“Well? What do you think?” Raven asks, pushing the fitting room curtain open and stepping out to show me the jeans.
“They look great,” I say honestly. “You should get them.”
“I think I will,” Raven agrees. “And now we have to find something for you.”
She disappears back into the fitting room. I wander to the front of the store and look outside, wondering where the team is hiding. Rye made it clear they wouldn’t be far away, and I believe him. I kind of wish I’d roped Mel or Ya-Ya into coming with us today rather than staying hidden. Ya-Ya would be good at getting Raven to talk. The problem is she would have her talking about fashion or skin care or something equally inane. At least then I’d have someone to take some of the conversation away from me though. And maybe Raven wouldn’t have called me out the way she did in front of someone else.
I spot Raven going up to the counter, and I wave to her once she’s paid for the jeans. We leave the store and I suggest going for a coffee. Raven agrees eagerly, and we go into the next café we see and grab a drink each.
“So where did you grow up, Raven?” I ask.
“We moved around a lot.” Raven smiles. “I was actually born here in Whisper, and then my father moved us to New York.”
“You grew up in New York?” I ask, surprised.
“I was there for a few years, yes, and then I went back as an adult. That’s how I got into modelling. My stepmother at the time started entering me in pageants and I did well. I hated them though, and my dad put a stop to it. As an adult, I didn’t hate it quite so much. At least not at first. But it got old quick and so I came home to Whisper to start over.”
“Is your father still here?” I ask.
Finding out about Raven’s family could definitely be useful.
“No,” she says. “He never did come back here.”
“And your mom?”
“She died when I was just a baby. As far as I know, my father is still with my second stepmother.”
“As far as you know?” I probe.
Raven nods, a faraway look on her face.
“We don’t see each other anymore.”
“Why not?” I ask.
She shrugs. “It’s complicated. But it’s for the best I suppose. And it’s not like I could change it now even if I wanted to.”
“Do you have any other family?” I ask.
I really want to ask her why she thinks she can’t change things with her dad. I’m sure even if my dad and I fell out, we would find a way to make up. I hope we could, because if things with Raven go down the way I think they will, we’re most likely going to fall out over her.
Why can’t Raven and her father do that? What could have happened that’s so bad they can’t even attempt to fix it? I decide not to ask though I’m dying to know. Raven’s face closed off at the mention of not seeing him, and I don’t want her to feel like I’m interrogating her. That’s not how to get her to talk.
“I had a sister, but she died,” she says.
“I’m sorry,” I say.
It’s not just a reflex reaction. I can see the pain on Raven’s face, and despite myself, I find myself warming to her. Whatever happened between her and her father really seems to have upset her, and growing up without her mom and then losing her sister couldn’t have been easy...
Even now.
“Enough depressing talk.” Raven smiles. “That’s sure not what we signed up for today, is it?”
I shake my head, but I’m intrigued to know more. I don’t know why, but I feel like learning more about Raven’s family is the key to finding out exactly who she is and why I feel like there’s so much more to her than what we know. Maybe it could even explain why there’s this tiny voice in the back of my mind that insists she’s familiar somehow.
“Tell me about your time in New York,” I say.
She begins to tell me a bunch of stories about her time as a model in the city, and I find myself drawn into them. She’s quite funny when I let myself forget that I hate her, and I find myself asking her questions about her time as a model, not to get information but because I’m genuinely interested.
I catch myself warming to her and I make an effort to draw back into myself. She’s still talking, but I’ve mostly switched off now, just nodding and making the right noises in the right places. I wait until she finishes her story and try to steer the conversation back to her childhood.
“Whereabouts did you live when you were a little girl?” I ask. “When your family moved to New York?”
“I don’t remember much about that time. I was so young,” Raven says. “But I do remember the shopping malls being a lot better than this one.”
I get the distinct impression she’s purposely dodging the question, but I can’t think of any way to bring it back up without looking like I’m onto her, and if there’s one thing I want to avoid, it’s that. I have to get her to drop her defenses around me and tell me something useful and not feel like I’ve somehow drawn it out of her or manipulated her into talking.
“Are you ready to carry on shopping?” Raven smiles at me.
I nod my head and I’m sure I see a look of relief on her face that my questions are done for now. Even if I’m wrong about her being a part of the Boundless, there’s definitely something in her past that she doesn’t want me to know about. Probably
