used to go to school with my mom but dropped out. She's been working as a waitress ever since.”
I now understood why Meg wasn't the happiest person in the mall.
“Ah I see,” was all I could think of.
“So how come you moved to little old Evergreen, if you don't mind me asking?” There it was, the question I knew was going to be asked, the one I didn't yet know how to answer. I knew the truth, I was running from my past and it had brought me here, but I couldn't come out with that for an answer. But it always made me laugh the way people added “if you don't mind” to the end of a question they really wanted to know. What was I going to say “hell yes, I do mind.”
Just then the waitress brought us our drinks, which gave me a bit more time to think of an answer that seemed logical. She dumped them down and walked off.
RJ blew on her cappuccino and looked up at me with big eyes that were caked with thick black make-up. “You were saying,” she said as she studied my face for an answer.
“Umm... well I decided to move here because” think Kaz, think!
“Because of Libby… my sister.”
“Your sister?”
“Yeah she was kinda missing her family and stuff, so I decided to move here and start college in the fall.” This was partly true as she did miss us and had a hard time adjusting to the move in the beginning, but things had become easier for her with time and with her new job she soon found friends. Frank’s family also lived in the next town and they felt the same way about Libby that we did about Frank. They loved her.
“Wow that was really good of you, you two must be really close.”
“Yeah, we are, she's not just a sister, she's a friend too.”
“That's cool, I have a sister but she's younger than me and going through her bratty teen years, driving my Mom crazy, and me for that matter!” We both laughed and I couldn't help wondering if they were as different as Libby and I were.
“Yeah I get on better with my brother Jack, he's two years older than me but we hang out quite a lot as we both have the same friends. He's into rock music like me. Hey do you like rock music ’cause there's this great live band playing at this club called Afterlife, I think I mentioned it before in the store, but a bunch of us are going tomorrow night and it would be great if you could come?”
“Club Afterlife? Yeah I know the place; I've actually kinda got a job there.”
“SHUT UP, no way, really?” She had sat bolt upright, spilling frothy coffee over the edge of her cup as she looked so excited by this new discovery.
“Yeah, I start next week for my trial day but I should be fine, I think so anyway, I mean I've worked in a bar before.”
“Oh my god, I can’t believe it, you are so lucky. Everyone I know would kill for a job there, how did you manage that?”
“Well my brother-in-law Frank knows the owner or something and well.... he just asked him, I think he must owe him a favour.”
“What, hold on, let me get this straight…. does your brother-in-law know… The Dravens?” She whispered the name as though it was the town’s biggest secret and had my skin crawling with instant Goosebumps that had me shivering.
“Who?” As soon as the name was said, she had my full interest. It was weird, as if some light just went on in my head. Why did that name suddenly have an effect on me, as though I had heard it before, in a dream or a memory I couldn't remember.
“The Dravens are a family that come here once a year, they are stinking rich, millionaires or even billionaires, who knows. But they own the club and half the town for that matter and like I said, they come here for a couple of weeks every year to this tiny town. But nobody really knows why. They bring in loads of really crazy looking people, I mean really weird looking!”
“That's strange, I wonder what brings them here?”
“Like I said, no one really gets to the bottom of it but we get a lot of these ‘visitors’ while they’re here and they all stay at the club.” She said this making “quotation marks”