Chapter 20 – A Tiger’s Eye
Kelsey groaned, attempting to turn to her side. She squirmed a little before she realized something was holding her back. She groaned. She always hated this part of the day. Waking up. She always hated waking up, but there was something different today.
She could sense it before she even opened her eyes. She felt different. It was weird, but she felt warmer than she normally did, more comfortable. She peeled her eyes open and squinted, looking around. The first thing she noticed was a large arm wrapped around her abdomen. Forcing herself to stay calm, she looked around and realized she wasn’t in her own bedroom.
That’s when she lost it.
She grabbed the arm and yanked it off of her, simultaneously jumping out of the bed with a small scream. “Ah!”
The individual beside her also got up with a startling quickness. Relief flooded through Kelsey when she realized it was just Alex. “W-why am I here?” She asked looking around. She wasn’t in her own room. She was in Alex’s room—in his bed. With him. Kelsey couldn’t form a single plausible reason as to why she was.
She glanced down. She was dressed. That was good news. No, it wasn’t. Yes, she was dressed, but not in her own clothes. What had happened? She was supposed to be wearing the purple dress she’d worn to Dana’s wedding. Instead, she was adorning a…t-shirt? It had to be Alex’s. She felt all of her blood rush to her cheeks and embarrassment and humiliation ran through her. What had happened last night?
The wedding went smoothly. When James had seen Dana, his eyes had nearly fallen out of his sockets. He was smitten, that one. The wedding had ended efficiently and then they’d all left the church and….
Reception! Maria and Jonathan had arranged a small reception party for Dana and James. They had a bar. Kelsey felt a sudden throbbing in her head and groaned, clutching it.
“Hangover.” Alex said, slowly making his way around the bed. He went into his bathroom. Kelsey blinked. Hangover? There was no way Kelsey could have a hangover. She’d have to drink for that. The throbbing in her head reminded her that either she had a killer migraine, or Alex was right. Still…hangover?
Alex emerged from the bathroom with a bottle of Advil in his hands. He handed it to her and she took it, dumbly staring at it. What had she done? “Why am I in your bedroom?”
Alex smirked. “Are you saying you don’t remember?”
Anxiety build up in Kelsey’s gut and she frowned. “Remember what?” She asked, tense. Alex smirked, wider.
“You mean you really don’t remember?” He asked. “You woke up in my bed, Kelsey. I’m sure you can do the math.”
“Oh, I can do math.” Kelsey snapped at him. “It’s the logic part that’s bugging me.”
“Calm down, Kelsey. Nothing happened, I assure you.” His tone was convincing but Kelsey wasn’t entirely convinced. After all, she was the one in his bed, wearing his t-shirt. She sighed, inhaling the scent that came off of the shirt. “What are you doing?” Alex asked, curiously.
“This is your shirt.” She stated the obvious. And it smelled just like him. Kelsey never paid attention to the way Alex smelled. It would have been weird, but then again, maybe being hangover made a person do weird things.
Alex had a very industrial smell, a scent that Kelsey liked, but she couldn’t quite identify. Kelsey sighed. All this thinking was giving her a headache. She opened up the little bottle of tablets and took out a couple pills. She looked around the room.
Alex’s room was surprisingly nice. It was clean, almost as clean as her own house and she found herself smiling despite herself. She liked that Alex was a man who knew how to keep his house clean. The bed was almost proper, despite the fact that they’d been sleeping in it. There were no shoes thrown around the room, no random socks. The room was clean. It reminded Kelsey of a new linen. Perfectly clean, but unused.
She opened the door and found herself in the living room, which was in a state similar to the bedroom. The kitchen was neat. Kelsey took a glass and filled it up with water from the faucet. Then, she swallowed down two pills, still trying to remember what had happened last night.
She’d met Leonardo, Alex’s brother. He was young enough to be his son, frankly. He was eleven years old. The family often referred to him as a miracle and a surprise. He’d come when they were least expecting him. He was like a little, more talkative, charming version of Alex.
Then it clicked. Isabella. Kelsey should have figured out it was Isabella’s idea to start with. She was the one causing a little havoc in Kelsey’s otherwise boring life. Kelsey was also a bit ashamed of herself. For a professor, a teacher who encouraged her students to never succumb to pressure, she’d done it herself, and Isabella wasn’t even old enough to be Kelsey’s peer. She should have never accepted that first cup.
