Hunter or Hunted

Chapter 28- Unwanted Attention

Melrose’s P.O.V

 “Should we order?” Mom asked.

 I shook my head vigorously. Mom nodded in approval but continued to scan menu hungrily. There was no way we were eating before Beau got here.

I know I probably caught him as he was leaving football training. I could hear his heavy breathes as he spoke down the phone, so he must’ve finished training minutes before.

I was surprised with myself that I hadn’t killed my mom yet. She had actually been decent. No weird comments or forced love. All in all, it was going well.

It was only going to get better once Beau got here.  The whole family would be together, doing normal family things. It took my parents seventeen years but they finally mastered the idea of looking after children.

I almost fainted earlier when my mom refused a business meeting in New York. She said that she had a family to repair.

I frowned when my mom cell phone started to buzz on the table. I was hoping it wasn’t another business meeting. If she accepted it, I would be really angry.

She stared at the caller I.D, her eyebrows furrowing slightly. I was about to ask her what was wrong but she picked up her phone and answered it.

“Yes this is.”

My mom mouth curled into a frown as the person on the other side carried on talking.

I was disappointed that I couldn’t hear the person on the other side. It would be interesting to hear what they were saying.

“Oh right. We will get there as soon as possible.” An agonized expression crossed my mom’s face as she asked further. “Wright road?”  She nodded before ending the call.

“Mom what’s wrong?”

Her face turned clammy and pallid as she stared blankly across the café. Dad grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

She turned and faced him with small tears welling in her eyes. They seemed to have some telepathic conversation. I looked between them several times; totally confused.

My head flickered to the door when the bell chimed on the door. A frown wormed its way on my face, as I realised it wasn’t Beau entering Suzy’s.

“W-we need to go Rose.”

I didn’t even recognise my mom’s voice. I had thought it was my dad’s by the raspiness of it. I was pretty sure I saw guilt written in my mom’s eyes, but no sooner was it there it was gone.

“Why?” I questioned, confusion lacing my voice.

“Come on Rose, let’s go to the car.”

My mom and dad both stood up and walked towards the door. I followed suit, worried about what had happened to make my mom act as she was.

I slid into the back seat. I had crazy butterflies in my stomach as we approached the road that took us away from downtown Littleton. My hands became clammy the longer we sat in silence.

Waves of nausea passed through me but I managed to fight the urge to throw up.

As we got to Wright road, I noticed that there was a long queue of cars honking in unison. My dad fidgeted in his seat, taking deep breathes as he did so. That was always a sure sign that my dad was nervous.

After what felt like a lifetime, we drew nearer the front of the queue. I still hadn’t seen why mom had to get here so quickly either. My eyes danced from left to right, desperately trying to find the mystery.