Chapter 48
✾Zak✾
“I'm okay with going out and getting a bite to eat, I can't really sit still during movies, but we could walk around after eating and just see the two. I wouldn't mind that,” I answer her truthfully.
“Oh, okay,” Vera sounds disappointed that I said that.
“He's always been that way Vera it's okay,” Tony tried to help.
“But you were able to sit and watch movies with me when you were a ghost,” She commented brushing some of her hair behind her ear.
“Only until you fell asleep when I would stop watching what we were watching,” I tip my head looking at her confused.
She looked down at her feet still upset, “I understand.”
“Cheer up Vera you’ll have a lot of fun, plus you don’t have to run!” Anthony comment happily and it did seem to make her smile a little.
“If we head out now can we walk?” I ask Vera.
She hummed and thought about it, “I think we should take the car, in case we lose track of time and it gets too late. And you did make me run today.”
“But there’s nothing wrong with walking,” My shoulders slump and Anthony chuckles.
"Zak, let her have this one, you did make her exercise and the walk at night would be back uphill," He mentioned.
“Fine, we can take the car,” I sigh giving into her and Anthony.
"Awesome!!!" Vera cheered and pumped her fists up in triumph, "I'm going to finish getting ready to go!!" She scurried out of the room leaving Tony and me alone again.
“Can I come?” Tony asked.
"I don't see why not, but I would stay hidden. Vera probably wanted it to be the two of us, but I would feel better if you were there too just in case," I answer getting up and going over to the dresser and pulling open the drawer with my jeans. Switching into my pants I take off my shirt and turn around and look at my back in the mirror. There was a burn scar across the center of my back where the beam fell on my back. Going about five inches away from the scar on both sides was a thick span of freckles covering the rest of the scar and where I was burned.
“So it came with you even with your second chance,” Tony muttered floating next to me and his cold fingers brushing against my back where the scar ran.
“It did. I’m worried if someone sees it will something happen,” I mutter quietly, “ The other burns that I had on my body didn’t come with me, just this one. It’s probably because it was the main part of my body.” I finish taking off my tank top and switch into a t-shirt.
“Does Vera and her family know about the scar?”
I shake my head, “I don’t think so. I want to try to keep it that way as long as I can. It doesn’t hurt thankfully.”
“That’s good,” Tony sighed in relief.
"We should probably head downstairs. Just keep yourself hidden and I'll tell Vera that you're just going to hang out in my room or up on the roof so that her parents can have some alone time," I look back at my transparent best friend.
He puts his hand up to his forehead and smiled, “Rodger dodger!” and then he disappears from my sight.
I head towards the door and head downstairs and Vera is talking to her parents, "Ah good timing Zak, we wanted to tell you something," Damian said and I tip my head a bit confused and hum waiting for him to continue, "We gave Vera some money and we want they two of you to go and get you some new clothes."
"Um…that's very thoughtful of you, but what's wrong with the clothes that I have?" I blink very confusedly where this was going.
“Sweetie, they are fine but if we don’t want people to start asking a lot of questions then we should get you some different outfits for when you walk Vera home and what not,” her mom explained a bit more to me.
“Oh, okay, I guess that makes sense,” I nod keeping my voice quiet.
“It’s just until we can get things sorted out. Don’t worry everything will be fine,” Damian chuckled, “Now you two go have fun and don’t forget to actually get something to eat alright.”
“We won’t,” Vera and I said in unison as I went over to the door and put my shoes on, gently tapping the toes of my shoes on the floor I put my hands in my pockets and wait for Vera to make sure she has everything.
Once she’s doubled checked we say our goodbyes and head out to the car. I get into the passenger seat and buckle up as she gets in the driver’s seat. I feel a bit tired from the run, but I’m sure I’ll be able to power through as long as I can keep myself active until we get back home for the night.
It didn't take us long to get into town. The first place we stop at is the clothing store. I groan a little bit when she puts the car in park. "It won't be that bad," Vera chuckles at my groan and I look over at her as I unbuckle.
“But, I’ve never been good at clothing shopping,” I answer opening the door and getting out of the car.
“It’ll be just fine, I’ll help you. We only have to find a few outfits anyways,” She smiled at me seems a bit more excited to do this than I was.
She locks up the car then we head into the store. When I was alive this place used to be a bar but there are no traces in here that resemble the fact that this was a bar. How time can change things.
I wander over to the men's section of the store after Vera and she is having a hay day. The last time I saw her move this fast through things was when she was throwing my clothes everywhere to find things she liked.
“Try these on! Oh, I want to see you in these too!! And these!” I caught the four pairs of pants she threw at me.
“She is way too happy to be playing dress up with you,” Tony whispered in my ear as he chuckled quietly so Vera wouldn't notice him.
“I'm surprised you're not handing me full outfits,” I chuckle and then she tosses a couple shirts on top, “I spoke too soon.”
“Yes you did, now go and try the white shirt with the first pair of pants I have you then put the dark blue button up over the shirt,” she explained to me what she wants to go with what and I nod a little after she was done explaining.
I went to the changing rooms and went to an empty stall and closed the door. “Alright, let's organize everything first,” I mumble to myself and pair things up how she wanted them. Then I changed into the first outfit. The pants were dark blue and tight against my legs all the way down to my ankles. I couldn't exactly hide anything with these jeans. Thankfully the button up shirt was longer than the white shirt she picked out so I buttoned the center button.
“Well, don't you look sexy,” Tony commented and showed up in the stall with me.
“I feel very exposed. Why do people wear this tight of pants?” I keep my voice a bit hushed.
“It's the style today I guess. Just go out and show her,” He waved me along and I sigh and slip my shoes back on and walked out in the first outfit for her to see it.
