Trust Me

Chapter One

Chapter One -- 

It was the middle of the night, and someone was walking around downstairs.  Anna could hear the creak of the old wood floorboards as whoever-it-was prowled their house under cover of night.  She listened as he thumped his way through the kitchen cupboards, no doubt looking for the Cheerios so that he could poison tomorrow's breakfast.

Anna took a deep breath.  You're fine, she told herself, it's nothing.  Old houses creak all the time, and it doesn't mean anything.  She closed her eyes and buried herself under the covers.

Two seconds later, her eyes flew open.  She had definitely heard something this time.  It was the downstairs window, shattering.  It was the kitchen sink, water running.  It was...the pipes.  The boiler.  It was nothing.

But Anna's heart would not stop pounding.  She could not force herself to go back to sleep, no matter how hard she tried.  Slowly, she slipped out of bed, her bare feet shrinking against the cold floorboards.  She hated hardwood floors.  She missed the soft, carpeted hallway of her old home...but she didn't want to think about that.

She crept out of her room and down the hall, carefully placing her feet to avoid the one spot on the floor where it creaked the most.  She softly turned the knob to her parents bedroom door and let herself in.

"Daddy?"  she whispered.  When he didn't stir, she forced her voice louder.  "Daddy, I heard something downstairs..."

Her dad grunted, pulling back the comforter and following her out into the hall.  She shrank back against the doorframe, embarrassed, as he went downstairs.

"It's nothing."  he said as he came back up the stairs, his voice heavy with sleep.

"Okay."  Anna crept back into her own room.  "Thanks."  she murmured.

Once she was safely back under the covers, she felt hot tears streaming down her cheeks.  It had been so long since she had last felt like this.  Before the move, everything was fine.  Before the move, she could sleep through a whole night without hearing phantom robbers and nonexistent murderers.  Before the move, she had thought that maybe she had been cured. 

 

***

 

The new girl in school was a sight.  And Jacob wasn't sure if that was a good thing.  

Take today, for example.  Anna Robertson flew into class a good two minutes before final bell, flustered and out of breath as though she'd been rushing.  Her hair was pulled up into a hasty bun, and her face was completely without makeup.  She didn't look bad, but she wasn't one of the classically beautiful girls that could throw on anything and look dazzling.  Anna just looked like she'd had a rough morning. 

As she plopped into the seat next to him, Jacob thought about ignoring her.  After all, she probably didn't need another welcome.  He was sure that after two weeks she probably had enough friends.  But, all the same he leaned over and smiled.

"Hey."  he said, his voice as bright as it got, which wasn't very bright at all.  And his smile was more of a smirk, actually, which is probably why Anna responded with an equally uninterested, tired smile of her own.

"Hi."

Jacob reminded himself that he was lucky she responded at all, because, as messy and rushed as she might be, she was still a girl, and girls tended to avoid him like the plague.

After a somewhat-awkward silence (really only awkward on his end, because Anna had already immersed herself in the series of geometry problems Mr. Hunt had printed on the board), Jacob tried again.

"Hey, it's Anna, right?"

Anna nodded, not even looking up.

"I'm Jacob."

This time, Anna glanced at him. "Nice to meet you."

Jacob mentally gave himself a high-five.  He was making progress!  Although, to be perfectly honest he didn't understand why he cared.  After this class period, when all the students currently huddled over their geometry books had rejoined the stream of teenagers filling the halls of their high school, he would pretend Anna didn't exist.  He would walk right on by, completely ignoring her.  But for now, she was his new best friend.

"Where are you from, again?"  Jacob asked when he saw her put her pencil down.  She turned to him, her blue eyes meeting his for a split second before she looked away.

"California."  Her voice was soft, shy.

"Oh, that's cool.  Do you like, know any movie stars?"  The minute it was out of his mouth, Jacob regretted the question.  She probably got asked that a million times.

But Anna just shook her head.  "I lived in the northern part of California.  Sort of by Monterey?"

"Oh..."  Jacob nodded and pretended he knew what she was talking about.  "So you've never been to LA?  Hollywood?"

She shook her head.  "Never."

"Huh."  Jacob turned back to face the board.  He hadn't even started doing the problems, and Mr. Hunt was starting to go over them.  When he turned back, Anna had glued her eyes on the board again, probably mentally kicking herself for carrying on a conversation with a complete loser like Jacob.

No big deal.  He was used to it.