Officer Steven looks at us quizzically and sighs. "Are sure that there isn't anyone who would send you this?"
Caleb glares at him and I can tell that he's getting annoyed. I'm annoyed too. He's asked me this question nearly 100 times. And I gave him the same answer 100 times. "No, there isn't anyone I know who would want to send it to me." Officer Steven gives me my phone. "I'm sorry but there isn't really anything that we can do."
"Why not," Caleb yells angrily. "There's only one person who would want to send him something like this!" Officer Steven looks tired and annoyed as he looks pointedly at Caleb. "Yes there is Caleb. But I think that you're forgetting that that person is currently rotting in jail. There's no way for him to text Jace."
"Can't you just trace the call," I ask. "We've tried," he says. "The only lead that we could get was that it was sent off of a track phone. Anyone could buy and sell them so it would nearly impossible to trace exactly where the message was sent." I sag dejectedly in my seat. This is definitely not how I imagined my morning going.
The minute that I told Caleb about the message this morning, he freaked out and took us to the police station. He demanded to see Officer Steven and showed him the message. I can tell that Caleb's tired and I am too. We've been for an hour and we haven't learned anything useful.
Officer Steven sits back in his chair and types something on the computer on top of his desk before turning back to us. "The only thing that I can suggest is for you to be very vigilant. Look out for anyone that you could think is a suspect. If anything else happens, contact me." He writes something down on a piece of palate and hands it to Caleb. "Be careful boys."
Caleb nods and we stand, leaving the police station. Caleb starts the car and we drive off. "You want to get something to eat before you head off to off?" I shake my head. It's 8:30 and I have to be to work by 9. "I'll just get some lunch," I say and he nods. We pull up to the diner named 'Melrose'. Before I can get out, Caleb begins to talk. "Jace, I want you to be careful okay?" I turn around and look at Caleb. His face is tired and sagged. He looks like he has the entire world on his shoulders. I nod and smile at him reassuringly. "I'll be fine. You be careful too." He grins. "Aren't I always carful?"
"No," I immediately say. He chuckles and I get out off the car. I wave to him as I walk inside of the diner. It's designed to look like it was made in the 1990's. The walls are painted a brown color and the tables are colored a deep shade of red. I walk towards the counter to a young woman with chocolate brown skin, leaning over the counter. She has curly hair tied up into a bun, and wears a short black dress with a red apron.
She notices me in front of the counter and looks up. "Hi, welcome to Melrose. How may I help you?" She sounds bored. "Hi um, I just got a job here. My name is Jace Roberts."
Her eyes light up and she stands up straight. "Oh so you're the newbie. It's nice to meet you. My name is Brooke, but most people call me Bonnie." I notice that even her name-tag says the name 'Bonnie'.
"It's nice to meet you," I say. "Where do I start?"
"Well first you need to get changed." She leads me to the back of the diner and into a small locker room. She hands me a stack of clothes and leaves. I look around to make sure that the locker room is completely empty before changing. I walk into the bathroom and take a quick glance at the morning. I don't look at my reflection for long before I turn away. I'm surprised to see that my uniform doesn't really match with the 90's design of the diner. I look more like an Applebee's waiter with black pants, a black button-up shirt, and a red tie. But hey, who am I to say anything.
I walk back to the counter and see Bonnie talking to another female worker with blond hair and the same outfit as Bonnie. They both look at me. "Hey Jace, this is Hailey," she says. Hailey extends her hand out towards me and I nervously shake it. I'm still terrible at handshakes. Hailey doesn't seem to mind though and smiles anyway. "Nice to meet you Jace. We don't get many guys here to work. In fact, there's another guy who works here. Mike works here too, but he starts at 3." I nod following her words even though she talks fast. "Anyway, welcome to the Melrose family. I'm case you haven't noticed, there's not much of us here."
