The Chase by Amber Riel (story reading txt) 📖

We’ve been here long enough now hurry.”

          “Let me zip up my bag first.”

          Louis grabbed my duffle bag, quickly zipping it.  “There it’s zipped.  Now come on,” he said as he grabbed my left hand and dragged me out of the room quickly.        

The Trip

          We sat in Louis’s car.  Silence had filled the air after the long day of confusion and horror.  I stared out of the passenger window as Louis drove past countless green and brown trees.  Lainie had fallen asleep not long after we had left the mansion.  “Where are we going?”

          “It’s pointless telling you because you wouldn’t know where we’re heading anyways, dumb broad,” he had muttered the last two words.

          “Lainie’s right there,” I whispered harshly trying to keep my voice from waking Lainie.

          “But she’s sleeping.”

          I shook my head as I stared at the man.  “Why did you have to come huh?”

          “Because Ron called me no one else…. That’s something that you should ask him…. I think it’s because of your sister trying to play matchmaker…. She’s so damn stubborn….” He kind of laughed.  “But she’s a sweet woman….” He sighed.  “She’s perfect for Ron.”

          “How come you’re so nice to everyone else but me?”

          “I don’t want to talk now,” he replied, avoiding the subject.

          “Why won’t you answer me?”

          “I told you that I don’t want to talk now.”

          I couldn’t believe it he ignored my question.  How could he have done that?  “I can’t believe that Annie would want me to end up with someone like you.”

          He looked at me then back to the road.  “I don’t know why anyone would even want to be with you.”

          I dropped my mouth at the insult.  I wanted to know what his problem was and why he hated me so much.  I had never done anything to hurt him.  I hadn’t even known who he was until then.

 

          We pulled up a small restaurant.  It looked kind of like a some kind of waffle house or something that was from a small family business at one time.

          “Hungry?” Louis asked.

          “Yea,” I replied.

          Louis parked the car in an empty parking space.

          I unbuckled and turned toward a sleeping Lainie.  She looked so peaceful and I smiled.  I didn’t want to wake her up but we couldn’t leave her alone in the car.  I place my left hand on her small shoulder kind of shaking her.  “Lainie,” I whispered, “wake up.  We’re going to get some dinner.”

          Lainie’s eyes slowly blinked as she woke up and looked around.

          Louis had pushed his seat forward and unbuckled Lainie.  He picked her up so she didn’t have to walk after just waking up.

          I climbed out of the car and closed the door as Louis kind of used his back to close his door and carried Lainie in his arms.  I kind of smiled at the sight.  It was nice to see that what he was willing to do for Lainie, kind of like an uncle would for his beloved niece.  Even though he was a jerk to me, he treated Lainie almost like she was his own and for some reason that made my attraction to him even stronger, although I had to remind myself what a jerk he was.  I looked at the sky.  It was about dusk with the orange, pink, and purple turning into dark blue with the stars of twilight lighting up the night sky.  So beautiful to see.

 

          I looked around the dinner as we waited for the waitress to seat us.  We were behind a couple of groups of people.  The first was a family of five which included the mother, the father, a little boy about ten, a little girl about six, and an infant which the mother carried in her arms.  The infant was covered with a little blue blanket which I assumed meant that the baby was a boy but I didn’t want to say anything just in case I was wrong.

The other group consisted of adults which the men all wore nice black suits and the women wore nice long deceit dress which made me believe that they were there for dinner for some business meeting or something.  There had to have about twelve of them all together, six men and six women.

“Why don’t you sit down?  I’ll place Lainie next to you so that way you two don’t have to stand in line as long,” Louis explained and for the first time since I had met him he didn’t have that rude tone in his voice.

I nodded.  “Okay.”  I walked over to the small brown bench which was connected to a wall which sank in and was filled with plants and dirt.  I sat down on the wooden bench and Louis placed Lainie next to me.

Lainie rested her head on my shoulder and I wrapped my arm around her, playing with her beautiful long blonde hair with my fingers.  She didn’t say anything but I figured that was because she was tired and after the events of the day she probably didn’t know what to say.  It was terrible to see a child lose her world in one day.  Everything she had known had changed and she had to learn how to cope with it.

I sighed as we waited.

“Next please,” a waitress had said.  I looked over at the podium to see a woman about my age with her dark brown hair tied in a low ponytail.

The group filled with adults dressed for a business meeting had stepped up to her.

