The Girl Who Sold Herself on Ebay

[24] Clues and Cryptic codes

          “Morning,” Jaimie said, grabbing a mug from the cupboard with a clink. She tipped in a spoonful of coffee with a yawn.

          “Morning,” I replied, rinsing the bubbles from a dinner plate.

          “Sorry if Jasper woke you up this morning, he lost his wallet, the dork.” I bit my lip as I began stacking the now gleaming dishes in the dish rack.

          “I know,” I said quietly, “bummer.”

          “Not really,” Jaimie replied, filling her mug with boiling water and carrying it over to the table where a blue notebook was waiting “he deserves it.” She picked up a pen and started scribbling words on one of the pages.

          “What do you mean?” I asked, draining the sink and watching the bubbles glugging down the plug. Jaimie stopped scribbling and tapped her pen on the table.

          “I mean,” she began, before changing her mind and letting her words trail of into a wuiet mumble, “nothing. Doesn’t matter.” She shook her head and returned to her book. I was about to ask her to tell me, but decided not to push it any further. She obviously knew something about Jasper, but I assumed that if it was something I needed to know she’d tell me, so it can’t have been that important. I shrugged and left her to continue with whatever it was she was writing. I began walking back to my room, picking up various items of Jaspers clothing on the way. I was almost out of Jaimie’s sight when she added; “You’ll find out eventually.” I stopped in my tracks, hugging Jasper’s clothes to my chest.

          “Find out what?” I asked curiously, spinning around. Jaimie looked around the room worriedly as she thought of an answer. Annoyingly, she settled again for a “nothing, doesn’t matter.” But this time I was determined to find out what was sitting on the tip of her tongue. She was making it blatantly obvious she wanted to tell me something she wasn’t supposed to.

          “What do you mean Jasper deserves to lose his wallet? What did he do? What aren’t you telling me?” Jaimie sucked in a breath,

          “It’s not what I’m not telling you, it’s what you’re not figuring out.”

 I just about screamed. I was sick to death of everyone being so cryptic and secretive about everything. Why can’t the world just be straight up and honest? Or just not say anything at all? It would make things so much easier. For example, Eli and his stupid numerically coded post-it notes.

          “What am I supposed to figure out?” I asked, growing angry “Can you give me a clue?” Jaimie winced as my voice went from curious to on the brink of rage.

          “I’m not supposed to tell or I break my end of the promise. I never break promises.”

          I slid into the seat opposite her. 

          "Okay, then give me a really obvious clue, so obvious you’re basically telling me but not fully. That way you can keep your promise and I get to know what’s up with Jasper.”

          Jaimie began tapping her fingernails on the table.

          “Sorry Candace,” she said, “I think you’ve had enough clues sitting right in front of you the entire time.”

          “My name isn’t Candace,” I said quickly, as Jaimie stood up and carried her empty coffee mug over to the bench, “It’s Grace. I lied.”

Jaimie spun around and looked me up and down.

          “How ironic,” she said disappointedly, before walking swiftly to her room. I winced as she slammed the door behind her.

          Ironic?  I thought, falling into the cloud-like cushions of the couch, how is me lying about my name ironic? I plucked a pillow from the end of the couch and hugged it tightly, beginning to reflect on everything that had happened to be over the past few weeks. About a million questions began circling my mind;

          Should I be worried about Jasper?
          Should I trust Jaimie?
          Should I quit this job as a cleaner girl and get back to my regular life?

          What about Eli, what happened to him?
          What the heck is written on that gosh darn post-it note?!

         

My thoughts were interrupted as my phone began bleeping from where it was sitting on the kitchen bench. I could have sworn I left it in my room. I cringed when I saw Jeddah’s name glowing on the screen, but answered anyway.

          “Hello?” I said monotonously, holding the phone to my ear.
          “Grace!” She pretty much screamed, “I know you hate me right now, but I have some news.”

          “Okay…”

          “Meet me at Speckle park in five?”

          I blinked, frozen for a moment.

          “Uhh,” was all I could manage to utter.

          “Okay, cool, see you then.” She hung up and I put the phone down, before sauntering back to the living room and throwing myself at the couch. While staring at a fly who’d chosen to sit upside down at the bottom of a light bulb, I contemplated whether or not to go meet Jeddah at the park. I was over her Eli crap and didn’t really want to hear any more about the notes, but I’d come to realise that holding grudges against someone who was once your best friend isn’t fun. Jeddah was only a cow to me because of Eli, and I didn’t want to let him and his stupid sexiness destroy my friendship.

          Little did I know, over the next 48 hours my 'friendship' wasn't the only thing Eli was goingto destroy.