Page 33 of Infinity Chronicles 1
I wave goodbye to Maggie soon after. She was happy to let me sit at the counter and hangout, but I don’t need to be there taking up her time if she won’t let me help out.
I finger the key in my pocket, knowing I’ll need to see about getting another set. The keys I lost had the door key along with the ignition key. The door key should be easy enough to replace, I hope I don’t have any trouble getting the other key made, it’s older and doesn’t have any fancy chip in it or anything, so I think I should be okay.
I spot a car parked alongside of the road near the entrance of Turtle Creek. As I get closer I can see three silhouettes leaning on the hood. My footsteps falter, what are they doing here? I’ve been sitting at the diner for over an hour, have they been here the whole time? What if my mom saw them waiting for me? Ollie doesn’t know she’s not around. He’s the only one I told that she was sick, so I can’t really be mad at all of them. But I still feel like I want to yell at them for it. I know my frustration has more to do with yesterday than about them waiting for me, but I don’t care.
Milo turns first, the sound of my shoes on the gravel alerting him I’m nearing. “Hey,” he blurts, and the others turn too.
“What are you guys doing?” There’s a bite to my words I can’t keep out. Dante’s head turns, and he looks over at Ollie. Expecting him to talk for the group,again. I cross my arms over my chest and glare at him. “I told you my mom was sick.” He swallows quickly.
“I know, we weren’t planning on knocking on the door or anything, we were just waiting to see you. I thought we’d catch you coming from school.” Ollie stands then pushes the loose strands of hair, which escaped his hair tie, back.
I narrow my eyes still waiting for an answer to my question as to why they’re here. Milo steps forward, taking a quick peek over at Ollie, who blows out a breath and tilts his head. “We were wondering if maybe we could talk… about yesterday.” Milo seems unsure for the first time since I’ve met him. He’s always been a little aloof, but I’ve never known him to mince words. If anything, he’s always been the most direct of the three of them.
“About what? How you guys punked me and I fell for it? No thank you. I get it, haze the new girl. It’s not even all that original. You think you’re the first people to give me a hard time, with as much as I’ve moved? This isn’t even a blip on the radar.” I stare then up and down.
“We aren’t punking you Laura. I think you know that. How could we fake what you’re feeling? You asked me if I felt it too, remember?” Dante asks softly.
I purse my lips, sure I remember, but it doesn’t mean any of it was real. I roll my eyes upward and shake my head. “I really don’t have the energy to argue with you guys. Why don’t you just tell me what you want so we can move this along?”
“I… we were hoping to talk.” Ollie looks around the deserted road. “Do you want to grab a bite to eat, or we could go back to Dante’s house. I know we can’t disturb your mom and standing on the side of the road is kinda strange, even for us. I promise it won’t go like yesterday.” He rushes out the last bit, looking between his two friends.
“Yeah, no interruptions. Just answers,” Dante adds.
Twelve
My mind is warring with indecision. Yes, I still want to know what these boys think they know about me. But, I’m consumed with worry for my mom. Should I let myself be distracted by them? I glance past the Turtle Creek sign, my camper is too far away to see, but I need to check and see if my mom is home before I go.
“Laura?” Ollie questions.
“I’m thinking, okay?” Ollie nods briskly, taking a step backward and dropping his rear on the car to sit. A picture of patience. I make my decision. “I’m going to check on my momfirst. If everything is okay, I’ll come back out, and we can talk.” I tip my head and stare between the three of them. I need them to see how serious I am about the next part. “If I’m not back out in… say five minutes, that means I can’t go. That my mom needs me and that comes first.”
Milo steps forward. “What’s wrong with your mom?”
I shake my head in denial “I’m not talking about this right now. Are you guys going to wait, or you will just go now?”
“We’ll wait,” Milo mumbles and looks at the ground.
“Promise you won’t knock on the door if I don’t come back?”
Dante tightens his fists. “I don’t like this. Why won’t you let us near your house, are you afraid of someone, of something?”
I throw my hands out wide. “Take it or leave it.”
Dante grumbles, turning partially away from me, and Milo places his hand on his shoulder in support. In the next instant Dante is striding toward me. I take two steps back before he grabs my wrist, slamming a cell phone into my open palm. “You don’t come out in five minutes, I get a call telling me you’re okay. If not, I won’t knock, but I’ll be in that RV.” He leans in even closer and I swear the color of his eyes shifts from a honey brown to a molten gold. “Take it or leave it,” he snarls quietly.
I close my fingers over the phone and peer over his shoulder. My eyes are probably about ready to bug out of my head. I swallow once and give a terse nod.
Pulling free from Dante’s grasp, I look at the phone. The sleek screen is lit, showing a picture of the black Nova. This is Dante’s phone. “It’s locked,” I murmur.
Dante takes the phone from my hand with gentle fingers, his jaw is clenched tight with the effort. The picture changes to the home screen the second it’s in his hand. With a few quick swipes he turns the lock feature off. He reaches out to hand the phone back, only to pull his arm away when I move to grab it. Dante turns to look at Ollie and Milo, who have been completely quiet through the exchange. “Shit,” he curses. Dante grabs my hand, flipping it over so my palm is exposed. He studies my eyes intensely. “Anything you see on this phone was from before we met you.”
My nose wrinkles. “What do you mean?”
Dante’s eyes close on a long blink. “Nothing, just that….” He looks over at Ollie. “Can I do a master reset? How long will that take?” I close my fingers over the phone in question. Before he said anything I never once thought to look through his phone, I mean people’s whole lives are on their phones nowadays. But now my curiosity is piqued. What is he worried I’d find?
“I won’t go through your phone,” I promise. I might want to, but that would be a huge violation of his privacy.
Dante looks at the ground. “I believe you,” he mumbles but glances away, his shoulders slumped. What’s that about?
