FrAcTuReD (Part One) (Completed continued in Part Two)

Chapter. 12

She laughed. "Really? You'd play me something?"

Mordecai gave a modest shrug. "I don't see the problem for it."

Charla's smile became more somber. "As nice as it sounds I don't think it'd be a good idea. My brother used to play, and... I think, it would just make me sad. Sorry Mordecai."

"It's alright, but if you ever do change your mind I'm always in the art room so just come by and ask. I'm more than willing."

"Thank you," then she added. "Um, about your brother, I actually met him yesterday. You and Claude do look a lot alike."

"Except for the hair," Mordecai said suddenly as he tugged a lock of his. "Mine's wavy but his is very straight. Some people wonder why that might be."

"I think it's fine, besides, mine is kind of straight it's pretty boring. But uh getting off track, your brother became detective really fast, I think that's amazing."

"It surprised my family to tell the truth. My brother just goes up to my Dad and says "I'm going to be a detective" and then left just like that. He shot up the ranks pretty quick to becoming a detective, faster than anyone else in the city from what I'm told then came back here two years ago and is now currently partnered with your uncle."

I rephrase that from amazing to downright scary! "Why did he want to become a detective though?"

Mordecai shrugged. "No idea, I guess it was just something he wanted to do. My brother has the drive for it I'll give him that."

"He seemed nice when I met him, and my uncle seems to like him too." then changed the subject. "By the way is this connivance store really all that close, it doesn't feel like it."

He pointed across the road. "Actually it's right over there."

"Oh..." she then followed him into the store, it looked rather small but it had everything that a connivance store would have, her eyes glanced around the area noting the isles and how the place looked rather clean and organized. Close to the window there was a rack of magazines, but all of them looked to be at least a month or so old. And at the back where the cold drinks were kept, one machine in particular had an out of order sign with its light flicking on and off and a wet floor sign next to it.

"A number of people tend to head towards the new mall that just opened last year." Mordecai said as he handed her a bottled drink of water. "That's why not many people tend to come by here all that often."

Charla took the drink and began to walk to the man to the cash register when Mordecai spoke up.

"You don't need to worry about that, it's already been paid for."

"But I could pay for it." Charla said as she took out her wallet only to stop when she had unzipped it. Mordecai looked at her slightly in concern.

"Is something wrong?"

Charla quickly shook her head in response. "No I just forgot to take out some money. Is there an ATM nearby?"

"Yeah over there. it's around the corner" he said pointing in the direction to the other end of the store before Charla then headed quickly to it as he called to her. "I already said you don't have to worry about paying, I took care of it."

But she didn't say anything in response as she then quickly rounded the corner of the store and leaned against the wall and with a shaky hand she opened her wallet and began to count. "One... two... three... four... five..." then slammed her wallet shut. She grit her teeth then ran her hand through her hair and let out a breath. "This is bad..." she looked through her wallet at the money again before closing it again; no she couldn't do it here. It wasn't safe here too many eyes around.

Putting her wallet away Charla and rounded the corner and quickly going to Mordecai.

"I'm sorry but, I need to go. I have to head back home soon."

"Is that so? Okay, just watch out for cars." He said nether looking bothered or surprised by her sudden need of departure. "See you on school on Monday."

"Yeah... same to you." then quickly headed out of the small store and quickly headed home. When she got there, she quietly peaked into the house to see if her uncle was in the kitchen area which he currently was not. "Good he's not there," she still felt bad for what she said to him before leaving the house.

She'd have to give him a proper apology later but right now...

Silently, Charla moved up the stairs and headed into her room and locking the door before taking her wallet and dumping the contents of it on to the floor. There was a lot more money in here than before, counting it out she discovered there was at least eight hundred and fifty five dollars and change.

"Damn it..." she muttered to herself as she looked at the amount of warn dollar bills. "I really did do it again. What the hell?" only a small portion of sixty dollars was actually her's but the rest was a complete unknown. Running a hand through her hair she reached to the back of her head where the scare lay from the accident and the subsequent surgery that she had two years later that now hid underneath her hair before she pulled out the elastic and lay sprawled out on the floor. "Why does this keep happening?" she looked back to the money and sighed. She couldn't leave the money lying around, or in her wallet. Though it never did seem to last, what's more it'd be gone in two days, she was sure it wasn't spent since she could never find any receipts or anything new in that nature. It was like it would just vanish into thin air.

For now though, all she could do was hide it away in her dresser draw like before back in the city and try to figure out where it might have come from.

This shouldn't surprise me. Just because you move to a new place doesn't mean the bad things stop. It will always follow you Charla, even if you hope that it doesn't.

She looked to her hands and grasped them together and let out a slow steady breath. For now she could only hope that at least for a time things wouldn't get worse.