The perfect timing

I spent the rest of the day with my aunt in the hospital looking after Nancy. Luckily her condition didn’t get worse and my aunt didn’t ask me much about Reece and our “lunch” together. She wanted to know if our meeting was good and where I knew him from.

Later that day I also called Aiden and informed him about Nancy. He immediately wanted to visit us, but I assured him I would call him if something happened. I also wasn’t sure if he was allowed inside because we barely were allowed to visit her.

However, I had to promise him to tell him everything and not forget one detail. But this time it would be different because I was going to lie to him and not tell him the whole truth. I wasn’t allowed to tell him about Matthew enterprise and I wasn’t going to even if it would be hard.

The next day started normally with me waking up and getting ready for school. The only differences were the big circles under my eyes. I couldn’t get much sleep because there was too much to think about. From Nancy to the M.E, which I now called Matthew enterprise for short and all the super humans and people I just met.

As I then told Aiden about Nancy, when we were sitting in our cafeteria in school having lunch, I tried to tell him everything that didn’t involve something unnatural.

“And she just fainted out of sudden?” My best friend asked after he took a bite into his sandwich and swallowed it.

I also took a small bite out of mine, not being very hungry before I answered. “I guess. I wasn’t around when it happened. I found her afterwards.”

“But she will be fine,” Aiden than assured me, putting one hand on my knee as a comforting gesture, as he saw my unconvinced expression.

“The people who work in hospitals aren’t called doctors out of no reason.” He added and I mumbled. “Yeah” in return as I took a sip out of my drink.

If only Aiden knew the truth, I sighed mentally, he wouldn’t think that way.

“Are you okay too?” Aiden then wanted to know and pointed at my cheek where Nancy had scratched me. I actually forgot about that and Lily had other things to think about so she probably didn’t notice the small scratch.

“I’m fine,” I told him. “That is only a small scratch, I didn’t even remember where I got it from.” I lied.

This was also the moment Liam appeared and plumped down at an available seat at our table and so that he was facing the two of us. I sighed mentally at his appearance and luckily Aiden forgot about my hurt cheek. How could I forget about it and that Aiden was such an observing person? But luckily I didn’t have any noticeable prints from Nancy’s hands around my throat.

“How are you two?” he greeted us casually. He probably wanted to sound casually, but his gaze lingered for a few seconds longer at me and I knew he must have listened into our conversation.

Normally I would have complained and tell him that he just couldn’t listen to us secretly, but I was too tired. So I mumbled, “Fine.”

Luckily Liam didn’t ask more questions and in a set of three now we continued having lunch in a comfortable silence. That was until two figures suddenly appeared next to our table.

“Can we sit with you guys?” the girl asked and to my surprise the voice belonged to Kitty and the boy next to her was Eric. I didn’t know that they also spend time together in school.

“Sure,” I answered as I made sure that Aiden and Liam didn’t have anything against it, but they didn’t seem to mind.

So the two of them joined us and Aiden greeted Kitty, remembering her from the day of Reece training. Liam on the other hand was looking at me with raised eyebrows and now it was my turn to introduce them.

“Aiden you already know Kitty, but Liam like I said this is Kitty,” I introduced these two and as while Kitty smiled one of her infamous smiles, Liam nodded in return. Then I carried on and introduced Eric and again the guys nodded at each other and mumbled some hellos.

Nevertheless I couldn’t fail to notice the few glances Aiden was giving Eric, probably remembering our past and why he was suddenly sitting with us. But I couldn’t blame him.

“So you are both new at this school?” Liam asked after a while in curiosity, addressing Kitty and Eric, who were sitting next to him.

“Yes, I transferred from a girls school to this one,” Kitty explained and added. “You can’t imagine, how it is to be surrounded by only girls,” she shuddered.

But Liam like the guy he was commented wiggling his eyebrows at Aiden and me, “Oh, I can.”

At this my best friend and I had to laugh out loud and about his fails to impress girls.

“Me too,” Eric told us and Aiden raised his eyebrows in amusement. “You also transferred from a girl school?”

Eric’s eyes widened in realization and how his words sounded and he tried to correct himself, but failed miserable. And at his rambling we all had to laugh about him and in the end he joined us laughing. After that a lighthearted conversation followed, and we enjoyed the rest of lunchtime.

Later that day, when I finally arrived at home and only wanted to take a pause from everything, I was greeted by my aunt’s presence who was nervously walking through our apartment and running her fingers constantly through her messy hair.

