Chapter 21
The Note
“So I’ve got the plan,” Ethan said, sliding out a sheet of paper. With closer inspection it turned out to be a calendar with different things written on each day.
“So shoot,” Tessa said, taking a bite of sugary goodness.
We had stopped at Sweet Lillian’s Custard again to talk about things after school and to go over the plan. Everyone was waiting in anticipation to hear what Julie had coming for her, especially after what happened yesterday. I saw Julie making fun of me again today but this time I managed to simply brush it off. It was easy to brush things off now because all I have to think about is the revenge she is going to get.
“So there is going to be phase one… Ethan started. She’s going to notice slight things, but not enough to make her suspicious of anything. There will be dolls strategically placed around places she goes a lot, in places she can’t miss. And they aren’t going to be cute dolls; they are going to be slightly creepy. We’re also going to mess with her head a little bit. When she parks her car in front of her house, we’re going to move it a little bit further away.”
“That’s… insane,” I said, surprised by how well thought out this plan was, and how well I knew it would work.
Ethan shrugged and continued, “Then there’s stage two. We plant the dolls in more noticeable places. We move her car further when she parks it. We mess with the stuff she packs in her backpack. We move important things she places in her locker. We move important things she places in her room.
“And then comes stage three…”
I couldn’t believe it. Is this really happening? Are we really going to mess with someone’s mental health?
I looked around at my friends determined faces, and I thought of Julie’s bitchy one, and new that yes, yes we were. And we were going to do it the best we could.
“We are going to scare her so bad with everything. We will move her car down an entire block. We’ll move her bed in her room. We’ll make folders disappear in her locker. And we’ll put a doll appear in her bag or something.”
We blinked at him, looking down at the calendar he had made.
“When do we start?” Sam asked.
“We first need to get a copy of her car and house key first. So I’m giving us until Monday to figure out how to do that. I have these key pressers,” he took out two cases that he opened up and had a sort of fabric in the inside of. “and I know a guy that can get these made. And we still need to get some dolls, I figured that we could all put in money for this.”
“You guys don’t need to do all this for me…” I interrupted feeling guilty.
“Don’t worry about it! We want to do this to Julie,” Ali said, Cora nodding beside her
“Alright, it’s settled?” Ethan said.
“Deal.”
“Then each of us needs to have two creepy-looking dolls by Monday,” Ethan said. “And… I can get the keys.”
“How are you going to do that?” I asked with doubt.
“I have my ways,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows.
“Right… well, I need to get going,” I said.
“Why?” Ali asked, disappointed as I stood up.
“I have a dentist appointment,” I lied.
I really had an appointment with Dr. Allen again.
I tried not to look directly at Sam as I said another goodbye to everyone and turned away. I was looking down, digging through my purse for my keys. I wasn’t paying much attention so when I opened the door I could hear a distinctive ‘clunk’ and looked up in surprise. Holding his head, in front of me stood that Stan guy that I had checked out my groceries. What a small world. He had a hand on his head and a surprised look on his face as he looked up at me.
“Oh, gosh!” I exclaimed, stepping back into the ice cream shop.
I quickly stepped into action and reached forward, moving his hand away from the area he was holding his head. There was a small read circle on his forehead.
“I’m so sorry Stan!” I exclaimed, very embarrassed.
“It’s alright… wait… how do you know my name?” he said, finally looking up.
“You… Pick n’ Save…” I stuttered, hoping that he didn’t think of me as a creep.
“Oh,” he said, recognizing me.
Suddenly he changed complete tactics.
“I know how you can make it up to me,” he said, leaning forward and slinging an arm around my shoulders. “You can get ice cream with me.”
I felt a blush creeping onto my cheeks as he led me to the counter.
“I can’t,” I said, moving away from him and managing to turn back to the door.
That was when I realized I had an audience watching me, all my friends totally creeping. Seriously, I was so embarrassed I couldn’t even take it.
“Comon’,” Stan complained. “You made a door hit me in the face.”
