Innocence

Chapter Ten - Lock Your Doors... And Windows.

Picture of Alice to the side! I love her she's so adorable :3

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My mind had been on that phone call between Paul and me for the rest of the week, which means I could barely pay attention in class or keep up conversation with anyone I talked too. What had Paul meant? How did he know where I lived? Tyler had come over every single day after school, so Paul apparently wouldn’t make any moves with him inside my house. But what will happen when Tyler left? I started to think of my mother and Courtney. Would they be safe when I wasn’t around? My thoughts were all over the place, but the one main question stayed right in the centre of them all; should I tell Tyler?

Telling Tyler would most likely lead to Tyler tracking down Paul and then killing him – something I didn’t want to happen, no matter how bad Paul was. I even considered telling Damien and James at one stage, but it then occurred to me that they might go and tell Tyler.

Another thing that was on my mind was Hayden. He was an okay guy to befriend, but often stared at me in a really weird way, which Daniel and Alice had even noticed while he was around us. They told me to keep my distance, but the curious side of me wanted to investigate and find out what the looks were all about.

The good news was that Daniel and Amanda had finally gotten together as an official couple. Alice, the twins, and myself could barely contain our squeals and smiles when they had come strolling into school on Friday holding each other’s hands and Amanda laughing at something Daniel had said.

Saturday rolled by and I found myself locked up in my room starting on my essay for English. It wasn’t due for another 4 weeks, but I wanted to get it over and done with. Courtney and my mum had gone out to buy a few things for the house and hopefully treat themselves with something new as well, so I was home alone.

I had just plugged my earphones into my ears and was about to press play when my phone screen changed and revealed that ‘BLOCKED ID’ was calling me. I frowned at the screen for a split second before my blood turned cold and I froze in my position. Could it be…?  I stared at the green ‘answer’ button for a while before I decided to ignore it until it went to voicemail. As soon as the phone had stopped ringing, I bolted out of my room to the front door to check that it was locked. Thankfully, it was. I ran to the back and saw that it was also locked. Phew. I was safe.

Until the thought that Paul was part of a gang and that locked doors were not an issue to them dawned on me. Panic instantly ran through me again and I ran to my room and locked my door behind me and decided to put my desk chair in front of it to be safe.

I went to my phone and found that the blocked caller had called again and the panic had risen. I let out a shaky breath then unlocked my phone and went to Tyler’s contact. I thought about it for a moment and decided to go against calling him. I didn’t want him to freak out and do anything irrational. I decided to play it safe and call Damien instead. He answered on the third ring. “Blondie. Unexpected call, but never a bad time to talk to you. What’s up? Do you miss Tyler and want to mope to me? If that’s the case, he’s right next to me if you want to talk to-”

I cut him off quickly. “No! Damien no matter what do not tell Tyler at all! I don’t want him to freak out. I- I think Paul is outside my house. H- He called me earlier this week and kind of… I don’t know, implied that he was going to do something bad to me and my family. I don’t know what to do. He’s called twice now, and I think he’s outside and please come.” I said the last words in a whisper, unable to trust my already shaky voice.

“What’s wrong with her? Is she okay? Why is she calling you and not me?” I faintly heard Tyler say on the other end of the line. The last question stung me. He sounded hurt.