Buried Secrets || Sam Golbach

1.

(I will be referring her to Jade while she's living in this city as that's the name she'll go buy in that city)

Calista stepped off the bus and walked to a nearby hotel.

She walked up to the concierge and booked a room for a month.

She knew the credit card had enough to house her for a while but she knew she needed to find a job and an apartment quick.

She took the elevator up to the hotel suite and laid on the bed.

She quickly fell asleep and awoke the next morning.

She decided to get changed and go look for jobs.

She had an "impressive resume" that had just one reference number. Jessica.

She was willing to tell whoever called about their star employee Jade Park.

She didn't know where Calista ended up but she had hoped that it was somewhere safe. Somewhere good.

She walked the streets stopping in a few locations that were hiring.

She grabbed some food and headed back to the hotel.

This process repeated for a while.

She decided to go to the bank and open up an account so that she would have a place to deposit any money or cheques that she would receive from work.

She also at one point stopped in at a phone company and signed up for the cheapest plan that they offered.

After a few days Jade got a call back from a local library.

They needed full time staff to work 7am until 7pm when they closed from Sunday until Thursday.

She decided to take it.

Her first shift would be the next day.

**

The next morning she got up and prepared herself for the day.

She searched her bags for something she could wear. She settled on a knee length blue overall dress and a long sleeve white shirt.

It was late September and she decided she wouldn't get too hot or cold.

She headed out and arrived at the library 10mins to 7 am and waited.

A few minutes later a small tan woman tan up to her with handful of paperwork and keys.

"Oh I hope you weren't waiting long! My car decided it didn't want to start today, my husband is not very car savvy and neither am I" the woman said rushing into the building

"No no it's okay, I was only there for a few minutes" Jade said.

"Anyways I'm Mariah" the woman stuck her hand out to Jade.

"I'm Jade" she shook Mariah's hand back.

"Okay now that that's out of the way let's get to business , so usually the first hour is super boring, just putting some new stock out but I'm thinking you just fill out some paperwork first and get yourself started" Mariah said getting the papers out of a folder.

"Sounds good" Jade said with a smile and grabbed the small stack of papers.

Jade filled out the paperwork for a while before handing it back to Mariah.

"Perfect, so if you wanna just go ahead and grab that bin with the wheels by the door, I'll show you how to scan in the returned books" Mariah smiled.

"Sure" Jade said heading over to the big blue bin.

She spent the rest of her day learning all the stuff she would need to know to work at the library, it was a simple job and she loved that.

**

The next few days were quite similar.

She'd wake up, get ready, head to work.

She'd work her shift, usually grab some takeout and head back to the hotel.

It was a Friday afternoon, she didn't have a shift, so she decided to go into town and do a bit of shopping.

She bought a few new shirts, some cute skirts and jeans and a couple of different style dresses.

She was in a store trying on dresses when she came out of the change room to look in the large set of mirrors.

She was standing in front of them flattening out the dress.

It was a short skintight black long sleeve dress with a wide cutout in the back.

She had always loved this style but Justin would never allow her to wear it.

She stared at it a bit longer.

"Jade!" She heard and felt herself jump.

She turned around and saw Mariah and another young woman with soft orange hair.

"Oh hey Mariah" she smiled, suddenly feeling super self conscious.

"You look great! That dress is super hot?" She said walking over to her.

"Really?" Jade stared at her shocked.

"Yeah really? It fits you so nicely, don't you think Anna?" Mariah said turning jade around to see herself in the mirror.

"Yeah, it fits like a glove!" The other girl said with a smile.

"Thank you" Jade said to the girls.

"Hey, we were just about to get some dinner? You wanna come?" Mariah asked.

"Oh no, I couldn't impose" Jade said awkwardly walking back into the change room.

"Okay, well I'll see you on Sunday" Mariah said before leaving.

Jade didn't understand why she said no. She knew back home she wasn't allowed to go out with friends.

She barely even had friends.

If she even tried to go out, Justin wouldn't be very happy about it.

She took a deep breath before remembering that she isn't back there. She's here. She's safe.

She decided to go find Mariah and go out.

Nobody could stop her this time.

She stepped out of the change room and paid for the dress.

She walked out of the store and looked for Mariah and Anna.

She saw them walking out of another store and ran up to them.

"Hey! Is it too late for me to join in for dinner?" She asked.

"Of course not, come on" Mariah smiled.

The three of them sat and ate dinner at a sweet little restaurant down the street.

Afterwards, Mariah was dropping everyone off. After dropping off Anna, the two of girls were driving to the hotel.

"You live here?" Mariah asked confused.

"Oh uhm, yeah. I haven't really gotten my foot in the door here just yet" Jade stuttered awkwardly.

"Oh, okay. Well I'll see you on Sunday" Mariah smiled at her.

"See you" Jade scurried out of the car and into the hotel. Saying hi to the doorman Nick.

She went up to her room and stayed there until Sunday.

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First weeeeeeeeek!