But then, she had also been there. She couldn’t blame anyone, though. What had happened had been her own doing. She was responsible for the state of her mind.
“Do you want some coffee?” Alex’s voice startled her from behind and she quickly turned around, fully aware of how indecent she was. It hadn’t occurred to her before, but now that she’d taken the pills, thoughts were beginning to make more sense. Her fingers clutched the bottom of her shirt as she stared at Alex with wide eyes. She nodded. After observing her for a second, he asked, “Do you want to take a shower? There’s a spare towel in there and your clothes from yesterday are still in my room. Isabella has some clothes here, too, if you’re interested.”
Grateful for the opportunity to get away, Kelsey quickly nodded before hurrying into the bathroom. She shut the door behind her and took a deep breath. This was surreal. No, this was beyond surreal. This was not Kelsey. She didn’t wake up in a guy’s bed. Kelsey made the guy sleep on the couch. Why was Alex in bed with her? She hated that she couldn’t remember.
She was irritated. She should have never drunk so much. She felt like an idiot. A moron! She was already jealous of Shay, and now, she’d seen what Nina looked like, too. But she had no reason to be jealous because she wasn’t in a committed enough relationship with him to drink away just because he talked to another woman who happened to be romantically interested in him.
But how could she not feel envious? Shay was everything Kelsey wasn’t. She was fit. She was gorgeous. She had a perfect figure. She was the type of woman men had wet dreams about and she was interested in Alex. Nina was gorgeous, too. And Nina and Shay both liked Alex. Kelsey liked Alex. How could she compete? Really, there wasn’t anything about her that could keep a guy’s attention, much less Alex’s.
Then, she smirked. No, maybe not, but she suddenly felt proud of the fact that she was the one who woke up in Alex’s bed and not Shay Miguel or Nina Sanchez.
And it was a wonderfully wrong thought to have.
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Kelsey was in a bit of a rush. Her alarm clock hadn’t rung on time that morning and she’d only peeled her eyes
She’d spent all night cursing herself for how foolishly she’d behaved that morning. She had no reason to be jealous of Shay. She cursed herself for behaving so foolishly that night. Sure, Isabella had encouraged her to take the first shot, but the rest of them were her own choice.
She didn’t know what had changed between Friday night and Saturday morning. Well, she did, but she didn’t want to accept it.
She really liked the dress Dana had given her. It was gorgeous, but she was intent on not wearing it until she found out Shay was coming and she resented herself for that because she was being foolish. This was her first real almost relationship and she didn’t want to ruin it because of jealousy. In fact, Kelsey didn’t even know she was capable of jealousy until it began to dawn on her about how Shay felt about Alex.
But that didn’t matter. Alex’s feeling were what mattered and he seemed to be interested in her just as she was interested in him. And this was life. People come and go. More than half the people in the world are women.
And Shay and Alex worked together. She had no right to interfere with that. She also had a job and was proud of herself for being able to support herself. So yes, she was a bit insecure but she didn’t a man interfering with her independence. She had a right to be proud of it.
It was when she finally came to terms with her life and her potential relationship with Alex that she was finally able to get some sleep. Unfortunately, sleep came around two o’clock in the morning and she was still recovering from her hangover from the previous day. Kelsey couldn’t fathom why people would put themselves through it over and over again.
Now, Kelsey was going to be a good girl and preciously take whatever life and her somewhat relationship with Alex threw at her. She was now emotionally ready.
Besides, her love life wasn’t her only problem. She had bigger problems. Kara was her biggest problem and she was ashamed of the fact that she’d hardly given her sister a thought in the past few days. How could she feel safe? She’d had a gun pointed at her twice in the past month. One of those times, her sister had been behind the weapon. How could she forget about that?
When she entered the classroom, she saw that her class was already there. The classroom was full, save for a few seats in the back. “Good morning, everyone.” She smiled at them. She received a little mumbling in response. She ignored it and headed over to her desk, setting her bag on it. She took out her notes and grabbed a white board marker.
“So, we’re going to be doing section 7.8. Anyone want to guess what it’s about?” She didn’t wait for a response. “Improper integrals.”
A simultaneous groaned erupted through the room. Kelsey smiled. She was a sadist. What else was there to say? She enjoyed torturing her students like this.
