Chapter Thirty-One
Please vote guys! The end of the Watty Awards is coming up, and I really need them!
Thank you! <3
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I didn’t really run that far. I went out of my neighborhood, and walked four blocks to the gas station. I went in, got a large fountain Diet Coke, and went up to the cashier.
“Hello, miss, did you find everything you needed today?” the small man said with a Mediterranean accent.
“Mhm,” I agreed absentmindedly. I let my eyes wander around, and I located a box of Swedish Fish. I ran up to the rack to snatch one, and smiled on my way back to pay. My favorite.
I set the box down on the counter, and furrowed my brows when I saw that my cup had not moved, nor had the man said anything about my total. Slowly raising my eyes up to meet his, I saw the picture right on the counter. It was a picture of me, and right under it were the words: Missing.
Meeting his eyes, I narrowed mine. “Can I help you?” I asked.
“They have found you?” he asked with glee. Clapping his hands, he smiled at me. “They have found you?”
“Um, sure,” I replied, unsure of why he was so excited. I peered down at my candy and soda, and pushed them towards him pointedly. He didn’t seem to notice.
“ Yes, yes! This means I get a reward!”
I put up my hand. “What?”
“Yes, Ms. Hailee. I told them on your whereabouts. I am surprised this hasn’t been on the news. Maybe they are coming to interview me-“
“Whoa,” interjected, pushing my hand closer to his face. I put my other hand on my hip, and prepared myself for this new wave of information. “My whereabouts?”
“Yes, yes! I saw you wandering around some time ago,” he told me.
Narrowing my eyes, I put both of my hands on the counter, leaning closer to him. “Where.”
He grimaced, obviously intimidated by my demeanor. “Well, walking around-“
“It’s freezing cold,” I snapped. “Do you really think I’d be walking around in this weather?”
“You were before!”
“You didn’t know it was me.”
“Well-“
“Eh, shut it Mr. Gas station man.” Feeling rude about his nickname, I looked at his name tag. “Steve. Is that your name?”
“Eh, no,” he replied nervously.
“Then what is it?” I asked.
“My real name is Hanji, miss. I was born in Iran,” he told me.
“Why does your name tag say Steve then?” I asked.
“It is a… how do you call it, a generic name tag. They did not have my name, so they gave me this one,” he admitted.
“Well, Hanji,” I said, “I have not been around here lately. So it was not me.”
“Oh, miss! But it is money! They will give me money, right?” he asked.
I shrugged, pushing the candy towards him once again. “I don’t know. I won’t tell them not to.”
“Please, miss? I need it. It is two thousand five hundred dollars. My daughter is going to college and I need that money,” he begged, smacking his palms together and rocking back and forth.
“All right, all right,” I agreed, rolling my eyes and just picking up my coke and taking a sip from it. I’d have to pay anyways.
“I knew that it was because of that man! Kevin was never really liked after the incident with his son…”
I chocked on my drink, my eyes bulging out. “Kevin? What?” Kevin was Ivellise’s father. They must have caught him.
“The day of your disappearance, he went to the police station and confessed to shooting you and your friend… Brent? He has been missing too. Is he back?” he asked me, ringing up my candy and soda. “Three dollars and twenty cents,” he added.
I reached in my back pocket, and grimaced. Damn. I’d forgotten my money. “Um…”
“Don’t worry about it,” he told me, handing me the candy. “You will pay me back soon.”
I nodded, and looked down to where my picture was. Just as he said, there was a picture of Brent right next to mine, reporting that he was missing as well. I’d seen these pictures littered around town everywhere before. I never paid much attention to them.
Because I’d never thought it would be me.
“I don’t know if he’s back,” I told Hanji, pointing to Brent’s picture.
“Kevin confessed to killing both of you. After the cops found nothing, they held him in jail, where he went crazy, and…” he trailed off, shaking his head.
“And what?” I asked.
“He killed himself. And a lot of other inmates too. It was a massive shooting. You have not heard about it?” he asked.
I shook my head, eyes bulging. “No…”
“You have missed a lot,” he told me.
“Tell me about it,” I mumbled, glancing at Brent’s picture.
A bell rang throughout the room, and I looked to the door, noticing that someone had walked in. I took this as my cue to leave. “I have to go. Bye… Hanji!”
“Bye-bye Ms. Windsor!” he cried, waving. “See you soon!”
I waved back at him, and pushed the door open. The wind bit at my exposed skin, which was a lot, considering I was wearing my summer pajamas. I suddenly realized how stupid I must have looked, standing in front of a gas station with short shorts and a tank top on when it must have been at least thirty degrees.
