FATHER ALWAYS SMILING

Chapter 39 ~~~~~

WARNING!!

This chapter will contain acts of violence towards young adults/children as well as hinting themes of sexual abuse/sexual assault and child murder/death. If this is something that triggers you then please do not read!

Why?

Why was Nick here? He had no reason—

Understanding hit me like I had been punched in the stomach.

He planned this, didn't he?

My locker, being in the classroom, the CD. All of it.

Nick wanted me to be here, for me to come back, possibly when no one else was around.

I swallowed. This was bad.

Very, very bad.

He did this on purpose so that I'd be here, but why?

For now, I remained silent, the USB was hidden in the pocket of my yellow long-sleeved dress. I'd rather wait and see what he would do than just jump to something that might be wrong. I needed to be careful.

I gripped part of my dress, pressing my hand to my phone and pressing the number 2 button twice would send a message to my Dad. If I hit twice, it would send an S.O.S. It was something Dad told me to do when he first got me a phone last year. He told me to do this if I ever felt unsafe.

Now more than ever.

"Hmm? Amalie, what are you doing here? You should be at home." He said while ignoring Elain.

I gripped Elain's hand. "I forgot something that I needed to do for school. Someone messed with my locker and I didn't remember until much later."

"You were being bullied a lot by that girl, guess she and her group had something to do with that."

I didn't respond, Mia still didn't like me all the much, and the same for me, but we ended up on some kind of understanding. I think... she might have been glad that I was trying to do something that others wouldn't or couldn't.

"But if that's true," Nick continued. "Where's your father?"

My grip tightened on Elain's hand, his tone of voice changed when he asked about my Dad. It made the hair on my neck stand up.

"Her Dad's on the way," Elain said suddenly, drawing Nick's attention, Elain had kept herself between me and Nick while watching him. Her face was blank with emotion not giving away anything. I knew it was a bad time to think this but she looked cool. "He'll be here in just a few minutes."

I noticed how Nick's expression changed faintly like he was annoyed but it quickly went away a moment later. "Is that so? I thought it was a little strange for her to come with someone else besides her father."

"I'm her babysitter," Elain told him as she nudge me to stay behind her as we walked towards the door and into the hall past Nick. "Excuse us, sir."

"But it's strange," Nick said suddenly. "Is her father really coming? Or are you just lying to try and buy more time?"

I froze, worried about how this was going to go, but then Elain did something unexpected. "I could ask the same thing... it's strange that it's just you here. Normally there would still be teachers or cleaning staff but there's no one." Her blue and brown eyes glared at Nick. "Just what the hell are you planning to do to Amalie?" she growled like an animal.