Bonnie cuts her off and says, "Alright Hailey. You'll talk his head off before he even has a chance to work." Hailey playfully glares at her and stomps away. Bonnie chuckles. "Sorry about that. She's a bit of a rambler." I laugh and Bonnie shows me around. Soon after she shows me around, a middle aged man walks out from a door behind the counter. He looks at me and Bonnie before introducing himself.
"It's nice to see you Jace." I recognize the man as the owner of Melrose, Mr.Aubrey. He was the same man to interview me for the job. I smile and he tells me the basics of things. How to handle rowdy customers, what to do if I have a problem, etc.
When Mr.Aubrey finishes talking to me, I start my shift. I spend most of my time taking orders and grabbing the food for customers. At lunch, I decide to go outside for a while and walk to the park. I sit down on a bench a take out a sandwich that I bought from a small food truck near the diner. As I eat my lunch, I'm suddenly filled with a sense of loneliness.
I never realized how much I missed Ali until I had to do normal things that I would regularly do with her, without her. I wonder if she's having fun in Virginia. I finish my lunch and start to walk back to the diner. As I'm walking, someone bumps into me and I'm knocked down. "Ouch." I wince when I scrape my arm on the cement. A hand shows up in front of my face and I look at the owner of the hand extended towards me.
"Sorry, I was in a bit of a rush and didn't even see you there." A guy with shaggy brown hair takes my hand and helps me up off the ground. "You okay," he asks. I look down at my arm to see that the skin is just a little scratched. It's nothing major though.
"I'm fine," I say and smile at the guy. He looks over my clothes and I suddenly notice that I still have on my uniform. "Hey I recognize that uniform. And there's no Applebee's around here. You're the new kid working at Melrose aren't you?" I look at him in surprise. He chuckles at my shocked face and ruffles my hair. "I'm Mike. Nice to meet ya."
I glare at him for messing with my hair but smile a second later. "Nice to meet you too. My name's Jace by the way." He smiles and says my name again, almost like he's testing it out on his tongue. His stare lasts a little long and my cheeks flush. Suddenly I remember something and look up at Mike.
"I thought that you didn't work until 3." And laughs and scratches the back of his head. "Yeah well I needed the money so I offered to come in a little early." I nod and start walking back towards the diner. Mike walks next to me and together, we make our way back towards Melrose.
A few hours later and my shift is finally over. I go inside of the locker room and change back into my jeans and red long-sleeved shirt. As I make my way out of the diner, I hear Bonnie yell "Bye Jace!" I smile and wave at her. I noticed Mike looking at me from one of the tables and I walk out of the diner.
I'm waiting at the bus stop when I feel like eyes are staring at me. I look around me and notice a guy staring at me from across the street. He has on a dark hoodie with his hands in his pockets. My throat goes dry and the familiar tightness of an anxiety attack settles in my chest.
Suddenly the guy runs at full speed across the street and towards me. I back up and begin to run in the other direction. My legs carry me as fast as they can and I hear the guy's fast footsteps running toward me. He's going to catch me. I run into a large clothing store filled with people. They look at me like I'm crazy and I'm panting for breath. I turn around to see the guy walking off like nothing's happened.
"Hey kid, is everything okay," I feel a man's hand come down on my shoulder and I flinch away. I feel like everyone's looking at me. My chest tightens and I take out my phone to call Caleb.
"Jace, what wrong?" I'm breathing heavily into the phone and I'm struggling to catch my breath. "C-Caleb," I stutter, still out of breath. "I need you to come get me. I-I can't breathe. A guy chased me." I tell him the name of the store and it's not long before he's pulling up in front of it in his car. I run out of the store and jump in his arms as soon as I see him.
Caleb holds me closely and tries to soothe me as I cry softly into his chest.
YOU ARE READING
Dancing With The Devil
Teen Fiction(Sequel to The White Rabbit) It's been a year since Jace and his older brother Caleb put their father in jail. Since then, Jace has tried to make his life as normal as possible. But when demons from the past come to light, how does Jace handle this...
