By Chance | Complete |

Chapter Three

Lyra

The next morning, I raced out of the house as if I was Road Runner being chased by Wile E. Coyote. With success, I made it to my car and sped out of the driveway without hearing my name or any footsteps.

I had been up early, getting ready and trying to leave before everyone woke up. I didn't want to be anywhere near Lilian today, there's an absolute guarantee that she would make today fifty times worse. Her cold hearted comments would be constant and a cruel reminder of what remains of my life. Alec of course wouldn't to calm her, to stop her awful remarks, but he usually failed.

Today, I deserved not to deal with that. At least for a while, I did.

My first stop was to one of my favourite coffee shops in town, Miles Coffee. Their quality of drinks was beyond anything you'd find in the rest of the town. I'd love to say also in the city, but there were even better tiny little coffee shops hidden amongst the busy city, amongst all the Starbucks's and skyscraper buildings.

When I walked in, the tiny bell above the door ran through the shop. Amelia Cho looked up from her book and shot me a smile. "Good Morning, Lyra!"

I gave her a small smile back as I walked over to the front counter. "Good Morning, Amelia."
Amelia was always incredibly kind to me when I came in. She was the fifteen year old daughter of the owners and worked here on the weekends.

"Did you want your usual?"

"Please."

"Of course." She turned around and grabbed a cup. "Any plans for today?"

"Just working then I have some plans tonight, you?"

"There's a party tonight, some desirable is throwing it. I think I'm going to go. You should come!"

I shook my head, "Just have a few errands to do after work. Who's throwing the party?"

"Emily, I think." She replied as she pouted the caramel around the cup. "Or Kol. I can't remember."

I didn't say anything else until after I had paid, "Do you have a notepad or paper?"

Ameila gave a nod before grabbing a notepad from under the cash and sliding it over to me with a pen.

Quickly, I wrote down my number and passed it back to her. "If you need a drive home from the party or you want to leave or anything, just call, okay? I'll pick up and I'll come get you. Don't take any drinks from anyone either."

She looked down at the paper before looking back at me. "Thank you, Lyra. Thank you."

"Thank you for the coffee. Have a good day." I told her before going back to my car and heading to work.

I was thankful when I didn't see Teddy's car in the parking lot yet. I just wanted a moment alone inside before he got here, I need it to be able to get through today.

I appreciated Teddy, he was kind. But I didn't know why he was so kind to me. I was trying to figure out why he and Sasha wanted to be friends with me. It confused me and consumed a lot of my thoughts as I started opening the shop.

They had to have some kind of motive, they were each desirables. Both kinds, but they were still a part of that group. They were part of powerful New York families. Not only that, but they were River's best friends. And he didn't like me, nor did I like him.

When the front door chimed through the store, I immediately looked up to find Teddy coming in with coffee in his hands. "Morning, Lyra."

"Good morning."