Anchor (Book 1)

Chapter Eight

Today is going to be a great day. I thought as I made my bed, cautiously trying not to let any of the negative feelings I was having show up anywhere in my mind. I knew she'd be listening.
Really? Why? Melissa wondered, butting in.
"Oh, good morning sunshine," I said, not meaning to speak out loud.
Her laugh echoed inside my head, Well it is a good morning. It seems like you are particularly optimistic this morning. May I ask what it is that's put you in such a good mood?
You can come and find out. I told her, entering my mother's room.
The blinds were still closed and it looked like she was still asleep. I was closing the door, resolving to tell her later, when she spoke up.
"Hey honey, I'm awake."
"Oh okay." I walked up close to the bed. "Mom," I spoke as proudly as I could appear, "I got a job."
She was upright in bed now. "A job? You didn't even tell me you'd applied anywhere."
"Yeah, I'm working at a daycare just for the summer. The money is not something to complain about at all. It pays extremely well." I informed her in a rush. "I start tomorrow."
Before my mother could protest or ask anymore questions, I bounced out of the room. I bumped straight into Austin.
"How did you get yourself a job that starts tomorrow?" Austin questioned suspiciously,
I shrugged, "I dunno. It just happened."
"No," Austin said, "I don't think it just happened, Natalie."
"Why don't you believe me?" I exclaimed, "I said it just kind of happened. I got super lucky now just leave it alone, okay?"
"Okay," Austin muttered and walked off.
But, I knew he wasn't going to leave it alone.
Austin's right, it does sound kind of suspicious. Melissa spoke up. Despite my greatest efforts to make this seem normal, suspicions still brewed. I needed to be more convincing.
You don't believe me either. I thought. You know, I hate you always invading my business. Just go away.
Fine, if that's what you want.
"Yes, GO AWAY." I screamed. I hadn't meant to be so harsh, but I needed to make this as believable as possible.
Austin entered with a worried look on his face, "Natalie, are you okay? Who are you talking to?"
"I just got off the phone with Jen. We had a big fight. I told her to 'get way out of my life.' I lied, running out of the situation.
I had to seem optimistic about this, for everyone's sake. Inside, I was angry, angry at Kane for intervening in my life yet again. I was distraught, so distraught in fact that I reached for the phone to call him.
"Kane, we need to talk." I hung up the phone without waiting for a reply or bothering to give a location. He'd find me wherever I went. He somehow always does.

I sat on a bus stop bench for twenty minutes before Kane's red hair came into view. I didn't bother to greet him. I remained sitting motionless like his presence had made no effect. He slid next to me.
"You made me lose everything." I started, my exasperation evident. "Ever since you came into my life, you've been destroying it. Now, you've got me stuck in a job I don't even want because you broke buttons on your brother's apparently expensive stupid trench coat!"
"Woooooow, you are getting so bold sayin' things like that." He noted with humor. "You agreed to take the job."
Kane shifted more toward me, I shifted away, mirror our actions of our first encounter.
I thought back to the meeting we had a few weeks ago. How he'd smoothly manipulated me into working with him.
"Yeah, because you told me you would need double the money you'd be making to pay him back. I don't even know if that's true, or if there's a broken button in the first place. "
To me, it sounded awfully ridiculous.
"You could have not taken the job." He said nonchantly.
"No I couldn't have! You threatened me. Don't you remember? You told me that if I didn't do this, you'd hurt Anthony."
"Oh yeah, I did say that didn't I?" Kane sneered.
I started to cry. Why did he have so much control over me and why did he appear to be harmless sometimes, but instill such great fear in me others?
"Natalie, don't cry. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to help you close this case remember? It's practically your job to give back to me. See you tomorrow." He said and then vanished. This push and pull with him was really starting to break me at my core.
My phone rang instantly after. It was Jen. She called me in a panic asking me what made me so upset at her. She informed me that Austin called her wondering what the fight was about. I told her I'd explain it to her over coffee if she picked me up at the bus stop. I had no idea what I was going to say to her, but I didn't want to ruin our friendship over someone like Kane.

When Jen pulled up in her red convertible, I was nervous as hell. I still hadn't come up with a good story yet. She greeted me with open arms.
"Hey girl!"
I reached over the center consul to hug her.
"I hope you don't mind that I have the top down. I love feeling the wind in my hair."
"No, I don't mind." I responded, settling into the passenger seat.
She put her sunglasses on and started down the road. We decided on going to a coffee shop that we often studied at. They made a great Frappuccino.
The wind whipped Jen's long black hair all over, but since I held my hair in a ponytail, it didn't mess with mine much. We took a seat near the window in the little shop. We always did that. I've always loved how coffee places smelled; it put me at peace. I wasn't able to soak in the peacefulness because Jen soon brought up why we were having this spontaneous meeting.
"What's going on, Nat? It has to be something big, because that was a major lie." She remarked.
The thing about Jen was, you couldn't put anything past her. Nobody could, but being her best friend made it ten times worse. I couldn't tell her the truth and she would know the story I would tell her was a lie, so I did all I could at the moment. I let my uneasiness have complete control over my dilemma and I puked. I puked right there all over the table. I ignored the stares of people in line or sitting at the tables around us and Jen's shocked face and walked into the shop's bathroom. Usually, you'd have to pay a quarter or something to use it but the baristas let me in free of charge. I stood there in the bathroom for a couple minutes to make my fake illness seem more convincing and when I walked out, I saw the cleaning crew around our table. I felt horrible for them and those who had to witness the upchuck, but I had to do it. If they were in the same situation-with a best friend like Jen- they'd understand and they probably would do it too.
Jen told me that a nice couple had offered to cover the cost of our drinks and they hoped I'd get better soon. I thought it was a very nice gesture and at the same time, I felt like I robbed them because I counterfeited the whole thing. They were probably some naive young people like us or even worse, an innocent elderly couple. Now, I was starting to feel even more horrible about my act. The newly arriving customers were confused but they shot me a pitying look when they were informed. Jen took my hand and led me out of the coffee shop. I thought about how we would never be able to show our faces in there again making me regret my actions once more. I apologized a million times over to Jen because I knew she really enjoyed a good Frappuccino from there, but she waved each of my apologies off, saying she was only concerned about how I was feeling. Another thing about Jen was, she really cared a lot about the people close to her. She grabbed a few grocery bags from the store across the street. At first, the clerk gave her grief about taking bags when she hadn't purchased anything, but she explained the situation and the guy gave me them to her without any further questions.
As we got going back on the road again, I felt like I had to puke again, my fake upset stomach becoming more real. I was sure my stomach hated me by now.
It made me angry to realize that Kane didn't even have to be within a ten mile radius to continuously ruin my life.
Over and over and over again.