14: Olivia Meets Lia

They did not meet up again until Thursday.

And Dakota was not alone. Instead, she was with a girl and a boy who seemed to be their age.

It did not feel nice for Olivia since she and Dakota were supposed to just be alone together, plus they were literally strangers to her—well, except the girl. The very same girl whom she happened to have eye contact with in the arcade.

The blonde felt the same nervousness she felt when she used to care about debate contests before her mother died since she wanted her name to be announced as the winner every time and her mother was always there to watch her.

Olivia stared at the raven’s face across her while trying hard to hide the nervousness from being obvious on her facial expression. Lia looked relaxed compared to her though she was not smiling as she stared back in silence. She was intimidating—or perhaps Olivia only felt intimidated by her because of the possibility that she might recognize her from the arcade three days ago.

Lia lifted her hand in the air to ask for a handshake without uttering a word as she watched how the blonde turned her gaze from her face to her hand.

“Shake hands,” Dakota said as she glanced at the girls from between.

Olivia wore a forced smile as she eventually moved her hand to shake hers, though it only lasted for a second before she quickly dropped her hand back to her side. “Nice to meet you. I’m Olivia.”

Lia just nodded in response since Dakota literally just introduced them to each other.

“We heard Dakota’s got a new friend. It’s nice to meet her so soon,” Leo spoke and gave him his hand for a hand shake.

“Dakota’s been talking about me?” Olivia raised an eyebrow in amusement as she turned to face the mentioned girl after shaking his hand.

“I just said I met a new person who doesn’t seem suspicious once,” Dakota replied as she looked away.

“Still.” The blonde grinned.

Leo let out a laugh. “She’s cool.”

The mood among them seemed to light up from the awkwardness between Olivia and Lia a minute ago. It was a good thing that her brother was friendly so he was able to help in getting rid of the awkwardness between the two girls.

Technically, Olivia and Dakota did meet up yesterday though it was just for a brief time because Dakota said that she had to do something though she never mentioned what it was to Olivia. She did tell her to meet up by sunset instead of the usual.

Olivia later found out that Dakota said to meet up by sunset was because she wanted to have the four of them eat dinner together. So currently, the three of them were following Dakota to a place where they assume to be the place of their dinner.

After stepping in the construction site with no people around, the blonde had plenty of thoughts in her head at that moment.

What’s this? Why are we here? Why is Dakota leading us here? Where are the people? The construction workers? It’s not even night yet, why are they gone already? Is this why Dakota had something to do yesterday? To tell these two siblings the plan and get all the things they need to commit the perfect homicide? Oh, wait. What if Lia and Leo already knew who I am before today, and Lia did recognize me back in the arcade so she told Dakota about it? Revealing who I really am? That’s why they’re going to kill me now because of my betrayal to Dakota? Why do things have to end now when I’m just having fun—

“Nice view for dinner, isn’t it?”

The nonstop thoughts coming up in Olivia’s head stopped as her attention went back in real life. Her mouth slightly opened as she looked at the view in awe.

They were on the second floor of the unfinished building that still had no roof and anything around. Since the sun was just about to set, it was indeed a nice view. Olivia then felt a bit bad for suspecting the three of them for bringing her there just to murder her.

Dakota placed a red plaid blanket on the ground along with the food that she brought before she and her two friends sat around it. Olivia was going to have a picnic with Dakota again but they were not alone, and that thought disappointed her a lot.

“So, how did you and Dakota meet?” Leo asked to ease the awkwardness as they began eating.

“In the convenience store at the center of Mobi Street,” Olivia casually replied as she only ate the chocolate chip cookies since she was not in the mood to eat instant noodles at that moment. “Caught her pocketing chocolate bars. Thought I’d help when the cashier stopped her from leaving.”

“Why did you have to be so sus?” Leo chuckled as he turned to Dakota with a teasing look.

“It just happened.” She shrugged as she continued to slurp on her noodles.

It went silent again as the blonde thought hard on what to say. “So, uh. What’s your story? How did you end up like this?”

All of a sudden, Lia slammed her wooden chopsticks down on the blanket which made all of them turn to her in surprise. The raven then raised her head and gave the blonde a cold stare.

“It’s none of your business, Olivia. Just because you are a friend of Dakota doesn’t mean we are too,” Lia spoke, almost in a growl.

But that did not scare Olivia to silence as she raised an eyebrow at her and brought the cookie that she was about to put in her mouth down.

“I didn’t ask that because I think we’re friends. I don’t think so either.”

She saw how the raven’s eyebrows drew together in a frown as the both of them glared at each other in silence, creating an intense tension between them which made the other two slightly panic on the possibility of them to start pulling each other’s hair later.

Dakota bit her bottom lip as she glanced between the two of them before letting out a soft sigh and bringing out a pack of strawberry candies since she did not know what to do at that moment. “Who wants candy?”

