I wake up a little confused, forgetting where I am. My heart beat slows once I realize I'm still sitting at the desk. Dammit, I fell asleep. How could I let myself, I don't even know if shadow man appeared last night. I lean my head against the desk, contemplating my life and what to do. I feel like I'm going backwards, not finding any answers; will I ever find answers? My thoughts are interrupted when I hear knocks at the door. I stand up quick, walking to the entrance of my room, waiting to see if Drew or Lisa will answer the door. It seems like they aren't here. I don't hear the knock anymore, but wait a few minutes just in case.
My eyes widen when I hear a tapping noise coming from the window behind me. I freeze, too scared to move. Ok I'm inside, I'm safe in here, right? The tapping turns into window knocks, I turn around quick, but keep my eyes closed. I can hear the blood rushing to my ears. I peek open one eye and I see Sawyer standing there annoyed. He's holding up my bags of clothes. I let out a long held breath and lean against the desk relieved. I didn't think Sawyer would be here and my brain automatically went to the knocks maybe being shadow man. Sawyer knocks again louder this time.
"Hurry the hell up and open the door." I hear Sawyers muffled demand. I give him my index finger indicating for him to wait, since I haven't quite calmed down from that scare. But he just continues to knock. I glare at him and how impatient he is and head towards the front door. I unlock the door and Sawyer doesn't wait for me to open the door, he just barges right in. He walks past me to the spare bedroom. I follow after him annoyed that he's here, when I could have had these clothes yesterday.
"You scared the poop out of me." I say and poke his arm. He ignores me, and walks near my bed, dumping the bags on the bed. I hear him snort at my remark. Why do I even bother.
"Uh what time is it?" I ask in hopes he would answer. I see him look at his phone, and I smile.
"1:30" he says not looking at me. What? I slept that much? I guess I really was that tired. I wasted half a day. I'm a little annoyed with myself and can't help but feel like I'm wasting time.
"Thank you for dropping off my clothes and all, but you could leave now." I say waiting for him to leave. Sawyer starts to look around the room, examining everything. He moves to the desk and looks around, my eyebrows crease in confusion.
"What exactly are you doing?" I walk towards him wanting an answer. I look at his face, his eye brows are knit into a frown and his eyes are so focused. I hear him whisper incoherently, I strain my ears trying to make sense of what he's saying, but failing.
"Shit." He says to himself, what is he doing?
"Are you okay?" I walk closer. He looks around one more time before he looks at me.
"Hungry?" He asks turning to me, I'm still confused with what he just did. I'm a little hungry, but he's scaring me and I keep my distance.
"No." I say, he eyes me as though his bullshit meter is ticking in the red zone. I look away and walk to the living room in hopes that he will leave. When I hear his heavy steps behind me I smile. Once I'm in the living room my stomach growls loud. I look at him worried he's heard the growl and his eyes lock with mine.
"Have you eaten?" Sawyer runs his hands through his messy hair. He heard my stomach no point in denying, I'm sure there's food here.
"I'm taking that long pause as no." I hate that he knows and can tell right away when I'm lying. I sigh in defeat.
"Lets go." He says, walking to his car. He doesn't even give me a chance to get ready.
"Why would I go with you willingly?" I say my arms crossed, my eyes challenging him to answer. He stops mid step and turns to me.
"You don't trust me?" I'm not sure who I trust at this point.
"You haven't given me a reason to trust you." I watch his face, it falls slightly. I see his cold gaze fix on me. He moves closer to me and takes a deep breath before he speaks.
"Really? You being alone in a room with me, being alone in a car with me, and not to mention my house; that not reason enough?" Ok he's right, but I didn't know what to do and at that time I took anyone's help.
"I was desperate." I counter back.
"I mean you can stay here and starve, Drew won't be back till later." I try to hide my disappointment in him winning, and wanting to help. Maybe I can trust him, I don't know. He hasn't given me a reason not to trust him either, although he did abandon me. He's so mean I can't stand being with him, but I'm starving and I need food.
"Fine. At least give me ten minutes to get ready." I say quick in one breath. I give in to my hunger. Sawyer just waves me off and I take that as hurry up and get dressed.
Once I'm in his car, I don't bother to turn the heat up even though it's freezing. I'm waiting till he's distracted with driving. I look out of the window not familiar with the route he's taking. I thought he would go to Lisa's shop, but he's going the opposite way.
