Old Town Road

Chapter 1

The sun shined in my face and I made sure to take every last bit of it into me. I was desperate and felt a little life coming back into my body before the sun left me again and vanished behind a cloud. The big mountains and the cold and cloudy weather was making me sick. I threw the trash into the bins behind the restaurant and returned inside. My Dad was talking to some customer who sat on the bar and was nipping on his beer. I was just standing there leaning on the door frame and watched them. My gaze roam through the small room. The room is pretty dark since the wood on the walls is dark and the little pictures and medals are making it worst with their dark frames. But Dad loved his restaurant like this and no modern stuff can ever come through this door as long as he lives. The people like it too, everybody here hates new stuff, or to be clearer they are scared of it. The bell ringed and told me that a new customer came in. A Woman with blond hair walked in and looked around. I recognized her at the first step she took in. I knew it was her. I wanted to turn around and hide behind the bar or even go back outside and hide in the trash. Jasmin! I heard her high heels coming my way and pressed myself into the bar. She is right here. Dad said and pointed down to me. I gave him the death stare, but he just shrugged it off and went on with his conversation. Here you are. The blond lady came around the corner and looked behind the bar. I quickly changed position and pretended to do something really important down there. Auntie Trish! Hey I didnt saw you at all. Her feet were squeezed into red high heels and so was her whole body into a red jacket. This was definitely not her right size. You didnt forgot your promise right? Her voice was ringing in my ear and I tried my best to hold my smile. Oh Promise? What do you mean? I played dumb and was still very busy down there and reorganizing some stuff that we would find never again. Dont play dumb! Her Voice became more sharp and I knew that I better gave up before she just grabs me and drags me outside. But one last attempt shouldnt hurt. I dont think I can help you with your plans. My Dad needs help with this here. I waved at the empty seats and just prayed some people would come in and fill the whole shop. The look she gave me was not amused at all and when I turned around my father pretended not to hear a thing. Even the only customer would not look at me and just took another sip of his beer. Sighing and defeated I turned around again and saw a big smile creeping up her face. I hated her! Great my car is outside, hurry and get changed. I loosened the knot on my apron and walked to the back into the office. My aunt was one of the most annoying persons I met and she knew it too. I put my black cap on and left the office again. Have fun! My Dad gave me a big smile and I wished I could just hit him. But sadly I loved him too much to do so. I walked out of the restaurant and saw the ridiculous big car. She really brought it after we all said it was to big. Not that big cars are something bad, the thing bothering me was that she is the only person who drives the car. She doesnt have a husband she doesnt have kids, she is completely alone in this big car and her house was not better. She has around 5 Bedrooms and every room has a bathroom of course. I took a last big breath before I opened the cardoor and slid into the carseat. Why did you make a scene and didnt just came with me. She gave me the sideeye and pushed some blonde strands behind her ear and started the car. I told you I dont like manicure or anything else in this area. I sighed again and looked out of the windows, so I wouldnt see her disappointment. Then tell me next time earlier, I already got the appointment. Her voice sounded a little bit hurt but I cant believe her, she is a actress so you never know what is a act and what not. I thought we can talk a little bit have some girls time you know? She always thinks I need girls time, just because I live in a household full of men, doesnt mean I need girls time. I would like to say something like this, but again I dont want this encounter to get worse than it already was. After some minutes of driving in a completely quiet car, we pulled into a driveway and I saw the signs for a nail studio. I plucked up some courage and got out of the car. My aunt followed and I still saw some sadness in her face. Im sorry. Im thankful for what you are doing. I put my best smile on my face and saw he face lightning up a little bit. Its just that Im I didnt got to finish my sentence, because she looked at me knowingly. I know Jasmin. But you need to be more open and speak with people. Its not that I hate people or something, its just that I have a hard time talking with them and finding topics you can speak about. Im constantly scared to get judged and being talked about in a bad way. Thats why I chose to not speak at all with strangers. Even in the restaurant Im mostly doing the kitchen and my dad and brother are doing the customer service. Im getting better. Today I talked with a customer and stuttered just a little. I smiled when I thought about the conversation I had with a really nice girl. Im proud of you and now we are getting some fresh nails. My aunt took my hand and dragged me to the entrance. I stumbled a little and walked over some paper that caught my attention. I freed me from my aunts grip and looked at it a little more. A girl with blue eyes smiled at me. Her picture was taken from my high school photographer. It has been only a few weeks since I graduated from High school but I remembered her very clearly. Stepahnie McMiller the typical High school girl. Blond, tall, skinny and popular everyone wanted to be her or at least be her friend. I never really talked to her I dont think she even knew who I was. Aside from the picture there was some information on the paper and on top was missing written in big red letters. Thats the third girl in 2 Months. Scary right? Did you know her? My aunt was standing next to me and stared at the paper too. Yeah! Just a little we were going to the same High school. I disengaged from my position and tried to get the picture out of my head. After the first girl disappeared a lot of people in this town thought that she simply ran away but now, the rumors stopped and you can feel the people getting nervous. The Sheriff is completely overchallenged with all this. Nobody really knows whats going on. Lets go inside before they give the appointment to someone else. My aunt walked to the entrance again and I was forced to follow her in. Directly after the door opened the smell of nail polish and other stuff hit me and I scrunched my nose. A woman came to us and guided us to some comfortable looking chairs. I still struggled with the smell and thought I would get a headache pretty soon. My aunt was already immersed in some small talk and seemed to live her best life. I was totally tense and didnt want to be too comfortable the woman started to do the treatment. The whole time my aunt was speaking and the woman just agreed most of the time with her. I looked around in the room. Everywhere was some Christmas decoration and I saw that it started snowing again through the big windows that were placed right in front of me. Then I saw at again. Her smiling face and the blue eyes. The paper hung at the wall left from me. With everything else on there the picture didnt really stand out. Next to it was a advertisement for gift cards and some other stuff surrounded Stephanie and made her seem so unimportant. At least her paper is still up, the missing paper of Ava or Emma was totally gone. Ava vanished right before graduation and a few weeks later Emma was gone too. No corpse where found and everybody just forgot about it. Its scary how fast you are forgotten and the search for you stops. No clues where found and the case was getting to difficult, so lets forget about it. Thats a nice strategy, until the next girl goes missing and it doesnt seem to stop there.