Dean was in a change of clothes as he rifled through his locker, shoving things into a backpack. The fabric of his black T-shirt was tight against his muscles as he moved his arm back and forth. The last thing he grabbed was a packet of cigarettes. Flipping the small box open with his thumb, he brought them to his lips and removed one with his teeth. He then shoved the packet into his back pocket and patted himself over for a lighter. When he didn’t find one, he forcefully shut his locker.
I jumped and looked down as I dried my hands quickly.
“Penny for your thoughts?" Seb smiled, mischief in his eyes.
"Nope," Dean said firmly, swinging his backpack on before leaving for the stairs.
He might have been irritated because he couldn’t find his lighter (that was the reasonable explanation) but I couldn't help but think he was annoyed with me. He had warned me about staying out of the basement, and here I was.
"Have fun," Seb said with a knowing grin as he watched Dean climb the stairs. "Tell me all about it, yeah?"
When Dean reached the top of the metal staircase, he responded by flipping Seb off. His lips pressed together in a fake smile, the cigarette still between them, as he pushed down on the door handle with his elbow and walked backward out of the room.
The door swung shut with a slam once he had left.
Seb chuckled as he moved over to his locker and noticed me watching from my place at the sink, my expression perplexed and concerned.
"Don't mind him,” he said. “He's always in a foul mood.”
Chapter 12
Lily
I wasn’t much of a coffee drinker, but after last night I needed something to revive my will to function before my shift at the real estate agency.
Last night had seemed like a distant memory or a bad dream as I sat at the kitchen counter, trying to comprehend if it had even happened. There was a full cup of coffee between my hands as I blinked tiredly at the linoleum countertop.
"Someone had a late night," Kira said as she walked into the kitchen, casting a worried look at the coffee. "What time did you get in?"
"I have," I yawned, "no idea."
The Uber took longer to pick me up from The Den, and when I finally got home, scrubbed my nails, and fell into bed, my mind began to race with the offer from Antonio: Basement nurse. Somehow, I managed to change for bed, though I couldn’t remember doing it, and then spent most of the night rewashing the blood from my hands until my fingers were pruned.
I rewashed them this morning as a precaution.
"Just make sure you make time for yourself," Kira said as she made herself a bowl of cereal. "You don't want to burn out from overworking. Especially just in the first week."
That’s right. I still had an entire week of this ahead of me.
I nodded tiredly and took a sip of the coffee, grimacing slightly.
When I arrived at work later, Mom was behind the front desk, looking flustered as she held the office phone in one hand and a stack of papers in the other, muttering to herself.
"Everything okay?" I asked hesitantly as I rounded the corner of the desk.
"Oh, thank god you're here!" she sighed. "Candice called in sick so I had to fill in before you got here. What took you so long?"
"I took the bus," I said, quickly putting down my bag and stepping in to help.
She handed me the stack of papers, relieved to have them out of her possession, and I flicked through them to see they were a mix of rental agreements for different agents. I began filing them into their separate pigeonholes, glancing over my shoulder to watch my mother trying to figure out how to use the phone.
"What's the number for the plumber we use?" she asked with frustration as she pressed random buttons on the phone receiver.
"Just a second, Mom," I said as I filed away the last of the papers. Once I was done, I stepped up beside her as she clutched the phone, canceled the numbers she had dialed, and then speed-dialed the number for our plumber.
"You need to set up an easier call system out here. This is ridiculous," she muttered to me as she held the phone to her ear, listening to it ring until someone picked up. "Yes. Hello. I need to book a callout ASAP."
As she spoke on the phone, I logged into my computer, finding an email from Candice with all the things she had left me to do. Most of it was standard office duties that would keep me busy for most of the morning. Not that I minded. I needed something to keep me awake while the caffeine faded. Plus it brought a sense of normalcy back into my life after last night. Although I did catch myself checking my fingernails for blood.