I watched as she wrote down the information then had the group fall her off into another part of the building, vanishing behind a bulletin filled with pictures and sticky notes.

Louis waited at the podium for a waiter or waitress to arrive.  He had his back toward Lainie and me as he waited.  He let an arm rest on the podium as he waited for someone to come and lead us to our table.

“I’m hungry,” Lainie spoke with sadness in her little voice.

“We’ll be eating soon,” I replied.  “Uncle Louis has brought to a nice little restaurant.”  I looked over at the fish tank which had sat across from us.  It was filled with gold fish, a little red and silver fish and a funny looking brown fish which buried its self in the different color rocks at the bottom of the tank.  I wasn’t one for pet fish because they were boring to me but at the moment just watching them swim around made me feel at peace and took away the worry and fear I had felt earlier.

“Next please,” a woman’s voice said which broke me out of my daze.

“Come on, Sam and Lainie,” Louis replied from the podium as he turned to face us, gesturing for us to move.

“Okay, Lainie, time to go eat,” I said as I stood up helping Lainie too her feet.  She held onto my hand as we walked over to the waitress and Louis.

The waitress looked to be about in her early thirties with a little grey in her black hair which she wore in a bun.  Her smile was welcoming as Lainie and I walked up to her and Louis.

“Three in your party, sir?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” Louis replied.

“Okay.”  She wrote it down in a small pad and then turned her attention toward us.  “Follow me this way please.”

We followed her into the back to a small rectangular table which sat in between two booths.  I had Lainie sit in the middle of me and the window.  After the events of the day, I was kind of paranoid that the wrong person might show up.

Louis sat in the booth across from us.  He obviously wasn’t too worried.

“Can I get you drinks?” the waitress replied.

“Chocolate milk please,” Lainie answered without thinking.

“Chocolate milk for me too please,” I replied I wasn’t really in the mood to look through the menu to see kind of drinks they had.

“Okay.  Two chocolate milks,” the woman repeated as she wrote down our order.  “And what about you, sir?” she asked Louis, kind of flirtatiously.

Louis obviously could care less.

I kind of smiled and shook my head.  If he hadn’t been so rude to me when at the airport then I probably would have fallen into that trap as well.

“Water,” Louis replied, ignoring the flirtation from the waitress.

“Okay.  One water,” the waitress repeated as she wrote it down in her notepad.  “Anything else, cutie?  For you it could be on the house.”

“Nope,” Louis replied, still ignoring the flirtatious waitress.

I wondered if he would have flirted with her if it wasn’t for me and Lainie being there.

“Okay then.  Well, I’ll be back with your drinks and to get your orders.”  The waitress left.

“I need to go to the restroom,” Lainie said.

“Okay.  Here I’ll go with you,” I said as I stood up and let Lainie slide out of the booth.

“I’ll wait till you two get back to order…. I’m sure by then the waitress will be back with our drinks.”

“Okay.  Come on, Lainie.”  I looked back at Louis and something seen off about him.  He didn’t look at me, instead just turned his head toward the window and stared out.  He seemed almost depressed about something, like something was bothering him deep down inside.

 

          I stood in front of the stall which Lainie was in just in case.  As I stood there I looked into the mirror and my brown eyes revealed the pain and fear I had been filling earlier that day.  The emotions were there and I was surprised that no one else had seem to notice.

          “I’m coming out,” Lainie’s little voice said behind me.

          I turned around to watch as she opened the stall door and I moved out of the way as she walked over to the sink to wash her hands.  I held her up so she could slide her hands under the automatic facet which sensed motion.  After her hands were wet from the water, she squirted the soap onto them and rubbed them together.  Once she was finished, I set her on the floor and she ran to the paper towel thing and pulled some paper towels out and dried her hands with them.  When she had finished, we left the restroom as soon as a couple of other women had walked in.

 

          Louis was still sitting at the table and this time the drinks were there waiting for us.  Lainie sat down and slid over to the window and I sat down next to her.  “The waitress should be coming back soon to take our order so....” Louis began

          “Yea yea,” I replied.  “Do you know what you’re getting?”

          “Of course,” Louis replied with the rudeness in his voice.

          There it is, I thought.  “I was just asking.”

          “I don’t care if you were just asking,” Louis responded, sounding agitated.

          I looked at Lainie whose eyes moved back and forth from me to Louis.  “Sorry, Lainie, but your uncle is being very rude.”

          “And your auntie is being very annoying,” Louis replied