Linked

23: secret's out.

"Are you stupid!?" I heard someone yell.

I slowly opened my eyes and saw that I wasn't dead. In fact, I was being carried bridal style by a grumpy Sol away from the road.

I leaned my head back to look at what had just happened. The car that was about to ram into me had flipped upside down and the driver was dead. I could tell by the drops of blood that was dripping down from the driver's seat, forming a large puddle. People were crowded around the car and were calling 911.

I rested the side of my head against Sol's chest as I tried to figure out how the situation changed in literally 0.01 seconds.

"When a car is coming towards you, you don't just stand there! You get out of the fucking way!" Sol yelled.

I sighed. "At least I'm alive."

He heard me. "You wouldn't even be alive if it wasn't for me! Where's my thank you!?"

"When did you save me? How did I know that I was in danger?" I asked, strategically flipping the subject from me to him.

Sol gestured to the nearby fro-yo store with a tilt of his head. "I was getting fro-yo when I got one of those marks. When I look out the window, I saw you standing in the middle of the road like an idiot."

He carefully put me down once we were on the sidewalk and rolled down his sleeve, showing off his 3 identical tally marks. "I think we get these when you're in a near death situation."

"What made you think that?" I asked.

"The first time we got these marks, that drugstore was getting robbed and some guy had a gun pointed at you. Then, the second time was when Jamal nearly pushed you off the roof. Now, you were about to get hit by a car," Sol explained.

I thought about it and realized that he was right. "So I'll go through a total of 7 near death experiences and within those experiences, I'll end up dying. Then we'll find out what happens to us..."

I felt uncomfortable with the revelation. Once again, another reminder for Sol and me to break our link. Our current methods haven't worked, although to be fair, we haven't really done anything. All we've done is just talk about breaking our link, arguing about it, and waiting for Nevaeh to show up.

We have 3 marks down, 4 more to go. We can't wait for Nevaeh and we can't sit around and talk about the problem that we're dealing with. We actually have to do something. Okay, but how are we supposed to do something when we have next to no idea what to do?

Suddenly, my phone rang, causing me to snap out of my thoughts. I looked down at the caller ID and saw that it was the unknown person who was calling me earlier.

"Yo, that's Ariel's number," Sol said, looking down at my phone.

My ears perked up. "Ariel's number? Why's he calling me?"

"Don't answer," Sol told me.

"But he's called me twice. And he has my number," I said.

"No. We don't associate with shoe thieves," Sol said.

I blinked. "Are you being petty over the fact that Ariel took your shoes?"

"Those are my shoes, property of Sol Eguiluz!" He cried.

I lightly rubbed Sol's arm. "Just let it go. And fine, I won't answer. I have to go to work. Don't do anything stupid while I'm gone."

"Whatever," Sol grumbled.

...

I couldn't believe my eyes.

Some of my co-workers and I kept on glancing at our manager who was talking with a specific customer as we served the other customers.

Who was the specific customer? It was Ariel Beaumont, the same Ariel who's friends with Sol and the same Ariel who was calling me earlier.

I jumped when my manager pointed at me. Ariel turned to face me and our eyes met.

He shot a perfect smile at me.

In any other situation, I'd smile back. I'd even move some of my hair behind my ear. However, this was a different situation. I turned away and faced the customers that I was dealing with.

"Soleil, I'll take it from here," my manager said, appearing next to me as I was taking the orders of the customers I was with.

I frowned and was about to say something when my manager moved closer to me. "Ariel Beaumont wants to talk to you," he whispered.

"Yes, sir," I said before I slowly made my way to Ariel's table. Why does he want to talk to me?

Once I arrived at my destination, Ariel stood up. "Soleil Keita, right?"

I nodded.

"Please, sit down," Ariel said.

I sat in the seat across from him and he sat down.

"Um, I don't want to be rude or anything, but why do you want to talk to me? How do you even...know me?" I asked, playing with my fingers underneath the table.

"How do you know Sol?" Ariel asked.

I blinked. "Who?"

"Sol Eguiluz. How do you know him personally?" Ariel asked.

"How would I know him on a personal level?" I asked.

"So you're telling me you don't know him?" Ariel asked.

I nodded.

"Then how were you able to break into his house without setting the alarms off? The only way you were able to do that is if you have that golden key card and you're only able to get that if you know him on a personal level," Ariel asked, placing his elbows on the table and folding his hands together. He rested his chin on his folded hands.

"That's very specific. But no. How would I be able to break into his house? I don't know Sol on a personal level. I've never even had one conversation with him. He's a celebrity while I'm not, so how am I able to get a keycard?" I lied.

Ariel studied me. As he did, I sat up and made sure I wasn't looking all over the place so he wouldn't think that I was lying.

"Your story seems believable, and I would have believed it," Ariel said.

I rose an eyebrow. He doesn't believe me? What does he mean?

He dug through the inner pockets of the navy blue suit jacket he was wearing and pulled out his phone. After some tapping, he turned the phone landscape and place it in the center of the table. "What's this?"

I glanced up at him before I looked at his phone. Then, I gulped.

One his phone was a video of me inside of the money vault. I was shoving dollars into my pockets and my bra. There was no sight of Sol or Benjie. It was only me in the vault.

"That's you isn't it?" Ariel asked me.

...

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