Trust the Killer

Chapter Thirty Two

      I woke up the next day to the sunlight pouring through my half opened curtains. I had completely passed out wearing the same dress from the night before. It was the first time I woke up feeling genuinely refreshed, like I was able to sleep comfortably and partly pretend my life was back to normal.
     I crawled off my bed and straightened out the sheets. I'm surprised I actually slept on top of the comforter, I must have been exhausted. I breathed in deeply once before going to my closet to change into a pair of sweats and a black sweater. I knew it was still a bit cold out.
It felt odd, walking out of my bedroom without feeling Wycks grip tight on my upper arm. Almost like what I was seeing was a mirage as I stepped through the hall and into my living room. I could smell breakfast and the aroma brought me into the dining room where my mom and dad were eating.
"How'd you sleep, Ava?" My mom greeted me while my dad couldn't speak with pancake down his throat.
"How- uh, I slept really hard." I laughed awkwardly before sitting down and pulling a plate toward me. It felt weird to leave out the details of my visitor last night.
     "Georgia called me this morning, she and Marie wanted to get lunch, see how your trip was." She spoke though bites. Georgia was my friend Marie's mom, she wanted Marie to go on the trip with me but they couldn't afford it, I was sad to be going alone at the time but now I'm glad Marie wasn't there so I didn't have to tell her about Wyck, or would it be better if she did come? She would've known something was wrong immediately and reported it right away. Did I want that to happen?
"Oh, okay. I haven't looked at my phone since last night." It hit me then, what if Wyck texted me? He said to respond immediately and the last thing I needed was to piss him off. I leapt up from the table and tried to excuse my jumpy behavior. "I should... see if she texted me." I shook my head at my terrible ability to lie and rushed off to my bedroom without another word.
     My phone was laying on my bed, I grabbed it quickly and looked at the screen. A few messages from friends who knew I was back cluttered the screen, I guess I was a little dramatic about not having any friends, I just didn't have many people I felt close too.
     There was a text from my cousin, Jason. He lived down the street from here and was a few years older. About the same age I assumed Wyck was, about 22-23. Not much older than me, being I'm 19.
     No messages from Wyck though. I breathed a bit of relief and a bit of worry, did he get hurt last night? Should I ask if he's okay?
      I swiped to respond to Jason. He was asking if I was back in town, I didn't have any siblings so he played a sort of older brother role in my life. He was very clever, partied a lot and was always worried about me.

     'I'm back!'
 
     I responded shortly before turning around and walking back to the kitchen with my nose stuck in my phone. I l slowly responded to the few messages I had gotten as I sat back down.
"So you'll be ready to go by 1:00?"
"Hm?" I looked up to my mom.
"To get lunch?"
"Oh right. Yeah I just need to shower and get ready." I felt my phone vibrate in my hand as I responded to my mother.
I assumed it was Marie responding to my text about what she was wearing to lunch, but when I looked at the screen my heart jumped a little in my chest.

Wycks name popped up with text beneath it.
'You're pretty popular today, huh?'

The moment of excitement and the feeling of joy knowing he was okay plummeted into a sickly sort of feeling. The message was a blunt reminder he saw everything, I felt almost embarrassed and exposed, it was frustrating and invasive. The feeling was hard to describe and in that moment it made me angry.
At that same time Marie did text me back, saying she was wearing nothing special since it was cold out today, followed by a question on what I planned to wear.
In a moment of rebellion I opened my phone and decided to ignore Wycks message and opened the text thread between Marie and I. I'm sure he'd be pissed off I "didn't respond to him immediately." And it felt like the proper revenge of invading my privacy.
A text banner popped up from Wyck again,