My Undercover Life | ✓

Chapter 31

"Avery—earth to Avery!" a voice shouted, mildly familiar before I looked up to see Ashleigh standing in front of me waving a plate of sushi in her hand. My lids blinked rapidly in surprise seeing everyone already digging into their plate of California Rolls. Since when did the sushi get here?

Her eyebrows dipped down in confusion, while I continued to stare at her blankly. "What's wrong?" she asked a second later.

I smiled nervously. "Nothing's wrong."

Her eyes made their way towards the direction of the TV before looking at me. "You'd been staring at that TV since I got here," she pointed out. "Is it about the killings?"

"Kind of," I admitted, fidgeting with my hands. "I'm just worried, that's all."

She smiled in understanding. Taking the empty seat next to her brother, she gave me my plate. "Don't worry about it. You're nothing like the past victims!"

"Yeah," Ian jumped in. "If anything you're like the total opposite!"

Ashleigh nodded in agreement. "If anyone has anything to worry about it's me."

My eyes rounded, before everyone at the table dropped their chopsticks simultaneously as they turned their heads at her. "Excuse me?" I exclaimed, causing some curious looks from the nearby tables.

She paused mid-bite, before mumbling some incoherent words. Blushing slightly, she gulped down some of her water, chewing her food quickly, before looking at us. "Um, yeah?"

"What did you mean when you said, "if anyone has anything to worry about it's me."?"

"I have the same birthday as the past victims," she announced suddenly, causing Ian to drop what he was eating. He pulled her into his arms before shaking her body wildly; that crazed look back on his face.

"What the hell Ash?!" he roared shocking everyone at the table by his complete attitude change. Even though I already saw this side of Ian before, witnessing it up close was different. He seemed so unlike himself. Even his once blue eyes were a dark misty black.

"Why didn't you tell me you had the same birthday as them?!"

She shrugged, completely unfazed by his reaction. "I thought you knew."

"Like I fucking keep up with current events," he shouted, earning a gasp from Annemarie. She looked completely stunned. "You could be killed Ash!"

"No, I won't."

"Why the hell are you so confident?! Shouldn't you be scared or something? Any normal girl would!"

"Because the killer's next victims lives in Pennsylvania. He already made his mark in New York. Plus tons of girls have the same birthday—"

"—You idiot!" Ian cut her off. "Annemarie just said that wasn't true!"

Her eyes widened dramatically, before her body fell limp. "W-what?" Her voice came out barely above a whisper.

"Annemarie said all the victims went to a public high school, just fifteen minutes away from a big Prep school. Pennsylvania doesn't have any big Prep school!"

"B-but—"

"—I can't believe you didn't tell me about this! What if he does get you? You can't fucking leave me alone like Mom and Dad did!" he cried, his eyes pooling with tears. He looked completely broken as he clenched his teeth to stifle the amount of tears, threatening to spill.

"Ian." Her eyes seemed determined. "I'm not going to leave you."

"How would you know that?" he shouted frantically. "They promise they would always protect me! But did they? No!" His voice screeched, before he stood up abruptly. "They didn't have a fucking choice, and you won't either!" he yelled, before shoving his seat aside. The chair landed on the ground with a loud bang, before Ian ran off, shoving people out of his way.