[24] Clues and Cryptic codes

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C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y - F O U R

I woke the next morning to Jasper knocking on my bedroom door.

          “Have you seen my wallet?” He called out, and my head immediately snapped to where I knew it was sitting in my bedside table. I'd picked it up when Jasper left it behind at the Purple Palace but had never givenit back. I grabbed it frantically, before throwing myself onto the carpet and shoving it under my bed. I frowned in confusion after I’d done it, I had no idea why I felt it was necessary to hide it from him, I just did.

          “No, sorry, haven’t seen it,” I called back, and Jasper growled in anger before thudding back up the hallway. When I felt the coast was clear, I snaked my hand back under my bed and fished out the wallet, before quickly popping open the button and leafing through the contents. A library card, some receipts, and a small plastic package of grass-like green …marijuana?

          I threw the wallet back under the bed in a panic, before frantically dusting my fingers off on my pyjama top to get any trace of drugs off them. Eli had taught us about drugs in health class, at least marijuana was one of the more innocent drugs. He'd even, believe it or not,  recommended we try it sometime, and said we’ll all probably have done it at least once by the time we’re thirty. Controversial health teacher much? So anyway, Jasper may have been slightly badass and had a stash of wacky tobacky, not so bad, right? I threw a sweater over the wallet to keep it safely hidden, before putting on my poker face and wandering out to the living room.

          Jasper was combing through the kitchen, flinging open cupboards and digging through drawers.

          “Are you sure you haven’t seen my wallet?” He asked again, anxiously grabbing fistfuls of his hair. I shook my head.

          “No haven’t seen it anywhere.” I took a seat at the kitchen table, “Did you have it lasnight? Maybe you left it at the Purple Palace?”

          Jasper shot me a look of worry, which soon transformed into a dorky smirk.

          “The Purple Palace,” he began, “rang this morning. We’ve sort of been banned for trespassing. The guy sounded pretty pissed. If he sees us anywhere near that place we’ll probably end up getting arrested.” I couldn’t help but laugh. I mean I felt horrible for breaking the law and everything, but after breaking in and flooding the entire building and pretty much getting away with it, I couldn’t help but let out a laugh of relief.

          “So I guess you’re fired?” I asked, and Jasper nodded, “what about the ice cream place?”

          “Still working there,” he answered, before looking up at the clock, “I’m supposed to be there in about… half an hour ago.” And with that he darted through the living room and skidded out the apartment door. As I stood up, I noticed an accumulating pile of dirty dishes sitting on the kitchen bench. So I moseyed on over and began filling the sink with steamy hot water and a squirt of dishwashing liquid. As I scrubbed at the grime and food residue that had fused to the dishes, I began thinking about why I actually came here in the first place. I said I’d come to clean, but that wasn’t it at all. I’d also come because I wanted to disguise my wealth and not have people judge me for the amount of money I had. But my ‘poor, helpless teenage droupout’ persona was shattered when Jasper found a large wad of cash in my wallet and a Gucci membership club card. It could have been that I wanted an escape, a holiday. But I was in Flipswick, and so far every ‘fun place’ Jasper had taken me to ended up in violence or running away. So why was I still here?

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