Third Person POV
Suddenly the window directly behind Opal is broken, with a loud crash, shattering all over the floor behind her. Startled and scared she drops the phone from her hand. She fumbles through the drawer of the table next to her entry way, searching for her gun. She turns as she hears more glass breaking, seeing a leg start to come through the window. Even though she holds the gun in her hand, and someone is breaking into her home, she still doesn't want to shoot the person, she just wants to get away. Quickly, she grabs her phone and runs for her back door, further away from the intruder.
Chris is still on the call as the phone didn't disconnect from FaceTime. He quickly grabs his landline, calling Spencer in a hurry, knowing it would be difficult to direct 911 to a home that he doesn't even have the address of. All he can really do is hope that her alarm system alerted authorities.
"Hey man," Spencer says. He starts to try and have a whole conversation but Chris interrupts him quickly.
"Listen! I need you to go back to Opal's house. Someone broke in while we were talking. Get Laura to call the police. Now!" He's frantic, knowing there's nothing else he can do. He hangs up with Spencer.
"Opal!" he calls out as loud as he can. He hears footsteps, heavy and quick. He can't see anything from the screen, just darkness. He assumes she stuck the phone in her back pocket and can't hear him, even though he can hear her. She's whimpering, afraid.
Chris' heart is breaking, his own panic taking over, knowing that she's scared and he can't help her. He walks out of his own apartment, climbing the stairs up to the roof's access, still holding onto the phone in front of him, hopeful she'll make some type of sound letting him know she's okay. "Opal!" he yells out again, but then he realizes if she's still in the house then he could be putting her in danger, alerting the criminal to her whereabouts. He holds his breath, praying.
Opal escaped through her back door as quietly as she could. She was pretty sure she was able to do so without alerting the person. She was in her backyard, crouched down behind her shed that held her lawn mower, her gun ready should the person come after her. She forgot she had grabbed her phone, pulling it out of her pocket. Opal notices that Chris is still on the call. Afraid to speak and alert the person to her whereabouts she just ends the call.
"Damn it!" Chris cries out to the night sky as the call disconnects. All he can do is sit here and wait. His mind thinking only the worst. 'Am I going to lose her before I even get her,' he thinks to himself.
Minutes pass, only being marked by the fast paced beating of Chris' heart and breath. His phone rings, pulling him out of his panicked thoughts. "Opal!" he yells out, not even bothering to look at who is calling.
"Chris?"
"Spence, what's going on? The call was disconnected."
"We're here with her. The security alarm alerted the police, they were already here when we pulled up," he tells him.
"Where is she? Is she hurt?" he can't keep the fear out of his voice.
"Laura is with her. She's giving a statement to the police. She's definitely shaken up, but I don't think she's hurt."
"Did they get the guy?" Chris needs to know whether or not Opal will still be in trouble, worried about the person coming back.
"Yes, they got him. It was just a burglary, he wasn't even armed."
Chris is still panicked and frustrated. "You know you don't have to be armed to hurt someone. What if he had-"
"He didn't, Chris. Don't let your mind go where it's not necessary," Spencer directs him, knowing exactly what Chris was most scared of. "You need to calm down, man, before you speak to her. You being upset isn't gonna help her."
Chris knows his friend his right. He crouches down, and takes three deep breaths, closing his eyes. "I'm working on it."
"Work quicker, she's on her way over to me now."
Chris stands back up, quickly, ready to hear Opal's voice again. "Here she is," Spencer tells him before passing the phone off.
"Chris," her voice is barely above a whisper.
"Hi beautiful. Are you okay?" He knows that Spencer has already said she is, but he needs to hear it directly from her in order to believe it.
"Yeah, I'm alright," she tells him, still quiet, obviously still shake up. "I'm going to go stay with Laura and Spencer tonight, until tomorrow when I can get someone to come and repair the damages."
"Opal, I'm so sorry," he says, his heart continuing to ache.
"It's okay, Chris. There's nothing you could do."
"Hey," Laura says in the background. "They said you we can take you home now. You ready?"
"Chris, I'll talk to you later," her voice still coming across sad.
"Get some rest, Opal." And with that she ends the call.
~~~~~
Opal POV
Sitting in the backseat of Spencer's SUV, I remain quiet, not wanting to talk about any of it. My body is realizing how late it actually is and begins to feel weak, a desire for sleep trying to take over.
We arrive at Laura's house, she opens the car door, extending her hand for me to take. She holds me close as we walk through the entrance. "You take the guest room, okay?" she tells me. I simply nod and begin to head in that direction. "Sorry, I ruined your date night." Spencer is the one to speak up first, "Nonsense."
"I'm gonna grab you a bottle of water, maybe some Tylenol PM and some clothes for you to sleep in. If you want to shower, you know where all of that stuff is," Laura let's me know her plans.
