“Clean up on Aisle twelve.” The intercom blares overhead.
The voice sounded so board and fake, it made me think of robots, which made me think of my math teacher and the long detention session I had to endure with him.
I look up at my mom and cringe knowing that there was probably a pending voicemail on her phone, if Mr. Burrell had even called her yet.
“What do you want for dinner?” My mom asked scanning the pasta isle.
I shrug.
The bright red tomato sauce jars stare back at me and I sigh. Eve was probably out with her new student council friends, of flirting with Julian, or whatever it was she did nowadays (which still could involve sucking the life out of someone). The text on my phone is burning a hole in my pocket and in my brain.
I shrug to myself.
“Definitely nothing red.”
I move away from the pasta isle and head toward the area with all the Halloween stuff. I picture myself in my costume stuffing my mouth full of contraband sour candies and getting the most obnoxious sugar high ever. October had to be hands down one of my favorite months of all time.
My hand reached for my phone and I glance back at the message app for the hundredth time, staring at the unfamiliar mystery number. I bump past a skeleton and almost jump out of my skin before remembering where I am. There are creepy masks hanging down an isle right next to the witch’s brooms and all the bags of sweet candy.
A worker passes by with a mop and a tortured looking grimace plastered on his plain looking face, headed for isle twelve.
The poor sap.
I catch a quick movement out of the corner of my eye and swing around felling my heart race once more as a shiver runs up my spine. It was as if a cold mist had settled in my chest and clung to my bones.
Enter the creepy (and totally cheesy) horror music now.
I stared up at sign that had fangs and drops of blood all over it.
Vampires are real….
A shiver crawled up my spine and I huffed out of annoyance.
Why was I so spooked in the first place? Better yet why did I head for the Halloween isle when I was trying to avoid thinking of anything supernatural?
Someone runs past the isle, pulling me out of my head for a second. I stare down the isle before turning my head back to the plethora of spooky paraphernalia.
Again, someone runs by and this time curiosity overtakes me. I don’t hear any footsteps but I can’t mistake the blur of someone moving fast twice in a row now.
I walk into the crossway and my eyes catch the sign for cookies, pulling me away from my original mission.
I am now on a quest to connive my mom to bring forbidden sweets into our home. Before I even round the corner I catch the familiar sight of blonde combed hair and pressed collared shirt.
Tyson is standing with his back to me, studying the back of a box of crackers as if he were studying for a hard test. He turns and looks up at me as I reach apprehensively for a box of lemon crèmes.
“Hey, Isabelle…right?” He asks with a charming smile that is about as fake as the lemon-flavored cookies in my hand.
I gag a little.
“Right.” I say apprehensively.
“Eve’s mentioned you a few times. Didn’t expect to meet you the way we did though.” Tyson chuckles as he turns on the charm.
I smile, but not because I’m embarrassed or I think that Tyson is being charming, no I smile because Tyson’s charm isn’t working on me but he’s none the wiser at the moment.
Part of me wonders what Eve had said about me, and part of me gets a little warm knowing she’s still my best friend.
Right?
“Yeah. Sorry about that.” I say, but I don’t really mean it.
Things are still changing. Eve’s changing. Maybe in abnormal ways, maybe in weird teenager ways.
Am I changing too?
My cheeks burn and my phone buzzes in my pocket and I’m pulled back into reality and the text that I had received earlier.
Maybe she was already different, maybe it was too late.
I had no proof though.
Somebody rounds the corner and I glace up and almost choke on my own spit.
SAMMY?!
I stop and blink, trying to calculate the odds of all three of us running into each other at the store like this and fall short.
What the heck was he doing here?
Tyson follows my gaze, and his eyes also narrow, but then he smiles, sets the cookies down and turns back to me.
“Not really my favorite.” He laughs at the cookies, but this time I can’t return his smile or his charm.
“Izzy!” Sammy calls out waving me down, before noticing Tyson.
The three of us stand awkwardly for a second or two before I find my composure once more and shake myself out of my head.
“Hey Sammy.” I say with a grin as Tyson loses interest.
“I’ll see you around Isabelle.” He says with a wink that would have made any other girl swoon.
I roll my eyes when he’s not looking and catch the slightest scar by his neck, almost fully covered by his collared shirt.
“Yeah, see ya.” My words are halfhearted but Tyson doesn’t seem to notice.
There was something about him that had red alert bells blaring in my head and I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, waiting until he was out of sight before turning on Sammy who was quickly earning the stalker badge of the year.
“Oh you know, shopping with my mom for dinner stuff. What are you doing here?” I ask nonchalantly. As if seeing him around the store right after I saw him back at school didn’t set off even more alarm bells in my head.
What was going on today?
Sammy’s mother strolls by, pushing a cart and stopping at the opposite end to look at some health cookies that were on sale (probably because they didn’t taste very good).
“Same.” He says glancing over at the spot Tyson had been standing earlier “Do you know that kid that just left?”
No but apparently Eve dose, a little too well if you asked me, but I don’t say that out loud. Instead I just stew in silence for a few frustrating seconds before taking a deep breath.
“Not really but I guess he goes to our school. Something about student council… Don’t ask me.” I say as vaguely as I can manage, waving my hand illusively in the air.
Sammy’s eyes flash with curiosity as he sees right through my tough façade.
“I know that look Isabelle.” Sammy says with a heavy sigh. “You’re jealous. By why Tyson?”
Suddenly my feet seem like a perfectly good place to direct my attention. It was suddenly hard to maintain eye contact with Samuel.
“Eve’s been…” I start as Sammy narrows his eyes, his attention now fully on me.
“Eve’s been what?” Samuel presses.
What was I supposed to say?
Suddenly I felt like I was facing a bomb that’s slowly counting down to oblivion. Do I risk cutting the green or blue wire, or nothing at all? Do I tell Sammy the truth? I let a sigh escape my lips. The world was way too complicated for my single brain to process at the moment.
Tyson walks by once more and something inside of me pushes to follow him.
“I should find my mom.” I say, distracted.
Sammy nods and looks back toward where his mom was busy gathering groceries.
“I should go too, but don’ think this is over. We can talk tomorrow okay?” Sammy runs a hand through his hair and smiles, a sad kind of smile that seems to know something I don’t. It speaks volumes as he sighs and moves to go join his mom.
I wait for the two of them to head for the cash register before scanning the isles for Tyson.
There was something going on and it made my hair stand on end. Dance or student council or vampires, one way or another I was going to prove something right and something wrong.
The idea that it might not be as simple as I had previously thought was not only becoming more apparent but all the more terrifying.
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