Façade (DISCONTINUED. Revised and redone as a webcomic)

Chapter 2: A Girl's Loss

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Day 001 3:08pm
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The Texas sun beat down on me as I made my way towards my new workplace with a smile on my face. I had my dark purple and white Vans backpack slung over one shoulder. I carried a pair of indoor shoes and a notepad in it.

Words can't express how excited I was as I walked in through the automatic doors and felt the rush of cool wind from within the building. I removed my red, black, and white boots and set them on the shoe rack neatly before walking up to the guest services desk. A dark-haired receptionist sat there, preoccupied with something on her computer monitor. Her pale eyes flicked towards me from the other side of the screen before she politely asked,

"May I help you?"

Thank God. She wasn't a Felyne. She didn't know I was an Adlet.

After my initial relief, I replied,

"Uh, yeah! I'm here because I was recently hired, and I'm supposed to be trained today..."

The woman immediately widened her eyes and exclaimed,

"Oh, right! I'll call Aspen, the girl who's going to teach you what to do here. She's super excited about meeting you, since it's only her second time training a new employee."

I nodded, walking across the hall to sit on a cushioned bench in front of the ice rink's huge glass windows. Once I'd seated myself, I pulled on my indoor Adidas sneakers. Now that I'd completed that task, I looked over at the ice rink. As I watched the skaters move about the ice in leisurely bliss, I remembered something that Distance's mother, Shark, had told me.

When Distance was a little kid, he'd wanted to try hockey, so he played for one year. That was right up until his father snapped and nearly beat him to death. After that, Distance had nothing to do with public places other than school and work. I kinda wished he liked to do stuff like that so we could go do something fun together.

Actually, there was an amusement park in Dillion that I'd never been able to go to, since Distance would never go there and I didn't want to go alone. I smiled as I thought more about it, planning to drag him out there so we could both go to that park for the first time.

"Hi there!"

A cheerful voice brought me back to reality and I turned my head away from the windows to see a girl facing me.

She wore a black and white track jacket bearing the facility's logo and a purple and white paisley bandanna around her neck. Her wide, bright eyes were a light lavender colour, her long blonde-and-brown-streaked hair in an unusual state: tight ringlets instead of loose curls. It was tied over her left shoulder with a shiny, silver, star-shaped hair clip.

For a moment, I just stopped and gazed at her. This was an incredibly pretty girl...

She laughed playfully and poked my nose, which startled me.

"What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"

She teased. Her face was now much closer to mine, which immediately alerted me to something.

Her eyes were purple. Not to mention, her pupils were slitted like a cat's and her scent was that of a Felyne. As if sensing my sudden apprehension, she paused and tilted her head. I sucked in a sharp breath as her eyes glittered. She knew.