The Resident

Chapter 31

These texts went on for about 2 weeks. And then the calls started. Hang ups. Breathing. Silence. A girl sounding like she was using a fake voice, making sex sounds. This was getting on my nerves now. I was ready to go to the police to try and see who it was. I had soooo many blocked numbers on my phone, I started unblocking them, figuring the person wouldn't use the old numbers I'd already blocked. I was right. There was never a reused number.
I talked to Stanley about it and he said the person was probably using a temporary number app. It gives you a number to use for like a week, then it expires. So who knows how many apps they were using to get THIS many numbers, but it seemed like someone needed to get a fucking life, BADLY.

Then one day a call came in and Janel answered it, because I was napping. She didn't usually answer my phone, but sometimes she did, for me.
She said hello and the person on the other line, obviously a woman, asked for me. Janel told her I was sleeping. The woman then got nasty with Janel, asking who the fuck Janel was, and why was she answering HER boyfriend's phone, and he better not be cheating on her.....Janel was like WTF?
She waited until I woke up to tell me about it. She was pretty mad. I thought it was cute though, how Janel was so pissed off and jealous and wondering what the hell was going on, but yet, she still let me sleep. I tried to make light of it, thinking she'd understand, just like that first text I told her about, but she wasn't as understanding this time.
I asked her why, and she said because SHE had gotten a strange call earlier that day, saying that her boyfriend was cheating on her, and had been cheating on her for the past year, and it was all a lie, and he doesn't want me, but feels bad for me, so he stays until he can figure out a way to leave, etc.
So she had been wondering all morning, and now this call on MY phone.....
Ahhh. So that's why she was kind of quiet today. Not in her usual peppy, loving mood.
I tried to reassure her, but she seemed like she wasn't convinced. She wanted to be convinced, I could tell she was going through a little bit of mental back and forth torture. But I tried my best to convince her that someone was messing with us. Probably because they were jealous of what we had. She was still mostly quiet the rest of the day.

The next day, Janel got the mail downstairs, and came up with a small yellow packing envelope.
She tossed the other stuff down on the table, just bills, and she looked in the folder.
There were pictures. Three of them.
I saw instant horror, shock and hurt on her face when she saw them. Her eyes glazed over with tears.
I jumped off the couch and went over to see what they were.

They were of ME.
And a woman.
Kissing. Hugging. Holding hands.
I'd never seen this woman in my life.
It was obviously photoshopped, but I couldn't tell, cause it was a really good photoshop job, if I did say so myself.
I grabbed them and looked at each one close up. Inspecting everything about it.
Janel walked over and sat on the couch. But I was too busy looking for the photoshop evidence. Fans did this sort of stuff all the time. I'd seen it on the internet. Some of the fans were really good at it.
As was this one.
I couldn't find the evidence I needed. It looked fucking real. Like, REALLY real. Only I knew it wasn't.
I looked over at Janel finally. She was sitting still, staring at the coffee table in front of her, in obvious distress.
I tossed the pics on the table and rushed over and sat next to her. Damage control time. Now I was really fucking pissed off that someone was messing with us this badly. Making Janel hurt. I never wanted her to have another bad day in her life, if I could at all help it. And now her heart was breaking over someone's sick idea of a fucking joke. It was fucking killing me inside. How fucking DARE they!?
I was going to the police TODAY. It had to be the same person who's been calling and texting.

I put my arm around Janel and started to say her name, but she pushed my arm away and kept staring at the coffee table.
Fuck.
"Babe...you can not POSSIBLY believe this crap, right? Are you kidding me?? Someone is fucking with us, BIGtime. Someone photoshopped those pictures. You KNOW how much I love you, Janel. You KNOW how dedicated I am to you. You KNOW all this. I can't believe you'd even give it a second thought that I would EVER cheat on you! Babe!!!
Babe? Come ON! Give me a break! Don't let this psycho person win! Please, babe! Talk to me." I pleaded with her. I just really couldn't wrap my head around the fact that she'd believe someone's prank over my actual love! I thought she KNEW how much I loved her.