The Undercover Bad Boy

Chapter Thirty-Three: 3:02 am

Chapter Thirty-Three: 3:02 am

The same evening, after exiting Carl's apartment, I asked Jimmy to drop me off at my Aunt's house. By Aunt's house I meant Zach's. I was almost one hundred per cent certain that he would turn the car around right then and there if he found out the truth about where I was going.

When I exited the vehicle, Jimmy rolled down his window. "Do you have a way home?" he enquired, being genuinely considerate.

Nope.

"Yeah, my Aunt said she would drop me off home. Don't worry about it." I smiled as convincingly as I could. "I'll see you tomorrow?"

We had made plans to meet up with Carl again; the main reason being Zach, the second reason being that Jimmy seemed to have taken to him. Bug-murderer Carl was decent, I would give him that.

"Yeah, see you," Jimmy replied, waving me a goodbye.

I made sure to wait till he turned the corner before I walked up to the ice-covered doorstep, trying extra hard not to slip.

The person who answered the door was not the grey-eyed, messy haired boy who I had disastrous and toxic feelings for but, in fact, his mother. She saved no time for pleasantries, frowning down at me with a placid expression. She spoke only three words but they were enough to confirm any suspicions that had formed in the time-space of two hours.

"He's not here."

My heart sunk. God, I wanted to trust Zach but this made it increasingly difficult.

Before she could cast me back into the darkness, I stuck my foot in the doorway. "Do you know where he is?"

"No idea."

And that was that.

***

It was precisely 3:02 am when my phone buzzed, awakening me from my greatly needed sleep. Half conscious, I fumbled around until my fingers came into contact with my phone. I made out One new voicemail received through half shut eyes. More alert now, I unlocked the phone to discover it was from the one and only Zachary Edwards.

What the hell.

I sat upwards, debating whether I should listen to his voice when it was three am and I was lonely or later in the morning when I was more cognisant. He hadn't talked to me in days, why now? Without hesitation, I placed my phone back on my bedside table and returned back into the comfort of pillows and blankets. No longer than thirty seconds later, my brain couldn't handle the different possibilities of the contents of the voicemail. This resulted in me, once again, picking up my phone and opening it.

I could hear the sounds of thumping music and shouting in the background. Where the hell was he?

"Alex. Alexxxxx," he slurred. It was strange hearing him say my name.

A brief pause.

"God dammit. I love you."

I felt my breath hitch in my throat.

I locked my phone and cast it aside, not wanting to touch it anymore. In that moment, all I wanted was for him to knock at my door and everything to be back to normal. As much as I tried stopping it, "I love you" was what my mind kept repeating and repeating and repeating until I was violently dragged back into the seas of unconsciousness.

***

"Hot damn," Jimmy said, tapping his fingernail on a now empty plate.

"So, is everyone clear with the plan?" Carl asked for the third time that afternoon.