As Ready As I'll Ever Be

Chapter 5

~Brielle's POV~
We are now just waiting for Jared to come. I had the wire set up and I had a small ear piece in my ear that Antonio or anyone could speak to me through it. I had my hair covering it.
"Just like your dad, a firefighter and Arson detective." Aunt Gabby was at the bar.
"Thanks. But I don't think I would work in Arson full time." I said.

"Now, Antonio told me we're allowed to give you guys like 2-3 drinks each. But don't drink too much." She told me.
"Yea I got it. I don't even know if I'll drink. Don't really feel like it." I said.
"Is that him?" She asked me.
I turned around and saw Jared there.

"Hey Elle! Long time no see!" He hugged me. I guess he really missed me.
"Hey J! Yea it's been awhile! Just been.. busy I guess." I said.

No one was in the bar besides Voight, Antonio, mom, dad, Vanmeeter, Seager, Herrmann, Uncle Matt, and Aunt Gabby. Luckily, Jared doesn't know who any of them are, so they just acted as customers.

We walked over to a table in the back.
"Man, I actually never knew your mom worked in a bar. Is she here today?" He asked.
"No, both my parents are at home.. taking care of my other siblings." I said.
"Can we actually get drinks here? Won't they ID us?" He asked me.

Then Antonio spoke to me through the ear piece.
"Say no, that your aunt works here." He told me.
"No, my aunt works here, so she'll let us drink." I said.
"So how've you been? Still gonna be become a firefighter?" He asked.
"Yea! Going there in September! How about you? I think you told me you wanted to work to become a musician and singer?" I asked him.
"Yea, I've actually been making songs, just for fun, but now I think I want to just be a mechanic." He said.
"Oh that's cool!" I said.

"You wanna move up to the bar so that way we can get some drinks?" He asked.
"Say yea sure." I heard Antonio in the ear piece.
"Yea sure! Let's go." I said.
We sat at the bar and Aunt Gabby came over.
"Hey, what can I get for you?" She asked.

"Can I have a bottle of blue moon?" Jared asked.
"Alright and for you?" She asked me, we're supposed to pretend we don't know each other.
"I'm good." I said. Aunt Gabby brought him his beer.
"Come on Elle. Just get something, maybe some shots?" He laughed.
"I'm good J." I laughed.
"Come on, live a little!" He laughed and bumped me a little.
"Ok fine. Can we just get 2 shots of tequila." I told Aunt Gabby.
"And get her some Jack Daniels. I remember that was your favorite drink at that party. Remember?" He laughed.
"Ok fine." I laughed and rolled my eyes at him playfully.

Aunt Gabby left to get the drinks.
"So... did you hear about that grocery fire? That corner store on Lakeside and Wilson?" I asked him.
He kinda didn't respond at first.
"Yea, my dad actually works there. Well actually...." He said.
"Well.... What?" I asked.
"He quit, but he goes there to hide his... stuff." He whispered. So that told us that his father still does and makes drugs.
"Really? Wow, that's crazy, I never knew he worked there." I said.
"Yea, but I still have never touched his stuff. I'll drink, but I just think drugs are... something else. Too dangerous.." He said.
"Yea..." I said.

Then Aunt Gabby came with the shots and the Jack Daniels drink.
"Bottoms up." Jared laughed, he took one shot glass and gave me the other.
I laughed and took the shot glass. Then we took the shots.
"Damn girl, you took that like it was water. What happened to the little innocent girl I knew." He laughed.
"Got older I guess." I laughed.
"You wanna come by my place? Maybe I could show you some songs I learned on my guitar, I could use a another voice." He asked.

This caught me off guard.
"Try to get more info out of him, if you can't.. then agree. Your wire has a tracker on it." Voight told me.
"Um... hey, you still have that fake ID? The one with your dad's name on it?" I asked him.
"Yea I do.. why?" He asked.
"We could go to this... rollerskating place, but since it has a bar, after a certain hour, they only let people who are 21 or older in." I said.
"Yea look." He said, showing me his fake ID.
"Frank Jensen." I said. Reading the ID.