Lalin got on the bus, panting. She ran after the bus because when she reached the bus stop, the bus was already starting to pull away from the curb. She never shouted as loud as she screamed for the bus driver to stop.
She climbed the bus with her heart pounding in her chest, her sweat tickling in her temple.
"Thank you," she said, gasping for air to breathe to the bus driver who was giving her an annoyed look because she interrupted his time schedule by waiting for two minutes for her to get on the bus.
"Thank you," she said again, bowing deeply.
"Take a seat," the driver grumpily replied but the annoyance in his eyes was gone.
Lalin hurried to take a seat at the far end of the bus. She wanted to see everyone that would get in and out of the bus. Her chest was still thundering as she took a vacant seat next to a teenager, wearing all black. She saw a paper bag on the teenager's feet with her school uniform.
She chuckled to herself when she realized that it was a school day and she was out of school. Stella had told her that she had informed the school registrar that she was sick and was in the hospital.
When she asked Stella how she got away with her lies, she smugly told her that she had asked their family doctor to give her a medical certificate that she had passed at the registrar and gladly gave her a pass to be absent in school, as long as she could catch up with her school work.
Catching up with the lesson wasn't really a problem for her. And since the finals had already finished for the 3rd quarter, the teacher wasn't worried about her absences. It was for medical reasons and she could catch up with lessons because she was one of the top five students in the class.
She could get the top 1 without a problem but she was studying at a prestigious school and she didn't want to take the top place from the son of the diplomat or the second place from the daughter of the Chief Executive. She didn't want the school to look too closely at her family background, thus, she made sure that she stayed in the top 4 or 5 only.
After all, she was able to study at the prestigious private school because of a scholarship. And maybe being seen around, Stella and Cynthia were a huge factor. No one messes up with the daughters of a banker and a brain surgeon.
When the bus started moving and announced the next stop, she pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket. But when she had her phone in her hand, she changed her mind. She had been asking her friends for help and she didn't like the idea of getting help from people. Although, her friends would probably be mad at her if she did not ask them for her.
She heaved a deep sigh and shoved her phone back into her pocket and pressed the buzzer to let the driver know that she would get off at the next stop.
The hotel was far from the next bus stop. This bus wasn't even going near the hotel she was staying at. It was the bus at the bus stop and she badly needed to get away, hence, she got on this bus.
But, she needed time to think of a plan. She could not stay in the hotel forever, even though she knew that it was possible for her to stay there for a long period of time. Stella was probably using money from one of her parent's credit cards and her parents were out of the country most of the time to even realize that their credit card was being used.
When she heard the familiar hissing of a bus break, she stood up from her seat and walked to the front of the bus. She got out, using the middle door, and walked straight ahead to the expensive-looking boutique, selling expensive watches.
Lalin swallowed a smirk when the staff of the store gave her a discreet look over as she walked slowly inside the store, looking at the glass display.
But she had no plan to buy a watch. She just entered the store to see if someone was still following her. The store has clear glass walls and it was easy to see if someone outside was looking for her.
After carefully browsing the glass display, she smiled at the staff that had been following her and got out of the store.
She hurried to the next store and grabbed a dress from the rack and asked where she could try the dress on.
"Follow me," the store clerk said, willing to assist her since the store did not have a lot of customers at this hour.
Lalin followed the beautiful woman and smiled at her before she closed the door of the changing room. She did not put on the dress. She had no plan to buy the dress. She just needed a place to check the metal box that she was carrying on her side.
"Shit!"
"Are you okay?" The store clerk who did not leave asked Lalin worriedly when she heard her cursing.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. The zipper just got stuck."
"Do you need help?"
Lalin closed her eyes and exhaled a deep breath. "I got it. Thank you."
She looked at the metal box again. It was empty except for the piece of white pad paper folded in half. She noticed that the logo on the pad paper was the same logo of the hotel she was staying at.
Lalin felt like crying. All the money that she and her aunt saved was gone. Whoever put the note in the box, took all the money.
The last words of her aunt came rushing to Lalin's mind. And the dread she was feeling returned.
Someone is coming for her.