A staring match settled as Juniper stood her ground with a daring stare. It was unwavering until the waiter came and set Juniper's tea down on the table, Juniper briefly breaking eye contact to catch a glimpse of the waiter's nails, which, as she observed, were a lovely shade of dark blue, adorned by tiny white polka dots.
The waiter had opened his mouth to ask for the man and woman's order, but with a glare and a jerk of the woman's head, he scurried off fairly quick.
"Jace." The man held out his hand. "My name is Jace Sodas." He smiled warmly at Juniper. Seeing as she had to introduce herself as well, the woman sighs, "Austen. Austen Chrift," She stated firmly, but made no move to hold out her hand.
"Juniper Carew."
"Lovely," Jace says. "May we begin the questioning?" "I don't see a reason as to why not." Juniper adjusted herself to appear more emotionless, so her body language wasn't as easy to read. Hands clasped on the table, ankles crossed under her as she sat on them, and a hard look in her eye.
But there was nothing to do about the tear tracks.
"We're you and Scarlet close?"
Juniper took a breath, choosing her words carefully. "I s'pose so. We didn't hang out in school. Different statuses, you know?" Juniper tilted her head. She was trying to make sense. "When we did hang out, it was only us, and we never really went out together." As soon as the words left her mouth, she immediately thought of all the ways she could better rephrase the sentence. To Jace and Austen, it sounded fine, but Juniper was dying from embarrassment inside.
"Did Scarlet have any enemies? Anyone who would want her dead?"
"Not that I would know of." Juniper would have probably killed them by now, had anyone hurt Scarlet.
"Where were you last night, November 3rd, at ten P.M.?"
Juniper had to pause. The truth was she had been swimming at the pool after an argument with her mother. She couldn't tell them that, it gave away too much information. "I was asleep. I had been up late doing homework and helping my sister," Juniper lied shamelessly.
Austen jots down things in her notepad, and Jace checks his phone quickly. The two rise, getting a glance from the waiter, and begin to exit. "Thank you for your cooperation, Juniper," Jace turns to Austen and Juniper catches a snippet of the conversation.
"Should we go see those photographs that Emma Drina girl had?"
Juniper sipped on her now cold Chai tea. Looks like she and Emma were going to have a little chat. The ringing of Juniper's phone distracts her. Raising it to her face, she looks at the caller ID with a sigh. It'd have to wait.
———
Juniper had barely set foot into the house before her mother began to interrogate her. "Where have you been! You know there's a murderer on the loose!" Violetta, Juniper's mother, snaps like she were talking to her sister, not her daughter. Violetta always treated Juniper like she were her age, not almost 22 years younger than her.
Juniper lets out a sigh, "I realize that, mother, it's not like I'm stupid. Unlike most of my generation." Juniper retorted to sarcasm to defend herself from anger.
Violetta scowled and Juniper returned the expression. Like mother like daughter.
Although a great amount of her sarcasm had come from her missing father.
"Go help Tiny. Now." The tone of Violeta's voice was still bitter and sharp, but Juniper had gotten off easy. Off Juniper went, plopping her school bag into a chair, then collapsing dramatically into the grey recliner, which was older than Juniper was.
Pretty damn old.
Tiny sat on the couch. Her long dark curls hung over her face, and the sleeves of her pastel blue hoodie were rolled up. She was exactly as one would imagine from her name. Tiny. Truthfully, she wasn't biologically related to Juniper and Violetta. She had been a foster child, and Violetta caught her trying to steal food from the store she had worked at at the time. They took her in, and officially adopted her one month later. She got bullied because of being adopted. Her skin was as dark as the earth's dirt, and Juniper and Violetta were as pale as winter skies.
When she heard Juniper plop down she hardly looked up. "Afternoon," Tiny said. She was oddly mature for a nine year old. "Salutations," Juniper returned with an eye roll. Closing her eyes, she added, "Need some answers, kiddo? A quarter a question."
"Juniper, quit trying to extort money from your family!"
"No promises."
———
785 WORDS.
COMPLETED JAN. 20TH
YOU ARE READING
Pale
FantasyAt fourteen years of age and in the middle of her freshman year of high school, Juniper is about as normal as your average Joe. She gets C's and B's in school, isn't necessarily athletic, but can run if she needs to, and never really knew her father...
