answer.
“You’re meeting him again, aren’t you?”
I put on my best poker face as I stared at my best friend, feeling eerily similar to Samael and his father.
“This is a bad idea, Sidney. I thought you already ended things with this guy.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Ended what, Chrissy? There’s nothing between us. Now do you want the shoes or not?”
Chrissy paused for a moment and pondered my offer. I had found her weakness as she stood at the front door with nothing left to say.
I gave her a triumphant smile. “That’s what I thought. Be back by 7:00.”
She still didn’t move.
“Sidney. You haven’t even been home a full day. Don’t you think that maybe you should just relax tonight? Besides, I really don’t want to get involved in this whole three-way thing you’ve got going between Ray, Adrian, and yourself.”
I impatiently put my hand on my hip and glanced up at the wall clock. It was five minutes to six. I really didn’t have time to deal with Chrissy’s nonsense tonight.
“Why don’t you just stay in? We can talk some more like we did in the hospital and try to figure out who wrote that note. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go out by yourself alone when there’s a killer on the loose.”
I knew what Chrissy was insinuating and it aggravated me to no end. She didn’t want me alone with Adrian because she still suspected that he could be the killer. I wished I never told her about meeting up with him. I took a step toward her and pinned her against the wall.
“Adrian isn’t the killer and I’d appreciate it very much if you could stop assuming that he is. Or else you might want to look for a new job and a new friend.”
I backed up and Chrissy remained pinned against the wall like a poster plastered in a teenage girl’s bedroom. Her face was frozen in amazement as her mouth failed to work. I used this moment to exit, slamming the door behind me. I’d decided that no one was going to stand in the way of me seeing the only one who seemed to make me smile anymore. The only one who allowed me to be myself.
Chapter 9
Everything Has Changed
Adrian’s house was a massive white Edwardian style home. Shaped like a giant white box, it looked like something that would grace a plantation in Mississippi. The driveway was in the back of the house so I couldn’t tell if his car was there. I passed the small walnut tree which was the only object concealing my arrival.
Suddenly, I was in plain sight walking directly in front of his house. I felt like that cartoon character we all saw as children, the robber wearing all black with a face mask tied across his eyes who looked so obvious and apparent to anyone within a visual mile of him.
Initially, I began to have second thoughts and decided maybe it would be better for me to turn around and go back home. Maybe Ray was still asleep and he would never have to know about this secret meeting. But just as I passed the old weathered flag pole, the unmistakable aroma of Marlboro Reds pulled me in and I spied the shadow of a figure sitting on the front steps of the house, his body leaning against the white banister. I stopped dead in my tracks, like a deer that had just stumbled into a panther.
Too late to turn back now.
He was holding his phone and he had a set of headphones plugged in.
“What are you listening to?” I casually asked as I accompanied my pounding heart up the narrow path that led to the porch.
He removed the earbuds and placed his phone back into his pocket, his eyes never leaving mine. His cool composure was what I liked most. He made everything seem so easy. I wondered if he could sense what a nervous wreck I was.
He looked nicer than usual, his hair combed back and not falling in front of his eyes for once, the gel holding every strand in place. He was wearing a brown sweater and a pair of loose fitting dark denim Levi’s.
“You look nice. Do you have a hot
“You’re meeting him again, aren’t you?”
I put on my best poker face as I stared at my best friend, feeling eerily similar to Samael and his father.
“This is a bad idea, Sidney. I thought you already ended things with this guy.”
I let out a nervous laugh. “Ended what, Chrissy? There’s nothing between us. Now do you want the shoes or not?”
Chrissy paused for a moment and pondered my offer. I had found her weakness as she stood at the front door with nothing left to say.
I gave her a triumphant smile. “That’s what I thought. Be back by 7:00.”
She still didn’t move.
“Sidney. You haven’t even been home a full day. Don’t you think that maybe you should just relax tonight? Besides, I really don’t want to get involved in this whole three-way thing you’ve got going between Ray, Adrian, and yourself.”
I impatiently put my hand on my hip and glanced up at the wall clock. It was five minutes to six. I really didn’t have time to deal with Chrissy’s nonsense tonight.
“Why don’t you just stay in? We can talk some more like we did in the hospital and try to figure out who wrote that note. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go out by yourself alone when there’s a killer on the loose.”
I knew what Chrissy was insinuating and it aggravated me to no end. She didn’t want me alone with Adrian because she still suspected that he could be the killer. I wished I never told her about meeting up with him. I took a step toward her and pinned her against the wall.
“Adrian isn’t the killer and I’d appreciate it very much if you could stop assuming that he is. Or else you might want to look for a new job and a new friend.”
I backed up and Chrissy remained pinned against the wall like a poster plastered in a teenage girl’s bedroom. Her face was frozen in amazement as her mouth failed to work. I used this moment to exit, slamming the door behind me. I’d decided that no one was going to stand in the way of me seeing the only one who seemed to make me smile anymore. The only one who allowed me to be myself.
Chapter 9
Everything Has Changed
Adrian’s house was a massive white Edwardian style home. Shaped like a giant white box, it looked like something that would grace a plantation in Mississippi. The driveway was in the back of the house so I couldn’t tell if his car was there. I passed the small walnut tree which was the only object concealing my arrival.
Suddenly, I was in plain sight walking directly in front of his house. I felt like that cartoon character we all saw as children, the robber wearing all black with a face mask tied across his eyes who looked so obvious and apparent to anyone within a visual mile of him.
Initially, I began to have second thoughts and decided maybe it would be better for me to turn around and go back home. Maybe Ray was still asleep and he would never have to know about this secret meeting. But just as I passed the old weathered flag pole, the unmistakable aroma of Marlboro Reds pulled me in and I spied the shadow of a figure sitting on the front steps of the house, his body leaning against the white banister. I stopped dead in my tracks, like a deer that had just stumbled into a panther.
Too late to turn back now.
He was holding his phone and he had a set of headphones plugged in.
“What are you listening to?” I casually asked as I accompanied my pounding heart up the narrow path that led to the porch.
He removed the earbuds and placed his phone back into his pocket, his eyes never leaving mine. His cool composure was what I liked most. He made everything seem so easy. I wondered if he could sense what a nervous wreck I was.
He looked nicer than usual, his hair combed back and not falling in front of his eyes for once, the gel holding every strand in place. He was wearing a brown sweater and a pair of loose fitting dark denim Levi’s.
“You look nice. Do you have a hot
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