Adventures in Funeral Crashing (Complete Novel)

Chapter 4: Confessing

CHAPTER 4: CONFESSING

Turned out I didn't have to wait until Friday to find out. On most Monday, Thursday, and Saturday nights I worked at Palos Video Store, which was just down the street from my house. I loved movies almost as much as I loved books, so it was a good after school job and I needed the money. I had been working there since the end of my sophomore year and I actually liked it. They let me rent one DVD at a time, unlimited, for free. So, if I wasn't reading, I was watching one of my free movies.

And, just because I like funerals doesn't mean I only watch horror. I mean, I do admit that I'm a total fan of the horror classics (the originals because they've all been remade they're so good), like Dawn of the Dead, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Psycho, but I also have a huge thing for chick flicks. I'm a romantic. I mean, have you seen Roman Holiday or Sixteen Candles or The Notebook? Sigh. So good.  

Palos Video Store was a small store, so there were usually only two people working. Some nights, my co-worker would be the owner of the store, Anne, and she usually hung out in the back unless it got really busy. Other nights, it was another part-timer like me. Some were from my high school, some were from our biggest rival, and there were a couple people from Laurel Community College. My favorite co-worker, though, was Anne, even though she was the boss. Anne tried to work a lot of shifts, actually. The big online rental companies like Netflix were really cutting into her profits and she was trying to save the extra money in her budget. She never talked about it, but we all knew that the store might be on its last legs. I felt bad for Anne, though, that store was her life and she loved it. 

Thursday night, it was Anne and I working the store. She was in the back watching a movie. She watched at least one a day and I was pretty sure she had seen everything in the store, at least twice. She could quote movies like most people could quote sports' statistics. I was not that big of a movie buff yet, although I tried to take a movie home after every shift and watch it. I just couldn't quote everything yet, but I was getting there.

So, I was alone up front, reading the ending of Twilight for the third time. It was quiet in the store. We were closing in a half hour and most people were already at home curled up with their latest movie rental and some popcorn. We were only open until ten thirty, but it was usually dead the last hour.

 I heard the jangle of the video store bells and looked up. Someone was coming in for a movie fix before we closed for the night. As soon as he walked in, though, I knew he wasn't renting a movie. The last person I expected or wanted to see had walked into the store and toward me.

Butterflies fluttered in my stomach. I couldn't help them. I was both nervous and scared and he was also super hot.

Yes, it was Ethan Ripley that was staring back at me and walking in my direction. I froze, the copy of Twilight still in my hands. Movie recommendations for Ethan Ripley ran through my mind, almost ridiculously. I'd recommend: Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Blackhawk Down, and for fun: Wall-E. Oh God, what was wrong with my brain?

"I was hoping you were working tonight," Ethan said as he stood in front of the counter, his piercing blue eyes watching my face.

He was in regular clothes tonight – well-worn jeans and a faded Green Day T-shirt. I swiped a hair behind my ears, self-consciously. It was a nervous habit, "You were?"

I had obviously also been rendered stupid. I was in big trouble. Ethan had not waited to search me out at school on Friday. He had found my place of employment and hunted me down. Now, that was determination to get an answer out of me. It's not like I could leave work and run away and he knew it.