Rejected At First Sight

Chapter Twenty Three

For the rest of the weekend, I couldn't stop thinking about Ashton's apology. The way he said with complete and utter honesty took my breath away. It seemed that he had changed so much since I first met him, and something in me wanted to believe that, but a bigger something was still wary. He was still the one who had 'rejected' and bullied me. He was still the one who didn't care when he hurt me. Ashton was still the jerk who had done all those things to me.

But he was also the one that apologized multiple times. He was the one who did our entire project in one night. Ashton is still the one to catch my gaze and keep it. He's still the one who, somehow, causes tingles to erupt on my skin whenever we touch. I didn't know what to think of Ashton.

I sigh and run my hand through my hair as I stand in front of the mirror. Monday morning was not the best time to have all these thoughts running through my head, pulling me one way, then pulling me the opposite way.

I walk over to my nightstand to retrieve my phone, when I notice a flash of blue outside my window. Carefully moving the curtain, I peek outside to see what it is. The same blue car that was there last week, has shown up again. It's sitting in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing, which is nothing. It's just sitting there.

In my memory, I try to remember specifics about the car at Josh's house, trying to remember the details that I could use to prove that it's the same car. Since I'm not an expert in cars, all I can really pin point is that it has the same color and is the same type of car.

I carefully try to put the curtain back where it was slowly, so it looks like to whoever's in the car that the curtain never moved in the first place. I walk quickly out of my room and head downstairs.

"The car's back." I say immediately when I see my mom.

"Evie," she sighs, "it's nothing I'm sure. Just the neighbors or something."

My dad suddenly seems curious, "What car?"

Mom sighs again, "It's nothing. Evie's just being paranoid about a neighbor's car." She gives me a pointed look that says to drop it.

Instead, I decide to give my side of the story, "Last week, that car was just sitting there and mom and I were leaving. Then once we left, it followed us all the way to school."

"Well, who got out of the car when you got to school?" My dad now seemed more concerned.

I pause, "Well, no one. The car kept on going."

The concerned look on my dad's face vanishes, "Evie, I'm sure it's fine, like your mother said."

I groan and turn away, knowing I'm not going to get anywhere with them. Maybe I am going crazy.

"Ready to go?" Mom asks me as I walk to the fridge. I feel like something juicy so I grab an apple for breakfast.

"Yep." I say quickly so I can start eating my apple.

"Alright. I'll be in the car." She responds as she walks to the garage door. Faintly, I hear a beep from the car and I know she just unlocked it. Mom walks out to the car, opens the garage, and open the door and start the car.

"Bye dad." I say between bites of apple. I grab my backpack, which is by the door, and slip on my gym shoes.

"Bye sweetie." He calls as I open the door to the garage.

The blue car hasn't moved. I eye it warily as I get into our car. I shut the door and mom immediately takes off to school. Just like before, as soon as the blue car is almost out of eyesight in the mirror, it starts following us at a lengthy distance. I look at my mom and see that she doesn't seem worried. I sigh and again watch the blue car in the side view mirror.