Smoke and shattered mirrors

Chapter fourteen: She's the bomb

Reilly Lake is a quiet sanctuary. 

Topher brought me there because it would be secluded and private. It had this beautiful crystalline, clear lake with little log houses that people can rent and start bonfires.

Topher couldn't rent a log house because the management was renovating them. And so we just sit near the lake while he has his bulky sony laptop and handheld pocket WiFi out and me playing the survaillance memory cards on my own pink laptop.

"I'm starting school." I said, "Aunt Caroline said I'll start this week."

"So soon?" Topher looks up with a startled expression.

I nodded and replied," I have to."

"You don't have to torture yourself, Merci. We all know this is hard for you, and we all openly understand that." He speaks gently, the project on his laptop abandoned.

I looked at the lake once more, the fact that my parents were kiled not far from here sink into me and consumes me once more. "I have to do this, Topher. And besides, maybe the killer is a worchestarian."

My tone was light but my heavy breathing gave it away.

"Don't joke about things like that." Topher frowns and continues on with his work. The WiFi thing blinking. It was small, about the size of my palm. It had a blinking green light on the very center of it.

"I didn't mean it like that." I said. "I was just humoring myself. Given the circumstances, I guess I'm allowed to make fun of my own situation."

Topher chuckles, the corners of his eyes crinkling. I find it so adorable. Again, the sunlight captures the highlights of his coal black hair beautifully. For the first time, I notice the small dimple right on his left cheek.

It kinda puzzles me how he hadn't notice my sudden change of appearance from yesterday. I mean, don't I look at least decent today? The whole ride here he hasn't made a single comment about my feminine get-up. It's like I was still wearing the faded jeans yesterday.

But then again, my worries seem silly. Topher cares about me as his bestfriend. I'm crazy to think he'll want us to be something more.

And within about twenty minutes of sitting cross-legged on the wooden dock, I was inwardly cursing myself for wearing a skirt.

"I took you here so we could investigate." He grins. I smirked in reply.

"Well.. You could be the tech geek and I could be, like, the super awesome boss who can boss you around." I  said in a very business-like tone with a straight, serious face on.

"Tech geek? You did not just call me a 'tech geek'" He replies, serious voice and all. But his eyes were no where near serious. "But if that's what you really want, I'm down with it."

I laugh. "Then from now on, Christopher Samuels, you will call me Boss Merci, queen of awesomeness and frugality with a larger concept of intellectual resonances on the human mind."

"Okay then Boss Merci, queen of awesomeness and frugality with... with...what you just said." We both have fits of laughter by then. 

By the time our laughter died down, he said, "The hippy people are wrong. You're still yourself, Merce. You're still the girl-"

"MERCI! TOPHER! OH MY GAWD! YOU'RE BOTH HERE!" A shrill scream from the other side of the dock. 

When we turned our heads to look, Kylie was there with three other girls and a tall, familiar boy stood far back behind them.

"Is that... Rory?" Topher says incredulously.

"Why is Rory with Kylie?" I asked myself aloud. "Don't they hate each other?"