A Starry Eyed Mystery

Chapter 2

I looked at him from head to toe, wishing this wasn't happening, but no such luck. If you're wondering why I'm acting all strange, it's because of Aidan. He's well...my high school sweetheart. Yeah, I know, crazy right? He ended things with me right on the night of prom. To sum it up for you, he broke my heart. Now staring at him one year later is just straight up weird. I'm pissed too. He's gotten a little taller but other than that, he looks the same. His old hot self..." Dammit. "Ashley?" He was looking at me in a strange way; maybe because I got highlights and let my hair grow out. "You two know each other?" Mom's partner said, clearly amused. "Um, yeah. We went to high school together", Aidan muttered. "Right," my mom said with a clap, sprouting a sly grin on her face. "You two," she continued, "are in charge of observing and looking for evidence. Whatever you find must be shared either with Dave, my partner, or me. Understood?" We nodded. "Now get to work," my mom said cheerily, "We don't have all year." I followed Aidan out of the station and onto the bustling sidewalk. "Um, so you wanna grab a coffee and start?" I hesitated and finally muttered out a "Sure". We walked down the street until we reached our favourite coffee place: From Dawn Till Dusk. It had been our most visited place as a couple. We headed inside and stood in line. After ordering our coffees, we found a little table to sit at."Don't you have better things to do? Maybe hooking up with girls and breaking their hearts the next day?" I glared at him, remembering what happened the last night we were together. "Shut the fuck up, you're just jealous that I can actually move on. Get over what happened last year, it's the damn past." He raised his voice. "And for your information, I have hooked up with girls after you. Jealous?" He smirked. "You're the most insufferable person ever. But I have moved on, not that you care. But why the hell are you here? I don't need your help, I've handled myself quite well." I retorted. "Whatever, I don't give a fuck about you. We dated, yeah cool, and we broke up. You mean nothing to me. So let's get this shit over with. I have better things to do than work with you." Wow, was he the rudest person ever. "Okay whatever, your opinion doesn't matter to me anymore. Anyway, I did some digging. Our victim is Olivia Dean who is currently 26 years old. She was in my sister's high school years and apparently she was quite popular. She dated the captain of the football team and had a lot of friends. Several teachers were very fond of her as well. It turns out that she broke it off with her boyfriend Kyle so that she could pursue her dreams. Maybe that could've been the motive, you know like a jealous ex or a disliked teacher..." He glared at me. "Of course you had to find out every detail about her life." I ignored him, but I swear that I saw a flicker of impressiveness flash across his face. "Um, so how's life been? I thought you moved to New York." Aidan had gone to New York to chase his dream of being a tech analyst. But wow, I'm so bad at talking to people. Especially the jerk in front of me. He grumbled, "Well that was the plan. But then I realized that I had so many opportunities back home. So I moved back permanently." "You?" He added as an afterthought, clearly not wanting to carry on this conversation with me. He had a bored expression on his face. "Yeah, I've been great. Everything has been going wonderful, I've never been so happy." I said, wanting to rub in the fact that he doesn't matter to me and that I don't need him in my life. He smirked and rolled his eyes. "Babe, you don't need to lie and say you don't miss me. I know it sucks you can't find anyone better, but that's your problem". I gritted my teeth. "How dare you insinuate that I miss you? Your egotistical self tore me apart, and you think I would miss you?" "Whatever, smartass. We all know the truth. How's your dumb book going?" That caught me off guard, he remembered? Well he also called it dumb. "I, um, yeah, um it's going I guess." Feeling my cheeks warm up. "Good, huh? So when will I get to read it?" he said with a cocky face. "Never. It's still a work in progress, but either way, I wouldn't let someone so opinionated like you read it. But...I am surprised you remember." He still looked bored. "It's no big deal, don't think it means anything. You always used to talk about. Kinda hard to forget your rambling." I glared, but then smiled a little, slightly surprised by what he said. "What's so funny?" he asked, sounding a little pissed. "I honestly thought you would have forgotten about my book. You know...since things ended pretty badly with us." His glare intensified. "Look, can you let it go already? It's history, it happened a year ago. Stop acting like it's such a big deal." "Well not everyone can forget significant moments which broke them." I said cooly, trying not to show how upset I was. "Well since we are working on this mystery together, we might as well start making a plan." He said, not meeting my eyes. I laughed, maybe louder than I should have. My face turning red, I turned to him. "Could you sound anymore excited for this, Aidan?" He was quiet for a few seconds before blurting out, "I could be if you hooked up with me," smirking. My face got even redder, "We're history remember?" I said, mocking his previous statement. He looked amused as he took in my sarcastic expression, "Wow, you haven't changed a bit. Same old, same old, Ashley Reynolds." I gave him the side eye, "Well, you know me," I said, "I overdo things, it's my specialty. And I'm quite good at it," I added in with a confident laugh. He sighed. "Well since you're a wonderful detective," his voice dripping with sarcasm, "hopefully we can get this over with quickly". He sighed again, but this time it looked like he was thinking about something."But you mentioned something about an ex-boyfriend, Kyle. He's my brother's best friend. I bet we can score a quick conversation with him. You know, with your specialty." He looked at me and I immediately felt uncomfortable. "Um, nice to see that you were listening. Well anyway, yeah, let's talk to Kyle. Find out where he was and the last time he talked to her and how badly their relationship ended and..." I realized I was babbling and quickly clamped my mouth shut. I pushed my cup away and stood up. "Well, let's get going, my asshole partner!" He glared, but stood up as well and together we headed off to find Aidan's brother, Logan Wilcock.

Chapter 2 is complete, let me know what you think!

Remember, all feedback is appreciated; don't filter or sugarcoat your comments, I want honesty!

What do you guys think of how Ashley and Aidan are treating each other?

What do you think he did in the past to piss her off so much?

Stay tuned for the next chapter. I won't be as consistent with updating since school is starting again soon, after being off for spring break.

Keep dreaming, dreamers!

-Ennie