He cleared his throat again before he said, "I've been away the last few weeks and found this in my mailbox when I got home a few moments ago. It is addressed to you, but has my apartment number on it instead of yours."
I wanted to throat punch him. I used the light from the hallway outside of my apartment to look back inside and lock my eyes on the clock hanging on the wall behind me, it was twenty past three in the morning.
Couldn't he have just waited till morning before he delivered it to me?
I sighed as I turned back to Mr. Pervert, who was back to looking at my body. I reached out and gripped the envelope and gave it a little tug until Mr. Pervert released it.
"Thanks, I appreciate you goin' out of your way to make sure I get me post." I faked a smile and then pulled the hand that now held the envelope away until it was tucked safely behind my door - along with the rest of my body - so Mr. Pervert couldn't see me anymore.
He blinked a few times and looked at my face, because it was now all that he could see.
"It was no problem at all, sweetheart."
Sweetheart?
Bleh!
I smiled and nodded my head as I inched my door closed. "Good night."
"Good-" I closed the door before he could finish his sentence.
I shook off my shivers then I relocked all of the locks on and closed the bolt at the top of the door. I breathed a sigh of relief when I heard Mr. Pervert's footsteps trot back across the hall and into his own apartment where he closed the door behind him. I looked at the envelope in my hand and decided to open it because I was curious as to what was inside it. I couldn't see very well because the hallway was still dark but I knew it wasn't a bill, it didn't feel like the envelope bills came in, it was thicker. From what I had seen it looked nicer than a bill envelope. Fancier.
I headed into my kitchen that also doubled as my sitting room and flicked on the light. I tossed the envelope on the kitchen table and went to the counter drawers to look for my envelope cutter. I found it after only a second of looking, but had to put it down when I heard my phone ring from my bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion.
Who the hell would be calling me at twenty past three in the morning?
"Aideen," I said out loud and headed in the direction of my bedroom.
Aideen Collins was my best friend. She was the closest thing I had to a sister and I loved her dearly, but she had her moments when she royally pissed me off. Ringing me at twenty past three in the morning was one of those moments.
When I got to the phone in my bedroom and pressed answer, I said, "You'd better have a good reason for ringin' me at this hour Aideen Collins or I am goin' kick seven shades of shite outta you!"
I heard a deep, rumbling chuckle.
"She does have a good reason, so you don't need to kick any shade of shit out of her," a male voice replied, it made me jump with fright because I wasn't expecting it.
"Who are you? Where is Aideen? Why do you have her phone?" I asked then gasped and shouted, "If you have hurt me friend in any way I'm goin' to fuck you up!"
The stranger laughed this time and said, "Is that a promise, kitten?"
Ex-fucking-cuse me?
"Where is Aideen? You better tell me right now or I'm gonna-"
"Fuck me up? Yeah, I got that part," he chuckled again then before he could say anything else I heard a different male voice speak, "I asked you to ring the girl's friend, Alec. What the hell is taking so long?"
I mentally made a note of the name Alec in case I had to call the Garda.
"I'm talking to her friend, but I haven't been able to tell her the point of my call. She is too busy threatening to 'fuck me up' if I have hurt the girl," the lad who called me laughed.
I was mad and also scared as to where Aideen was and who these foreign guys were. I knew they weren't Irish or even English - their accents sounded too different - but I couldn't pinpoint where they were from because there was a lot of background noise. It sounded like music.
"Just tell her what I told you to say so she can get here already," the second lad said to the one who called me.
The lad who called me sighed and said, "Keela, I'm calling to let you know your friend Aiden was in a fight and we need you to come pick her up. She told me to call you."
"Her name is Aideen not Aiden, it's pronounced Ay-deen," I said then widened my eyes when I comprehended the rest of what he had just told me. I screamed, "Is she okay? What happened? Who hurt her?"
"Calm down, hellcat. She is fine, we just need you to come and collect her. I'll explain everything once you get here."
"Where is 'here'?" I snapped as I moved around my room pulling on my shoes. I grabbed my car keys from my bedside table as I held my phone to my ear with my shoulder.
"Playhouse, it's a nightclub right beside -"