Cara was caught off guard when Brooklyn didn't object to the trip with Holly, and actually seem bothered that Cara tried to get Holly to leave her alone. She refused to believe that this was the new Brooklyn. Holly had probably just been lucky enough to catch Brooklyn in a good moment, because there was no chance that Brooklyn had suddenly shifted into someone who was tolerant of Holly's ways. She rolled her eyes at Brooklyn when she again, made a jab at her. For now, she'd let her have her fun but she knew that at some points, the jokes about where she came from were going to start getting old. However, she knew that even if she did express her annoyance, it wasn't likely that Brooke would stop. "Whatever!" she said, shaking her head in defeat. "But if you're going to come, you have to be nice. Not just to her, but to Kiara too!" Cara chimed in. She was lucky to get Brooklyn to be nice to Holly, but Kiara would be a different story, because at least Holly was nice to Brooklyn. Kiara, and Tee too, didn't take the animosity that Brooklyn directed towards them, so it seemed impossible for Brooklyn to ever have a decent time with them because she couldn't stand anyone being nasty back to her.
Cara spun around to head back out to the main area so they could leave, but the empty doorway was no longer empty, and instead, Roman stood there. Cara had no right to be surprised. It was Roman who had always lived here, and her who had disappeared without warning for months, but him being there definitely caught her off guard. The last time that she had seen them, they were having sex. She had managed to get by during the next day without running into him, and that night, she left the basement for good. She had gotten away without having to confront whatever that night between them was, but she clearly couldn't get away from Roman forever if she was going to be living with him. She looked at him like a deer in headlights for a moment, before deciding that she could at least try to avoid him forever. Upon deciding that, she peeled her eyes away from him and didn't even muster up a smile in his direction. She simply acted as if he wasn't there, and was lucky that Brooklyn brushed him off and didn't engage in a deep conversation with him. Cara was definitely frazzled, so she only realized that Holly was speaking when she asked for her confirmation, and even then, she was barely listening. "Mhmm, Holl. That's a good movie," she responded, thinking that Holly had been talking about Mary Poppins the whole time.
She took Holly's hand, deciding that now, they definitely needed to get the hell out of there. Passing Roman without a glance, she rolled her eyes at Brooklyn's suggestion, and Holly's obliviousness towards it. "We'll get you something else, but not that. Brooklyn's just joking," she shook her head. "So, tell me about everything that's happened since I've been gone," she said to Holly, trying to perk up as they headed out the side staircase that led into the alley. "Did you decide to keep trying with school?" Cara knew that Holly was very opposed to anything school related. On one hand, she couldn't really blame her. A lot of the city's schools that weren't private or in the very upper class neighborhoods were underfunded. Kids who were normal learners could sometimes be left behind, so someone like Holly, with major learning disabilities, was bound to be left behind. At the same time, getting her diploma was necessary if she wanted to do anything in like. Lateefah couldn't support her forever, or at least Cara didn't think it would be healthy for either of them for that to happen. Plus, she was sure that it would be easier for Lateefah to have and maintain a job more relevant to her interests, once one came along, if Holly was in school all day. It made sense, but Cara was also aware of how school was one of the very few things that could set Holly of. She was the happiest person you could meet most of the time, but with school, meltdowns seemed inevitable for Holly. At least, that was according to what Cara had seen the year before when Holly actually was in school.