"Where are we going?" I ask, a little paranoid.
"To my house." He mutters. So we're eating at his house? He knows how to cook? What if he poisons my food? Why wasn't I this paranoid the first day I was found?
"Why?" I'm exceeding my question limit and there will be a point where he won't answer.
"Bethany" is all he says. If I have nothing nice to say I won't say it at all.
"You two get a long great don't you?" He says sarcastically. I look at him like he's crazy and I see a smirk on his face. I'm not going to answer that. I look at his tattooed arm, the only one on the steering wheel. There are so many tattoos I can't tell which one is which. It looks sort of Aztec looking, mixed with a moon lit forest. I can't tell.
"I know you don't like her." He claims. I've only just met her, he can't tell me that.
"What makes you say that?" I ask and turn to him. He's just smiling.
"I watched you." He says. "The moment she walked into the room, your face said it all. Wrinkled nose, lowered brow, and narrowed eyes." He turns to me and smirks. I don't know what to say. Come to think of it, I didn't even know he was watching me that day.
"Your pulse has quickened, your mouth is dry, and you keep fidgeting." Everything he is saying is true, all the symptoms of me lying.
"Your palms have just started to clam haven't they?" I know if I don't say something he will know I really don't like her.
"Wrong, I haven't known her long enough to tell." I swallow hard, he looks at me and continues to smile.
"I'm never wrong." He says and I turn toward the window and lean my heated cheeks against it. He keeps catching me in lies and it's annoying.
When we arrive at Sawyers house, he makes me jump to the back seat. Which I happily oblige to. Sitting next to Sawyer, who practically knows how I feel and what I think is suffocating. Bethany climbs in and pretends not to know I'm there. She pulls down the visor and I watch as she does her makeup. She catches me looking and I look away embarrassed.
"Oh, she's here." Bethany says turning to look at me and smiling at me so fake. She reaches out for Sawyers hand and holds it tight. I roll my eyes at her welcome gesture and catch Sawyer looking at me, studying me through the rear view mirror. I glare at him and turn, not wanting him to see straight through me.
Lunch with Bethany and Sawyer is torturously slow. Bethany keeps kicking me from under the table and claims its on accident. She also keeps talking about a past lover she had and how great of a cook he was. How would she know? She hardly eats. If Sawyer is annoyed with me half the time, how is he not strangling her. My impulse keeps telling me to roll my eyes, but Sawyer is just waiting for me to slip. So, I myself am putting up a fake smile, trying to be as genuine as possible.
I distract myself by looking at the menu trying to figure out what I want. There are so many options to choose from. I put the menu right in front of my face, so I won't have to see her. Kill her with kindness, kill her with kindness.
Maybe I'll go with soup since it's cold out side. I voice my opinion and I hear Sawyer 'mmm' in disapproval. I look up to see if he's doing that towards me, but he's looking at his menu. I go back to looking at the menu. Hmm maybe soup won't fill me up.
"Ooo the fried shrimp and fries look good." I say to no one in particular. I hear Sawyer 'mmm' once again. I look up giving him a skeptical eye, not sure if he's not liking my taste in food. Before I can ask what his problem is the waiter comes.
"I think I'll have the tuna sandwich." I say to her. She agrees and writes the order down, I hear Sawyer cough. I turn to him annoyed and glare at him.
"Right, I'll get chicken strips and fries. Don't forget the ranch." He says rudely and closes the menu harshly. Bethany orders a small soup and a salad. Every time I look at her I feel slightly guilty for eating unhealthy, but that fades away when I see food in front of me.
The waiter comes with our food and I can't wait to dig into the sandwich. I take a huge bite, which is a mistake since the food tastes super fishy. I chew as fast as possible and gulp down water. I take another bite, maybe that part was the only fishy part. Once I bite in, I immediately taste the fishyness of it and spit it out onto my plate. I look at Bethany who is looking at me with disgust.
"I'm going to be sick." She says and leaves to the washroom. Ok I guess me spitting out food is a little gross, but it was foul tasting. I look at Sawyer who is already looking at me trying to hold back a laugh. He raises an eyebrow up.
"Can I order something else?" I ask sheepishly, my cheeks always betraying me and turning red.
"Here." Sawyer says passing me his plate of food.
