"Where were you?" Derek asked. He gave me that look of authority he never tires of. He was standing in the doorway of my room. I thought he wouldn't have noticed my absence, but that's what happens when I think.
I fought the urge to look down. No weakness. "Nowhere really, Jenny needed some extra help with her math homework so we went to the library together, "I said easily, although that couldn't have been farther than the truth. I was really at a party with my boyfriend. I mean it was Friday night and at 16, this behavior should be expected.
"Abby, really." He wasn't going to let me by anytime soon.
"Really, Derek, now can I just go to bed?" I said hastily. I tried not to get too close to his face in case he could smell the beer on my breath.
"Go ahead. But don't think you're going to get off that easy. You are going to tell me where you were, Abigail," he looked serious. Great. Probably a bad day at work or something.
"Why do you even care? It's none of your business, anyway!" I could feel the tears coming. I never liked going in to this topic, but sometimes it was inevitable.
"Abby...." he said carefully.
"Don't Derek, okay? Just....." I whispered. "Just don't."
"You know why I care, Abby. This isn't what your parents would have wanted."
The tears came - hard. Like when you turn on a shower full blast - or a pressure washer. "I said no, Derek. I don't want to talk about this. It's not the time, okay?" I pushed past him, not caring now if he smelled the alcohol on me now.
He gave me the saddest most disappointed look any one could ever imagine, but I didn't look at it for long because I slammed the door right in his face.
***********
I didn't sleep much that night, between the nightmares and the sobbing when the morning came I was exhausted. I had nightmares about him. The killer. The stalker. But, to me he was Marcus. I knew him by name. After all he was our mailman. But then he started coming to the house when we didn't have any mail. One day he even found me alone at the house and tried to go a little farther than I wanted. But I didn't report it to the police. Nobody knows about that day - only me and Marcus. Another encounter with Marcus was at the store. I waved when I saw him, in the nice-neighbor way of course. He took that in the wrong way though, and he followed me for the next week. I thought it was just a phase, I mean everybody follows the Queen Bee for a while don't they? But the stalking didn't stop. Not after I told my parents and they talked to him. Not even after when I came home from the mall and saw him with my little brother and parents pleading at his feet. I didn't know what he was going to do with them until he pulled out the gun. Marcus shot them right in front of me. In my haste to guard them I somehow broke my ankle and Marcus gave me a horrible concussion that knocked me out.
Derek and my parents were friends. My dad and him worked in the FBI together. I knew him but not very well. So it was a total surprise when I came to live with him. At first it was awkward but now we get into so many fights its unbelievable. You would have thought that we'd known each other forever. He's just so protective of me. But then again, I would be to if I was in his shoes.
I heard a knock at the door. Derek.
I sighed, pulled the blankets off of me, redid my sloppy night-time pony tail, and braced myself for what was going to happen now.
Derek let himself in, as usual, after waiting the designated 2 minutes so I could compose myself.
"Sorry I flipped out last night," I muttered. I wasn't completely recovered, though.
