Monster ~ Jackson Whittemore [Book 1]

Movie Dates and Sick Days

"Okay children you know know the rules. There will be no parties, alcohol, or drugs while we have date night. Maya you're in charge so if something does happen be adult-like and take care of it." Joe Williams loved the weekly speech he gave his kids when date night came around. Both kids rolled their eyes at the speech they got every week, nothing bad had ever happened to warrant the 'talk' but that never stopped their dads from being embarrassing.

Brian grabbed Joe's hand, pulling him out the door like he did every week. Waving at his kids, he closed the front door and made a break for the car, excited for the fancy dinner choice of the week.

Watching the car finally pull out of the driveway, Maya excitedly turned to her brother holding up her keys. "You ready?"

Nodding his head, Darren held up the money dads had left them. "Let's go get our Marvel movies"
...................................

Pulling into the movie store parking lot, Maya parked next to a familiar looking Porsche. Grabbing the money from Darren, she was about to get out of the car when he grabbed her arm, a horrified look on his face.

"Is that Lydia Martin? Dude you can't get out of the car, she'll see me! I look so uncool having my sister driving me around, this is so embarrassing!"

Laughter uncontrollably burst out of Maya, tears streaming from her eyes because of how hard shows  laughing. "Not you too, she is way out of your league squirt."

Darren just slid down in his seat, his cheeks a bright pink from his sister's laughter. "I'm not leaving this car, hurry up and get the movies before she notices I'm here."

The brunette got out of her car, still laughing at her brother's antics. Waving at the strawberry blonde in the car next to her's, she rolled her eyes when the girl was too absorbed in her selfies to notice. The bell above the door rang as she walked inside, announcing her entrance into the store.

"Can someone help me find the notebook? Hello?" Maya heard the familiar masculine voice call from further back in the shop.

Walking down the aisles she found Jackson looking hopelessly lost. She laughed to herself, Lydia definitely knew how to get her way.

"I definitely pictured you as more of a sports movie fan" she told him jokingly, leaning against the shelves Jackson was staring at. His blue eyes locking onto her as she looked over the cases on the shelves.

"I wanted Hoosiers, Lydia wanted The Notebook. We compromised and got The Notebook" The annoyance in his voice was evident as he complained to Maya.

The brunette laughed before she grabbed his arm, leading him over towards the romance section of the store. Her eyes moved across the many DVDs before she excitedly bent down to grab the movie she was looking for. Jackson couldn't help but stare as Maya went for the movie, his eyes shooting up again as she turned around with a triumphant smile and The Notebook in her hands.

"Now you just need to find the worker so you can pay for your movie"

The Notebook was forced into Jackson's hands, Maya wandering off to grab her Marvel movies. Looking up front, the worker was nowhere in sight, but the flickering light a few aisles over caught Jackson's attention. As he walked over, he saw feet sticking out slightly and the movie in his hands fell to the floor once he found the worker, throat slashed and blood pooling the floor. Jackson panicked, accidentally backing into the ladder that had been placed under the light, knocking it to the ground and shutting down all the light in the store.

"Jackson?"

The dark haired boy turned around and caught site of Maya, the noise he had made causing her to come over. Her brown eyes held a look of horror as she stared at the dead worker, her hands trembling as they moved to cover up her gasp of terror.