• Absolute •

][ XVII ][

Lorin smiled and stepped forward, extending out his long arm.

"I'm Lorin." He said and smiled widely and genuinely.

"I'm Laura, Rachel's mother. How long have you two known each other?" My mom wasted no time in starting her obvious investigation.

"Mom, Lorin isn't -"

"Well, not long." Lorin spoke up, drowning out my voice. I shot him a irritated glance but he was looking at my mom, smiling and nodding as she asked him another one of her questions.

"Well, how long have you two been dating?" She walked over to the island I had been leaning against before, dropping her purse onto it.

"Mom." I started once again and she looked at me. "Me and Lorin are not dating."

"Oh. . .?" She questioned, raising an eyebrow. She looked from me to Lorin.

"Yeah. . .I was gonna say that." Lorin meekly said as my mother looked at him with the same question she had in her eyes when she had looked at me.

"Well, maybe you guys are just 'friends with benefits' I suppose?" She replied, sounding amused. "Because you two looked liked you were about to -"

"Mom!" I yelled and walked to her, away from Lorin. "I playing with him! Like I wrestle with stupid-head Jason! Can't I even high five a guy without you thinking he's my boyfriend?" I snapped. When I stopped speaking, I immediately regretted everything I had just said. My mom and Lorin both looked at me, quiet. But, my mom was gazing at me with sternness and that look that moms get when they disapprove of something, while Lorin was looking at me with his eyebrows raised.

"You," I pointed at him, breaking the silence and the heated attention that was on me, "can go now."

"Okay," Lorin shrugged and began walking away when my mom stopped him.

"Lorin? It's okay, honey. Sometimes Rachel can act up, but she'll cool down." My mom said as she looked at me. "I get it. You two aren't a thing - first I was actually curious, but afterward I was just kidding around. You can stay if you like."

"Yeah. My mom loves to joke." I said grumpily, crossing my arms over my chest and glaring at them both. Lorin chuckled but refused, saying he had someplace to be.

"Thank you, but maybe I'll come around another time." He said and looked at me, winking and then laughing with my mom as they both saw my gape and blush visibly.

. : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : .

An hour later, I was up in my bedroom, doing homework like any other day. I had to let whatever happened at the library go past me. I couldn't - I didn't - want to keep remembering it.

I could hear my brother talking to my mom downstairs and I could hear the birds outside, unusually loud.

"I'm going out! I'll be back quick though! Just a gas run!" I heard Jason suddenly scream.

"It better be!" My mom yelled back, and I had to smile despite my paranoid, gloomy mood. We all knew Jason was probably sneaking off to wherever he went again and that he wouldn't be back until midnight the earliest. I listened to the front door close and Jason's car revving to life. A few seconds later, it was screeching out the driveway and down the street.

My mom hummed a random tune as I walked down the stairs in my socks. As I passed the kitchen entry, to head into the living room to watch TV, I saw she was busy reading a cookbook. Great, I thought to myself. Mush for dinner again. . .

I had just slouched down on the sofa when the doorbell rang.

"Rachel? Baby can you get the door?!" My mom yelled above the sound of water boiling and the clashing of pots.

"Yeah, I got it!" I yelled back and got up again, rolling my eyes. I headed to the door, slightly pissed off and papers noir all over again. I waited behind the closed door, staring at the silhouette of a man that I could see through the curtain covering the window on the door. I watched as he raised his arm, ringing the doorbell once again.

"Rachel!?" I heard my mom call. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the doorknob and swung the door open.

"Is there a Rachel -"

"Yes. I'm Rachel." I cut the mailman off impatiently. Relieved inside that it wasn't Lorin, or Ezra, or another psycho librarian. Or, anyone else that wanted something valuable - like my life - from me.

"Oh. Well, this is for you." He said and handed me a rather large, rectangular box. I took it and shut the door on the man's face before he could say anything else. I never got mail. And I didn't think that the first time I did get mail, that it would be such a large box.

I took it up to my room, not bothering to show my mom because I knew she would get more excited than me and make a giant deal out of something that could be so little. Or so dangerous. What if there was someone's head inside it? What if there was a knife? A hand? A gun? I sat the box on top of my bed and undid the pink ribbon that was tied around the box and came up to the top to create a pretty, neat pink bow. The four sides of the box fell apart, opening up. And inside, there was a bouquet - not something viscous and gory. But it was not like any of your fancy, cute, pretty flowers that bloomed inside the little vase they were put in. Instead, they were all dead and withering. I was puzzled and thought maybe the mailman took longer to send me these than the sender had thought. Inside there was also a card. Picking up the card, I read it, and froze. Guess the mailman wasn't late at all.

"Dead flowers for a dead girl." It read.

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>:)