Page 19 of Surviving in Everton

West finally walks in. If I hadn’t been staring at the door watching for him, I wouldn’t have even noticed him. When he sees me in the corner, he heads right over. I’m scrutinizing him closely because I’m so anxious about this conversation, but it enables me to get a better read on him. He’s always been a loner, one to blend into a crowd. Looking at him now, he looks like he’s only changed a little bit since school. He has overgrown brown hair that keeps falling into his eyes as he walks. Said eyes are constantly moving around, looking everywhere, assessing. I kinda wonder what’s going on in his head, but at the same time, I probably don’t want to know.

“Hey, West. Thanks for seeing me,” I greet him when he reaches my table.

“No problem, Ayden. What’s so important you had to meet right away?” he asks, sitting down across from me.

Man, where do I freaking start? “You remember Rowen, right?”

“Of course I remember Rowen.” He scoffs. “I remembereveryone. I’m the one people forget,” he says with a roll of his eyes.

“I know. That’s actually why I called you. You went to college with Rowe. I need to know if you know of anyone that was selling potions while you were there,” I tell him.

“Selling potions?” he asks with his brows furrowed. “Why would you want to know about that?”

I sigh, thinking about how much I should tell him, before deciding, fuck it, maybe he can help. Even if he doesn’t know anything that happened at school, he knows everything about everyone around here. He’s gotta knowsomething.

“Rowen’s husband spelled her to be with him,” I explain, and he looks at me like I’m crazy.

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” he growls, then takes a deep calming breath. “Okay? What’s that got to do with someone selling potions?”

“He didn’t have magic,” I tell him.

“Oh!” He gasps. “Well, that changes things then. I guess you’re trying to figure out where he got the potion?” When I nod my head in agreement, he nods once and lets out his breath. “Right then. I’ll help,” he declares with conviction. “Rowen was always kind to me. No one deserves to be spelled without their knowledge, but that girl is the nicest person I have ever known. Had I known that was going on, I would have told one of you. But, I have a few ideas on where we should start.”

“That’s great! Thanks for helping, West. I knew you were the guy to see. So where do we begin?” I’m so fucking glad we’ve got this guy on our side.

“You busy today? Or you wanna head back to my house to do some digging?”

“Digging is my new favorite hobby,” I reply seriously. He just rolls his eyes at me.

“Well, come on then. I imagine you haven’t told me the whole story yet, and I want all the details before we go too far,” he asserts.

“I’ll tell you everything I know. I really appreciate your help man,” I tell him gratefully as we get out of our seats.

“No problem, like I said, Rowen didn’t deserve that shit. Besides, I kinda owe her. I need all the information so I know what I’m looking for and don’t waste my time. Come on, you can follow me.”

* * *

I followWest to his apartment across town, thinking about all the ways he could help us the whole way there. When we pull into the parking lot, I’m surprised at where he lives. This is the new complex that was just built last year. It’s really nice and high end. I don’t know what the hell West does for a living, but he must be rolling in the dough to be able to get in here. I park next to him and get out. Before I can even think to say anything about where he lives he gives me a look.

“Don’t. Not a word,” he says with one brow raised.

“Wasn’t gonna say anything.” I chuckle with my hands raised.

He rolls his eyes and shakes his head at me. “Just come inside,” he sighs.

Well, I don’t know why he’s already exasperated with me. I haven’t done anything annoying yet. We head inside and I follow him to the elevator. Man, this place is nice. I’ve never had a reason to come here, so I hadn’t realized how fancy and modern everything is. I guess they’re trying to bring Everton into the twenty-first century. It doesn’t really fit with the feel of the rest of the town, but it’s just simple enough to not look completely out of place.

We get to his door and my eyes widen when he opens it. Walking in, I wander around, looking at everything in awe. The apartment is a lot bigger than I expected, though that could be the open floor plan and the floor-to-ceiling windows. The kitchen is to the left of the door. It has shiny stainless steel appliances and smooth quartz countertops. In front of the door and to the right is a sweet gaming setup. I can’t stop myself from walking over to check it out.

“Dude! This setup is awesome!” I exclaim as I admire his living room turned gaming den. He still has a couch, but it’s one of those minimalist couches that looks good but is probably not comfortable at all. I doubt he gets many visitors, so I guess picking a couch for looks as opposed to comfort is a good choice for him.

“Thanks. Please don’t touch anything,” he commands and I raise my hands and back away. “Alright, tell me everything. I need to know what I’m working with here.”

So I do. I tell him all about Rowe’s dickhead of a husband and everything the doctor said yesterday. The more I tell him, the more pissed he seems to be. I don’t know why he’sthismad about it though, does he have a thing for Rowen or something? Becausethatcould be a problem.

“Let’s go to my office and I can get started. Don’t touchanything,“ he warns me again before leading me down the hall to another room.

He opens the door with one last warning look. Guess he’s serious about the no-touching rule, geesh. After he walks in and takes a seat at his desk, I realizewhyhe stressed the no-touching rule. This place is crazy! The whole room is just covered in computer screens. Seriously, they’re on three of the four walls. Then he has this big modern desk with a keyboard and mouse.

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