PERFECT [SHAWN MENDES] [1]

CHAPTER EIGHT: PARANOID

PERFECT
EIGHT- PARANOID
"WILL YOU STAY WITH ME?"
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THE WIND WAS BLOWING freely through the trees, just rustling the leaves gently as it passed by. The sound of the newest tracks on the radio played echoed from the speakers of the car owned by Daniel Adams. His second eldest, Lauren, sat in the back, singing along to the music with a smile on her face.

The father-daughter duo were on their way to pick up Aidan, Lauren's older brother, and Daniel's eldest child. He was invited to a party on the other side of town, and had called to be picked up earlier than instructed to be home, not that Daniel was complaining.

Once reaching the destination, Lauren watched out for her brother, excitement running through her as she hadn't seen her brother since early that morning. Due to the strawberry blonde having school and then basketball straight afterwards, she didn't get to catch up with Aidan because he was also busy at the time.

Lauren spotted her older brother, smiling widely as she unbuckled her seatbelt quickly. She pushed the back door open, rushing out to embrace her older brother in a tight hug, to which he quickly reciprocated. Aidan kissed her on the forehead.

"Hey you," Lauren said, smiling at Aidan.

"Hey you. How was your day at school?" Aidan asked.

Lauren frowned slightly. "Boring, but we won basketball! 29 to 10! The Demons team got smashed again!"

Aidan laughed, holding his hand up for a high five. Lauren gave him a high five, before they both climbed into the back of the car. Aidan sat behind the drivers seat, while Lauren was behind the passengers seat.

"Guess it was all the hard training that paid off, huh, blondie?" Aidan teased, ruffling his sisters hair cheekily.

Lauren sent him a smile. "No, they just suck."

Both Aidan and Daniel laughed at the blonde, making her smile. She rested her head on Aidan's shoulder tiredly, causing Aidan to wrap an arm around her with a smile.

"My little superstar," Aidan smiled, to which Daniel smiled at through the rear view mirror.

Lauren just nodded quietly, her brain finally catching up to her body. The 12-year-old fell asleep against Aidan's arm, but what she wasn't expecting was to be awakening due to a hard collision against her fathers car.

Her eyes adjusted, and she found herself upside down in the car, her brother no longer in the seat next to her. Glass had shattered all the around, leaving small cuts all over her body. She whined at the pain in her wrist, shoulder, knee and abdomen, tears pricking in her eyes.

Shouting could be heard in the distance, but she was all disorientated due to the collision her head had when the other vehicle collided with their own. She managed to undo her seatbelt after struggling for a while, before collapsing on the floor to try and crawl out of the car that no longer had back doors on it.

"You knew it'd end up this way for you and your family, but you still ignored it all," an unfamiliar voice said.

Looking out the window, her blurry vision was slowly coming to its senses and finally focused. Lauren lay on broken glass in the car, finding her brother looking up at an unknown man with fear evident in his eyes.

The stranger had a gun pointed at her brother's chest, whilst he shouted in Aidan's face. Aidan looked scared, not knowing what to do in that situation. He had been caught out for cheating in something, that Aidan didn't understand because he hadn't played any games nor dealt with people that could declare him as a cheater of any sort.