I laughed, “I think it was just meant to happen. In other words, you deserved it…”
“My heart,” Stan said, dramatically covering it. “Your words hurt.”
I rolled my eyes.
Stan’s friends parted when I reached the door and finally managed to get out of the store. I took a glance at my friends through the window once I was outside only to see them laughing at me. I crossed my arms and gave them a long glare before hurrying to my car.
No idea why any guys would have interest in me.
Seriously.
What is even happening?
***
Of course I’m an idiot, I literally avoid myself. All this time I’ve still wondered about my mom and the man she cheated with, but I’m terrified.
There, I admit it.
I’m terrified of what I’m going to see when I finally find out who the man is. If everything I think of my mom is wrong, and if this man is something terrible.
So for the past few weeks I wouldn’t even let me think of it. But lately the whole situation has been eating away at me and I can’t help but realize that I need to do something.
So, that night, at dinner, without second thoughts, I blurted it out to my dad. “Can I see mom’s note?”
Dad had been blabbering on and on about something stupid that was in the news and I had totally zoned out with thoughts on mom. Dad didn’t realize, well, until I totally interrupted him with that question. He was caught off guard and looked at me with surprise, his beer poised in his hand. He set it down and looked at me, eyebrows raised.
“Why do you want to see that?” he asked me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and said, “Because I’m curious to finally hear her last thoughts. I think it will give me full closure.”
This was true.
Dad slid his hand down his face, stressed.
“Look, Quinn. I understand why you want to read it, but I don’t think you should, so I’m not allowing it.”
“Why not?” I asked him.
“Her last thoughts were definitely not happy ones, and she says things in that note that I know she doesn’t mean. I don’t want you to take anything wrong.”
I stared at him, my heart sinking.
“I just thought…. I don’t know…” I said.
Dad looked at me and then looked down. I knew I suddenly wasn’t hungry so I picked up my plate and carried it to the sink before heading to my room.
Lying in my bed I knew I couldn’t hurt my dad by asking him about the man, so I knew I had to search for the note before asking Alyssa for help. Because Alyssa could only cause drama between our families. So I planned to search for the note tomorrow. But I wasn’t sure if I could handle everything by myself… and I knew just the person who might be there for me.
***
“Sam!” I yelled down the hallway.
He stopped and turned around to look at me, a small smile spreading across his face once he realized it was me. His reaction had my heart beating faster and had my mouth mimic his.
I hurried over to his side and grabbed his arm, dragging him along with me.
“What’s going on?” he asked me.
“I need you,” I said, pulling him outside the school doors and out into the cold air.
I looked at him from the corner of my eye only to find him with a smirk on his face. I wanted to tell him tons of things. I mean, we hadn’t talked in forever. I wanted to ask him why he was avoiding me, but now that I had him with me I wasn’t going to worry about those things now. I was going to talk to him about what I needed him for.
Once we were in my car and I was pulling out of the parking lot, I finally told him everything. “I need you today.”
“Why? What’s going on?” he asked me, concerned.
“I’m going to search for my mom’s note.”
“Your dad didn’t give it to you?” he asked me.
I bit my lip. “No.” was all I said.
“Why not?” Sam asked me.
I shook my head, “He thinks that I won’t be able to handle everything she wrote in there. He said that she was in her darkest place when she wrote it. Obviously, I guess, because it was right before she jumped off a building,” I said the last part bitterly.
“Oh, Quinn. I don’t know if you should be doing this then,” Sam said.
“I need to, Sam. I need to. I need closure.”
He was silent as he watched the scenery around us pass by.
He cleared his throat. “If you think it’s necessary.”
“I’ll then find out the guy’s name too, hopefully. And maybe we could figure out where he lives and I could have a chat with him to see what he’s like.”
“I don’t know if any of this is a great idea. But I won’t interfere. You just need to be completely sure you want to do this.”
I looked at him and looked back at the road.
“Are you?” he asked me even more concerned now.
I wasn’t sure.
“Yes,” I answered anyway.
“Okay. Then I can help you do this.”
