“Then use the phone.”
He turned and looked at me. “I couldn’t see you through the phone. Look, Milayna, I… I still care what happens to you even though we aren’t together.”
I looked at him, studied his expression. It was neutral, passive. “I can’t figure you out.”
“Yeah, well, you aren’t the only one.” He shrugged a shoulder.
“You are so infuriating, Chay. Why do you always have to be evasive with everything you say?” I yelled.
“Keeps me mysterious,” he said with a twitch of his lips.
“No, it makes you freakin’ irritating.”
“Milayna, I think you have bigger things to worry about than me.”
“Yeah. I guess you’re right. I won’t call.”
“Huh?”
“If I need anything. You said to let you know. I won’t, Chay. I’m done.” I turned and walked into the house. The door slammed behind me.
I stood with my back leaning against the door, my head turned toward the window. I watched Chay jump the fence and jog into the darkness beyond. A shadow slinked around a large oak following him as he passed by.
20
Someone You Trust
Monday and Tuesday, I got a free pass from school. The swelling hadn’t gone down, and I was still painted in beautiful shades of purple and blue. Rather than field a lot of questions and try to find plausible explanations for injuries—you could only use the falling down stairs excuse so many times—I stayed home and watched daytime television. People on game shows got entirely too excited. I loved watching them.
Monday night, I had the dream again. I bolted upright in bed, breathing hard. My sweat-drenched skin was covered in goose flesh. Shivering, I rubbed my hands up and down my arms to warm them. I wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the dream—probably a little of both.
I’d thought the dream was gone for good. I mean, Chay broke up with me. He already stabbed me, metaphorically speaking. Why was I dreaming about it again? I saw myself through his eyes as he plunged the dagger into my stomach. I saw the look of terror on my face as he stood and watched me bleed on the kitchen floor. Saw him look down and wipe the blood off the knife on his pant leg, the metallic blade acting as a mirror, reflecting his image.
Dangling my feet over the side of the bed, I sat with my face in my hands, a puddle of warm tears growing in my palm. Sniffing, I wiped my hand on my sweatpants before swiping away the tears from my cheeks. I stood and walked to the bathroom, slipping a sweatshirt over my head on the way. Pulling out a bottle of pain reliever, I downed two tablets, drinking water out of the tap like a water fountain. Then I made my way downstairs.
It was three o’clock and he was there.
I froze at the foot of the stairs, looking out the window in the living room. His shadowy figure stood on the sidewalk in front of our house.
“Again? Don’t you ever sleep?” I whispered in the dark room.
“Apparently not.”
I screamed and whirled around. “What are you doing here, Chay?” I said through clenched teeth.
“Watching shadow man out there.”
“How long has he been here?” I watched the man outside. He’d moved when I screamed. Now he knew we were watching him watch us.
“I don’t know. I’ve been here an hour.”
I hate that my dad gave you a key.
“Who is it?” The person was too far away from the streetlight for me to tell who it was, but I had a feeling it was either Jake or Rod.
“I’m pretty sure it’s Jake.” Chay stretched his legs out in front of him.
“Why haven’t you called the police?”
“Figured I’d see how long he’d hang around.”
“Well, I don’t like him out there. It creeps me out.”
I walked to the front door and flipped the lock open. Chay was beside me before I could open the door. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me around to look at him.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going outside to see what he wants.”
Isn’t that fairly obvious?
“Why on earth would you go traipsing out there to talk to a guy who did that to your face?” Chay whispered. He dropped my wrist and leaned back on his heels to look at me. “Is that what you were doing?” A smile tugged on his lips.
“Yeah, so?”
Chay chuckled. “We should go see Uncle Stewart for a milkshake when you feel better.” As soon as the words crossed his lips, he realized his mistake.
“There is no ‘we’ anymore. You saw to that.”
He reached up and tugged gently on a lock of hair before sliding it behind my ear. “Yeah, I guess the friend thing is out, huh?”
“I don’t want to be your friend, Chay. It’s bad enough we’re stuck together in the same demi group. Otherwise, I’d choose to not see you at all.”
Jerking the door open, I was outside before he could stop me. I immediately wished I stayed inside, or at least looked out the window to see what my stalker was doing, because when I crossed the threshold, I came nose to chest with Jake.