Chapter 8

She felt utterly insane. She had seen him, she knew she had, but it wasn't possible. Arder felt an internal war going on in her subconscious. Grey had told her Cyrus was dead, but the man had been standing right in front of her very eyes. Trying to push away her conflicting thoughts, she walked back inside the cafe. Lexie stood at the counter with Sophie, where they watched her enter with worry on their faces. Arder hated feeling like a burden to them. She was always leaving them with that awful emotion: concern.

"What was that about?" Lexie asked, stepping away from Sophie.

"I just thought I saw someone I knew," Arder said casually, brushing it off. She didn't want to make a fuss over something she wasn't even sure of yet. Lexie stared at her for a moment, probably wondering if she was being honest. "It was nothing," the girl assured her again. Lexie finally nodded and smiled brightly.

"I need to head home. Are you working a shift?" she asked, picking her coat and book off the couches. Daniel was gone, and all that remained was his empty coffee cup.

"I think so. I'll come by after though," Arder replied, grabbing her apron off the stand and tightly tying it around her waist.

"Arder, can you grab some more sugar from the back?" Sophie called from behind the counter. She was swamped with customers, which was very surprising considering how quiet the cafe usually was. Arder quickly ran to the backroom. Pulling out the large container of sugar, she started scooping the ingredient into the smaller containers on the tables.

---

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow," Sophie yelled from the stairs. She disappeared inside her apartment, leaving Arder alone outside. Lexie's was only a few blocks in the opposite direction of the factory and Arder's house.

The house was a normal family home, with light yellow paint over stucco. The front stairs Lexie's father had built were steep, but they were a big improvement compared to the previous ones that had started to crack and fall apart. Arder knocked on the small dark door and patiently waited for Lexie to open it. Instead, her mother appeared in her place.

"Come inside dear, Lexie's just upstairs," she stated, smiling. Lexie's mother, April, was almost an identical copy of the girl. They had the same straight hair, the only difference being Lexie's was a tone lighter. Their facial features were similar but not exact, so the hair was what made them hard to tell apart from a distance.

"Thank you." Arder walked inside, leaving her shoes on the mat where she saw Lexie had left hers. April, acting a bit off from her usual self, left her guest to find Lexie on her own.

Arder walked through the hall, looking at all the family photos of vacations and different occasions all year round. She had always been the slightest bit envious of her friend. There were no photos anywhere at Adam's; her mother had left them in a box when they moved. She knocked on the closed door at the end of the hall. "Lex?" she asked.

The door opened, and her friend appeared with a camera in hand.

"Hey," she greeted, opening the door wider for Arder and motioning for her to come inside. Arder sat down on the window seat and Lexie grinned. "Are we going to talk about Grey now?" she inquired. Arder gave up and nodded, knowing it was an inevitable topic. Lexie laid down on her bed, still smiling. "So, where was he all these years?"

Arder sat down on the bed next to her and shrugged. "With his mom somewhere," she answered. "He didn't tell me a lot."

Lexie got a confused look on her face. "Did you ask where Cyrus went when he left you at the factory?"

She shook her head, realizing she never asked him the question that had been eating away at her for all those years. "I can't believe I didn't think to ask that," she said, voicing her thoughts.

Arder wanted to tell Lexie about the dream, but she knew her best friend wouldn't believe her. Oh, Lexie would believe the dream part; but she wouldn't believe it was anything more. Arder definitely couldn't talk about Cyrus, either. If she did, Lexie would never believe another word she said. She would think Arder was crazy, and Arder needed at least one friend. She couldn't lose Lexie.