A Selfie to Die For

10) No is not an option

There was unfortunately  no further elaboration from Peter. His sister arrived and started honking her car horn to get him to leave. Emily asked Peter if she could keep the charcoal drawing, and he happily gave it to her. The boy seemed too elated over the prospect of signing up for the upcoming school art show to care about much else.
He was utterly oblivious to something being wrong with a creepy man in the background of the picture.
Emily stared at the charcoal drawing, not quite knowing what to make of it. Peter ignored other details about the class room - the girl sitting on her right, or the older woman on her left. He mostly focused on Emily and the area behind her, and that's where the hooded figure stood in the far back window.
Emily had a hard time removing her gaze from the drawing clutched in her hands. She wanted to assume that the hooded figure was just something random that Peter drew in, but she didn't really have time to question him on it. Even still, the boy seemed adamant enough there had been someone behind Emily as he drew it. He was gushing how he captured the entire moment.
 As she reached truck, Emily shoved her key into her front door to unlock it only to come across something surprising.
The outdated truck was already unlocked.

"I know I locked you..." Emily said quietly to herself, a frown building as she specifically remembered the event of locking her truck earlier in the day. She knows she did it. Or at least she could've sworn she did. Emily slowly opened the truck door that allowed the lights to show on the inside. It was unfortunately dark outside now, even with the outside overhead lights of the parking lot she couldn't see into her truck bed with opening her truck and allowing the light to illuminate the front and backseat.

All the doors were unlocked. Every last one of them showed the little button pressed upwards. Emily slowly opened the back door of the truck,  determined to make sure no one was hiding in the backseat. It's been years since she's sat around a campfire listening to spooky stories regarding urban legends, but to this day the one that scared Emily the most was idea of someone hiding in the backseat without her knowledge.



Luckily, there was no one to be found. A black sedan two rows over suddenly roars to life, starting Emily. It speeds out of the parking lot within a couple second time frame.


__________________________________________




Emily showed her parents the drawing as well as relaying the entire conversation regarding it the following morning. Her mother was quick to dismiss someone was lurking outside the YMCA watching her as she was in class. Madison pointed out a multitude of reasons for why Emily shouldn't be so quick to believe Peter. There were seven other people in the class who didn't see someone lurking outside. Surely at least someone would've made mention if a hooded person was standing in the background long enough for Peter to draw them in.





Emily's spoke of Peter before, therefore Madison was well aware that Peter has special needs. She dismissed the idea that someone was lurking outside and encouraged Emily to realize it was just Peter's overactive imagination coming to light.
It was an easy enough thing to believe for Emily. Peter drew a before and after picture last week of Principal Moore in his human form and also his alien one. It was complete with green skin and large oval eyes along with a spacesuit. 
It showed that the kid wasn't exactly an ideal witness.




As Emily dressed herself in a simple peasant skirt and thin white t-shirt for the day, she heard the front door closing downstairs  along with her mother greeting someone enthusiastically.
"Well done Jake, you actually used the front door" Emily snorted, shaking her head as she slung her backpack over her shoulder and made her way downstairs.
It was when she was outside the kitchen door that her father caught her. "Gimme a hug, kid! You're not gonna see me for a few days" Tom yawned, grabbing his youngest child in a side hug.





Emily laughed. "You running away? Because if you and mom are, I want to tag along to Disney World" she nodded seriously, suppressing a grin. 





"Psh..." Her dad snorts. "You know that's only in the cards for your Ma and I when we finally send you off to college. Anyway, I will be out of town this week, mom's car is back from the shop. I had the SafeLock guy finish putting in the new security system. We got every door hooked on to it as well as all the downstairs windows. The upstairs ones aren't manageable considering how old the house is, but really the only way to get to the second story windows is your room anyhow."





"Thanks dad" Emily sighed happily. She was incredibly thankful after that cat ball incident that her parents decided to go through with purchasing the home security system they'd been talking about for awhile. How it worked was when any certain door or window is opened or broken through a small alarm started beeping. You then have ten seconds to start punching in an access code before an insanely loud siren blares through the house and the police are automatically called.




"Oh, and you might want  to rescue your friend before your Ma overstuffs the guy on pancakes" her dad nodded gravely before planting a kiss on her head and walking away.
That comment was odd to Emily. Tom's never referred to Jake as your friend . Mostly, he just called him by his name or a silly reference as, the guy who'll eat us out of house and home. Emily pushed open the kitchen door, shocked to find Declan sitting at the kitchen table while happily conversing with her mother.
He was sitting calmly at the table, dressed in what appeared to be expensive sweater vest and equally expensive pants that looked to cost a pretty penny.




"Aww that's so sweet, Emily didn't mention that you two were going to prom." Madison cooed, bustling around the kitchen.






Emily's brows rose in surprise. There was a reason she didn't mention such a thing. Declan never asked her.
She frowned watching Declan smile warmly at her mother, the memory of yesterday coming back and burning bright. Emily wasn't quite sure what annoyed her more this morning, his cold behavior to Peter, or the way he hit her with the door yesterday and seemed to enjoy doing it.
One thing Emily knew for certain was she didn't think starting a full-blow relationship with Declan was really the best thing she could do for herself. She was starting to like him, but yesterday had been a little too weird for her.