“There are two types of improper integrals.” Kelsey said as she wrote the name on the board. “Type I are infinite integrals.” Her marker squeaked as she wrote. She heard the door open behind her, but she ignored it, assuming that it was one of her students arriving exceptionally late. “When we define an integral from a to b of f (x) dx, we made two assumptions. Can anyone tell me what those two assumptions were?” She turned around, facing her class with a strict smile on her face. She scanned the classroom and color seemed to drain from her face when she spotted a very familiar figure at the end of the room. She blinked, shocked. She forced her attention to a petite blonde sitting in the front desk. “Molly?”
“My name’s Polly.” She said with a frown. “F is continuous.”
“I’m sorry, Polly.” Kelsey said, forcing her attention on her lecture. “And the second assumption?”
Kelsey tried to sound as calm as she could but her heart was racing and fear seemed to be crawling through her veins. What was he doing here? Stories of classroom shootings flashed through her mind and while her instincts told her to crawl under the desk and call for help, the oddly calm look in Tiger’s expression told her not to even think about it.
Though Kelsey was scared as hell, she couldn’t say she wasn’t surprised. If anything, she should have expected some sort of retaliation from Rocha’s people sooner. But seeing Tiger in her classroom was surreal. This was supposed to be her safe place.
Would they find her body stashed beneath the desk when the next class came in? Was there any hope for her? Why was he still sitting there?
Maybe he was waiting for the class to leave so there weren’t any witnesses. Kelsey glanced at the clock and saw that most of the time had already passed and she would have to end class in ten minutes. Or, she could keep them behind and continue with the lecture. Maybe they wouldn’t notice.
If Kelsey wasn’t so scared, she might have laughed at her own joke. The students depended on that clock. There was no way she’d be able to keep them behind. She didn’t even have any homework to return today. Besides, she couldn’t risk keeping her students in the same room as a big, scary possible murderer.
A part of her was relieved that Tiger didn’t seem to come here with the intention of killing her students as well. If he wanted to, he would have done so already. So, she anxiously proceeded through the lesson as calmly as she normally would, even though she felt like there was a tornado inside of her.
Then, all too soon, the clock neared the dismissal time and Kelsey felt like she might pass out. An idea struck her. Perhaps, if she feigned unconsciousness, her students would call campus security. Then, she rethought it. Maybe not. What if her students took the opportunity to make a run for it and abandon her here with Tiger? Did they hate her enough to do that? It was possible. Kelsey wished, for the first time, that she’d maintained better relations with her students.
The glanced at Tiger, who smirked as if he knew what she was thinking. Kelsey knew that she was thinking. I’m going to die today, she thought remorsefully. He’s here to finish the job. How could she have thought that she’d gotten away with what she did? Then, another thought struck her. I’m going to die a virgin. The last thought bothered her more than it should have. She wanted to save herself for marriage, but now, she was going to be a dead adult virgin. Did those even exist anymore, or was Kelsey going to be a first?
One of her students, a normally silent guy in the back of the classroom raised his hand. Kelsey nodded at him. “I have a question.”
“Talk to me about it after class, okay?” Kelsey said, earning a few strange looks from her students, but she didn’t mind. It seemed that Tiger wasn’t here for too much bloodshed, so maybe keeping one student with her might keep her alive for a little longer.
The student shot her a confused look but nodded, looking even a little disappointed. Kelsey could hardly think what was disappointing him though, when she might as well have a bullet pointed to her.
Her phone was somewhere in her bag, but she had no idea where and she didn’t think she would be able to rummage through her bag without getting caught. His hands were under the desk so Kelsey had no idea if he had a gun in his hand, prepared to shoot her if she did anything unexpected.
Suddenly, her concerns about Shay and Alex seemed petty, now that she had other, bigger things to worry about. She wished she’d never followed Kara. She wished she’d never peeked through the window. She wished she’d never met Tiger. She wished she’d never met Caleb Rocha. But most importantly, she wished she’d been born an only child.
Her class dispersed.
Her student, Lance, approached her with his notebook. She glanced towards the back of the classroom and saw that Tiger hadn’t even budged. Suddenly, an idea came to mind. She took out a pencil and motioned for him to come near her.
“I didn’t know you were the partying type, professor.” Lance was saying as he set his notebook down on the table. Even though Kelsey was distracted, Lance’s words caught her attention. “I thought you didn’t have a life.”
Kelsey was speechless, unsure as to how to defend herself. “Excuse me?”
“I saw you last week.” He elaborated. “On Friday.”
“So what? I have a life.” For now. Kelsey thought, glumly, glancing at her possible death lurking in the back of her classroom. “Do you need help or not?”
