AVRIL'S CASE -BOOK 2

Chapter Eighteen.

"It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit."
― Noël Coward.

         

 

Cassie woke up the next morning feeling very resolute and extremely unswerving. She was determined to make her day free of mistakes. She made a mental schedule for herself. She organized everything in such a way that nothing could possibly go south. An hour before her scheduled meeting with Brianna she would drag Joseph out of his house and into her car to meet Brianna. She would already have her bags in her car trunk, that way she can go directly to Tyler's place so that together they will go to the airport. She would run into Tyler's arms when she sets eyes on his handsome face, and she would place a lingering kiss on his lips. She would finally find out the mystery place he had prepared for them, and she would grin like an idiot because it would be a perfect location. Perfectly thought out and planned. It was very easy to make that plan in her mind, but she knew that carrying it out might prove difficult.

 

Cassie dragged her body off her bed, almost tumbling to the floor in the process. She stretched and then she staggered into her bathroom. She washed up and dressed in casual clothes; blue shorts and a black top. She checked the time on her phone, it was 10:13 am. She still had plenty of time before she had to meet Brianna. She wished she had some sort of ability to make time move faster, the wait was agonizing. It drove her crazy to watch the second hand on the clock move with the elegance of a swan, when she needed it to run with the speed and fervency of an angry cheetah hunting down its prey.

 

She tried so hard to busy herself, but nothing she did was as time-consuming as she wanted. She did everything from watching an episode of a crime drama on her laptop, to calling and texting both Danny and Phoebe, but by the time she was done with all that it was only about 2:30 pm. She still had about four harrowing hours left to wait. She picked up her phone and dialed Joseph's number. He answered after the first ring. Sometimes she worried that he was extremely lonely, she wasn't even sure if he had ever experienced friendship.

 

"What do you want?" he groaned in a groggy tone that made him sound like he had just woken up from a deep sleep.

 

"I'm not happy to be talking to you either. Brianna asked me to meet her today at 6:30 and you're coming with me," she said in a confident and assured manner.

 

"Why should I?" he yawned.

 

"Err... because this is about your late sister, and to protect me so she doesn't whack me in the head with a log."

 

Joseph guffawed at her statement. "Trust me, if I see Brianna coming at you with a log in her hand, I'll grab a bowl of popcorn and watch the show."

 

"Screw you, Joseph," she rolled her eyes and ended the call.

 

After the call, Cassie made an attempt to have some lunch but her appetite was gone. She could barely force herself to go halfway through her meal. She gave up on trying to eat and lazily dragged her feet back up to her room. She forced herself to watch some more shows in order to kill time. She adored her crime shows, but she found it hard to focus on them because of how frustrating the wait was.

 

--

 

Cassie successfully survived two more episodes of her shows, and when she checked her watch it was 5:06 pm. She jumped off her bed, bringing her blanket down with her. She slipped her feet into her sandals that she placed by her bed. She grabbed her car keys from her bedside table and shoved it into her back pocket. She opened the drawer of her bedside table and pulled out the strange coded message that was left for her at the campsite, she also brought out the picture of the ring. She neatly folded the pictures and placed them inside her purse. She hung her purse over her shoulder and then she moved to her full-length mirror. She pulled her hair up into a high ponytail. She jiggled the charm bracelet that was dangling around her wrist and then she pulled up the black handle of her spinner luggage. It was a medium-sized designer bag. She rolled it out of her room, down the stairs and made a beeline for the front door. She locked the door and then she dragged her luggage to her newly-fixed car.