I Unintentionally Became Her Kitten

Chapter 58: Sophia’s Phone

Note: this chapter has some slurs.

“Not that one,” Tye told me as I started to go to the Mercai’s door.

I looked at where he was unlocking the door to the other garage.

“Huh?” I asked and followed.

“Your parents will recognize it right away,” he explained. “We’ll take mine.”

I swallowed. I did trust Tye but it was still an uneasy feeling to get in anybody’s car the first time.

His car was the most mid-range and average looking thing I could imagine. It looked remarkably like Sophia’s car but lacked the ‘well-loved’ character that a pre owned and abused car had. Like the rust that tended to flake off in the driveway or the massive scrapes down the side from some incident involving a light post and her coffee.

I got in the back seat, finding the seats to be a cheaper pleather material than the ones in either of Alisha’s car, but still black and comfy.

When he started the car, I felt the shudder as the engine came to life and then the radio quietly started to play a throwback song from a decade ago.

I saw him go to turn it off, then reconsider.

“It’s fine,” I told him. “I don’t mind, I haven’t heard this song in forever.”

He lowered his hand. “Let me know if you want something else,” he told me.

With a click of a button, the garage door started to open behind us.

The car felt strange. I didn’t understand why. It was a mid-range sedan… I had probably even ridden in one almost exactly like this, maybe a year or two older or newer… but it felt more like the Mercai. When he turned, the car didn’t lean like a crappy suspension should and when there were bumps and potholes, the car just ate them and kept going like it was nothing. There was also the matter of the engine. It wasn’t loud but it shook the car with a force that didn’t match the cars exterior.

I finally asked, “Is your car… modified?”

“Yes,” he responded.

It was then I realized Tye was as unhinged as Alisha was. To put money and time and energy into souping up a crappy sedan… why?

“A while ago we ended up confiscating a Chargette and it needed to be disposed of but I had the shop take the engine from that car and put it in this one.”

“...that works?” I asked.

“No one else will ever work on this car,” he said.

“And a Chargette is a really sporty car, right?” I asked.

“Yes. This car will never get as fast as one of them, it’s not designed for it, but it can overtake or outrun a lot of other cars, including the older police cruisers.”

“Ohh,” I said. “That’s why.”

“Well… it’s also fun,” he admitted.

I couldn’t see Tye being reckless, but I didn’t know him that well either. He was always reserved and measured until someone sent up some red flag and then it was all daggers out. Then again, people said it was the quiet ones you needed to be afraid of.

It wasn’t too long a drive from Alisha’s to my parent’s house. Tye slowed as we went down the street, not too much, but enough we could look to see Sophia’s car parked in the front, and my parents car in the driveway.

He kept going and turned around at the end of the street and parked.

I fidgeted. “Won’t they see us?” I asked.

“They don’t know my face,” he said. “And if they start to come this way you can put your head down.”

I nodded.

We waited. The radio continued playing throwbacks, still quietly. I tried to call Sophia again but it was the same endless ringing.

“If they don’t leave within an hour or so, we can come back later,” Tye said.

From this angle I couldn’t even see my parent’s house, but that also meant they couldn’t see us.

We waited more.

I was tempted many times to scroll on my phone, but I needed to pay attention. Whether my parents or Sophia’s car was the one to leave, we needed to know.

And then it was Sophia that approached her car on the street. 

I leaned forward even as Tye started the engine and pulled closer.

Sophia didn’t pay him any mind until he slowed down next to her and rolled the rear window down.

She looked up at the sound and saw my face through the opening. Without question she abandoned her own car and opened the door next to me and slid in.

And then Tye pulled away, not quickly or jerkily, but as casually as any other street he drove down, with a confidence of someone who did a lot of driving they didn’t want people to notice.

“Sophia…” I started. She hadn’t even said hello. There was a loss of sleep showing under her eyes and in her skin tone.

“I’m okay,” she said softly. “It’s been a long couple days.”

I nodded. “I tried to text you but you didn’t respond.”

“I lost my phone… in the house somewhere. And Mom and Dad said they wouldn’t buy me a new one as soon as I mentioned it,” she explained.

“How long ago?” I asked.

“The day before yesterday.”

That was an impressive battery life for a phone. If it was dead, then a call would go straight to voicemail, but her’s continued to ring, so it was not dead.

“Did you check a phone tracker?” I asked.

She nodded. “The last time it registered it was in the house,” she explained.

“And you tried calling it?”

She nodded again. “I couldn’t hear it anywhere.”

I looked at Tye, who continued driving without an end destination.

“Do you have time?” I asked Sophia.

