I'd like to say thank you to every single person who has read this far, to anyone who recently started reading. Usually I would go to each page and thank YOU for adding my story to your library, but I am unable to do so at the moment. Please accept my thank you this way :D
I hope you enjoy this chapter.
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Chapter 6
Over the few days that followed, Lia had grown a shadow. Kate practically was everywhere, asking questions about everything. Lia was careful not to tell her anything important, but she didn’t seem like it would matter either way. Kate didn’t seem to really want answers, she just liked talking, and she probably asked questions just to keep the conversation going. Alek, Kate’s brother would come to the tree every now and then but he wasn’t as persistent as his sister. It was during those times that Lia started noticing a pattern. Every time she saw Alek, her heart would skip a bit then start beating faster as if it was trying to come out of her chest. Whenever Kate would mention her brother, Lia’s heart reacted the same way. Lia wasn’t sure what that was supposed to mean, but it only made her want to stay away from him. She definitely did not want to die of a heart attack.
****
When the girl came to her rescue a few days ago, Kate was so frightened at the time that she thought nothing of it. On the way to the principal’s office, after she had lost it and just cried, the girl who didn’t even know her hugged her. Kate didn’t really understand why that simple gesture affected her so much, but it did and she couldn’t deny it. Very few people were nice to her, the ones who were nice to her besides her parents and her brother always wanted something from her. Because she was only fourteen, people thought that they could take advantage of her. She never led them to believe otherwise, but she usually knew what they were doing.
That was why Kate was so confused when a random girl stepped up and defended her against some guy who wanted to do who knew what to her. She found Lia at lunch later that day because she wanted to thank her and maybe find out the motive behind her act. People usually had a motive for doing things, she must have wanted something. Only, Kate found no motive for the actions, instead she found herself liking Lia almost instantly. Lia barely talked and since Kate was very inquisitive, she asked a lot of questions to which she got answers that still revealed nothing about the girl. Unlike all the other older girls who tried to befriend Kate because of her brother, Lia didn’t seem to even care about Alek. She didn’t even know him, even though they had a class together. Alek told her that Lia talked to no one in class and that intrigued him, so now he had charged her with figuring her out.
“Kate if anyone can figure her out, it’s going to be you.” Alek had said to her, but after a few days of following Lia around, she had nothing. Kate had found out that Lia didn’t have a facebook, a twitter, she didn’t have a cell phone or a car. She gathered from her clothes and the fact that she had to work, that Lia didn’t have money either. Lia did not look bad, she just didn’t look like she would wear the same expensive clothes that Kate wore. She always disappeared at the end of a school day and Kate had yet figured out how she did that.
Kate wanted to help out, or find a way to say thank you but she didn’t know what she could get Lia. Even though Lia didn’t have many things, she never asked for anything and when Kate offered to get her something she would always decline the offer. She wouldn’t even take some lunch from Kate.
Kate wasn’t used to people not caring about the way she looked or the fact that her parents were very well off. She liked that feeling, most of the time other people made her feel like something that belong in an exhibition. They were always gawking, pointing, smiling fake smiles at her and trying to befriend her. With Lia it was different; Lia treated her like she would have treated anyone and that made Kate want to spend more time with her. Since she wasn’t sure how to thank her, Kate decided that she would have to ask her parent’s opinion, surely they’ll be able to point her in the right direction.
*****
When Kate told Alek what happened in school that morning, he was ready to blow a gasket. He couldn’t believe the nerve of that guy, he must have not known who he was talking to. Alek wanted to rip him to shred, but he was told that some girl had stepped up and made sure that his little sister wasn’t harmed. He was grateful yet skeptical about the whole thing; girls could do some crazy thing, he had experienced it firsthand. It crossed his mind that the incident could have been arranged by Lia with the guy, but he discarded the idea once he actually met Lia. Lia didn’t look like the kind of person who would stoop so low.
