Violet Sunshine

Chapter 29: Will & Willow, the Dynamic Duo

"I didn't send any text. Who sent it?" I asked Danny.

"I didn't recognize the number." Danny shrugged. "I was close by, so I thought I'd just come and find out what's going on." He spied the coffee in front of me, the one I had finished off just as Will had walked in. "Can I have that? I'll pay."

I glanced over Danny's shoulder to the customer that had ordered it, spotting another cup beside her. James and Poppy were still bustling around. It looked like one of them had fulfilled her order already. I nodded at Danny, and he picked up the cup, bringing it to his lips and taking a sip.

A few minutes later, the door creaked again, and I stared as this time Olivia and Ryder stepped through the entrance, coming up to us and taking a seat by the coffee bar, next to Danny.

"You guys too?" Danny asked. "You got texts saying to come here?"

Ryder and Olivia exchanged a glance and Olivia spoke first. "Yeah. I thought it was from your new number or something, Violet." She glanced up at me, but I shook my head.

"I don't have a new number." Something uneasy settled into the pit of my stomach, but before I had much of a chance to contemplate what was going on, my sister stepped into the cafe.

There was a small smile on her face as she walked up to the coffee bar, her light brown hair swinging behind her shoulders. As she approached us, the light catches her hair, igniting it and making the brown appear a fiery orange as she slipped into the stool on the end of the bar, turning to face all of us as we stared at her.

"Willow," I said. "Did you get a text telling you to meet me here?"

"I was the one who sent all the texts," Willow replied. "With Will's help on getting all the numbers." She glanced at him, and he grinned.

I turned to him. "Okay. What did you do?"

The treacherous grin still didn't leave his face. "I think Willow should be the one to answer that."

There was nothing but confusion now whirling in my head. When I spotted Poppy's red hair zipping by, I called out to her. "Poppy!"

"Yeah?" She stopped, doubling back, glancing at the others at the coffee bar for just a moment before her eyes met mine.

"Could you cover for me for a few minutes?" I didn't tell her why, and I tried not to make my tone sound too pleading, but Poppy simply nodded, giving me a thumbs up. "You got it." Then she disappeared again to tend to another customer.

I felt a rush of gratitude and made a mental note to do something nice for her in return as I turned back to Willow, who couldn't contain her smile. The aggravation inside me melted a bit. How could I be irritated when she looked happier than I'd seen her in weeks?

"Alright. Spill. What's going on?" I started to clean up the coffee bar as she spoke, needing to busy my hands and eyes with something as I listened, my heart beginning to pound at whatever it was Willow felt was so important that she brought all of us here.

"Give me your phone." Willow's voice was more demanding than I'd ever heard it before.

I eyed her suspiciously but complied, passing it over to her. "Why?"

She didn't respond as searched through it, pressing and scrolling a few times before she got what she needed. She turned the screen back to me as I gathered a few used cups from the bar and put them in the sink. "Have you checked your email recently?"

I blinked at the screen, squinting at the email she had opened up. My eyes scanned fast over the lines of text, barely even taking the words in at first until I slowly dragged them up to the subject title of the email.