Let Me Be

Two Years Later

The alarm went off scaring the hell out of Bree. She blindly reached with it to get it to shut up. She knocked it off the nightstand. It’s incessant beeping continued. She sat up and growled toward the side of the bed it had fallen next to and dove in that direction. Her brown hair flipped over the top of her head causing her to have a slight problem seeing. However she managed to grab the clock and turn it off. Rolling over onto her back she glanced at the ceiling. A sighed escaped her lips. With one last glance at the clock she rolled from the bed and headed to the shower. It was time to get ready for work.

She didn’t hate her job, it was just that today marked two years since her grandfather had died. She would handle it though. She had been in this town for six months now. She had never been able to settle in a single town for long. Moving across country had been something that she finally decided needed done. After five towns on the east coast, she had finally moved to the west coast. She found herself now in Long Beach, California working in a small bookstore. To her it was someplace that her family wouldn’t find her. She didn’t need the job thanks to her grandfather, but she worked because it kept her from thinking about the family that had tried to kill her and had killed her grandfather.

It had never been proven, but she knew. They had been tired of waiting for the man to die. Bree liked to think that he was being a stubborn old man and staying alive so that no one would get his money and the money that her long gone grandmother had left to him when she died fifteen years before. All of the things that had happened in the past two years went through her head as she showered and got ready for her day. She was headed out the front door when her cell phone rang.

“Hello?” She asked as she walked out the front door of her nice little ranch style house.

“Bree, I need you to work at the store in Huntington Beach today. Geraldine quit and that store gets quite a bit of foot traffic.”

“What about the Long Beach store?”

“It’s going to be closed today. Hasn’t been much business anyway lately.” Bree just rolled her eyes at her boss and sighed. She lived halfway between the stores anyway, so it would take her the same amount of time to get to either one.

“Alright. I’m headed there now.” She hung up the phone and unlocked her car. Once behind the wheel and strapped in she started the engine and backed out of the short driveway. At a stoplight ten blocks away her hazel eyes looked into the rearview mirror at the sound of squealing tires. The person behind her barely came to a stop behind her car. It missed her bumper by centimeters. The light changed and she turned towards work.

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When lunch rolled around she closed the store for an hour and went out in search of somewhere to eat. Bree pulled her hair up into a messy bun and shrugged off the light jacket she wore while in the store. She decided to walk to a small café she had spotted down the street. The minute that she walked in she felt an itch at the back of her neck. Not a physical itch, but one like someone was watching her. She slid into the seat the hostess had motioned to and glanced around, without trying to look paranoid. She was glad that her back was to a wall. She crossed her long legs as she picked up the menu. She pursued the menu and settled on the French onion chicken. As she waited for her food she scanned her eyes over the lunch crowd and her eyes stopped on a blonde that she seemed to know. She narrowed her eyes and studied the woman, taking a closer look. She sighed relieved as her food was served when she released that it wasn’t her sister, like she thought it had been. She went back to her food and ignored the rest of the diners.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

At the end of the day, Bree’s boss walked into the bookstore as she shelved a stack of children’s books. She glanced over at him, saying nothing continued to work. When she was done she moved off to do the same with the bestsellers section.

“Bree, I need a moment.”

“Sure, Mr. Canton.” She walked over to the counter and waited for him to speak.

“I’m closing the Long Beach store. My wife and I have agreed that it didn’t get as much of a response there as our store here. We want you to stay on here, and manage this store.”

“Mr. Canton… I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.”

“I just figured that since you’ve been with us for six months…”

“I understand that but I’m not sure if I want things permanent here or not.”

“How about we try it out for a few weeks and see how you feel then. Have things been bad for you lately?”

“No, I’m just starting to get that paranoid feeling a lot again.”

“You know if you ever need anyone to talk to, Julia and I are always a call away.”

“I know. You’re the first bosses I ever told everything to.”

“See, you were meant to be here. Maybe this is where you were supposed land.”

“We’ll see about that.” Bree said as she moved off to go back to what she was doing.
♠ ♠ ♠
Lovez & Hugz & DeathBatKisses
xSweet.Afterlifex


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