She nodded. “I was gonna go shopping to get out of the house,” she explained. “Get some fresh air and everything.”

I looked at Tye again and he nodded and drove back to the main road and turned on to go shopping.

Sophia stopped as I started to walk to the Veri-phone store.

“Wait, Kit,” she said.

I looked back. Her face was full of confusion and anxiety. Was this how I looked to Alisha when she had done this for me?

“It’s fine,” I told her. “We don’t need anything expensive.”

“No, but… I still have my phone.”

“No, you don’t,” I told her.

To not have a phone was like not being able to read or write, at least in this day and age. People needed phones to communicate with other people in the expected way. A couple days was one thing but if my mother and father didn’t want to buy her a new one if this went on, I would. I would explain to Alisha later, and I’d do what I could to keep the cost down, but this wasn’t a negotiable issue. Nothing sucked more than needing help and not having a way to call for it.

I went to the door, not even waiting to see if she would follow. I had made the decision already and I would stick to it unless Sophia magically pulled her phone out of thin air.

The store clerk looked up from where he was scrolling on his own phone behind the counter and then he greeted us. Tye hung back by the door, sitting on a bright red ottoman that served as the store’s only waiting area.

“Kit, I don’t need a new phone,” Sophia whispered.

“You don’t need to get a new one,” I told her and walked past the iPear stand and then the Glamsung one, and even the Moto-Rolls. 

There was a pre-owned section, but first I stopped at the brand our parents had been getting for us: Duracubes. Their selection featured reasonably priced smartphones that could take quite a beating before breaking. An iPear might survive a few drops to the floor, especially if the floor was carpeted, but the more expensive Duracubes could get run over by a car or dropped down three flights of stairs and come out with little more than a cracked screen-protector. The drawback was their ‘smart’-phones had pretty basic functionality. A lot of apps that worked on other phones weren’t compatible and the camera quality was a joke. They were made for people that needed a phone, maybe needed an email or another messaging app or two and maybe GPS navigation. So the smart aspect of these phones was just enough for them to land at the end of the smartphone section.

Sophia shuffled uncomfortably next to me. She kept looking around, anxious, as I examined each one's price tag and the listed battery life. I didn't know how often Sophia would get to charge it and a dead phone was as useful as no phone.

I finally pointed to the cheapest option, which was listed as five hundred dollars.

I looked at Sophia. “I'm going to get you this one. You can pay me back later, okay?” I asked.

She nodded, though it was sullen. I wondered if I was overstepping here, but I worried too much about why her phone vanished in the first place. Sophia was the kind of person who knew where everything was at all times. She wasn't me. I had lost my phone and my wallet for days at a time but she always had her things where they needed to be. Where my room had always been disheveled and unorganized, hers was neatly put together and everything was labeled for where it went.

I looked up at the clerk who had been watching us the entire time.

“Could we buy one of these phones?” I asked him.

He came over and looked at it before silently wandering into the back.

I brought Sophia over to the register. My heart rate picked up as I started to take the credit card from my pocket. I didn't like spending Alisha’s money but leaving Sophia stranded on her own was far worse.

The clerk came back with the plastic sealed box.

“Do you have an account with us already?” He asked.

I looked at Sophia, but registering the phone to my parents account would be stupid. And I didn't have Alisha’s information to register it to hers.

“We'll need to open an account,” I told him.

“Alright,” he sighed and clicked on some things on the computer.

I felt belittled, like he had something better to do than help us. But we were the only customers here.

I let Sophia provide her information and when it came to payment I offered my credit card.

The total came to about seven hundred dollars but Sophia would pick up the monthly bill of thirty dollars to keep the phone active. Sophia watched the exchange of the card, with the name Kitten Smith in white letters. She didn't ask questions, though I was sure she knew it was a fake name and even company cards wouldn't be issued with fake names. But Alisha’s people had found a way.

I got the card back and the clerk activated the phone and he handed it over to us with the box it came in.

“Thank you,” I told him.

He gave me a mindless nod and turned back to his phone.

Tye drove us again as Sophia stared at the phone in her hands.

“You really didn’t have to,” she said.

“Its a necessity for our generation,” I told her. “And if Mom and Dad can’t be bothered to provide you necessities, then I will.”

She still looked incredibly unsure. “Wasn’t that… Alisha’s money, though?”

“Yes… but she did offer to buy you a phone at one point. To me. Because of the situation with Mom and Dad and them going through your phone,” I explained. “And I promise if she had picked one out, it would’ve been an iPear and cost two thousand dollars.”