I look around and I can't find her anywhere close by. “Um...Vera?” I ask kinda quiet and push up my glasses.
"Are you looking for something sir?" I turn around when I hear a male's voice, "Oh Zak, what brings you in today?" it's the guy from the banquet that stopped me when I was looking for Vera.
“My friends family wanted me to get new clothes and she wanted me to change so she could see but then she disappeared on me,” I explain to him my voice trailing off a bit by the end.
He crossed his arms and smiled, "The same girl that you were looking for at the banquet?" He asked and I nodded. "I saw here over by the shoes a minute ago,” He answered.
“Steven,” I mutter quietly his name finally clicking with me, “Thank you.” I smile a little.
“It’s not a problem,” He chuckled and cross his arms over his chest, “You really do look just like him. Even down to the freckles and glasses.” I couldn’t look at him all I could do is bring myself to look down at my shoes. I see his shoes come into view and then I felt a hand on my shoulder and I looked up. He’s smiling down at me. He’s around Damian’s height that’s for sure. “It really is you isn’t it Zak?” My eyes widened as I stared up at him, but all he had was a soft gentle smile, “I can tell when someone is lying and even now you can’t really come up with anything.”
“I-I…” I look down and then back up at him, “I’m sorry Steven.”
He shook his head, "I don't want an apology. Take this is strides okay. First of all, you really should get a haircut slicked back or not people who were in school with you will recognize you the more you come into town. Two, your friends right on the new clothes thing. Third, I want to sit down with you and your friend and have coffee with you. It won't be in a café, I'll give you the address to my house. You can explain things there."
“You are a lot calmer than I thought you would be,” I mumble very shocked from what he said.
“Believe me internally I want to freak out, it’s just from the years of being in the military that made me learn how to keep calm and assets a situation,” He smiled at me and gave my shoulder a pat before taking a step away. “That outfit does look good on your thought. Your friend has some good taste in clothing."
"Um…why are you here too?" I ask and he chuckles and taps my nose with his fingertip.
“My wife owns this place. She wanted to go get some dinner so I’m covering for her. I’m also a teacher at the school.”
“I thought you were in the military like Vera’s father,” I state.
“I was yes. I was a sniper and I did what I was told to do,” He answers me his shoulders slumping a bit, “What about Vera’s father?”
I shake my head, “He’s still on active duty he got home not too long ago.”
"With his age, he should be just in the office and should be done soon with that, I would think so anyway," Steven smiled a bit, "So there's something for her to look up to." He looked away from me and then looked back down, "When you two are ready I'll give you my address and phone number before you leave. Have fun being a dress-up doll for your friend," He gave my shoulder a pat one more time and then waved and walked away from me.
“Who was that?” Vera’s voice came from behind me.
I turn around and look down at her smiling, “He’s the husband of the owner of the store. He’s also one of the people I knew from back in high school. ”
“He didn’t recognize you did he?” She questioned and I could tell she was worried.
“He did yes. Suggested that I get a haircut and he wants to try to help.”
“I don’t know if we can trust him,” Vera mumbled looking away from me.
“Vera, he was in the military just like your father. I think we can trust him,” I put a hand on her shoulder. “But, what do you think?” I ask taking a couple steps back from her to show her the outfit.
Her eyes widened and a small blush spread across her cheeks, “I love it! You need to get that one! Go try the next one on!!” At least switching subjects seemed to put her back into a good mood.
"Alright, alright," I chuckle and say, "I'll be right back."
We go through this process until I’ve gone through about ten outfits she wanted me to try on. When we finally settled on five of the outfits we went up to the register and I notice Steven slips his stuff into the bag. I grab the bag as Vera pays for the stuff. We say our goodbyes and wander back out to the store.
I heard the doorbell ring behind us and I turned around to see Steven come running out to us. “Did we forget something?” I ask turning around to face him. He brings his hand up and puts a baseball cap on my head and pushes the brim down. He lets go and I push it back up so I can look at him as I raised a brow.
“Wear that until you get a haircut will ya. We don’t need people calling in supernatural squads and what not,” Steven chuckled.
“Alright, I’ll wear it,” I mutter not too thrilled about having to wear a hat.
“Thank you. I’ll see you later,” He chuckled I got into the car. He waved us off and I watched him walk back into the store through the side mirror as we pulled away.
“I’m still wary about him,” Vera muttered clearly not happy.
“Let’s just relax for a bit and enjoy dinner how does that sound? Then we can go for a walk in the park.” I looked over at her and smiled softly. I felt a cold sensation on the back of my arm. Just like a poke so I knew that Tony was still with us. He’s been doing a good job so far at just sticking close to me and staying out of the way of Vera and anyone else because I haven’t heard anything from her about a cold spot.
Dinner went smoothly and no one really disturbed us and then we went to the nearby park and took a slow walk through. The park really hasn’t changed at all. There are a couple of new benches and the pathway was now blacktop, but that's to be expected with the amount of time that's passed. The nice thing about this park is there’s actually a rather large pond here. I guess you could call is a small lake with its size. We did a couple of laps around we sat by the shore and watched the dusk come and reflect it’s beautiful colors into the waters of the lake. “Well, we didn’t get to sit in the tree and watch the stars while the cherry blossoms bloom like I wanted to, but this is a good substitute,” I chuckle softly having turned the baseball cap Steven is making be wear backwards so I could see better, I pushed up my glasses before wrapping my arms around my knees as I pulled them in against my chest. “I know we didn’t go and see a movie like you wanted to, but I had a lot of fun today.” I smiled at her and laid my head on my knees, “Thank you for everything.”