Lia didn’t dress fancy, she didn’t wear makeup or did all the extra that other girls did but if anything, her simplicity made her all the more beautiful. Alek could recall her now, her brown warm eyes, her long slightly curled lashes and hair as black as a raven. She didn’t look like the kind of girl who would do something like hurting someone, in fact she was the complete opposite of what he was used to. She looked so nice that Alek actually wondered how she even got the guy to leave Kate alone. Lia didn’t seem to care about him; she even looked uncomfortable being around him. Lia liked her space and he didn’t want to invade it, but for some reason he felt a pull towards her.
He had a class with her, but she rarely even made eye contact. Alek sure wasn’t about to start forcing his presence on her, when it was obvious she wasn’t comfortable with him around. Alek found himself wondering almost every day about Lia however, like what she was doing when she wasn’t in class, where she lived or if she had a boyfriend. He didn’t want to think of these things, but he told himself that he was only concerned about Lia.
Once he found out from Kate that Lia didn’t even have a phone, or any kind of social network, Alek knew it was a lost cause. How was he supposed to find out anything about her? One time he came up with the idea of giving her a ride, but Lia politely declined, even though he wanted to insist, she didn’t seem like she would budge. There was no one he could talk to who could help him find out more about her. Out of sheer frustration, Alek came up with the brilliant idea that Kate should investigate. She was quite inquisitive, so that shouldn’t be an issue. After a few days, even Kate couldn’t give Alek much to work with. He finally decided that he was going to follow Lia come Wednesday.
****
WEDNESDAY
Lia walked out of the school using the back way that she used when she wasn’t working. She trotted down the gravel road, where students were pouring out, some running towards unknown destinations, some standing around, others just taking their time to talk to friends. She thought she saw Kate and Alek get out the same way, but she wasn’t sure, there were just too many people. She walked the ten minutes down the road that would take her to Miss Sallie’s house, where she would collect Attie. She was thinking about how her she hadn’t seen her stepfather since the day before thanksgiving and somehow she had gotten really comfortable. She didn’t realize that she was at Sallie’s until she was actually knocking. Had she paid any attention, Lia would have noticed the car that was discreetly following her around. It was a straight road to the house, and the fact that everyone was getting out of school, it didn’t look so suspicious.
Miss Sallie opened the door and poked her head out, “Oh it’s you Lia” she said before opening the door wider for Lia to get in. Before Lia could take a step inside, Attie had already slipped through the door and was now latched onto her legs. Attie looked up with a smile at her sister, Lia bent down and pocked her nose.
“Someone is excited, how was your day?” Lia said
Attie looked around, she was looking for the “someone” who was excited, but seemed to give up as soon as she started. “I’m fine” she said “Sara came and we played, but her mom picked her early” she added making a disappointed face. “I’m glad you’re here, can we go to the library today?”
Lia laughed and picked her up “Sure we can go to the library, what else should we do today?”
“Oh we can paint…” She thought about it for a little before adding with a frown “can we paint?”
Lia thought about it too, they never painted at the office, but she didn’t see the problem in that, she would get some paint from the dollar store. That should work; she nodded to the expectant Attie. “Yep we can paint.”
She put Attie down “why don’t you go get your things so we can leave.” Attie ran in the house, almost knocking down Miss Sallie in the process. Miss Sallie looked at the running girl and shook her head as a small smile slipped onto her face.
Both Alex and Kate were staring dumbfounded at Lia and the little girl she was holding only seconds ago. They didn’t share what they were thinking, but it was probably the same thing. Alek was even more shocked, he couldn’t believe that Lia had a child. That was the only explanation for this, they had the same hair and eye color, from what he could see the same smile.
Kate looked at Alek and smiled excitedly. She was bouncing and her seat and rubbing her hands together. Alek couldn’t understand her behavior. Why was she so happy, when Lia obviously had a child? It was no wonder that Kate couldn’t get her to say anything about herself.
“What are you so happy about?” Alek asked struggling to keep his cool. He wasn’t mad, he was disappointed, he told himself.
