Not What It Is

Chapter 1

"So where are we next?" Vanessa Bender asked her best friend Callie Shaw after having her last sip from her iced tea drink. The two of them were sitting at a cafe at the Bayport Mall, having a break from their shopping that weekend after having a tiring week at school.

Callie smiled and teased, "Aren't you tired yet? We've been here for more than four and a half hours now. In fact, if we stay longer here, Joe might start to miss you and your phone might not stop ringing with Joe calling, not until we get home," referring to Vanessa's boyfriend Joe Hardy.

Vanessa smiled back, then pretended to be confused and asked, "Who's Joe?"

They laughed then Callie said, "Okay, okay.. I get it! You, Ms. Vanessa Bender, doesn't want to go home yet. I mean, you don't want to stop our shopping for now. Even if it means not caring if Joe gets worried or misses you or anything!" She smiled, then she looked thoughtful for a while then shook her head lightly, the smile now gone from her pretty face.

Vanessa noticed this then asked, "You alright?"

Callie looked at Vanessa then said, "Mm-hmm. Yeah, I'm fine. It's just that Frank.." referring to Joe's brother, Frank, who is Callie's boyfriend.

Vanessa smiled sympathetically at Callie then stood up, got hold of her shopping bags and offered her other hand to her friend. "That's going to be alright, Cal. I'm sure of that. You can talk to him later again about it. But before that, why don't we have another last hour of shopping?"

Callie looked down for a while, took a deep breath, took the paper bags containing the few clothes and accessories she had bought for herself and took Vanessa's hand with her free one. She looked at Vanessa and couldn't help chuckling. Van's really something. And I guess that that something is what had made us friends… she thought with a smile.

Oblivious to the two, a man has been watching them since they stepped on the mall…