***
“It has to be around here somewhere,” I muttered, looking around my dad’s room.
“How long do we have until your dad gets home?” Sam asked me.
“About a half hour. We need to keep watch just in case though,” I said.
“Alright, do you want me to?” he asked me.
“Just help me search first,” I said.
And soon enough we were invading my dad’s privacy. I felt awfully guilty searching through his room, if I knew he went through my stuff I know I would be angry. And I would feel like my trust with him was broken. Of course, from my dad’s point of view it was different. I was his daughter and I was doing it for a (sort of) valid reason.
After searching for a long while, Sam and I collapsed on the bed, I was lying across his stomach because after he had lay down I had jumped across him.
“Seriously, We can’t find it anywhere,” Sam sighed.
I looked around the room, which was in mint condition because after we had moved things, we had made sure to put them back perfectly. Something caught my eye then, it was the only picture of mom in the room.
I stood up suspiciously and walked over to it, picking it up and staring at the picture of mom, dad, and I all laughing in the picture, building a snowman. I remember Aunt Victoria had to take it. That was when I noticed the little fold of paper in the corner of the picture, poking out slightly from corner. I quickly opened the back and that was when I realized this had to be it, the note.
I unfolded it and let my eyes scan the beginning.
I’m so sorry, honey. I know that you never would have thought that I…
I stopped, looking up and Sam with wide eyes.
“How did you know it would be in there?” he asked me in surprise.
I shook my head, shutting the picture frame back up, the note still in my hand. “I didn’t.”
He stood up and walked over to me, then stopped to assess the state I was in.
I gulped and said, “Could we go to my room? Just in case my dad comes home any moment.”
He nodded and together we walked over to my room. I closed the door behind me and took a deep breath. I look back down at the note; it was folded neatly and crisply. Then I sat on my bed, holding my head in my hands.
“Are you going to read it?” Sam asked me.
I shook my head, “Now I’m not so sure.”
“You did this only for this man’s name, in the beginning Quinn. You don’t have to read the whole thing.”
“But I know that if I start reading I won’t stop.”
“It was your father’s wishes for you not to read it. Maybe in a couple more years so you can think about it.”
“I know…”
“I could search for the name for you,” he said.
I looked up at him curiously. “You would?”
“Of course, Quinn.”
“But I’m not so sure I want you to see it.”
“Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you to have to really see how messed up my mom was,” I said, looking away in embarrassment.
“Oh, Quinn.”
I looked back down at the note in fear.
“Just give me it,” he said.
I handed it to him numbly and he opened it up. I sat there watching his expression, his face was somber. After only about thirty seconds he said, “Tom Wellington.”
“Tom Wellington,” I repeated.
Suddenly we heard the front door open. Sam quickly took the note and hid it in my bookshelf before walking over to me. We waited for the door to open, and when it did my dad looked at me suspiciously.
“What?” I asked him.
“You two are awfully silent.”
“Because we heard you coming,” I joked, even though it was part true.
He rolled his eyes before saying, “Sam, you could stay for dinner again tonight. Tonight is taco night.”
“Thanks, sir. But I actually need to get going. My dad wants me to go out to eat tonight with him and my cousins that came in for a visit. I was actually going to invite Quinn to come along.”
My eyes widened and I looked at my dad pleadingly.
Dad smiled and I felt guilty for having him to stay home alone again.
It must get lonely having a breathless wife.
“Of course,” he said.
Sam grinned at me and I looked back at him, curious as to why he suddenly wanted to be friends with me again.
***
So after I made that reads goal for me to reach before I updated, I was veryy surprised by how fast I got those, what, 500 reads! It only took about a week and a half! So here's the update I promise you all. Hope you still decide to comment <3 Every comment & vote means sooo much! You don't even know! Seriously I'm so happy with all the attention being drawn now to this story. I think I got 15 votes on the last chapter! And I've never got that many votes when I was this far in. Sorry I won't be updating probably for AT LEAST another week. Anyway, please comment/vote:)) Tell me what you think of the note!