Lance shrugged. “I’ve needed help since the first day of class.”
Kelsey frowned, but directed her attention to his notebook. At least math would be the last thing she did before embracing death. No, she wouldn’t embrace death. She was too young to die. If death came for her, it would have to take her clutching and crying. She focused her attention on his notebook and in fine print, she wrote: DON”T SAY ANYTHING. She glanced at Lance, only to see he was focused intently on her notebook. She wrote Alex’s number down. She wasn’t embarrassed by the fact she’d memorized it. She’d called him way too many times and numbers were her thing. TELL HIM KELSEY NEEDS HELP. TIGER IS HERE.
“Got it?” Kelsey looked at Lance and he looked at her concerned. She had no doubt that he could see the fear in her eyes, but Kelsey told herself to be strong.
“Got it.” Lance responded, all traces of humor and amusement absent from his voice. He was an angel. If Kelsey survived, Lance was getting extra credit. “Thanks for the help, Professor.”
He proceeded towards the door, glancing at Tiger. Kelsey hoped Lance would hurry. For now, her life might be in his hands. As soon as the door clicked shut behind him, Kelsey’s heart was racing faster than it ever had before.
In her miserable high school English classes, she’d read so many poems about death, facing death, but she had no idea that she would face death like this. She hoped that if she distracted Tiger long enough, maybe Alex could get Tiger, at the very least.
“Why are you here?” Her voice was surprisingly calm. Tiger chuckled, standing up.
“Your lovely sister asked me to pay you a visit.” Tiger responded. Kelsey jumped at the sound of his voice. At the mention of her sister, Kelsey’s earlier fear was replaced with a feeling of bitterness and betrayal.
“Well, you’ve visited me. Now leave and tell her I hope she rots in hell.” Kelsey responded, furiously. Tiger’s words seemed to strike something in her and now she was angry. She was going to die anyways. She wasn’t going to do it being shy and weak and she sure as hell wasn’t going to beg for her life. No, she was going to tell Tiger exactly what she thought before she’d let one bullet strike her. And maybe if she riled him up enough, he wouldn’t make her death slow and painful. One bullet and she’d be over.
Unfortunately, before Tiger had a chance to respond to her words, the door flew open. Kelsey’s head shot towards the door. “I thought I might catch you here.” Professor Shaw spoke in a chirp voice that seemed to destroy the tension in the room. Then, she glanced at Tiger. “Are you busy?”
Kelsey didn’t know what to say. That she was busy preparing to die? If she said that, then she wasn’t sure what Tiger would do.
Surprisingly, though, Tiger was the one who responded. “We were just done.” He said, making his way out the door.
“Well,” Penny continued. “If you’ve got time, I’ve got great news. They’re shifting the Math and Sciences department to the new building. The renovations are done and they look marvelous, if I do say so myself.”
Kelsey couldn’t bring herself to respond to Penny Shaw’s comment. She was aware of the renovations going on at campus. She just had a lot on her mind for the past few days.
“You’re getting a new office!” The woman said when she didn’t get a proper response from Kelsey. Her eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Are you alright, dear?” She asked, making her way across the room. She gently put her hand on Kelsey’s shoulder. “You’re shaking, dear.”
And she was. She hadn’t even realized it until Penny pointed it out. Her eyes wandered over to the classroom door. There wasn’t a class scheduled in this classroom in the hour after Kelsey’s class was dismissed, and she’d liked it, up to today, at least. Now, she almost craved to have students swarming in after her class ended. “I-I’m alright.” Kelsey said, flinching when she stuttered. Where did all of her courage go, suddenly? She felt like she was on the verge of tears,
“Was that a student?” Penny asked, nodding towards the door. If she noticed Kelsey’s stuttering, she didn’t blatantly point it out.
Kelsey shook her head. “H-he was—” A criminal? A criminal on campus.
“It’s okay.” Penny said, comfortingly wrapping her arm around Kelsey. “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.”
“It’s crazy.” Kelsey said. Her heart was starting to calm down, but the anxiety in her mind wasn’t. She felt like she was having a minor heart attack.
“Guy troubles?” Penny asked, curiously. She wasn’t being nosy, though. She was just trying to talk to Kelsey, thinking that it would make her feel better.
“Sister troubles.” Alex was probably the last thing on her concern list.
“Ah!” Penny said, taking a seat on the desk. “I know about sister troubles. I’ve got an older sister who thinks she knows everything and a younger sister who’s convinced she knows everything. I’m in the middle.”
