“Wait, who are you referring to exactly?” I quietly asked Mira after her recent outburst and accusation of the unnamed ‘selfish bitch’.

“My Mother of course.” Mira practically hissed. “How dare she tell me to make those solutions and suspensions without telling me what they were for. Don’t worry Mira, she said, it’s just for our new client, someone that pays well, and upfront.”

“So you are making spike then?” I asked cautiously.

“Huh, no. Not me. Well, based on what you said it's very likely I helped in making some of the precursor potions and ingredients they’ve been using. No wonder Mom was so happy about the money they were giving her.” Mira replied bitterly before adding in an even more bitter voice. “Not that I saw even a penny of that money myself.”

“So then it was you’re Mom that’s been supplying these spike manufacturers with their alchemical ingredients. This is really bad Mira.” I told her gravely.

“I can see that, it’s obvious. Why do you think I’m so annoyed with her? Endangering me without even warning me. Also cheating me out of what sounds like a large amount of money. Greedy bitch…” Mira continued to silently fume and grumble after lobbing another insult toward her Mother.

I wasn’t sure which part she was more upset about though, just based on her recent revelation. It seemed like the fact that her mother had been keeping her earnings a secret from Mira pissed her off way more than unknowingly involving her in the manufacture of illegal alchemical drugs.

“Are you sure her intentions are that nefarious?” I asked plaintively. “Maybe she just didn’t know who she was selling to.”

“Is that better?” Mira asked unhappily. “Either she was too stupid and greedy to ask or look into who she was selling all these solutions and ingredients too, or she did know and she was still too greedy to care. In both cases, she really screwed the both of us over big time.”

Mira looked especially downcast after that last statement.

“I can see now why you were being annoyingly serious about talking about this stuff in private.” She said in a low voice. “What are you going to do? What’ll happen to my Mom and me?”

Well frick, that was the million dollar question right there. What was I going to do about this? Gunderson did leave this part of the investigation to me, but in the end, this still was his case and it sounds like it's becoming a more and more serious one.

“I…” Before I could get the chance to respond, another voice echoed down the small hallway the dressing rooms were situated in.

“Hey, Jenni. Are you two still back here?” The voice of my Dad asked loudly enough that we could hear it a ways away from where it sounded like his voice had originated. “You’ve both been back here for quite a while now. Is everything alright?”

“Ah frick.” I said to Mira and also to the poor timing of the things happening in my life.

“You should probably go back out.” Mira quickly answered my unspoken question. “He’ll only get more suspicious the longer you wait to respond or go out there.”

“Frick, you’re right.” I said with a heavy sigh. “Let’s go.”

This discussion with Mira about her intentional or unintentional connection with illegal spike manufacturing would have to wait. For now, it was time for Mira to change back to her original clothes, and to confront my normally very patient father who seemed to have just run out of it.

“Don’t forget the outfits I handed to you when we go out to the front.” I instructed.

“I was hoping you’d forgotten.” Mira quietly grumbled.

“Don’t you like the outfits?” I asked earnestly.

“Jenni?” The voice of Dad asked again further down the dressing room area. “Are you really not back here?”

“You should go.” Mira told me firmly. “The outfits are fine, I just… well I’m not used to this. Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, I’ll try to be better about…” I started to say before Mira bodily shoved me out of the curtained dressing and into the formerly vacant hallway area.

“Go.” She said more strongly this time, not that I needed it after being literally thrown out by her. Message received.

“Jenni, there you are. Is everything alright?” He asked with worry clear in his voice.

He was standing just inside the entrance to the women’s dressing room area. Still well away from any of the curtained-off booths, but still within shouting distance, apparently.

“Uh, hey Dad. How are things?” I nervously asked.

“Um, fine. How are things with you?” He quickly countered. “What have you two been doing for so long back here? You were gone for what felt like fifteen minutes, at least.”

“Um, you know, girl talk.” I replied vaguely.

“Girl talk? Come on now Jenni, how dumb do I look to you exactly?” He asked me with a raised eyebrow. “Actually, don’t answer that.”

“No seriously Dad, we were just talking and kind of got into an… intense discussion about some stuff.” I partially revealed. The best lies always contained a bit of truth to them, or so I’ve heard.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Skills Updated!

Deception 38 => 39

Thanks, blue box, I’m sure glad you agree with me there. Also, for pointing out how good of a liar I’m turning into, really warms the heart.

“Hmm, well alright, as long as you two are okay then. I'll leave and stop intruding back here. How much longer are you going to be though, do you think?” He asked politely, but I could tell his normally extensive patience was already worn very thin.

“Not long. Mira just has to get changed again, and then we can bring the clothes she likes up front to the checkout counter.”

“Sure, alright then. I’ll be back out in the front area then.” He said while waving goodbye and walking back out of the fitting room area.

“Phew.” I said out loud to the once again empty hallway.

“Yeah, nice one.” Mira’s emotionless voice said from behind me.

“Yeeep!” I shouted with a jump, spinning around in mid-air to see the source of the voice behind me.

There was Mira standing, not even two inches away from where my back was, smirking at the reaction I’d had to her words.

