Thief of Thoughts

Chapter Three

I felt my heart stop.

That, and my head pounding from slamming it against the wood.

God...that was gonna hurt later.

I looked over my shoulder into the bedroom, scared to death of what I'd fine.

Just to my despair, there stood him. The boy. Kyle Hunt. Oh my god.

Talk about a mission gone wrong.

I scrambled to my feet as fast as possible, nearly slipping once more on the wooden balcony. I heard the glass doors open and grabbed the balcony's railing.

"Wait! Are you hurt?"

I froze. This wasn't going to work. Even if I jumped off the edge we had to be at least fifteen feet up. Maybe I would survive my first fall to the balcony with only a small head bruise, but that...that looked potentially lethal.

Which meant I needed to find another way out.

Which also meant conversing with this boy, who I really did not want to converse with, until I figured out what that other way was.

"I'm fine! I really am...," I replied, my cheeks exploding in red. It was embarrassing enough that I was standing on his balcony outside his bedroom - even more embarrassing that he'd soon make the assumption of why I was lying there.

I'd be lucky if I didn't walk out of this with a restraining order.

"Are you sure? I've got things, band-aids," he responded, looking me up and down for scratches or anything else out of the ordinary. His eyes paused on my arm. I hadn't even noticed. It was bleeding from scraping against the ground. "I have decent-sized band-aids..."

I just shook my head frantically. I could not have him going down and alerting his family that there was a strange girl standing smack-dab on his balcony without explanation.

"No...uh....I think I'll be good."

My words didn't seem to qualm his worries in the slightest. I don't know why he even cared. If I were him, I would've already called the police.

Ugh, I was so regretting this outing.

This is why I was supposed to leave this sort of thing alone. Why I should stay many, many feet away from all of the people who ended up victim to my invention stealing. I'd been pretty good at that up until now.

Kyle Hunt was still standing there, arms crossed, staring at me with a look I couldn't exactly describe. A mix of worry and suspicion? I wasn't sure. I had begun focusing a little too much on his face, which, unfortunately, was quite attractive up close. I really needed to get the hell out.

"Do you want water or anything? I can get you that...," he offered.

I was two seconds away from declining his offer again when I got an idea. "Wait...can you actually? I am a bit thirsty..."

Because if he did leave - hopefully only to a bathroom or somewhere where he wouldn't wake everyone up - I would get a chance to sneak out.

He nodded quickly and gave me a smile. Then, he turned and began walking out of his room. He paused just at the door. "Wait...you never gave me your name...," he said, looking at me over his shoulder.

I just gave him a quick tight-lipped grin. "Anna," I lied, knowing that I could never, not in a million years, tell him my actual name. If he knew who I was, I knew I would not be leaving that house without a long conversation.

I never showed my face to the public. It was a thing of mine. I wanted to have everything that came with fame - money, mansions, all of it - but without the actual fans and paparazzi following me around all the time. So everyone knew my name...but not the face that was lying behind it.

And that was why Kyle would believe me without question.

"Anna...," he mumbled, smiling at the name. "Pretty. I'll be right back."

The second he shut the door, I looked around me. Honestly, I should have just left, but I was curious.

I wanted to know if he had indeed thought of the idea that I'd be releasing tomorrow.

It was for a social media company. One called Exo, where people could meet up and make plans in a quick and simple way. It also could almost be used as a dating site, or a friend dating site. Obviously, all of it was a bit more complicated - it included linking up to some of my other social media companies and a lot more features...but I had a good idea that it'd work pretty well.

And I wondered if Kyle would think the same thing when I announced it tomorrow morning.

I walked carefully to his desk and looked down at the papers there. There wasn't much...it looked like some pages were just homework of some type...others looked like small notes he'd written for himself.

And then...

Right there.

It was a paper, filled to the brim with notes on some kind of app. At first, I wondered if it'd been the social media site I'd created. Then, I noticed that no...no, it was an app. But a game. Some sort of addictive tapping game. I wasn't sure exactly. Definitely not my idea.

And also, judging by the writing, it had been already created months ago by him. And judging by the numbers...it'd been doing pretty well.

Which meant this guy wasn't an amateur when it came to inventions.

It made me feel less guilty for stealing this new idea. He already had some things on his resume. He probably would think of many more throughout his lifetime.

And, as I said, I was simply bringing his idea to life sooner than he would, which, in the end, was a good thing.

Or that's what I told myself.

I heard his footsteps on the stairs and realized I had to get out of there. Otherwise, I would get stuck.

Before the door could open, I ran to the balcony. I carefully started to climb back up the tree, watching his bedroom for any sign of him entering.

Fortunately, I was deep in the tree, and far out of his view by the time the door finally cracked open.