Page 26 of Unspoken Lies

“All the paperwork is done, Cellie’s Mystics is fully stocked, and our manager for the shop said she’s good to work the firstnight alone. We haven’t found anyone to work with her,” Theo sighs. “Brea has a good head on her shoulders.”

While the name for the shop is made up, it seemed important to have it named in a way that invites people to come in to browse. Cellie may not exist, but she’s a fictional figure we’ll be using in our shop. It’s all marketing.

“We’re good,” I promise. “No shop talk anymore. We’ve got this all figured out. Any hiccups, we’ll be there to clear up.”

Fuck, this is nerve wracking, but the million details of getting this business launched are taken care of. Now, whatever happens, we won’t be able to account for it until we’re in the thick of things.

A night off is exactly what we need.

“A college bar,”Theo says with a smirk as he drinks his beer. Even though we’re not twenty-one yet, our fake identification cards more than cover us for it.

“It’s so nice to just sit and not dash from place to place,” Elijah says with a sigh.

“We have a semester down at least,” I confirm with a smirk. “Shall we play pool or throw darts and pretend it’s our parents’ faces?”

A girl glances at me with an odd mixture of horror and disgust, but if she knew our parents, she’d be offering to play with us. Ignoring her, I raise a brow at the guys as I take a sip of beer.

It’s not the best thing I’ve ever put in my mouth, though not the worst. For a college bar, I can’t ask for much more than this.

Elijah and Theo vote to throw pointy things at a dart board, and I walk over there. We play round after round, gettingcompetitive as fuck and teasing each other to accept stupid bets we’ll never cash in.

I’m laughing as I look around for a bathroom, the beer finally hitting my bladder. This place is actually within walking distance from our house, so we didn’t bring the car.

Seeing the wood sign for the restroom, I jerk my chin in the direction of it.

“I’ll be back,” I tell them. Theo cranes his neck to see where I’m going before nodding.

No matter what, he is always ensuring that we’re safe, or where we said we’d be. There’s a good chance something bad happened if we’re not, or at least that’s how things work in his head.

Theo is very analytical, his mind taking things at face value until he can reject it as wrong, and then he’ll try to confirm why it’s different than it should be. It’s also why Rachelle piqued his interest.

My footsteps take me away from the guys, and people move out of my way as I walk around the corner to the restroom. Unsurprisingly, there’s not a line for the men’s though the line is long for the women’s bathroom.

Ducking inside, I do my business quickly, sighing in relief. Beer runs through me at a certain point of the night, and that’s usually a sign that I have about an hour left in me before I begin to feel the effects of the alcohol.

It’s odd, but just how my body processes it. It’s a very delayed response. Washing my hands quickly, I pull a paper towel and dry them before tossing it and pushing out the door. Glancing to my left, I see glossy black hair pulled back into a ponytail, and it’s attached to a fairly tall girl.

Frowning, I take a step after her, shaking my head.

“Lili!” I call out, wondering if it’s her. The girl keeps walking, pushing out the back door as I stand there, feeling dumb.

Is that the ghost Theo and Elijah are seeing? I don’t think she looks like Rachelle at all, from the oval of Liliana’s eyes to the way she walks. I suppose that their eyes could be playing tricks on them, but that feels too easy.

Something is going on here.

“Hey man, excuse me,” says a voice. “I need to go after my girlfriend.”

Turning, I see that eyes are trained after the dark haired beauty that walked out the back door. Just because I’m swearing off women forever, doesn’t mean I don’t see the appeal. She didn’t glance back once, and this guy is frowning hard at the door as it slams shut.

“It doesn’t appear as if she’s waiting for you,” I drawl, crossing my arms. This area is pretty dark, and I noticed that there were a couple of streetlights out.

I’ll let the girl get as far away as possible. She can call him when cooler heads prevail in the morning if they’re really together.

“I… Okay, she’s not my girl, but I wanted to shoot my shot,” he complains. “Are you really going to cock block me?”

“Should have shot it sooner,” I state, turning him around and pushing him in the direction of the bar. “Leave the girl alone.”

She looks a lot like a girl I used to protect a long time ago, and I tell myself that that’s the reason I’m interfering now. The guy sighs as if I’m the biggest pain in the ass and goes back to his friends, while I return to mine. Now, hopefully she’s in her car and headed home, no matter if he chooses to stay at the bar or leave.