Chasing a New Sunrise

Chapter 9

Mom and I have both been on edge for the past few days and sleep has been almost non-existent for me. Every time I fall asleep my alarm goes off an hour or two later. It's affecting me in school, because I've almost fallen asleep in pretty much every class, art being the worst of them, enough for Levi to have to nudge me several times in order to wake me.

I lay in bed wondering what the weekend has in store for me. Tonight is Shae's party and as much as I'm looking forward to spending some time with her outside of school and practice before the party, the exhaustion is real and I just hope I make it to the party without napping.

It's just after two in the morning and I can actually feel myself kind of nodding off when a crash of glass jolts me up out of bed. My heart beats so hard in my chest that the feeling of it actually hurts. My door flies open and mom is standing there in her white nightgown half out of it. Her face matches her nightgown.

"What was that?" I question.

"The front window just had a brick thrown through it, I was walking to the bathroom when I saw it fly through the window."

My chest tightens, it's starting again.

"Mrs. Adams? Morgan?"

Ethan's worried voice carries through the apartment. Without thinking about my appearance I throw the blankets off of me and run for the living room. Glass crunches under his shoe.

"Ethan!"

He's staring down at the mess on the floor.

"Wait!" he yells.

I stop just inches away from a huge shard of glass, with bare feet that would have not been good.

"What happened?" he questions.

"I don't know," I say, my voice wavering.

I feel mom walking over behind me, she stands a few inches apart surveying the damage.

"Is everyone okay?" he asks.

Mom and I nod, although I'm okay physically - emotionally I'm drained.

"There should be some wood to board up the window in the tool shed, but only you have access to it," he says. "I can help get it fixed until you can get someone here," he says.

A soft breeze blows through causing the peach curtains to roll like waves in the ocean. I stare from him to the window and do it several times, because I can't believe what I'm seeing.

"Yes, I have the keys. Give me a minute."

Mom disappears leaving Ethan and I alone in the room. He doesn't miss a beat, within a second he's by my side wrapping his arms around me in a hug.

"I'm sorry," he whispers in my ear, "you look like you could have used a hug."

I realize that my arms are still straight at my side, slowly I lift them and put them around his body. A shudder goes through me and I let a few tears fall onto his white t-shirt. When I step back I realize he's in flannel pj's and looks like he just rolled out of bed.

"My mom had just gotten home and I was awake when we both heard the commotion from our kitchen."

"I ... I don't know what happened," I whisper.

"Do you think it could have anything to do with that guy taking photos of you?"

By Tuesday pretty much everyone in the little circle I associate myself in knew about the man taking pictures. Angela was watching me like a hawk like she was trying to figure out what someone would want with me, and probably why they weren't taking pictures of her.