exclaiming a loud 'God, I hate Shakespeare', we decided that we needed to get some energy.
As we entered a little shop right by a corner of Central Park, I was looking over the pictures that the camera now was full of. I was following Carson through the store, but stopped in the drinks isle as I took a photo on my phone of the photo from Hamilton's house, quickly sending it to Lin. Carson was photobombing the photo of the photo in the background gelding multiple bottles of green and purple smoothies.

<- Hey look where we went💁

I put my phone back in my back pocket again, I looked up and down the aisle of water. 75% percent of it was sparkling. Undrinkable. At least in my opinion.
Up, on the top shelf, I could see the unsparkly water.
I step upped on my toes, trying to jump but clearly sighed as I failed to reach it each time.
Carson walked over to me, easily grabbing it and giving it to me.
I furrowed my eyebrows.
"Cars. You tall noodle", I effortlessly said, briefly annoyed at myself for being so little.
"Rue. You cut-off spaghetti", he answered.
His face expression looked so ashamed of that weak comment.
"Really?"
"Penne pasta then", he tried to replace his recent saying with, making it much more hilarious. He looked at my mischievous face. "Okay - I give up. Don't you like sparkling drinks?"
I shook my head.
It wasn't completely true. I had liked it. I just couldn't drink it anymore. I was afraid that someone might die if I did.
"Nah. Carbonated liquids are disgusting, Cars", I simply stated.
"How do you live!?", Carson jokingly groaned.
I don't really.
I've never really lived.
But he didn't know about my OCD.
It's not simple to say, that I don't recognise myself anymore.
It had gotten so bad, and switching it around was so scary.
Tap the water bottle 23 times before purchasing it.
"Oh, life goes on without soda, y'know"
Freeze your brain.

As soon as we had everything - sandwiches, smoothies, snacks and chips - we walked into Central Park, passing by families, dog owners and people on the phone.
"Okay - bench or on the lawn by that lake?", I asked him, pointing at the water, as Carson was carrying all the food.
"Lawn. Benches are overrated. Plus - it's not raining anymore!", he answered, beaming. "I've seen so much I haven't seen before in like three hours. And I live here. And we've got so much left!", he cheerfully said, outshining the actual sun. "Gosh, we are acting like an old couple"
I agreed by nodding at his very true statement.
"We're literally Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club", I breathed, sitting down on the desired spot.
Carson laughed.

Before I even knew it, he was up on his feet again, asking an old man out with his labradoodle, that I have to mention was extremely adorable, if he could take a picture of us.
The man gladly told us yes.
I hadn't even noticed it, but Cars had managed to take my phone while we'd been chatting, so the nice old man with the cute dog had my phone in his arms as we quickly got into position.

Sime clicks, flashes, multiple poses and a few seconds later Carson ran to him, getting my phone and thanking the man in a perfect New York accent, for once. I think we'd been through the entire world of accents already.

I looked through the many photos, bit surprised how good they were.
"He must've been a photographer - just look at this, Cars!"
He nodded intensely, but by then I was already on Twitter, getting ready to tweet the best laughy and happy picture.
"Have Lin got you obsessed with Twitter too?", Carson exclaimed.
"Oh, yes"

@ruemarkable :
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band🖖

-----
Hello™
I do hope you aren't mad at my absence - but school started.
+ writing blocks happens every now and then🗺
So, I've been trying to write this chapter for two weeks, which I've planned for a quite some time, just sitting there not being able to put the words to the paper👕

But: I got a computer in school! V happy about it 💓
(And school is stressing, per usual)

Oh well; Rue's getting better. But worse at the same time. Thoughts? 💭
Also, some Carson in this chapter. I completely love his character, so writing him is always a joy.
+ I imagine him as Ezra Miller, if ya didn't know. And Rue as Chloë Grace Moretz💐
And like how Zoe and Mark are to each other - that's basically their friendship💁
ALSO REFERENCES: get commenting, did ya find any?👀

Been drawing a lot recently;

⚡️📚🚂

👕💭🌳

🌻💓💭

I really want to draw more - it's something I love to do💓

Question for lé day:
Do you think that I present Rue's OCD in a good way?🌷 Thoughts on the chapter in general?🌺
Me? --

If you liked the chapter - please consider to leave a vote or a comment - I appreciate every one of them✨

Have the best of days,
C

Published: 4th of September, 2017