Solstice

Chapter 9

            “Here,” Valerie said as she handed me a small box wrapped. “Happy belated birthday. I hope you like it. Daniel and I chose it this morning.”

            We sent Jamie to Sam’s house and now we were at The Curve shopping complex. It felt weird when you remembered what happened here a month and a half ago. Jamie was human and we hung out here. Now it felt like it was ages ago. Jamie was now a werewolf and couldn’t be seen by humans especially her parents.

            I fed coins to a vending machine to buy myself a Coke. I sipped my Coke before tearing opening the present.

            I gasped. “Thanks, Val.” I hugged her. She bought me a camera lens. Camera lens were very expensive nowadays.

            “You’re welcome. What do you want to do? Other than sitting here and listen to the old woman giving a lecture about a lotion?” We looked at the lady who was advertising a lotion on stage and laughed.

            “I’m getting bored of her. Want to hang out at the arcade?”

            “Cool.”

            I didn’t know where was the arcade so I asked Val to show me where was the arcade. It wasn’t very crowded but it was very noisy. Val challenged me to car race. I have a better chance of beating her because I have a driving license so I accepted the challenge. She was so close to beating me but my car blocked her way.

            “That’s call cheating,” Val complained.

            “It’s a free world, Val.”

            I won the race in the end. We got free sweets and teddy bears. I tried out dancing but the steps were so quick and difficult as if it was the game ‘Twister’. Val was so much better at me at the dancing. While I was watching Val dance, I saw someone familiar watching us from a distance.

            “Henry,” I said.

            “Sophia,” he said.

            It was a weird start because I started the conversation by saying his name instead of a ‘hello’. I smiled casually like we were close but we weren’t in reality. We rarely talk to each other. “What are you doing around here?”

            He shrugged. “Just looking around. Is that your sister?” He nodded his head at Val.

            “No, she’s my cousin.” By the time I answered him, Val joined us. I introduced them by first name since I had forgotten Henry’s last name. Val offered to shake his hands but he just stared at her hand. I quickly told Val to play some other games. She flashed me a glance. I put a few tokens on her palm. She closed her fist with the coins in it and left us.

            “You two look very alike,” Henry said from what he observed.