Lovers' Maehem

Chapter 8

Griffin

June 9th, 2180

1:43pm

When Mae texts me, I immediately text Andrew and Beck to tell them I'm taking a lunch break. After being so close to catching the Blake's yesterday, I've been out 24/7, and didn't get to sleep last night. We know that they must live somewhere near here, since I lost the girl in crowded village. How did I lose track of her! I was this close to being the one to catch a Blake, and I failed.

"Hi," her soft voice comes from behind me. I whip around to face her. Something about the way her eyes look around makes her seem weary, opposed to last time when she seemed more confident.

"Hey," I answer, "wanna go sit down." I hold the door open for her, as she gratefully walks in and sits down at a table. I go to the front and order two vanilla lattes, and 2 chocolate brownies. When I come to sit down at the table, she seems to be studying me, and the way her eyes flick back and forth over my body, sends a chill through me.

"How was your morning," I ask her. She shrugs,

"I was up late last night with my sisters, so I didn't wake up until about an hour ago," she answers, "what about you?"

"I didn't get too much sleep last night," I answer truthfully. She starts sipping on the vanilla latte, and we get into talking about life.

"So where did you go to school?" she asks.

"Just down the street actually," I say, "I can show you if you want..." I guess it's kinda weird to take a girl to your old school, but she seemed eager to go. Our hands interlock and I pull her towards the building I might as well have grown up in.

"Wow!" she exclaims as I open the door for her. "It's very different than I imagined."
"You imagined my high school," I laugh, as I watch her stare around in awe. It's like she's never seen anything like this.

"Not your high school, just school in general..." she trails off looking up, I guess she has never seen anything like this.

"What... you didn't go to school?" I ask to confirm my thoughts.

"I was homeschooled by my parents my whole life, and I did a few online college courses, but I've never been to a real school!" she says as we turn towards the gym.

"So you never had school dances, or clubs, or..." she cuts me off.

"Nope, never." she pauses, "I guess my siblings were my best friends. We moved around so much as a kid, that I could never really make lasting friendships." she pauses again looking around her. "So I guess you're going to have to deal with a lot of firsts for me." she adds.

"Wait," I say, holding back a laugh, "are you saying that a few nights ago was your first kiss!" I know I shouldn't be shocked, based on her life it doesn't sound like she's had time for boyfriends.

"No, of course not," good "I've been on dates before, and my sister brought me to her boyfriend's party once, and I met a guy there. Except it was kind of just like a summer fling with that guy, and all the other guys, it was more like a one night thing at parties."

"So you have been to parties?" I ask a bit confused.

"Yeah, just not high school parties or dances," she answers, "like my sister Dakota, her boyfriend throws tons of parties all the time, but he's in college."

"So you're telling me," I pause, "that you have never been to a high school party, but you have been to a college one!" She nods, and I laugh. "Well, I guess I'll have to show you what a high school dance is like." I take her hand and place it on my shoulder, and she does the same with her other hand. I put both my hands just above her hips.

"We are slow dancing now, huh," she laughs, "but there is no music!"

"Come on, use that imagination of yours," I answer, "now sway back and forth while you listen to the music in your head." She does as I instruct her and I pull her closer as we keep swaying back and forth. Eventually her head lays down lazily on my chest. I have a good 4 inches on her, so her head when bent over, lies on my chest. I can smell her shampoo when we are this close, it always gives her a slight smell of lavender, but right now, the smell is strong, and I would be lying if I said I didn't like it.

"Griffin," her voice is small and quiet, unlike how it usually is. She looks up at me, "I-" she stops abruptly, and I can tell she was about to tell me something important, but she stopped herself, "I really like you." she says. I can't really tell for sure, but I'm close to 100% sure that wasn't what she was originally going to say.

"I really like you too Mae," I answer, and she leans her head back down.

About 10 minutes after that moment we leave to go for a walk, but I can't get out of my mind, whatever she was about to say... it could literally be anything. That's the problem. I'm a detective, my job is to put the pieces together and figure out clues, but with her, I feel like I can't figure things out. Like something about her makes my mind stop working. The problem is, I like the feeling. I like how she makes me feel.

"I enjoyed today," Mae says when we get to the cafe. I nod,

"Me too," I pause, "we'll have to do it again." She nods,

"I should get going, but I'll text you later," she smiles, a small smile, that makes her eyes shine. The soft grey colour, that's intense at the same time.

"I'll talk to you later," I mumble, as she starts to walk away, and her fingers slowly slide out of mine. Once she's out of sight, I turn around and walk towards the bungalow. I meeting Andrew and Beckett for a quick strategy session for tonight. It's going to be another all nighter I think, though I can see about going in a few hours early around 4.

"Hey!" I call as I slam the door shut behind me.

"Griff, get over here, we think we have some ideas of where to station tonight!" Andrew calls. I rush to the room eager to hear whatever they have to say.

"I talked with your father earlier and he gave us some suggestions we will test out," Beckett adds. I nod, though I don't particularly want the help of my father.

"So where do you want me?"

I sigh as Andrew drops me off and drives away. I'm in the middle of nowhere. Some small town in Pennsylvania where the population is only like 100 people or something. Why here? Why would the Blake's come kill someone here? The question pulses within me as I hide in a bush in what is apparently the 'rich' part of town. Not sure exactly why Dad thought they would come here, but we can go with it... I guess. I shake off all other thoughts. As the sun starts to set, and focus on watch my surroundings. I check the time, and see it's around 6 o'clock. I sigh and look around for any suspicious movement. Mainly I'm waiting for the power to turn out. The Blake's do this thing where they cut the power supply in richer neighborhoods to get around security cameras. 1 mississippi, 2 mississippis, 3 mississippis. I keep counting in my head, while looking around. Counting helps, because it gives you something to do, but doesn't distract you. 87 mississippis. The knife comes flying out of nowhere. I'm about to jump, but then I realize it isn't aimed for me. It's aimed for the wire above me. Snap. The wire breaks and the knife lands on the group only a few feet away from me. They're here. The power line broken is connected to 3 houses. I look around but don't see anyone. I come out of the bushes, and move against the wall closest to me. I see the flash of black first, then once I move to get a better view, I can see his whole body as he climbs into the window. I take a deep breath and prepare for when he comes out of the window. I text Beckett and Andrew for backup, and count. I'm not sure if he's a Blake, since there are plenty of organizations, but all I know is one thing. I won't mess this up this time, I can't.