Author: Eden Beck
Category: Paranormal
Go to read content：https://readnovelfree.com/p/29741_7
The man behind the counter shakes his head too. “You city folk, always assuming the worst.”
His voice is dropped low, disguised as a whisper that I’m meant to overhear.
But there’s no point in arguing differently. I finally spot the coffee pot at the back of the store and head straight for it. That’s the problem with small, backwater towns. No matter how much you plan to blend in, you still somehow always manage to stand out.
I just have to hope it doesn’t take long to sink into the dark background of trees and become another forgettable part of North Port’s landscape.
My hand is already a little shaky when I go to fill a Styrofoam cup. I’m fully concentrating on trying not to spill the dark brown stream of liquid all over the counter when the door to the store opens and a burst of loud laughter pours in from the front.
Whispers: Interactive StoriesMake your own choices and decide what happens next!
I hurriedly press a lid on my cup and, without thinking, duck down behind one of the aisles. I peek between two boxes of cereal towards the two boys now standing up at the counter.
Just boys, I tell myself as I release the breath that I’ve been holding in. Not my father.
Not just any boys though, impressively attractive boys. The kind of boys that should have a model on each arm. Not the kind of boys that would ever look at me … though I can’t help but stare at them.
They stroll down one of the aisles together and grab a few packages of beef jerky and three bottles of cold brew coffee. Not exactly my kind of choice breakfast combination. When they start heading back up to the counter, I sink down even further onto my haunches to wait.
I know it’s stupid, but I’ve committed to this now.
I can thank my dad for giving me a significant lack of trust in men, even the pretty ones.
The boys laugh and joke around with the old man behind the counter as if they’ve known him since childhood. Unlike me, they don’t seem to be in any rush to get to school. Maybe they aren’t students. They could be older, but I don’t know what their kind would be doing here one second after they absolutely have to be. If I were raised a local, I’d be gunning to get out of here the moment I turned eighteen.
After another moment of impatient waiting for them just leave already, I peek my head up enough to get a better look.
They do look older than me, but not by much. They both have brown hair that is long enough to be pulled back into a ponytail. The color of the older boy’s hair is just a little darker than mine, more of a dirty blonde. The younger one has hair in an interesting shade of umber with streaks that look almost metallic. When he moves his head just right, the light catches on a copper tint.
They are both muscular, so much so that I can see the lines of their bodies beneath their T-shirts. They must be cold to be out in this cool weather wearing only that and jeans. They don’t look cold though. They look rambunctious.
I know I’ve been staring too long already, but I can’t get myself to tear my eyes away. There’s something about them, like the more I look, the more I see. The more there is to see.
I’m still squinting at them from behind the cereal when the one with copper streaks—the one that looks a little younger—turns to flicker his gaze across the shelves in my direction.
And yet still, I find myself frozen, unable to duck back out of sight.
Wow, his eyes are so incredible.
He looks up towards the ceiling wit
h those dark gray irises, his head tilting back as he takes a deep lungful of air. It’s as though he is smelling something on a breeze, except there’s obviously no breeze in the gas station. Just musty ceiling tiles and shelves that could use a good deep-clean.
His eyes take on a more focused look as his chin tilts down, zeroing straight in on the row of cereal I’ve been peeking out from behind, and I swear he sees me. I bend back down again quickly and try to come up with a half-believable explanation for why I’m hiding behind a shelf gawking. Before I have to embarrass myself further, however, I hear the tinkle of the bell above the door, and they’re gone.
I try to shake myself back to my senses.
What’s gotten into me? Hiding behind shelves, staring at strangers, hearing things that aren’t there …
“You doing okay back there?” the old man calls to me from the front. He must think I’m nuts.
I stand and straighten my posture, hoping my face isn’t burning as red as it feels. “Was just looking for a snack to take to school with me.”
I see his eyebrows raise and his mouth form a disbelieving grin.
Of course he knows I’m lying. He probably watched me on the CCTVs stuck all over the store, wondering what I’ve been doing this whole time. I decide to skip looking for this supposed snack and just pay for my coffee so that I can leave before I die of embarrassment.
What a great job I’m doing of making first impressions in this town so far.
I walk up to the counter with my coffee and try to smile at him innocently, like I haven’t just been acting like a creeper in his store. Out the window, I notice the boys pile into a big, red Jeep with someone else in the driver’s seat. As the Jeep pulls away, the boy with the copper streaks in his hair looks back toward the store … at me.