Zander stood behind Luke in the hotel lobby as he anxiously looked around, eyes on him. He could feel eyes on him. Earlier pn he was having a laugh and a joke about it, but the reality of it all was kind of setting in. He didn't know what would've happened to him if he hadn't called Luke when he did. He nervously picked at the label of the coffee he had in his hand, it was cold, it somewhat soothed him, his skin was burning, be it from his nerves or the fact he and Luke sprinted here after seeing another camera flash, he doesn't know. He felt his head whip around to look outside with every rustle of a bush, every gust of wind. He could tell Luke was also on edge, maybe that was scaring him more than the situation itself. Luke was on edge. So he wasn't being delusional.
He was pulled from his thoughts with a gentle hand on his shoulder, he didn't completely freak out, he knew immediately who the hand belonged to, his love, the only person he felt protected and safe around.
"Come on Zander, I've got the room, let's go." He spoke gently, Zander always loved that about him. He couldn't stand boisterous voices, they drove him insane, but Luke's was always so soft and soothing, like soft waves slowly sweeping onto the sand of a lonesome beach at night. His voice always seemed to calm Zander, no matter the circumstance. No more words were spoken as they made their way up to the room, Zander took out his phone to text his mum. Just to let her know where he was.
But as soon as they entered the room, they were met with the sound of stones being thrown at their window, Zander wasted no time rushing over to the window and shutting the blinds, while Luke turned off the lights. Zander turned around to look a Luke, who wore a similar worried expression to his own. The stones kept coming at the window, Luke walked forward to gently walk Zander backwards from the window.
"They can probably still see your shadow if they take another picture with flash, so just keep away from the window, okay?" Luke spoke as he and Zander sat on the double bed.
Zander just sighed. "I mean I guess-.. Why are they even following me? I'm not that interesting.."
"It could be anything..maybe it's a prank, you only noticed today, right? You're an alert person, you would've noticed sooner!"
"I'm an alert person, but that doesn't mean things can't slip by me. God know how long this has been going on for! And nobodies noticed!?"
Luke just sighed as he pat Zanders shoulder, "Alright honey, the best we can do for now is try to be optimistic! You're only making yourself feel worse.."
"I sincerely apologise for being worried that someone's following me home and taking photos of me, that's my bad."
"..You know I didn't mean that." Luke sighed. "If it continues then I'll look for them myself!" Luke grinned. "But if its a 7'6" man you'll run away." "I will LOVINGLY run away." "You can't just add lovingly to everything as if that makes it better!" "...did it make it better..?" "Depends." "Fuck do you mean depends? Like, does it depends on if I run at 6 miles an hour or 7 miles?" "Yeah." "Well Ill lovingly run away at 7 miles per hour." "Ok! That's fine then!"
Luke just sighed as he sat back. He opened his phone to check the time, but then he noticed some notifications he had, images were sent. He never heard his phone buzz, he just shrugged as he opened the message and his blood ran cold.
Numerous pictures of Zander. All from different angles, all from different days, all from different times. Some were from him at his locker, some were of him walking home in the dark, some were of him in the corner shop, where Luke could see Zander looking at the camera shocked as the flash illuminated his face, this must've been when Zander recognised he was being captured on photo. These dated back ages ago, he could tell it easily just from his bag, Luke often gifted Zander keychains to put on his school bag, with each photo, there seemed to be a new keychain on his bag, signifying this had been ongoing for months. His bag had no keychains on it, then a purple bear, then several more keychains, and more and more and more.
He could feel Zanders eyes on him, he must be confused.
"..Luke..? What's wrong..?" He asked, worried.
Luke abruptly stood up. "Nothing- I uh.. I'll be just a minute!" He attempted a smile as he headed into the bathroom and locked the door. He felt physically ill. But then more pictures came through, pictures of Stacy. One was taken behind a classroom door, which had clear evidence of her destroying Zanders painting, Luke knew she couldn't tell the person was there. Then there was André, the picture of him and Zander on the bench that day, Zander looking repulsed whilst André pretty much had hearts in his eyes. Then there was Daisy and Zander... In the head student lounge-!? How did they even manage that-!? As Luke kept on looking through, he eventually stumbled across one that made him tightly grip his phone, hand pressed over his mouth, he was genuinely going to throw up. A picture that was taken from bushes. A picture of a home. And on the roof of that home, sat him and his boyfriend, the night he found him drunk. Someone was watching.
