Circling Stars

🌟Chapter 27🌟

    "Hold your breath," Alice commanded. I obeyed as she and Sven draped yet another swath of fabric over me. There was tucking and folding and pinning at vampire speed before I was told fresh air could be allowed into my lungs. She and Sven then pulled back and looked at me.

    Alice, Sven, and Anna would be staying in Wendigo for a while. Alice had committed herself to finding the right fabric and shade to make me a stunning bride. I told her I didn't want to show a whole lot of skin since we would be getting married outside, and I wasn't sure what weather conditions would be. For the same reason I didn't want the dress to drag along the ground and I wanted it to be elegant. Not ballroom princess large skirt, while pretty I always thought those looked ridiculous in real life, but not hugging all my curves mermaid style either, because they were hard to walk in and made me self-conscious.

    With those instructions Alice had been drawing almost non-stop. Rose and Emmett were in town too. No one wanted to miss the birth of the baby or my wedding. Or so I hoped with the latter. Esme, Rose and Bella were watching this fitting and calling out occasional opinions. I had heard the term bridezilla but I didn't know there could a designerzilla.

    Not that Alice turned into a screeching monster, but she was quick to remind everyone that she was the one with a thousand degrees in fashion whenever they questioned her too strongly. Except for Sven, she actually listened to his criticism without biting-uh, metaphorically biting, that is.

    Alice used her vampire speed to great advantage as she sewed rough dress slips together to get a feel for how it looked against my skin tone. Normally Alice would cycle through hundreds of visions to get the answer but in my case that wasn't possible. Some she automatically knew wouldn't work but that still left us with a lot of options. Alice worked with single minded purpose and I smiled as I watched Sven watch her. Sven would sit back and in awe as she did this again and again. The look of love and adoration he had for her made me melt.

    As happy as this made me feel, I couldn't help but wish that my mom and Shirley were here. This felt a little illegitimate without them. Putting in motion what little I could without Jasper and my family felt dishonest and wrong. I pushed the thought out of my mind as Alice declared that this one wasn't right either and went on to the next.

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    "Are you sure you don't know anything?" I asked. "Even if he only mentioned it once?" In the movies sleuthing was easy. A receipt here, a cyber trail there, and a witness that saw the subject leaving at just the right time. In real life I learned that things were infinitely harder and more frustrating.

    At first I had the brilliant idea to use his social media posts to try and find him. Riley had always been scant when it came to an online presence but I hoped I would find something. It turned out the last thing he did there was to upvote a lewd meme one of his friends, a Rae2143, posted back in September.

    After that fruitless search the next thing I thought of was his phone. Brandon mentioned that Riley was on his phone more than usual since summer. Unfortunately Riley had taken his phone with him. While the FBI and CIA could track things like that I certainly couldn't. Feeling depressed I threw myself on my bed and thought.

    What more could I do? Other than his twin, Riley had no close family he might go to in times of crisis. Both their parents had been only children, and by the time they were killed in a car accident the twins were nearly fifteen. Instead of going into foster care the brothers got themselves emancipated. While not wealthy, their parents had managed to set aside a nice nest egg for the brothers and they had owned their home, which meant there hadn't been any large debts for the kids pay off. Brandon still lived in that house over on Sycamore. That inherited money was enough for the brothers to live on until they got their own jobs.

    The account was also in Brandon's name only. Why I didn't know, but it explained why Riley had stole Brandon's things instead of cleaning out that account. Though I wasn't sure how much of that money was left because Brandon had pulled the down payment for the truck he'd bought for them from that account.

    Then it hit me. Riley had worked at Wendigo Bar and Grill for the last two years. He hadn't had much to say for his fellow employees but that didn't mean he wouldn't talk to them. Which is why I was now sitting at a table with a meal I wasn't hungry for in front of me.

    "He never said he was leaving. The boss was pretty pissed when he stopped showing up." My waiter, John he said his name was, was getting kind of fed up with my questions. Thankfully the night was slow so it wasn't like I was holding him up from much other work. A woman was clearing a table not far away, but other than her there were only five people including myself in the restaurant.

    "Was there anything he said that stuck out to you?"

    "Not really. Just the usual teenage bullshit."

    "Did he mention anyone more than others?"

    "He talked about a girl he knew and how pissed off he was that she started dating some guy. I don't remember what her name was but he made the guy out to be a real bastard. Jamesen or something like that. Said he had stole her right out from under him."

    "Okay. What about friends?" I asked. John ran a hand through his hair and looked over at the door where the supervisor would pop out from now and then. The door remained still and John relaxed. The woman clearing the table dropped a plate and it broke against the marble floor. John flinched at the sound.

    "I don't remember. I never really liked the guy so I didn't pay too close attention to him. Look I don't mean to be rude but I can't just stand here talking to you all night." I thanked him and he went to go help the woman.

    Sighing I left money for my meal and a generous tip on the table before slinking outside.

    "Miss?" A female voice called out to me just as I was about to get in my car. I turned to see the woman who had dropped the plate approaching. She seemed to be in her early thirties and had dark red hair that was firmly secured under a hair net. "You wanted to know about Riley Brair?"

    She stopped a few feet away from me and shifted her weight uncomfortably from foot to foot.

    "Yes?" I said cautiously.

    "Normally I wouldn't say anything because this is none of my business, but he's been really troubled the last few months. Riley seems to be a good kid. I think he's just confused. I mean I remember how I was as a teenager. Anyway few weeks back I overheard an argument between him and whoever was on the other end of the phone. He was accusing someone called Ray of lying to him and said he wasn't going to be taken in. It was pretty heated. He demanded test results but I don't know whose or what for." She had no more information than that. I thanked her but unfortunately I was left with more questions than answers.