But then again, this is California. I’d seen stranger things. Like people with blue hair who have monkeys on their back.
I had to get home, but not to face my mother. Not again.
I walked over to the phone booth, and picked up the phone. I had to call my dad. I cleaned off the phone on the edge of my shirt and recited his number in my head. I punched in his number and waited as the phone rang.
“Hello?” I heard his familiar voice say.
“Daddy?” I said, my voice breaking. “Daddy, it’s me, Hailee.”
“Hailee?” my father asked. I knew in the way his voice was tightening, that his throat was too. He was on the verge of tears. “Where in God’s sakes have you been?”
“I’ll tell you about that later,” I said, looking around. There were people looking at me with confused expressions as if I was some ghost wandering the streets.
I laughed at my thoughts. That was exactly what I was.
A flash of Brent’s face caught the corner of my eye. My sight snapped to it, but it was only to be disappointed to find nothing there. Only people crossing the streets.
“Well, where are you?” my father asked.
I looked at the phone in concentration. “At the gas station by the house.”
“Oh, all right,” he said. His voice sounded like he was scribbling something down. “I will be there in about twenty minutes.”
“You moved that far away?” I asked. “Wanted to get away from mom, huh.”
My father sucked in a sharp breath, and I could hear him cursing as he covered the phone with his hands. “You’ve talked to your mother?”
“Yes,” I said. “But hurry on and get over here. I’m cold.”
I bid adieu to my father, and went and sat on the nearby bench. I shivered as my skin made contact with the frozen bench, goose bumps rising on my arms and legs immediately. I was sure I was going to get sick from this.
Reaching into my back pocket, I took out the box of gummies and ate them, one by one, savoring the sweet sugary goodness. I sipped coke along with it, letting the sugar rush get me into jitters.
Just like he said, after about twenty minutes, my dad pulled up in his car. If there was one thing you could count on from my dad it was that he was punctual. He caught sight of me and I watched as his face flushed red, either in anger that I was gone, or happiness to see me. Then I heard his voice.
“Sweetie!” he called out to me when he was close. I sprang up and ran into his arms. A polar opposite of the reunion with my mother, my father and I lay still in each other’s arms; we only hugged each other tightly in silence.
I pulled away, shivering by the wind gust that had started to blow. He looked at me and motioned for me to go to the car. “Hailee! You need to get in the car. I don’t want you getting sick.”
I nodded, shuffling to the passenger seat of the car. Once both of us were in, he kicked up the heater and I heated myself up.
The short ride was silent, and we were walking up the driveway to our house in no time. My mother opened the door before we even knocked, grabbing both my father and I and embracing us.
“Hailee,” she mumbled, “I’m sorry for earlier. It was the only reaction I knew. I had you back and all I did was-“
“Shah,” I said, laying a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay mom. I understand.”
She smiled at me warmly, her green eyes glimmering in the light of the porch. “You always have, honey. Now, let’s get inside.” She ushered my father and I inside, and he kicked off his shoes. Just like he was a visitor.
“Hailee, we still need to have a party. There will be one tonight at seven, so get ready.” She looked from me to my father. “Darius, I need to talk to you.” She grabbed his hand and led them into their bedroom, where she waved me away with her hand.
I trotted down the hallway, heading to my room. I quickly got inside and threw on some warm clothes, and glanced at the clock. It was four. I had plenty of time. My mother always hired people to set up the house for the party.
Deciding warm clothes wasn’t enough, I went to the kitchen to fix myself some hot chocolate. I got out the marshmallows and the mix, shivering a little when I took the milk and whipped cream out of the refrigerator. I dumped the mix into a mug, and poured some milk into it as well.
Punching in the buttons for one minute, I shivered once more. Then I pressed start. That’s when the doorbell rang. It was a one-two-one-two-three-four pattern that sounded familiar.
Then I realized who I connected it to. Brent.
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Yes. :D Lol… this chapter was somewhat uneventful. But there is only three more chapters ( I think) left. And they are full with mysteries. And nifty stuff like that, so I want to give ya’ll a breather before I dump so much information into your brains.
Anyway, it’s cold here. Yeah. And guys, the next couple of chapters are going to be a little confusing… so please, wait until the last chapter, then ask questions. Because when it all comes together, you will see why it all fell together. :D Lol.
Well, please guys, vote! I would love to be nomitated for the Watty Awards. It would absolutely mean so much to me. :P I already love ya’ll so much. But I would love y’all more. :D
All right, well I gtg. BYEEE! :D