The day passed slowly, and I diligently went to class, pretending everything was alright. Not a care in the world. Just a normal student at Midpark—hah. As if I’d ever blend in with this crowd. It was true that they all wore the latest fashion, the newest stuff. My clothes were sometimes holey, sometimes ratty-looking, and most were a few years old. I got my period when I was eight, so I was an early bloomer. Had to start wearing a cupped bra in sixth grade, not to mention having to learn early that deodorant was a necessary evil.
Yeah, having just graduated fourth grade, getting a period was the last thing on my mind—since, you know, we hadn’t even covered it in health class yet.
Ugh. Being a girl sucked, really.
Bobbi wasn’t there in choir, which kind of stunk, because I hadn’t really spoken to anyone else in the class. I kept to myself, tried my best to sing along with the warm-ups and the songs we were learning for the next concert. The hour ticked by slowly.
The whole day moved ungodly slow, actually. Every minute felt like an hour, no joke.
Once the bell rang and it was lunchtime, I practically ran from the choir room. The day was a bit more than half over when lunch started, which meant I was that much closer to seeing Jacob.
Maybe I should’ve tried to look tougher today. Maybe I should’ve done my makeup and looked good. If I was going to hire him, I didn’t want him thinking I was just some run of the mill kid. I wasn’t a child—and even if I was, sometimes kids were forced to grow up fast. Being with my mom for so long, just the two of us, I never felt like a normal kid. Not really. I always felt…out of place, no matter where I was.
I wanted to be normal, but…maybe it was the fact that I didn’t know who my father was, but I had the feeling normal just wasn’t in my blood.
Chapter Seventeen – Jacob
This was a bad idea. It was a bad idea for many reasons, but as I sat in my car in front of the diner, waiting for her to show up, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very, very wrong. My vehicle was off, and the air inside grew chillier with each passing minute. I should really go inside and order a coffee, wait for her to arrive, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t stop staring at the file on my lap.
Oh, I’d been contacted yesterday for another job, but this job was unlike any other job I’d ever had before. This job wasn’t a simple one, like most were around here. This wasn’t about catching someone cheating or even committing fraud. This was…I should’ve said no. I should’ve declined the job, but they were able to wire money straight to me. Enough to cover my rent for the next six months. The worst part? They said more money would be in it for me if I actually did the job. The money they’d sent me was an incentive, a booking fee.
My eyes studied the picture sitting on top of the file. A pretty face all bundled up as she exited Midpark High.
Her name wasn’t Marie; it was Jazmine Smith, and the one who wired all that money to me wanted me to keep an eye on her. Follow her. Figure her out. Where she came from, who she was, why she was here.
Almost like…almost as if they suspected her of something.
I knew I couldn’t put anything past a pretty face, and it was from past experience that I knew even a high schooler could get into a lot of shit.
What the fuck was Jazmine into? Why was someone paying me so much money to investigate her, basically stalk her? Now I had no choice but to work with her. She said she’d acquired the money I’d asked of her, so now I had to do the one thing I didn’t want to do—be around a young, pretty face.
The rumors would surely start flying, but I didn’t work for the police department anymore, so it wasn’t like I could get fired. If I kept up this job, maybe I could save up enough to leave Midpark. I didn’t want to leave, but it might be my only option at this point. Midpark clearly did not coincide with my mental health.
It was hard to stay sane in this place.
I leaned an elbow near the window, gazing down at the photograph. Jazmine Smith, not Marie. She was young, so I guessed I could understand why she’d given me a fake name to begin with. She didn’t know what she was doing, and frankly I had no idea why the hell she wanted to hire me to begin with. This way, though, I’d be getting paid twice, double-timing the clock. I’d work for her while simultaneously working for Mr. Anonymous.
Yep. Mr. Anonymous. That’s who contacted me. I had an email, and that’s it. I tried to search for the email, to see a name attached to it, but there was nothing. Absolutely nothing.
The photo of Jazmine had been taken from the parking lot of the school during the afternoon pickup. Since Midpark didn’t do buses for its high school, it could literally be anyone. A student, a parent, someone just using the pick-up time to his or her advantage and blending in.
I found it ironic that Mr. Anonymous wanted me to stay close to Jazmine, and Jazmine had already found me of her own accord. Made my job of tracking her down easier, but still.
Fuck. I didn’t want to do this. I didn’t want to be around that girl more than I had to. Seeing her young, pretty face just brought back memories I’d rather not remember. Everything that happened years ago…it still riled me up. I never should’ve let them go. I never should’ve let Celeste’s horrible past get to me. I should’ve nutted the fuck up and did what I had to, which was bring them in, make those fucking brothers confess that they framed me.
I wasn’t labeled as an official sex offender, but I bet that was only because the department let me go. If I put up a fight, I bet things would’ve gone down differently. I’d lost everything that day—my future, my career—and all because I just so happened to be put on Celeste’s case.
Heaving a sigh, I closed the folder on my lap and shoved it in the backseat. With my keys in my pocket, I got out of my car and locked it, holding my hands in my coat pockets to keep them warm as I entered the diner and sat in the same seat I’d taken up earlier this week.
I ordered a coffee from the waitress and waited, keeping an eye on the parking lot through the windows. I checked the time on my phone, hating every single thing about this day. Why I was here, what I was doing, what I’d be doing for the foreseeable future…
It fucking sucked.
She showed up ten minutes later, all bundled up. She went to unzip her jacket as she turned and headed in my direction. Jazmine shoved her backpack onto the booth before she slid on, knocking her legs with mine under the table, immediately causing me to pull mine back and scowl.
No fucking touching.
“Sorry,” she said, noting my scowl. Her long black hair hung over her chest, catching on the open zipper as she turned toward her bag and unzipped it. “I have your money.” She said it loudly, and I glanced around the diner; it was pretty empty, so it wasn’t like the whole town had heard her declare it, but still. This girl had not an ounce of common sense in her head, clearly.
She handed me flat bills after taking them out of her backpack, and I quickly counted them on my lap before shoving them into my coat’s inner pocket. Well, seemed mommy and daddy did come through, or maybe she’d had the thousand stashed away, pocket change for later.
“Um,” she started, biting her bottom lip. I shouldn’t have let my attention fall to those lips, but it did. Her teeth were perfectly straight and almost ridiculously white, or maybe that was because her lips were rosy and her skin was tan. “Before we start, you should probably know that my name isn’t Marie. It’s Jaz.”