I rested my cheek in the palm of my hand, as I lightly sketched a random picture onto my physics homework which I had finished an hour ago.
I was currently at work and the end of my shift was only about 15 minutes away. The light from the cheap bulbs was burning my tired eyes. I could not wait to get out of here and go home.
Over the months I have worked here, my body built up its own sort of sleeping schedule. As I had a couple of hours between the end of school and the beginning of my shift, I would use that time to nap so that I would get enough total rest. At first it was annoying, but I've gotten used to it.
This also meant that I had time to do my homework during work, as there was free wifi for the employees. If my phone was not enough to help me out, I would visit the local library over the weekend and use the computers in there, or just do my thing with the ones at school if I got the chance to. It was a weird system and hard to get used to, but I adapted to it quite easily.
Usually we never got any customers here at 3 am so I was beyond startled when I heard the ringing of the bell which hung by the door. My head shot up, becoming alert to my surroundings all over again.
As this was a gas station, the only customers I ever got at this time were truckers who were just passing by, but that was quite uncommon too as this town was not really near any highways. So, when I saw the tip of a baseball cap poking out from behind the aisles, I became confused as that was not likely for a trucker to wear.
Finally, the person came into my line of sight and all I wanted to do was sink through the ground and beyond the core of the earth. Approaching me with a goofy grin on his face was none other than Vic Fuentes, my second least favourite person.
"Hey, Kellin," he chirped, closing the folder my homework was in, sliding it to the side, and placing his elbows on the desk in front of me, leaning forward.
"Why are you here?" I snapped, wanting nothing to do with this guy. He was annoying, preppy and overly cocky. At least that was the vibe he gave off. Luckily he was not as bad as his brother, but then again being a better person than Mike Fuentes is no more of an achievement than being a better person than Hitler.
"Watch your tone, you shouldn't talk that way to paying customers," he warned, but the smirk and teasing voice gave away that he was joking.
To prove my point of not caring, I rolled my eyes and replied with, "Get the fuck out."
What did he want? We never even communicated with each other except for that night (my cheeks warmed up at the memory). I had tried to push it out of my mind for the time being, but being here with him alone reminded me of the huge problem I had. My mum still did not know, but I had to tell her soon.
"Jeez, chill," he raised his hands in surrender, "I just came to talk."
"Talk?" I scoffed. "At nearly 3 am?"
"I was also hoping to take you home after your shift ends..." He trailed off, leaving the proposition out in the open.I gave him a weird look, wondering why he was suddenly acting like this. I could not help but quickly link it to last weekend.
"What makes you think I need a ride home?"
"Well, it's quite late and you don't seem like someone who would be able to defend themselves if something were to happen," Vic awkwardly scratched the back of his neck, rocking from foot to foot.
"What's that supposed to mean?" I challenged, narrowing my eyes accusingly.
"There are a lot of dodgy people out there at this time and you're...you know..."
A girl.
He wanted to say that I was a helpless girl.
This was why I despised him so much. He was so closed-minded and did not know when to keep his mouth shut. I did not care what he or anyone else thought: I was not a girl. And whether I was one or not, his views that women always had to be protected and could not fend for themselves was completely moronic.
"I'm fine with walking," I replied coldly. I just wanted Vic out of my life. He already caused enough trouble and just the thought of him getting me...pregnant...made me feel sick.
"Come on, don't be like that," he whined, quite pathetically, but I just told him to fuck off and threatened to call the police when he would not leave me alone. Vic finally grumbled something to himself and exited the store into the chill of the night, letting me return to a peaceful silence.
I released a content sigh. This was a lot nicer.
Realising that it was only five minutes until the end of my shift, I packed up my things then locked up the restroom and staff room. Obviously, I could have cut off a few minutes but we have 24 hour CCTV. I guess it made me feel safer while working, but it also meant that my boss had a way of checking on me and the other employees while he was not here. I always had to be perfectly punctual.
When I was done, I switched off the lights, turned on the alarm and locked the doors, glad that I brought a jacket although the night was not too cold, just the temperature contrast between inside the gas station and here was quite drastic. This job actually was not so bad. I barely had to do anything, and got time to do what I wanted, but the only problem was that it paid minimum wage.
My mom promised that with this month's paycheck, I would probably be able to finally go on hormones. I was looking forward to it so much as, although I had nothing to prove and I knew I was a boy, I just wanted my physical appearance to reflect on it. We were both working so hard to support ourselves and I knew that my transition was going to be pricey. That was why we spent the last year or so working non-stop just to be able to afford it. Of course, we had to put bills and rent and food first, but slowly yet surely we were saving up.
Tucking my hands into my pockets and securing my backpack, I quickly made my way down the street, pumping my legs as fast as I could. Even at a quick pace, it took a while to walk home. I knew from past experience to keep my eyes peeled and my ears alert at all times. The streetlamps dimly illuminated my way and stretched my shadow to look like a lurking monster.
