Girls of Portland

Chapter Six: Juniper

I dozed off after a while. I need my sleep.

When I finally woke up, Felicity's mom was standing over me.

"Hey, Juniper. Thank you for taking care of Felicity. I'll pay you at the end of the month," she whispered as she gently pulled me up from the sofa. I blinked.

"What? Oh ok, no problem," I said as I looked at the clock. 1:26. "I should be getting home now. Bye, Mrs. Ghapo."

I grabbed my bag and shuffled lethargically outside. The earlier events were buzzing around in my head. First, the strange phone call and then Harper coming over. I shoved the thoughts out of my head because I knew that I had complete control over Harper. I got into my car and started the engine. My apartment was about ten minutes away, which wasn't usually a problem, but now in the darkness of the morning, I was getting a little spooked out. I turned on the music to keep myself occupied.

Ads. More ads. Why ads at one in the morning? Something caught my eye in the rear view mirror. I looked up and saw a dark, black van trailing after me.It's probably nothing, Juniper, I told myself. It's just someone going home at 1:30 in the morning, just like you are. After about six minutes, I realized that whoever was in the car lived in my apartment, or was a creepy stalker. I turned into some deserted roads, and then some narrow dirt trails, but after a while I turned onto the street in front of my apartment and sure enough the black van was behind me. I waited for the small possibility that it was nothing and that the car would just zoom past me. It didn't. The van stopped and I saw the car door open. I froze, my eyes wide as I stared at the shadowy figure looming closer. You're such an idiot, Juniper. I turned the engine on again and slowly reversed hoping to scare the man away. What are you doing? What if it's an innocent man? You could kill him! You've done it before.

I switched out of reverse and drove away; but not before I heard something hit the back of my car.I turned around and saw a huge hole in the back, while glass fell and sprayed me.

"You idiot! That was an expensive car!" I screamed to no one in particular. "My mom gave it to me!" I drove around wildly while screaming for no reason. I felt blood on my face. I turned around, hoping to catch the license plate of maybe a glimpse of the man's face. I know it seems like a stupid thing to do, but I was not going to the police without a substantial piece of evidence. I didn't want to go at all. That place makes me nervous.

Just as I came up, the man got into his car and drove off. I got the model of the car and the first three letters of the license plate. I slowly parked and waited for a little bit to make sure he was truly gone and that there were no other creepy, glass breaking people out there.I got out after a while and went to the back of the car and stared at the hole. I was too scared to touch it.

A memory instantly came to me.

"Wait, is this for me?" I exclaimed, staring in disbelief at the new, shiny black car parked in front of me. My mom hugged me.

"Yes. I knew you really wanted one."

"But it's so expensive! How much was it?" I asked.

"That's not important."

"Nice car," I turned around and saw Harper walk up the driveway towards me. She barely acknowledged my mom.

"Thanks. My mom got it for me," I grinned up at my mom.

"Oh, that's a first," she mumbled. I ignored her. My mom pasted a small smile on her face and asked,

"Harper, would you like to eat something?"

"No."

"Alright then, Juniper, take Harper for a ride, and treat her to something," my mom replied.

"Ok! Do you want to come Harper?" I wasn't too pleased about this arrangement, but whatever.

"Sure."

"My mom gets me stuff," I said as we drove along the road.

Harper stared outside the window.