Kate’s smile grew even bigger than Alek thought possible. “She has a little sister, isn’t she cute? Oh, I am going to get…”
That seemed to snap Alek from his trance. “Oh” was all he managed to say. He couldn’t believe that he jumped to the conclusion that the little girl was Lia’s daughter. Somehow that idea scared him; it hurt him to think that Lia could have been with someone else and had a child. He relaxed a little and decided to wait around since Lia still didn’t go inside the house. In his mind that could only mean that this house wasn’t where she lived.
Kate was saying something to him, but Alek was so deep in thought that he didn’t hear a word she said. She punched his arm “earth to Alek”
“What?” he said sheepishly, while rubbing on the spot where she hit him only moments ago.
“I was wondering why Lia didn’t tell me about her, she is a cutie.” Kate said
Alek looked at his sister as if she had grown a second head. She would worry about something like that. “Um… I don’t know, she doesn’t talk much, there must be a reason. We can’t let her know that we know.” he said thoughtfully.
He went back to staring in the general direction where Lia was. The little girl had returned with a small backpack and they were now heading towards the car. Before Lia got too close to realize that she was being followed, Alek pulled out of his hiding spot and left. He didn’t go too far, he just parked somewhere close enough so he could still watch her leave.
Lia figured she would go get the stuff for painting first and then they could go to the library. She was lucky that the area she was in, had a lot of small stores and a dollar tree. They went in the dollar tree where Attie was practically in heaven. Lia liked taking her to that store; she loved watching as Attie took in everything, her eyes would get slightly bigger and would wonder from here to there.
“Okay, let’s get something for you to paint on later” she said to the overly excited little girl.
“Okay” Attie with a big smile on her face as she grabbed Lia’s hand and started to pull her further into the store.
“Lia, can I have this please” she asked with big puppy eyes, pointing to a small stuffed cow. Lia could hardly resist that face. She also couldn’t go crazy and buy Attie everything she wanted, she still had to manage her spending.
“Okay, you only get one thing okay? Is that what you really want?”
“Hmm mm” She said bobbing her head up and down.
She grabbed the stuffed cow and held on to it as if her life depended on it. Lia smiled at that and held out one hand for Attie to hold. They went around the store pinking watercolor, a pack of construction paper and a small plastic smock. After they paid, they left for the library.
Alek and Kate were hiding among all the other cars in the parking lot and Lia didn’t even suspect a thing. Once she was out of the store, they resumed following her.
Lia walked to the library and went to the small room where they typically read to the children. Attie had already selected her book and brought it to the lady who was doing the reading. Lia sat on the floor in her usual spot, and Attie climbed in her lap and they both got ready to listen to the lady read multiple stories and interact with the children. This was something Lia liked doing, she loved reading and so did Attie. Not that Attie could read yet, but she loved having people read to her. Attie would sometimes make up her own story just by looking at the pictures in a book.
Kate and Alek had decided to go inside the library, they knew that they risked being discovered but they had a plan. If they ran into Lia, they would just lie, it wasn’t right but it was necessary. They couldn’t after all let her know she was being spied on. Kate had the brilliant idea that if they did run into Lia, they’d just say that they came to find a book since this library was close to school. Only thing was they had to go online and look up a popular book so they could look like they were telling the truth.
They strolled in the library like it was something they did daily. They went for the counter while throwing suspicious glances down the many aisles. Once they came to the conclusion that Lia and her sister weren’t down the aisles they started roaming around. They came upon a door left open. They peeked into the room and noticed that a lady was reading “green eggs and ham”. On the floor were several parents with children, and in the very corner to the right, sat Lia with the little girl in her lap. Since they didn’t have any children with them, they couldn’t go inside. They stood sort of on the side and took turn peeking inside, stealing glances at the back of Lia’s head. After a while, they decided that it wasn’t a good idea to stand outside of a door where they were children, they didn’t want to look creepy, and so they left.
Alek took his sister home in record time, he told her that he had something to do but he only wanted to keep spying on Lia. He figured if he was fast enough he would make it back before she left the library. He had read the library schedule and story time was two hours long, he had enough time. He went home and ushered his sister out of the car while he was still in the driveway.
“Tuck and roll Kate, come on”
“Seriously, what are you going to do?”
