The Black Lily

Chapter 3

    We pull into the car park of Malcolms twenty minutes later and the whole car ride over, I've fought the urge to turn the car around and go back to the safety of our house. A bar of all places is the last place I want to be, especially when it just happens to be the only bar in town. Thus making it the perfect place for news to spread to every single person living in Blackwater, that newcomers have moved into town. Our four months of keeping our presence here quiet, is now going to explode and everyone in this town is going to want to meet and find out about us. We don't need this, nor do I care for the attention and I'm sitting here mentally slapping myself for letting Abby break down my reserve and making us do this.

Fists clenching the steering wheel, I pull into a vacant spot in the car park and look out at the modern cabin style establishment; and watch the line of people milling around the entrance waiting to get it. From the sheer number of people, this place is everyone's go to spot on a Friday night and it only serves to reinforce how bad of an idea this is. By the end of the night they'll all know who we are and knowing that, unsettles me to my core.

Swallowing down my nerves, I glance a look over at Abby who's been unusually quite the whole ride over and I catch her looking at me out the corner of her eye. She's got a skeptical expression on her face like at any moment I'm going to cut and run; which isn't to far from the truth. However, my need to protect Abby and help her find the life she always talks about, out ways my need to get the hell out of here.

'Your really doing this?' Abby asks in a questioning tone as she takes her seat belt off

'Sort of have no choice now, do I?' I say sarcastically after a few seconds, as I stare out the windscreen and take everything I see before me in.

'I would say you have a choice but you actually don't this time and I'm not sorry about it' her smart ass comment makes me turn and look at her with a raised eyebrow

'What? Don't look at me like that' she frowns 'This is going to be the start of us moving forward so there's no fighting me on it' she proudly says and gathers her jacket and bag in her hands before stepping out of the car

'Yea because a bar is exactly where I want to do that' I state quietly to myself as I unbuckle my seat, gather my jacket from the back and hop out of the car as well.

Stepping out of the car I quickly shrug my jacket on, the air outside is icy cold which I shouldn't be surprised about; as even in summer the weather feels like its winter here. While I enjoy the cold compared to the heat, the constant cold days makes me miss back home; Melbourne weather was temperamental at the best of times but at least we had a good mix of hot and cold days. Guess if I wanted a more appealing climate, we shouldn't have picked a place so close to snow covered mountains.

Rubbing my hands together to stay warm, I walk around the car to where Abby's texting on her phone. I'm assuming she's texting Rachel and I send a silent pray to whoever's upstairs, that she's back flipped on her decision to come out and will be able to go home.

'Rachel and the others are waiting for us by the front door' she says as she glances up from her phone.

Guess my pray went unanswered, so I force a smile at her feigning excitement before we start making our way toward the bars entrance.

As we get closer to the doors I spot Rachel in line first which isn't surprising, her platinum blonde hair is like a beacon and matched with her out there attitude she isn't hard to miss. She's nice to an extent but she isn't my cup of tea, the way she talks and makes everything about her just rubs me the wrong way. Her two best friends Gwen and Bethany are no better either, their like copies of Rachel but just different shades of blonde and an inch or two shorter. They're the gossip trio, you put them together and it's down right aggravating, as all they do is talk about themselves; or talk about and judge everyone else, polar opposite to me and Abby.