Half of the time my walks home were pretty uneventful, except for the constant fear of what might actually happen, however there were a few incidents which I would happily love to erase from my mind. I did not even want to think about them, as doing so made chills run down my spine. I knew that these streets were not safe during the daytime, so they could be literal mayhem in the middle of the night, like now.
I just kept my head high and carried on, when all of a sudden my feet began to slow down until I was at a solid stop. I was not sure how I did not notice them before but, standing below one of the streetlamps, about 50 meters in front of me, was a person. From the way the light was hitting them, I could not make out any features, but I could tell they were dressed in dark colours and a hood was resting on top of their head. They were leaning against the lamp, their arms seemingly crossed. But what creeped me out most is the fact that their head was turned to look directly in my direction. That was not good.
They did not move from their position, so I gave myself a few moments to regain control over my body. I had to remind myself that I was going to be okay and nothing would happen. I was lucky up to this point, so why would that change now? The man was probably a drug dealer just waiting for someone to approach him, or a night owl who just enjoyed being out after dark. But, either way, I did not want to risk it. I swallowed the lump which had formed in my throat and stealthily crossed onto the other side of the street, resuming my speedy walk.
When I passed the man, keeping my eyes unnoticeably locked on him, I heaved a nearly silent sigh of relief. Looks like I got lucky this time!
My moment of peace did not last long though, as I suddenly heard slow footsteps behind me. They were quickly picking up in pace until they were basically jogging. My brain was screaming at me to run, so I did. It was not even necessary to look behind me to know that the man was chasing me. I sprinted like my life depended on it, air pumping in and out of my lungs. I would have screamed for help but I already made that mistake once and I was not going to make it again.
My heartbeat was becoming more desperate and erratic, knowing that I was still quite far from home. Would I make it in one piece? Would I make it at all? What if the man got to me first? What would mom do? Would anyone miss me?
Just as I was about to make a turn, I heard the loud squeaking of tyres as they slid across asphalt. Out of the blue, a familiar looking car had pulled up in front of me. I recognised that vehicle, I had definitely seen it somewhere...and then it hit me: school. In the school parking lot. This was Vic Fuentes's car!
I wasted no time in forcing the passenger door open and swiftly sliding in, barely having time to shut it before Vic was speeding off down the road. I had never been this happy to see him in my entire life.
"Oh my god," I exclaimed, swallowing and breathing heavily from the workout and adrenaline of facing possible death, sprawled out across the seat like a rag doll, "Thank you so much!"
"Are you okay?" Vic asked, genuine concern lacing his voice.
"I-I think so," I mumbled. Similar things had happened many times before, but they never failed to scare me. Sure, it was relieving to have someone come and help me but I probably would have been able to handle it myself. I had done so until this point. Clearly, I was still thankful.
"See, even strong, fearless guys like you sometimes need a ride home," Vic said. I could not tell if his tone was teasing or not, so I had no idea whether he was just being sarcastic and taking the piss out of me.
I did not reply, having nothing to say, and only focused on my dangerously fast heartbeat and taking long breaths to calm it down. The rest of the car ride was spent in silence. Vic never brought up what he wanted to talk about in the first place, which was a good thing because if I was provoked again today, I would explode on him.
"I'm sorry for telling you to fuck off," I spoke up, once the car was parked. I felt bad for treating him like shit now. He meant well, even in his disrespectful way of showing it, and he did save my life after all. Apologising was the least I could do.
He simply nodded in response to me. Wow, okay. Was his modesty kicking in now? Or was it the shock of the situation that was getting to him? I guess seeing someone being chased by a person with bad intentions was not an average thing to see. It may have even been his first encounter with something of the sort. Me? I experience this on a weekly basis.
"And how the hell did you know how to get to my place?" I asked, curiously, realising that we were parked outside of my apartment building, all of the lights turned off.
"It's on your Facebook," he replied nonchalantly with a shrug. That was fair enough, but I still found it strange how he had been looking at my Facebook profile. I felt like that almost made things even more awkward between us.
I nodded, "Thanks again, I owe you one."
"No you don't, this is me paying you back," he said instantly, brushing off my comment. I was too dazed and tired to even think about what he truly meant by that, so I just accepted it.
I thanked him again and exited the car, making my way to the door of my apartment building. Vic leaned out of his vehicle and called out, "See you at school!", then only drove off when he saw that I was inside.
_____________
A/N
Sorry if this sucks, I'm bad at writing intense action stuff lol
Also thanks for the awesome support this story has been getting so far. We're only on chapter 2 and there are already so many people reading and voting and commenting. That makes me so happy.
Thanks for reading!