“I hate strawberries.” “You know I dislike strawberries.”

Olivia and Lia turned to look at each other in a bit of surprise at their unison though they immediately looked away from each other with a frown.

***

“Bye. Take care!” Olivia said with a grin as she waved at the Leo and Dakota.

“You too. Bye!” Leo smiled as he waved back while starting to walk away.

When Olivia and Lia met eyes, the smile on Olivia’s face dropped as she did not bother telling her bye and immediately turned around to start walking away from them back home.

The next day, Olivia did not look happy when she went to meet up with Dakota again.

This time, Leo was not with her. But Lia was.

“My mini gas stove is broken. I need a new one,” Dakota simply said as they stood in front of a hardware store, which was right across an appliance store.

“Are you kidding me, Soul? There are plenty of security cameras in there. Plus, you’re stealing an appliance, not a snack. How are we gonna take it without being caught?” Lia immediately said as she furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

“I know.” Dakota flashed a small smirk on her face as she turned to look at the blonde who was also looking at her in utter confusion. “That’s why we’ll just do our usual routine.”

The girl with red highlights held the strap of the backpack that she brought as she looked at the both of them before walking across the road toward the store. Olivia and Lia still could not understand how they would not get arrested after that, though they still followed her instead of just watching her.

Dakota looked at Olivia and nodded her head toward the employees that were walking around as she gave Lia a look which meant to follow her. The blonde was going to do her usual mission—distract.

Lia kept her hands in her pockets as she lowkey roamed her eyes around the place to search for where the security cameras were, while Dakota went to find the section where the gas stoves were. It was a difficult mission and Olivia’s first hard mission to carry out, so they all just hoped that they would not get arrested later even though there was bigger chance for that to happen than to succeed.

They were in luck that the appliance store was narrow and had a low height so the security cameras located on the walls were reachable if one is at least 5’5 tall. The employees in the store were three: one at the counter, two being assists and arranging the items.

Lia stood on the side where the security cameras could not catch her as she wore a surgical face mask to not make her face seen. One thing she learned in disguising herself to commit a crime was to wear face masks that do not look suspicious in order to not be suspected.

“Hi! I think there’s something wrong with one of the kettles over there. Could you check it out? I’m scared it might blow up or something,” Olivia told the employee who was watching Dakota.

“Really? Thanks for informing,” the employee quickly ran to the section where the electric kettles were.

The blonde then quickly moved to where the other employee was. “Hi! Someone left one of the sample microwaves on. Could you please turn it off? I don’t know how to.”

“Sure.” The employee immediately left from arranging the speakers.

After watching the employees leave, the blonde turned to where the raven was and gave her a nod as a signal. Lia then quietly moved and pushed the security camera to face the ceiling without letting herself be seen then quickly went to the other security cameras which were facing the section of gas stoves, where Dakota was.

Lia and Olivia were about to worry when the blonde forgot to distract the cashier though they were relieved when they saw him dozing off in front of the cash register.

When Lia was done moving the cameras away, Dakota quickly opened her backpack and pushed one of the mini gas stoves in her large travel backpack. The blonde and the raven nervously glanced between their friend and to the employees who were still checking the items that Olivia purposely messed with earlier.

Olivia gulped in nervousness when the employees were done checking the appliances and were about to head back to what they were previously doing when she felt a tap on the shoulder. She turned around and saw Dakota giving her a small smile of reassurance with Lia behind her as she nodded her head toward the exit—a signal to leave the store.

The blonde quickly glanced to where Dakota was as she saw that there was another gas stove that Dakota placed on the empty space along with the security cameras facing the right directions again. It was a success and it seemed too good to be real. But it was, in fact, real.

The appliance store did not have a detector so they were lucky enough to not have an alarm go off as they step out of the store in a relaxed state while hearing the employees say goodbye to them.

As soon as they were already far from the store, the three of them broke into grins as they cheered for themselves for the unexpected success they pulled off from their mission.

“We’re so awesome!” Olivia said in awe.

“I told you.” Dakota shrugged with a relaxed smile on her face. “I need to go take a leak.”

“Okay.”

Olivia and Lia decided to lean on the wall near an alleyway as they waited for Dakota to pee in a public restroom across the street.

There was silence between them. The raven leaned on the wall as she brought a cigarette to her lips and lit it, which quickly caught the attention of the blonde. Olivia had always been fascinated with smokes because she found them beautiful as she stared at the smokes that Lia blew.

“I was wrong about you,” Lia suddenly spoke without looking at her. “You’re not so bad, after all.”

That brought a smile on the blonde’s face as she replied, “You too. You’re cool.”

Lia turned to look at her with a soft look unlike yesterday as she let out a chuckle, following into laughter along with Olivia.