"I can't take your food." I say, but really wanting to take his food, I'm starving.
"Not hungry." He says while looking at his phone. Ok I guess he's not hungry. I take a bite of the chicken nugget, it is juicy and crispy. It's missing something.
"This is so good, why didn't I order this? It's missing some..." before I can finish Sawyer passes me the ranch. I dip the strip into the ranch and my mouth just explodes with goodness. Or I'm just really hungry. Sawyer gets out of the booth we're in to check up on Bethany. I continue to eat happily. When they both come back Sawyers mood seems to have gone from bad to worse. I want to so desperately ask what's wrong, but I'll just be disappointed with the answer. I keep looking at him, extremely curious, he seems distracted. His eyebrows are creased and he keeps tapping the table impatiently.
"Oh my God. Please stop doing that." Bethany whines at Sawyers tapping. I watch as they both start to argue. I'm done with my food so I sneak my way up to the wash room.
"Excuse me young lady." I turn to the person who is calling for me.
"Me?" I ask the elderly lady. She has a full set of white hair. Her teeth are yellow and stained with the heavy amount of red lip stick she's wearing. I try not to cringe.
"Yes you dear. There is a hair in my food." She complains. I look at her plate of food and spot a bright white piece of hair. Which I'm sure is hers. I think she thinks I work here, I search around for someone who actually does. When I do, I see why she thinks I work here. I'm wearing a white shirt and black pants, something similar to the workers uniform. I notice all the workers are young and none have white hair, so it can't be them. I sneak into the kitchen and look at all the cooks, none have white hair either. I go back to the elderly lady and tell her I think it's hers.
"This is not my hair, I want to speak to the manager." She voices louder.
"That's your hair, none of the staff here have white hair." I say trying to diffuse this. What am I doing I don't even work here.
"I don't care, there's a hair on my food. Check again." She screams angrier. She shoves her plate in front of my face. She gets the attention of almost everyone in the restaurant. I catch a few people recording and I get embarrassed. I look around for Sawyer in hopes that he could get me out of this, but I spot him outside talking on the phone. Dammit.
"No one has white hair." I say one more time. This time staff members are around me trying to convince her.
"I'm calling the police if you don't fix this now. Customers are always right." She says louder, taking her phone out.
"What is all the commotion?" I hear someone say. I keep looking at the old lady, she is crazy.
"Maple?" I turn to whoever called me.
"Parker?" I ask confused. He pushes through the crowd and pulls me out.
"You need to fire her, she is not doing her job." The old lady says rudely, and I can't help but roll my eyes. And she needs a pair of glasses.
"What are you doing here?" I ask Parker.
"My mom owns this place, I usually help her out on the weekends. I was in the back office when I heard screaming. And I thought I recognized your voice." He laughs a little. My face tinges pink all over again.
"What were you thinking?" He asks. Clearly I wasn't.
"I was just trying to help, and it back fired." He laughs again. His laugh is comforting. We're still in the middle of the crowd and everyone is watching.
"For fucks sake. Move out of the fucking way." I turn to Sawyer pushing through the crowd. He looks extremely angry. He grabs my arm and pulls me out of the crowd. I pull myself out of his hold.
"Hey, wait I'm talking to Parker." I angrily say. Sawyer looks around the restaurant and back at me again. He roughly pushes his curls out of the way. He grabs my arm and pulls me one more time. I try to hold my ground but he's stronger than me.
"Stop, what are you doing?" This only confirms that I don't trust Sawyer. He drags me outside and I tear out of his grip. I'm angry with what he just did. He dragged me like a dog.
"What was that for?" I scream. He comes closer to me and puts his hand over my mouth.
"You can't draw attention to yourself." He says. His hand still covers my mouth and I glare at him, not being able to talk. What does he mean I can't draw attention to myself? He finally lets me go.
"Maple are you okay?" I hear Parker beside me, out of breath. I try to walk towards Parker, but Sawyer blocks me from doing so. All I do is nod, but I'm not sure. Everything was fine until now.
"Go back to your shitty life Parker." Sawyer says looking at me. He's glaring at me. I see Parker come closer. Sawyer turns when he sees Parkers movement. When Sawyers guard is down, I just run. I don't care where, I just run. I hear Sawyers footsteps behind me, but my adrenaline is making me out run him. What did I get myself into?