“Nice twist of your body, but should a supernatural be so jumpy and skittish?” She asked in a subdued but amused tone.

“The ones who want to stay alive should.” I answered haughtily, acting as if I had any idea what a seasoned supernatural should actually be like.

“Hmm, maybe.” She said while handing me the stacked-up pile of clothes she had been meant to be trying on. Unfortunately, she had only had the time to try on the one before we got involved in our discussion.

“Do you want to try on the others?” I asked. “We still have some more time, my Dad was just worried we might have run off or something.”

“No, that’s okay. I… well, I don’t know much about clothes, or shopping for clothes. I’ll just take your word for it.” She said with a hefty shrug of her shoulders.

“That’s nice of you Mira, but really if there’s an outfit you don’t like, say something. Part of shopping is about having fun trying on the new outfits and seeing if you like how they look on you.” I told her sagely, my wise teenage wisdom shining through for her no doubt. “You don’t have to force yourself to get something you don’t like because of me.”

“It’s fine. I trust you.” She said while looking me straight in the eyes.

The word ‘trust’ had a particularly heavy weight when she said it there. She wasn’t just talking about the clothes.

“Mira, I’m… well I don’t want to see you get into any trouble.” I told her honestly, taking the offered bundle of clothes she was holding out for me.

“Me neither.” She said plainly.

I smiled at her response, and just turned around and started walking back up to the front of the store where my Dad was no doubt waiting for us both still.

“Besides, you guys are the ones paying for all of this stuff. Why would I complain about getting more free things out of you?” Mira said, casually revealing her true motivation.

Eventually, Mira and I made our way to the checkout counter where my Dad was seemingly having a pleasant conversation with the employee working there.

“Yeah sorry about that. I was just worried they had disappeared or got abducted by aliens or something.” He told the young man who was currently working the register. They both laughed good-naturedly at his joke, one of them was more out of an effort to be polite than anything. “You know how teenagers are, am I right?”

“Of course sir. I was one myself not that long ago after all.” Register guy said with a warm congenial smile on his face. That smile made him look kinda cute actually…

Shaking my head mid-walk, I refocused my thoughts away from the horny nonsense it was drifting towards.

‘No Jenni, bad Jenni. Now is not the time.’ I reprimanded myself internally.

“Hey there Dad, here we are.” I said while placing the sizable bounty of clothing we had gathered on the counter. Also purposely avoiding eye contact with the guy at the register in the process.

“Ah nice, I was worried you’d be back there for another half an hour at least.” He said with a sly grin that told me he wasn’t really being serious.

“Well, if you’re really so sure, we could go back there and try on some more clothes. I wouldn’t want your guess to turn out to be wrong, it might ruin your reputation.” I shot back while making a smug grin of my own appear on my face.

“N-no, that’s alright, I was just kidding around.” He said, rapidly folding to my threat without any real resistance. Too easy, another flawless victory for Jenni.

“So will this be everything today?” Cute register guy asked, looking between the two of us as we had been bantering.

“Um, yes. I think so?” My Dad said before looking at me for confirmation.

“Um, yeah. I’m pretty sure.” I said not all that confidently, looking toward the silent Mira who was almost hiding behind my back. “Right, Mira?”

She only shrugged in response. Very helpful.

“Yes, I think that’s everything Dad.” I told him, more sure of myself this time around.

“Okay then. Yes, I’ll be paying with my credit card, no I’m not interested in signing up for any store card you might have, or mailing list, or anything else like that.” My Dad replied, listing off the things he expected register guy to say before he could even say it.

“Of course sir.” Cute register guy said with a knowing smile. “I see you’ve got quite a lot of experience in dealing with this kind of thing.”

“Eh, not with clothes shopping, but I used to be on the other side of things myself. I used to work as a door-to-door salesman, back just after I left college.” He told the young man behind the register who was now dutifully scanning each of the tags on the clothes we had picked out.

“Ah, I see.” Register guy said. “You know how to avoid those same solicitations now, because you were the one making them yourself, back in the day.”

“Pretty much.” Dad said with a big smile on his face. He loved getting nostalgic and talking about having to hustle and get by when he was younger.

These days, he and Mom were both doing pretty well, but even just a decade or go, things were pretty tight for them financially. Now though, he could comfortably afford to buy his daughter’s new friend several sets of new clothes, and not even be bothered to check the price tags.

After completing the checkout process, cute register guy handed the fully loaded bags over to my Dad after a quick assessment of who he expected to be the one doing the carrying. Clever and cute.

Shaking my head free of unnecessary thoughts I just said to him, “Thank you.”

“You as well, have a good day. Please come again.” He said with a warm and welcoming smile, eyes that were so green you could…

‘No Jenni, bad.’ I yelled at myself internally, you have more important things to worry about right now.

Just then, as if it heard my thoughts, my cellphone started vibrating in my back pocket.

Huh, who would be calling me now? Mom maybe.

Taking the phone free of the restricting confines of my pants pocket, I checked the caller ID to see that it was Gunderson calling me.

“Frick…” I mumbled quietly to myself. Hopefully, this wasn’t as bad as it seemed.