Truth or Dare

Chapter 8: All Bark And No Bite

"So, Mike isn't your secret admirer. That's good, isn't it?" Tamara eyes me intensely, her lips curled slightly upwards in an attempt to ease my worry.

"I guess not", I sigh as I glance over at the message I received twenty minutes ago just as Mike left me after walking me home from our basketball practice.

From: Unknown

To: Linnea

Is something going on between you and Mike?

-N

Both Tamara and I take the message as a sign that my secret admirer, or more like stalker by now, isn't Mike. Sure, he could fake it. Maybe it is Mike who wonders what I feel for him but I don't believe that. Mike has no reason to stalker me either whatsoever. I mean, I do speak and hang out with him on a regular basis so why bother sending me anonymous texts?

"Did you want it to be him?" Tamara asks me as I don't speak for awhile and I quickly snap back to reality and blink a few times.

"What? No. Or yes. Or maybe. I don't know." I frustratedly run a hand through my tousled hair. "Of course, I don't want it to be him but, in one way I kinda hoped it was, just to put an end to it, you know?"

Tamara smiles sadly at me and wraps her arms around my shoulders. "I get it."

I rest my head against her and relax for a few seconds before my phone buzzes in my lap.

"Is it him?" Tamara asks as I read my new message and I sigh.

"Yeah, it's him." I turn my screen off again. "He wanted me to answer." I don't care about using the right personal pronouns anymore, all I care about is figuring out who the hell it is.

"And judging by what you just did, I guess you won't", Tamara states and I nod in agreement.

"I'm still kinda hoping he'll leave me alone if I ignore him long enough."

Before I have time to receive another message, I pull myself out of Tamara's embrace and grab all the stuff I will need in order to take a shower.

I'm almost by the door when I realize something and turn around.

"Maybe you should go to your room?" I smile, realizing Tamara is still here. Lily is out with some friends again and I don't know when she'll be back, but I don't think Tamara wants to wait for her when she lives only a few meters away. It almost feels like she lives here, though.

"Ugh", Tamara complains as she falls back onto my bed, "do I have to?"

I roll my eyes at her and shake my head. "Whatever. Just don't touch my candy, alright?"

Tamara lights up like a Christmas tree. "Thank youuu!"

Scoffing, I turn around again and walk out through the door towards the community bathroom.

I got to admit that I still haven't adjusted to sharing bathroom with so many people yet, but I keep hoping I will get used to it soon.

Luckily for me, there's no one else in the showers and I quickly jump in and wash myself off before someone comes in.

It's not until I wrap my towel around myself that I realize I forgot to grab some clean undergarment.

"Helvete..." I mutter, cursing in Swedish. I stare at the clothes I had planned on putting on before I grab them along with the rest of the stuff I brought with me. I walk out from the bathroom in just my towel, thinking that it's just girl's on this floor and besides, who cares is a guy sees me in a towel? Fabric as fabric, right?

I hurry through the corridor towards my door and since Tamara is still inside, I don't have to unlock it or anything.

She laughs at me as I burst through the door and I glare at her before I find some undergarment and change.

"Your phone has been buzzing the whole time you were gone", she informs me as I tell her she can turn around again.

I grab a hair tie from my wrist and put my damp hair up in a ponytail. "Did he call as well?"

"Yeah, twice."

"Did you answer?"

She grimaces at me. "No."

"I wonder what he wants", I think out loud as I pick up my phone. All messages are the same. He wants me to answer his question. I keep ignoring him.

Tamara leaves eventually as it's time to sleep and Lily comes in shortly after. We don't talk very much though because both of us are extremely tired and as soon as I lie down in my bed and close my eyes, I fall asleep.

It's pitch black outside when I wake up again and it takes me a few seconds to focus on anything at all but when I do, I realize my phone is ringing. Being too tired to think, I reach my hand out and answer it.

"Hello?" I ask sleepily and yawn.

"Finally, you pick up."

I frown at the deep voice on the other side of the line before my brain wakes up completely.

"W-who is this?" I pull myself up into a sitting position by using my elbows as support. I'm talking with my stalker. Judging by the voice, which I'm positive is disguised, though, it sounds like a man.

"Why do you ignore me, Linnea?" The way he says my name cause me to involuntarily shiver and I gaze around the room and make out the silhouette of Lily's sleeping body.

"I'm... I..." I stutter, trying to find the right words to say. "Why do you keep contacting me?"

"Because I like you, Linnea. There's something about you that fascinates me."

"Just leave me alone", I whimper, "please."

"No can do, sweetheart. But let me tell you that I'm not happy about you ignoring me all of the time."

Despite the warmth in the room, I start shaking. "What do you want from me?"

"Everything."

I gasp at his words, my hands starting to shake in the same rhythm as the rest of my body. "I-If you don't stop contacting me, I call the police."

He chuckles darkly at my words. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"And why not?" His arrogance causes a spark of anger to bubble up inside of me along with the fear.

"Because you don't want your friends to be hurt, now do you?"

I grip my phone tighter in order to stop the shakings in my hands. "I think you're bluffing."

"You really wanna test me?"

"No", I blurt out, hating the fact that he knows exactly where he has me.

"Good. Then I suggest you stop ignoring me. You have yet to face the consequences of your previous mistakes."

A feeling of panic runs through my body at his words. "What? What do you mea-" I don't have time to finish the sentence before he hangs up on me, leaving me to stare at my phone with a thousand thoughts and questions running through my head.