My Brother From Another Universe

16: Inventor For Hire

"That's odd. I thought I turned these lights off," Alasdair says. I open the closet a little so I can peek through it. Alasdair is looking for something on his desk.

"You really don't have to get me anything, let's just go back downstairs and continue our date." Wyndy enters the room and looks around, probably trying to figure out where Travis and I are hiding. She spots me and gestures for me to shut the closet before Alasdair sees me.

"I'm sure it's here somewhere, just give me a minute."

Alasdair searches the drawers beneath the desk and lets out a frustrating sigh.

"You must have lost it, just forget about it," Wyndy says to him but he isn't having any of it. He starts to rummage through his room and I'm scared that he may want to search his closet since he's hell bent on finding whatever it is he's looking for.

Just as I feared, Alasdair walks towards his closet and I quickly shut it. Thankfully the doors of the closet don't make any sounds, but Alasdair doesn't open them.

"What's that on the floor?" I hear Wyndy ask.

"There it is."

Good timing.

When I hear him walk away from the closet, I open it again and see him putting a necklace on Wyndy's neck. It's pretty sparkly and looks quite expensive. It's probably designer.

"I know you don't like fancy restaurants dinner dates or expensive gifts and that is why I wanted us to have this date at my house, where you can feel at home. But as for this necklace, I just had to give it to you because I already bought it for you and I knew it would look great on you. Man was I right, anything looks great on you. Please accept this gift from me, it's not asking for much."

By the time Alasdair is done talking, Wyndy just laughs and walks over to the mirror, checking the necklace out.

"It does look great on me," she says. "It also looks expensive, but I'll accept it because it's from you."

"Thank you." Alasdair hugs her and I feel a pang of jealousy course through me. A pang is probably an understatement, it's more like a wave, or more accurately, a strong urge to burst through these closet doors and break up the hug.

"Why don't we go downstairs, we don't want our food getting cold." Wyndy takes his hand but he is reluctant.

"I heard a movement from under my bed."

"It's nothing, come on, let's go."

They leave the room and we wait another few minutes before coming out of hiding.

"That was close," Travis comments, stretching.

"What were you thinking moving around under the bed?"

"My legs were getting stiff so I tried to stretch them out."

"You could've blown our cover. If Alasdair finds any of us hiding in his room, it's gonna look really bad."

I walk over to the drawers I saw Alasdair search earlier and open them one after the other. The first two drawers are empty but the third drawer contains a brown paper bag, and the contents of the bag are small plastic cups filled with a powdery substance. I open one of the cups and smell it, instantly flinching as soon as I do so.

"This is cannabis!"

"So Alasdair really is dealing drugs with Caleb, or rather, Caleb is dealing drugs with Alasdair," Travis says.

"That's none of our business. But he truly is careless, he could've kept this stuff in a safe or something. If he carries on like this, they're gonna get caught."