What was she already doing here? Her shift wasn’t over until 6 o’clock. So I put all my stuff I needed for school to the ground, which earned me a look from my aunt, but I ignored it and asked. “Lily what are you doing here?”

She got straight to the point with her answer and explained what happened.

“I got a call from Jocelyn, one of Nancy’s workers, who is currently taking care of the bakery. She told me that somebody broke into their shop. But she thinks nothing has been stolen because all the money is still there.”

My mind was now spinning circles and trying to get everything together. When did my life became such a mess?

“That is also the reason, why she didn’t call the police and wants us to get to the bakery now and take a look,” she added and that is when I also noticed that she had already changed into normal daily clothing and had her handbag with her, ready to go.

“We can head out immediately. I just need to get my phone,” I called as I sprinted towards my bag and after that we made our way towards the bakery.

During the ride I thought about all the possibilities of the incursion. Was it a thief? No I don’t think so because Jocelyn said that no money was purloined. Maybe it was the same person who made Nancy attack me that day everything went down? There really was a good chance that it was the same person. But what were his or hers intentions?

“Thanks for coming that quickly,” Jocelyn told us relieved as we arrived in front of the bakery. The poor woman was still shaking a bit, probably of the shock that somebody broke into the shop.

“No problem,” my aunt answered her face softening at the panicked woman. “Just tell us what happened,” she added, ushering the woman inside.

I followed them and together we sat down at one of the tables where three people could fit.

Jocelyn took a deep breath before she explained what happened. Her voice was still a little shaky, but we understood everything she was saying.

“I went to the bakery at noon to open it like every Monday, because we talked about the fact that Nancy wanted her shop to go on,” she said with a glance at my aunt, who nodded and then told her with a sincere smile to go on.

This was actually new for me. When did they talk to each other about the business? Nevertheless I didn’t ask because they were right. Nancy would have wanted the bakery to go on, even without her.

In my head I heard her scolding, but with a smile on her face. “You better not let the bakery go to waste.” And a small smile settled on my lips.

“But to my surprise the door was already open, which was odd, because I was the one who closed it the day before,” she continued with a frown plastered on her face.

“So the only logical thing to me was that somebody had opened it,” the woman told us, stealing paranoid glances around, like somebody would appear out of nowhere.

“What did you do then?” I wanted to know, my gaze not leaving her face.

“Carefully, not to make too much noise I went inside and looked around, but I didn’t notice something suspicious at first.”

I was actually impressed at the woman who was sitting next to me. Even if she was afraid of going, she took all her courage and went inside.

“But then my gaze met someone else and before I could say something, the person run towards the exit,” she went on and my aunt and I looked at each other in surprise.

“Was the person a boy or a girl?” I questioned leaning closer towards Jocelyn.

“I’m not sure. I think it was a girl. The person had short hair, but looked more feminine than masculine. Though everything went so fast and when I followed her, she was already gone,” she sighed in frustration and I gave her an encouraging smile to cheer her up.

“You did your best. Don’t be too harsh to yourself.” Lily told her and the woman smiled slightly in return.

“And really nothing is missing?” I asked again, to be sure, but she shook her head.

“But you can look around, if you want,” she told me and I got up to the exact thing I was told.

But as I had a look around, I didn’t see anything missing. But there also wasn’t anything that was expensive except of the money, which was still there. And as I also went into the kitchen where I had been attacked a few days ago and even looked through the cabinets, I didn’t notice something missing. Everything was in its place.

The girl wasn’t here for money; I then came to the conclusion. Maybe she really was the same person who controlled Nancy. I now was sure that there was a connection between them.

And that meant only one thing. I had to visit M.E and talk to Juliette. She could probably help me out because alone I wouldn’t be that successful.

“Did you find something?” my aunt’s head suddenly appeared next to the door frame.

“Sadly no,” I told her. “But I need to go somewhere,” I added, biting my lip and hoping she wouldn’t ask any questions.

“Okay,” my aunt replied confused as hell, which I could read on her face.

“I will be home before dinner,” I said passing her and walking towards the front door. She followed me a few steps still unsure what was going on, but I used the chance and went outside.

And then I made my way towards M.E. I still knew the way from my first visit and it was only a ten-minute walk. I seriously hoped to get some answers and to find out more about that person. After all most of the people who are at Matthew enterprise are super humans too. They had to know something, I thought, determined to get my answers or even the slightest clue.