“I have things to do, get out”
“Fine”
Kate was out in record time as it seemed like Alek might truly make her tuck and roll. He peeled off the road to head back to the library as soon as her feet touched the ground.
“Stupid boy” Kate mumbled as she went into her house.
Alek made it back just in time, he had just stepped out of his car when Lia walked out the front door. They both looked at each other without saying anything. Alek was trying to come up with a lie as Lia was trying to figure a way out of this. After some more staring, Attie tugged on Lia’s hand. Lia broke eye contact and looked down at Attie who was clutching the stuffed cow to her chest.
“I’m hungry, I want to go”
“Sure baby, let’s go” Lia said, thankful for the interruption. She looked in the direction were Alek was only moments before to find out that he had somehow disappeared.
“Hey Lia” his voice was only inches away from her. Her heart jumped and she took an involuntary step back. Somehow, he had managed to come close to her without her noticing.
“Hi Alek, what are you doing here?” Lia asked, she wasn’t suspicious of him or anything, it’s just that out of all the places he could be, he was here. He didn’t even live close by, according to Kate.
“Oh, I was just about to check something, I spent some time at school and this library is close to it, so I figured I’d stop by.” He lied smoothly, he didn’t want to lie to her, but he didn’t think she would take the truth well ‘oh hey I was just following you around, nothing too creepy’ yeah right. He was sure she would run as soon as he told her what he was doing.
“Oh ok, well…” she didn’t know what to say to him, so she just stopped talking.
Attie was looking between Lia and Alek, she paused a little and looked at Alek. Before Lia could register what was happening, Attie took a step towards Alek
“My name is Attie, what’s your name?”
Both Alek and Lia looked at Attie as if they’d seen her for the first time since the exchange started. Alek squatted down to be at Attie’s level and extended his hand for Attie to shake
“My name is Alek, you have a very beautiful name Attie.”
Attie looked at his extended hand and looked at Lia, Lia nodded and Attie shook Alek’s hand.
“Thank you, are you Lia’s friend? I didn’t know Lia had a friend, I have a friend too her name is Sara” she said as she let go of Alek’s hand and stepped back closer to Lia.
Alek looked at Lia for support, he wasn’t sure what he should tell the little girl, but he decided to go with it. “I’m Lia’s friend.”
“Okay, but I never see you” She said as if that wasn’t normal that she’d never seen him. In her mind, she saw Sara a lot and Sara was her friend, so if someone was your friend, you were supposed to see them a lot.
“I see him at school” Lia said, she knew where Attie was going with this, so she tried to remove the confused look on her face.
Alek stood up, and looked from Attie to Lia, he didn’t know what to say. This was getting more and more awkward and Alek figured that since he was spying on Lia, he might as well try to find out where she stayed by offering her a ride. Attie did say she was hungry, that would come in handy.
“Attie, why don’t you say goodbye to Alek, we have to go.” Lia said, she didn’t want to make this exchange any weirder than it already was.
“Oh, I can give you girls a ride home” Alek said hoping Lia would say yes
“Um… thank you, but we don’t have a car seat for Attie” she replied smoothly.
Crap! Alek didn’t think about that, he looked defeated and Lia felt bad for saying no to him, but not bad enough to change her mind. She was turning to walk away but Alek stopped her again
“Lia, I could walk with you. We could go get something to eat, Attie said she was hungry”
Lia froze, she couldn’t let him walk them home. First, it wasn’t a home and second she couldn’t let him know where they lived. Attie was looking at Lia expectantly, she did say she was hungry, but Lia couldn’t risk it.
“It’s fine, we’re okay. You don’t have to walk with us.”
“Well what if I don’t walk with you? I can walk a few steps behind you” Alek said not willing to give up
“You’re not going to give up, are you?” Lia asked in defeat
“Nope”
Lia sighed, her shoulders slumped and a resigned look crossed her face, against her better judgment she decided she would take the risk.
“Fine, I guess we can go get something to eat” She said. If she was to let him see where they lived, she was going to delay it as much as she could.
“Great, where can we go?” asked Alek enthusiastically.