But the thing he said next, made the ground under my feet slip away....
"YOUR PROPORTIONS ARE CRAZY, VERA. HOW ABOUT YOU LET ME EXPLORE THEM?"
...
I gripped the edge of my dress, heart pounding a frantic rhythm against my ribs. Something was unsettling, a darkness in his eyes that sent shivers down my spine.
My mind raced, replaying his words, the riddles he'd been telling, trying to anticipate his next move. I could feel his predatory gaze burning into me...shattering me and my consciousness...
But I tried to act poised. I didn't want to let the fear dawn on my face.
"Dave, I don't think you're in your true state of mind. Do you have any idea what you told me just now? This is verbal abuse!" My voice trembled toward the end.
"You're making me lose my sanity every passing day. Isn't that abuse too, baby?"
I feel like I have no control over this...I've never been in a situation like this before...
What do I do? I wish I could hide.
I attempted to rationalize the situation, thinking that the wine had influenced his behavior and that he wouldn't have acted on his own.
"The coke's here. Who wanted it?" Just then Ethan or whatever the name was, came and looked at Dave and me. Back and forth.
Why was he so keen on making me drink something? No way I was gonna do that. A drink from him at that!
He took the glass and a stirrer from the tray and stirred the drink making a scraping sound, but his eyes were on me. "Vera." Just as he said that my eyes were transfixed on the glass, on the stirrer to be precise.
I couldn't look at him. This is happening again! I could hear the scraping sound again as he moved the metal through the drink, almost as if in a rhythm.
-----------------
DAVE'S POV:-
"What is it that you fear with all your might?" I asked slowly looking at her while my hand continued to stir.
"Losing my mother." She said, her unconscious eyes fixated on the stirrer, unknown of what I was doing to her.
"What would you do if you lose your mother?" I moved my hands again.
"I would die with her."
Okay. I didn't expect this.
Tilting my head in amusement I clanked the glass with the stirrer for once. Her body jerked but is still unconscious. I resumed stirring again, this time at a much slower pace..
"Vera. What you are terrified of is not your mother dying... You fear me.. I make you anxious.." I enunciated the charming words slowly as if to put every single word into her subconscious.
"What I'm terrified of is not my mother dying. I fear you. You make me anxious." Those words I've been yearning to hear from her, flowed from her lips like honeysuckle.
She looks tempting....saying them..
I clanked the glass for a second time, this time bit louder and she passes out when I hold her. I could smell avocado as her hair pricks my chest.
FUCK.
SHE'S BECOME MY FAVORITE PREY.
-------
2 DAYS LATER:
"Urgh I don't want to goooo- I fussed as I had no mood to go to school. The holiday is over and hell is starting again.
But my best friend Katherine would kill me if I leave her on her own on the first day after the break.
Given the amount of care and friendship she, Nessie and Sally have bestowed upon me when nobody was willing to even glance at me let alone talk to me in the beginning of the session, this was the least I could do.
It might be out of pity, it might be that they really considered me as their peer. It might be anything.
Whatever the cause is, I'm grateful to them. I'm grateful for so warmly accepting me in their squad.
I cannot lose them. Ever.
I reached school and went to my usual seat, waiting for Katherine. Just then Sally arrived and said she'd something to talk to me.
She was damn serious, which wasn't natural of her.
After the morning prayer, Katherine arrived in a frenzy and asked me if I'd gone to the Welcoming Party that day.
I asked what the deal was, she looked as if she just broke up with her non existent boyfriend.
Sally too got up from her seat and both of them took out their phones. They then showed me something.
They'd received a message, a text and a picture...
It was of me....
The text read,
You sure you want to be friends with her after this?
Look at your real friend!
And there was a picture of me below the text. It was... It was of the Welcoming Party!
I was sleeping in a bed...and half of my cleavage was exposed... What the fuck?!
The room was indiscernible, with dim red lights emanating from various sources and scattering in all directions...
Yet, anyone could make out it was me in the photo.
I felt numb, I couldn't feel my legs. With trembling fingers, I took one of the phones and zoomed as much as possible.
Nothing came out of my mouth...
How is it possible? It's definitely not like I remember sleeping through the party. I even talked with some of the juniors and finally Dave walked me to the subway.
It was all so vivid in my mind!
Katherine, who was the most reasonable of us four, said, "We shouldn't just sit and stare at this bullshit. We must screw whoever dared to make the edit."
"My, anyone would think it's real.." Gasped Nessie as she looked at it on her phone.
"It's because it's not an edit."
And the three of them were now staring at me, eyes widened.
"What do you mean? Did you stumble upon any new memory from that day?" Katherine furrowed her eyebrows. She always does that whenever she's alert.
"No. Look at the picture carefully. There's a reflection of a silhouette of someone.. On the mirror." I gulped.
Nessie practically shouted, "My, yes and it's a man!" Sally had to nudge her to not gain anyone's attention.
"What? Let me see once more." Katherine stared at the picture for a minute or so and when she was done, it looked as if all the blood was drained out of her...