I climb her steps, making my way into the guest bath. I go through the motions to prepare for a quick shower, just wanting to climb into bed and forget the day.
I step out of the shower to fresh clothes sitting on the counter top, waiting for me. I dress, comb through my soaked hair and leave for the bedroom. I take note of the meds and water sitting next to the bed, grab them quickly, chasing them with the water.
Sinking into the bed, laying my head upon the pillow, that's when it all hits me and my body becomes racked by sobs. I lay on my side, hugging my knees to my chest as I let all of the evenings fear escape my body.
~~~~~
The morning sunlight comes too soon, as I realize I've barely slept all night. Each time I'd get my cries under control, I'd close my eyes only to relive seeing the shattered glass on my dining room floor, the man's leg coming cross my window sill. No, the night was not kind to me at all, somehow I feel like the daylight may be the same.
As I walk towards the bedroom door, I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror that sits atop the chest of drawers. My hair is such a disaster that all I can do to try and make it look decent is to toss it up into a bun. My eyes are swollen, red lined and bloodshot, nothing I can do for them to make them look acceptable. I straighten out the t-shirt I wore to bed and retie the tie on the black and red plaid pajama pants. If it was just Laura and I then I wouldn't care what I look like, but her love interest is here and I definitely don't want to send him running.
I step into the hallway, the smell of fresh brewed coffee meeting me. "Are y'all decent?" I call out before walking down the steps, not wanting to ruin any type of moment they could be in the middle of.
"When have you ever known me to be decent?" Laura yells back.
"Point taken," I say, walking down the steps and into the kitchen. They're both sitting down at the kitchen table, across from each other. Laura gets up to grab a mug for me, urging me to go ahead and take a seat.
"Were you able to rest?" Laura asks me. She takes a good first look at me and changes her question. "Rough night?" I scrunch my nose up and nod in agreeance with the latter part of her statement.
She sets my mug in front of me, along with the pumpkin creamer she knows I love. "Thanks," I whisper. Laura manages to make me crack a smile as I see she's given me her prized Captain America mug. I set to preparing my coffee just right. "Sorry again about interrupting y'alls night. I didn't think Chris would call you."
"He was really concerned and knew he didn't know your address for authorities. It was the best thing he could do under the circumstances," Spencer reminds me.
"Guess I can go online now and write a really great review for my alarm company," I joke before taking a long sip of my coffee. "They might even want to recreate it for a commercial."
Laura shakes her head. "No ma'am, we're not gonna relive it. Agreed?"
"Can you maybe convince my subconscious of that?" I drop my head onto my arms that sit crossed on the table. Eyelids heavy, and my head is pounding from the amount of crying and lack of sleep through the night.
"We'll just have to find something to do today to wear you out and replace those memories," my friend suggests.
I lift my head off of my arms, shaking it back and forth. "No, I'm not gonna take up any of y'alls little bit of time you have together. I'm gonna actually finish this cup of coffee, change and head over to Magnolia. I've still got some clothes stored in the carriage house. I'll crash there while the insurance company does their thing."
"It's really no problem," Spencer tells me again, reminding me of what he said last night. I'm starting to believe what he told me that night outside the bar, maybe he really is one of the good ones. "We don't have any set plans. And I'm sure Chris will be asking me how you're doing."
"Crap." My head drops back onto the back of my chair. "I didn't call him back last night."
"I spoke to him after we got in. He knows you needed to rest."
I look around the kitchen until I see my purse hanging on the pantry door knob. Grabbing my phone I notice there's not much of a battery left, but also I've not missed any messages or calls. I'm really shocked he hasn't tried to reach me directly. I try to ignore that fact and call him instead. No answer. I send him a quick message.
Me- sorry I didn't call last night. I was a little out of it.
I sit back at the table, sipping my coffee while waiting for a response. Ten minutes have passed and I've got nothing except an empty coffee cup. "I'm gonna go get ready and head out."
I don't wait for a response from either of them. Once back in the guest room I change back into the clothes I wore last night even though their stained with grass stains and a little bit of blood from the small cuts I had gotten on my hands from stumbling around in the dark through my backyard. I'll change again once I get to the carriage house.
"Knock, knock." Laura's voice comes from the other side of the door.
"Come in."
"Rae is here. She brought some doughnuts by, maybe you could stay and have breakfast with us?" she asks hopeful.
"I really don't want to take up more of y'alls time," I tell her, knowing good well that she'd like some alone time with him.
"Seriously, Opal. What's another thirty minutes gonna matter?"
"Fine. But I'm not washing your clothes." I toss the dirty pajamas at her which she catches easily.
She leads the way, tossing the clothes into her laundry room before heading back downstairs. Laura makes a detour saying she's going to grab something from the living room but tells me she'll meet me in the kitchen. I round the corner, stopping in my tracks.
"Hi gorgeous."