All I see ✔️

CHAPTER 30

Alexis

"No, move to the right-"

"Not that much, move back-"

"No, wait, yes, yes, perfect. Alright, we start in 3...2...1!"

I press the button on the camera and it instantly beeps, starting the video. Ellie puts on a poker face and goes on and on, somberly about an earthquake in the Middle East. Hunter and I have been roped into being the cameramen for her BBC internship.

"She's lucky no one reads anymore and there are no people here," I whisper.

"She saw the chance and she took it," Hunter grins, "She would've made us do this even if you weren't working."

"If my boss sees this, I'd be dead."

"Lucky for you, she never steps foot in her store."

That's true. Mrs. Dee never comes here except to collect the cash at the end of the month. She looks too fragile to come here every so often. I wonder what will happen to this shop after she dies. Maybe she'll see what a good employee I am and name this store after me. Miracles do happen.

We are at my bookstore where I was working and solving equations from thermodynamics for an assignment, simultaneously, when Ellie and Hunter barged in and announced that they need a quiet place to shoot her video and what better place than a bookstore. I reminded them, quiet not so politely, that I didn't own this bookstore and if they rip one page from any book here, I'd set both of them on fire after emptying their pockets.

"I've been watching her recite this statistic for an hour now, how is she not bored?" Hunter groans.

"She gets paid to not get bored."

Watching Ellie talk about epicenters and rescue operations is the equivalent of watching a cow graze a field.

"How much time is left?" I wave a dismissive hand.

Hunter peers at the time stamp on the camera screen, "About fifty more seconds."

"Thank God."

We strain through the last few seconds with tired eyes and as soon as Ellie utters her credentials, Hunter yelps and jumps up from his seat.

"Alright, that's it!" He announces, "It's past one and I am starving and I need to eat so you two little shit will pack your stuff and go sit in the car."

Have I ever mentioned about Hunter being authoritative and bossy more than half of the time?

"You're bossy," Ellie pouts and starts packing up her camera.

"At least I am making sure you get to eat your lunch, otherwise you'd starve Lex to death by feeding her plans of some country's government funding."

I snort, "Hardly but okay."

Hunter glares at me with steel in his eyes and I straighten my spine, "Yes sir, thank you. Let us go and eat."

I lock the store behind me, internally making faces at the sun overhead. I hate summers, I hate the sun.

"Who's car are we taking?" I perch my sunglasses on top of my head and squint at them.

"Mine," Hunter fishes out his car keys from his back pockets.

"Mine's at the service center."

"What happened, El?"

Ellie shrugs her shoulders annoyingly, "The usual. Always breaking down."

Ellie has a second hand Toyota she bought last year with her saved up internship money. She loves it more than life itself – something Logan doesn't take happily. But it also breaks down every so often.

"You know El, with the amount of money you spend o repairing it, you could've bought a new car."

"Argh," Ellie stomps her foot, "You sound like Logan."

"Logan is right."

"You always side with him."

"Because he is the sensible one."

"If you don't shut up, I'll spill hot coffee on you in your sleep."

I chuckle, "You can try."

Ellie climbs in the backseat after me. Hunter has a red Honda car, which barely survives his driving and I am pretty sure sees death's face every time the engine starts. I don't know the model, I am terrible at cars. I just know mine's an expensive one and takes me places I need to go to. That's it.

"One of you come here," Hunter points at the passenger seat, "I am not your chauffeur."

"You are mine," Ellie snorts before going shotgun.

"So where are we going?"

"No idea. Where do you want to go?"

"Cherries?" I suggest absentmindedly.

"You'd like to go there, wouldn't you?" Ellie shoots me a teasing smile from the rearview mirror, "that is where it all started."

"What started?" Hunter sounds clueless and I groan against the seat.

"Shut up."

"What happened? Tell me," Hunter insists.

"She kissed Aaron," Ellie's head bobs up and down with excitement, "In front of Logan and me!"

"You did what?!"

"What's wrong with that?" I mutter.

"You were saying you hated him, just yesterday," Hunter is exasperated.

"I know!" Ellie jumps in her seat and I shrink in mine, "And then she just goes, eats his whole face, and it was so... tongue-involving."

"Shut up," I whine.

"First of all, gross. I don't need such a graphic picture. Second of all, when did it start?"

"I kissed him last night. That's it, that's all you're getting from me."

I'd like to think Aaron tastes like death and moths and too much saliva and too much tongue, but apparently, I don't get to hate an annoying person just because. Aaron is annoyingly good at this too and his kisses make me want to tear apart my hair, get naked and eat him up simultaneously.

And he asked me out on a freaking date?! Aaron Richards?! Does he take me for a fool? Does he really think I wouldn't know the 'tempestuous' activities he indulges in? he's called a sex machine for fuck's sake, people like him don't date and I refuse to be another one night stand in his long list of conquests.

"She won't even tell me!" Ellie drawls, "I had to beg last night to know they did it in a Ferris wheel."

"Why are you even interested?" I shoot back.

"How can we not be?!"

"Alright, we'll go to Cherries and you're telling us everything," Hunter announces with an evil smirk on his face.

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