"Vera." She looked at me, lips tightened in a thin line.
"Are you sure nothing happened to you that day?"
Sally retorted, "Tell us already! What's with all the scene?"
"There's a hand on the edge of the bed. It seems as if he's sitting on the bed beside her...He was careful not to make himself visible but look," She zoomed again, "Because of the camera shutter the ring on his finger flashed.."
I felt dizzy. What could've happened? I couldn't comprehend the dangers lingering behind that awful thought...
It seemed as though someone was repeatedly coming to my mind, but I couldn't figure out who.
Out of the blue, Sally exclaimed, "Hey! How did they get our numbers?"
"Is it perhaps someone from our class?" Katherine thought hard.
"Ha- Could it be Rosalyn? Maybe she teamed up with that creep Aaron and did this?" Nessie had a point.
"She won't bother." I scoffed. "Not when she got to spend the whole evening with Tristan."
"Why'd you go there in the first place? Didn't we make it clear in the group that none of us were going?" Sally jeered and she had the right to get angry.
"We did. I'd no plans too. But it was Dav- I stopped suddenly.
Why don't I confront Dave? I was not with him all the time but he walked me to the subway after the party had been over. He must know something...
"It was who?" Katherine asked slowly.
"A guy from E-Commerce I met in the prose club."
"Were you with him? It's no more a cold case then!" I looked at Sally.
Why in the world would he do that? He doesn't even know them.
I jotted down the three different numbers from which the text was sent on a paper.
"Richard!" And called the comp genius cum outcast sitting on the first bench.
"Look into this numbers for me." I handed him the paper. "And if they used a burner phone,
"Then I know what to do." He completed my sentence, making me smirk.
Enough is enough.
I am reversing the roles this time.
--------------
It was break time. Surprisingly, the three of them didn't ask me even for once if I'm going to the cafeteria.
They always did before. I may show like I don't give a damn about the photo but boy-
I'm screaming inside. There's this new feeling of paranoia that I've never encountered before... It was foreign...
I feared the unforeseen... I fear him...
But.
Who was....he?
And unknowingly warm drops fell on my hand from my moist sockets.
Tears blurred my vision yet I made no attempt to wipe my face..They threatened to flow and I let them..
"Are you crying because of me?"
I was startled and immediately turned hearing that voice. Who should it be but Tristan sitting beside me, with hurtful look in his eyes.
Please. He's the last person I wanted to see at this moment. But a part of me felt.....rather safe? Like I was home...
"No, it's something else."
Should I tell him? I guess not.
He now tugged a hair strand behind my ear and caressed my head. I know he's doing this out of the moment, to calm me down. But I'm still addicted to his touch.
"Okay. You don't have to tell me." Why is he the gentlest human on earth?
This made me nostalgic of our days. We sat exactly like this, not a single word escaping from our mouth...and yet our eyes spoke and gleamed in emotions..
"Tristan." He stopped and looked me in the eye.
"S-Someone's after me.."
He knitted his brows and was about to say something when his phone rang. From the looks of it I at once knew it was his girlfriend, for he was in a dilemma whether to pick up or to listen to me.
I stood up to go to the washroom as the break was about to be over and students were coming in.
"You should go to your class. Just pretend like you didn't hear anything."
The phone rang again when he was about to call me and I rolled my eyes.
Coming from the washroom I saw Dave outside my class talking to Richard. I almost couldn't recognize him because he had his hair colour changed.
It was jet blue this time. Goodness he's a knack at colours.
I neared them and then Richard pointed at me, "Here she comes."
"I was looking for you. Why didn't you come down?"
"Wasn't having an appetite. Anything wrong?"
"Sean wants us to come to the hall after school. He says he finds our writings the best."
A smile crept up on my face. At least I got to hear something good. Sean is an ex-student and yet he never fails to inspire us. If he says he likes it, then it must be good!
"Are you that happy?" He asks tilting his head, amusement unveiling in his eyes.
I nodded and just as I was about to comment him on his new hair, I saw our Organic Chemistry teacher heading towards our classroom and realized at once it was his period now.
Shit. If he sees us I'm doomed!
"Dave what do you have now?" I asked in a frenzy and he licked his lower lip. "Finance, maybe. I ain't the type to keep a track of the time table, Vera."
"Then go and attend it! Why are you standing outside Science 101?" My tone scolded him but I was laughing all the same.
With that I turned him back by his arm and almost pushed him in order to make him go.
"WHA- he couldn't even protest as I dashed inside the classroom and hopped to my seat. I was sitting on the row which was near to the wall and could see him through the window.
My friends too were a laughing mess by now. I mouthed him a 'sorry' while chuckling and he was confused.
"Hey you blue-haired out there! What's your name?"
And Dave was nowhere to be seen as though gone in thin air..
He's got some great reflexes!
-----------------------------------------------------
A/N:
Hell of a chapter x0
whoever is reading this, pls don't forget to drop what you're feeling about the book. I'm working hard :"(
till then,
spread more love and less legs <333