Sophia let out a breath. “But it’s still expensive…”

“Don’t worry about it.” I took out my own phone and opened the contacts so she could copy Alisha’s number over, and then gave her mine. 

“Don't call her unless it's a real emergency, like you've been stabbed or something,” I told her. “But text her if you need less urgent help and I'm not responding for whatever reason.”

Sophia nodded. “I respect her,” she said. “For someone so young to already be so set up in life, it must be a different world she lives in.”

“Y-yes,” I said but I wasn't sure how much Sophia understood the burden Alisha dealt with. Most of her days off were still spent checking her phone, even if she didn't have to go in person. I doubted she had any way to take a vacation either, or even leave the city for more than a day. That was what an underboss would normally take care of, I was sure. But she had no one to support her like that. Not even me.

“Are you guys doing okay?” Sophia asked. “She must've been mad about you going home.”

I shook my head. “I did tell her why and she was concerned for my safety but it worked out in the end. She investigated how Dad knew her routine, because that was a problem, and found the person that gave him that information.”

Sophia nodded. “Right. Was that Angela?” she asked.

The car jolted as Tye’s foot tapped against the brake, making us both lunge forward and then back again.

“Sorry,” he said afterwards. “Squirrel, you know.”

Sophia let out an uneasy breath as we got resettled and Tye resumed his former cruising speed.

“H-how do you know… Angela?” I managed.

“Oh well, Dad was talking to her on the phone.”

“When?” I asked.

“This morning. Apparently Angela is one of Alisha’s former lovers or something. I gathered she doesn't like you being with her.”

“N-no. She doesn't.” I didn't know if I should correct Sophia. The more info Sophia had the more of a liability she was if the police came around asking questions. At the very least this meant Nico still hadn't carried out his orders, a fact I knew Alisha would be furious about… or relieved by… or both. It was hard to know 

“You… should stay away from that situation,” I managed. “Angela is bad news.”

“Yes. She sounds like a major Karen,” Sophia agreed. Then she frowned. “Dad told her he couldn't talk to you anymore and she said something about taking care of it. But she'd have to get the restraining order lifted, right?”

I nodded. “I don't think that's going to happen.” Especially not if Nico did his job. “And if it does I know the situation now. And Alisha does too.”

Sophia agreed and turned her phone over in her hands a few times. “Where are we going by the way?” she asked.

I looked up, completely unaware of where we were. I was so used to just riding in the car without thinking about it. “Where are we going?” I asked.

Tye shrugged. “I'm just driving.”

“Oh…” He was giving us time to talk in a safe space, I gathered. With no risk of being overheard and no record of the conversation existing.

Sophia still stared at the phone in her hands. “Thanks, again,” she said. “And thank Alisha for me too. She is taking good care of you, right?”

I nodded. “Are you doing okay with Mom and Dad?” I asked.

She shrugged. “They're not happy. They're really angry right now since their… ‘only son’ ran away again.” She did finger quotes and everything. “And some ‘ch**k’ shouldn't be allowed to call the police on good law-abiding citizens who are only trying to protect their family from…” She took a deep breath here. “Oriental d*kes,” she finished.

I winced a little. My parents didn't usually use slurs but they also didn't interact with people of color often either… and typically didn't comment on my sexual orientation since the gender thing was their more pressing concern.

“Christ,” I said finally. “That's bad.” It even reawakened that anger I so hated to feel so I squashed it back down to let out as helpless sadness later.

She nodded. “I'm sure it won't be so bad once they calm down. It's just been hard to sleep with them talking like that.”

“I know,” I said. I had lived that.

“Do you want to get some coffee or something?” She asked. “I could use a coffee.”

“Uhm, sure,” I said. “Is there a particular shop you wanted to go to?”

“I mean there's a Starmaids not far from the house. We could go there.”

“Do you mind driving us?” I asked Tye.

“Not a problem,” he agreed and looped around to head back the way we had come.

We got coffee. Tye took a spot at a separate high top where he could keep an eye on the room as Sophia and I had a proper catch up. She told me about her classes and her work and I told her about brownies and nigiri and black colored red wine.

Tye texted on his phone, probably informing Alisha of Angela, and the coffee was decent. It was still not as good as the wondrous stuff that came out of Alisha’s machine. I needed to ask her for the brand name. It was something I could give to Sophia as a gift for her birthday or something… but before that I needed a job and before a job I needed a name change.

Tye dropped Sophia back off at her car and she gave me a goodbye wave as he drove off.

I let out a breath as Tye drove us back home.

“Did you let Alisha know about Angela?” I asked.

“Absolutely.”

I nodded. Nico was going to be getting an angry phone call, I was sure.