Outburst

Chapter 11 - Easton Returns

There was only one thing I knew for sure today: Grant couldn't pick me up after school. I almost cheered when he told me that Uncle Luke needed him for something later in the day, and it was really important that he couldn't just leave it. I asked him if Uncle Luke was okay with me taking a bus to go home, he just nodded.

Uncle Luke was still not having breakfast with us. He probably already went to the office and was driving by himself. It had been like this since the morning after Margot was found dead in the small woods next to our house. Every time I passed it, I couldn't help but glance, thinking that the woman I knew was dead there, deep inside the woods. The police line was still there, and sometimes I saw one or two policemen hung around there to investigate.

I wondered how Uncle Luke was doing if he saw the crime scene. Despite his silence and absence in Margot's funeral, I knew Uncle Luke was depressed by her death. Everyone had different ways in dealing with loss. But on the other side, I was afraid that he wouldn't get better any time soon, and by 'better' I meant back to normal-to the Uncle Luke who was always cold, but actually very concerned about me.

After the bitter situation last night, I decided to stop meddling with his business. Let's just go back to the way it was before-Uncle Luke was the ambitious businessman and the strict house owner, and me, the niece who had to deal with everything he wanted, even though I didn't really like it.

At school, Emma and Lucy were excited to know that I had a free time after. They were already planning a very great girls' day out which probably would never happen again.

Their excitement turned into a heavy sigh when they saw a boy walking confidently towards us. Chad Easton, somewhat looking brighter than usual.

"Wipe that smile off your face," said Emma curtly. She already knew that Chad had apologized for everything. She was both glad and annoyed at the same time. "The world doesn't need to know that you're finally making up with her."

Lucy slapped Emma's arm lightly. She meant that as a warning not to disturb her favorite 'so-called couple' reuniting.

"Sorry, Emma's just being overprotective," I said. "Thank you for coming here, but if you don't want to be grilled by Grant again, I suggest you to go home."

Chad giggled. "He's not gonna be here."

I raised my left eyebrow. I used Grant as an excuse to make him go away so that I could hang out peacefully with my friends, but he somehow knew the truth.

"I kind of overheard my Dad this morning," said Chad, beginning his explanation. "He said something about Macero being busy, so I guessed that would involve your driver-your uncle's assistant."

I furrowed and I put another puzzled face. "Why did your Dad talk about my uncle's company? Their deal was broken, right?"

"Uh, I don't follow-what deal?" He asked. Oh... He didn't know about Macero and Foxcrate were about to work together when Phil Easton's hidden agenda was revealed. This fact made me looked awesomely awesome because I thought no one other than Macero employees knew about this.

"Never mind." I quickly changed the topic because I knew Chad was as curious as me. "What are you doing here, really? I haven't decided which game I want to attend," I joked.

"Lucy probably already knew about this. My friends and I are playing 3-on-3, and we're inviting you," said Chad.

"Ah, yes, Ivan told me about that," Lucy nodded.

"So that's why he didn't hang around here today," Emma rolled her eyes. She was really bored seeing Ivan lurking around almost every day like he was the student of this school. She then glanced at Chad. "But, sorry, guys. Callie is not available today."