“I’m sure your sister troubles can't compete with mine.” Kelsey told her.
“If your troubles have anything to do with that frightening man that just left, then I believe you.” Penny said, with a small smile on her face. Kelsey felt like she was seeing Penny for the first time. Sure, she’d met the aging woman when she’d started working here. Kelsey briefly remembered considering her to be beautiful, and she was. She had inquisitive gray eyes and a thirst for knowledge, a bit like Kelsey.
“We’re twins.” She elaborated, wanting to tell Penny everything. “Identical. If she gets in trouble, I get in trouble.”
“I see.” Penny said. “Well, if my opinion matters at all, I think you’re probably the better twin. Why don’t we cancel all of our classes for the rest of the day and I’ll drive you to your house?”
Kelsey shook her head. “I think I’ll feel safer if I stay here.” The words slipped out.
Penny looked concerned again. “Is someone bothering you, Kelsey? If that’s the case, you need to get a restraining order or police protection.”
“I already do.” She responded. At least, she thought she did. No, she was fairly certain of it.
“You’ve got to be careful with these cops.” Penny suddenly said. “My Ed was in the Marines. I lost him a couple years back. They’ve got a charm of their own. It’s almost impossible to resist. We women have to prepare ourselves for it. They’re just too darn easy to lose.” Suddenly, the whole atmosphere in the room shifted. She’d heard about Penny’s husband’s death, but never spoke to the woman about it. She discussed it so easily. Had she gotten over him?
“Do you miss him?” She asked.
“I missed him when he was gone, too.” She said. “When I got the news, it was the hardest thing ever. I was broken. I guess I always saw it coming. Every time he left, I didn’t know if he would come back. I guess I just pretend that he’s gone. He’ll come back.” Her eyes grew glossy and Penny shook her head, as if she was trying to push unwanted thoughts out. “Let’s not talk about me. Tell me about you. Do you want me to drive you home? I will, but only if you want.”
“I think I’m just going to lock my door and stay in my office for a bit.” She responded, Penny’s story prominent in her head. She’d known that Penny was a widow for the past few years but she didn’t know that her husband had died serving the country.
“Of course, dear.” Penny responded with a motherly tone in her voice. “Would you like me to walk you to your office?”
“No thanks.” Kelsey shook her head. She didn’t want to put any threat on Penny if Tiger really was waiting outside. She anxiously glanced at the door. What is he is outside? Did Lance call Alex? Was he coming? She knew that she was incredibly irritated for no reason when she’d seen him yesterday, but he wanted to catch Caleb Rocha more than anything. If Lance told him about Alex, he should already be here.
“Are you sure you’re alright?” Penny asked again. “I know that we’re not well associated, but if you want to talk about anything, you can come to me anytime.” She gave Kelsey a warm smile.
“Thank you Penny.” She responded, and she really did mean it. Talking to Penny brought a small ache to her heart. For a second, she forgot about Tiger. She wasn’t thinking about Alex or Caleb or even Kelsey. She was focused on something else. It was the warm feeling she got when talking to Penny. It might have been because she was emotionally disturbed. Near death experience thoughts probably did that to people. But that wasn’t the reason. It was something else that Kelsey just couldn’t put her finger on.
After saying goodbye to Penny after assuring her several times that she was fine, she headed towards her office to seek shelter behind her locked door until Alex arrived. Looking around, she didn’t see Tiger anywhere, but that only made her more worried.
She might not be a zoologist, but she knew a thing or two about tigers. They always attacked their prey when they least expected it.
Kelsey shook her head. Now, she was just being paranoid. So what if Tiger was here? Maybe he just wanted to check up on her. She couldn’t fathom why he’d check up on her, but figured it had something to do with Kara. If he’d wanted to hurt her, he could have done so already. She was just letting her nerves get to her.
She stopped in front of her office and slid her key into the lock. She was just about to turn it when she felt someone put their hand on her shoulder. She froze. Every cell in her body froze. Her eyes widened and fear flashed back into her.
She was surely going to die, now.
So, here's the new chapter! Tiger is scary and there isn't much else that can really be said about him.
I know everyone probably hates Kara at this point.
The title for the next chapter is....KEEP HER SAFE.
Anyone who wants to can guess what might happen in that chapter. Things are going to start getting kind of crazy from here.
Anyways....Read. Vote. Comment.
And until next time,