Hello, I've been wanting to post this from earlier but I had a terrible bellyache that had me writhing in pain. It's mostly gone now but I'm still feeling a bit iffy.
Anyway, I think that if you've payed attention to the previous chapters you can figure out the direction this is heading in so that's a plus. Thanks for continually making me smile, it is incredible.
I always have a ton more to say but always forget whenever I'm on here. Exams are almost finished just in about two weeks or so, then I can update like every two days. Wish me luck!
Chapter IX
Marc had to leave after a while, something about a big, important, test. I, for one, couldn’t handle another minute at that terrible institution. I had had enough for one week. All my mind kept going back to was the image of the guy; something was definitely weird about him. I was driving around aimlessly when I realized I was actually going back to the house. The place seemed even creepier now, now that I was alone, the gargoyles seemed to be watching my every move as I approached their house.
I left the car idling while I went to take a closer look at the house, the aura of class was still there but it was creepy nonetheless. I managed to find the cobble stone path to where my van had been parked. I looked around for the same strange guy again but I saw nothing. There was only the wind whistling until –
“What are you doing here?” an unfamiliar voice called.
I turned slowly, unwilling to make any sudden moves. My brows raised as my eyes met the same guy that was there before. Remember when I said he looked dangerous? Well, when he’s facing you, it’s much worst. It seemed that if he blew on me I’d be on the ground writhing in pain in mere seconds. He just looked that dangerous.
“Uh, I left my keys here at the party last night.”
His brows raise considerably. “Oh you go to Emerson?”
I nodded slowly, my eyes drifted to his arms; they were roughly the same size as mine. Instead of being bulky, he looked lanky and kind of awkward but I could see that he had skill just looking at the kind of defensive stance he had. “Yeah,” I answered slowly.
He looked thoughtfully at his shoes before looking back up at me. “Okay,” he said, eyeing me strangely.
“Wait, what’re you doing here?”
For a moment his eyes flashed a bit and I balled my fists. His face broke into a smile. “I’m the new gardener.”
My brows pulled together while I tried to analyze if he was being truthful or not, and the smile was beginning to get somewhat creepy. This guy looked as if he was in his twenties and maybe fit for an indie pop band rather than a gardener. I mumbled a quick okay and turned to walk away from him although I wasn’t sure turning my back to a guy like this was a good idea.
“Oh yeah,” he called, making me stop. “Do you know someone by the name of Avery?”
I turned to see his expression, he was eager for what I’d tell him, I know. Thinking better of it, I shook my head briefly. “No, I don’t; why?”
His face fell a bit and I felt relieved that I hadn’t told him yes. “Nothing, just wondering.” I nodded at him and turned to the cobble-stone pathway, trying to hurry away from him; when he thought I was out of earshot he mumbled, “Can’t expect a nerd to know anything.”
I snorted, if he only knew the half.
I knew I should’ve probably gone to visit Gina or something as patriotic as that but I couldn’t handle the guilt and I was positive her mother didn’t want to see me either. So, due to that crappy excuse I ended up driving along to the dingy town of Aspiration Park. I knew it wasn’t particularly a good idea to be showing up there, especially since I was trouble prone.
The sky seemed to immediately darken as I approached the outskirts of the town. The men on the street eyed me suspiciously as I sped past them, I did my best to hide my face so they couldn’t hunt me down. I remembered the direction we had taken the previous night, it made me feel like some creepy stalker – remembering the exact direction to her house after just one night taking her there.
The few large raindrops had begun pouring by the time I pulled up to the house. It looked even worst in the daylight if that was even remotely possible. The rain was coming from the sky in large portions and I hurried up the broken stone path and up to the front door. I punched my fist on the door and tried to shelter under the small roof covering that prodded itself over my head. The door was pulled in so suddenly that I almost fell headfirst into the room.
The smell of warm brownies wafted up to my nose and my brows furrowed, I expected to see people polishing guns, not serving brownies. I looked over to the person who’d opened the door, she had a striking resemblance of Avery, and she was way shorter than her with cropped brown hair and red-rimmed eyes.
“Who are you?” she asked, closing the door in the process. I guess I passed the ‘Is he a creep’ test.
“Uh, Avery’s… friend?” I said a little unsure.
She seemed delighted. “Avery had friends? That’s really great!”
To me, she looked really high strung and really young, so I figured Avery hadn’t been lying about the older sister thing. Before I could respond, the person of the moment walked down the stair-case and gave me a look of disbelief.
“Get out!” she exclaimed, pointing to the door. “Reena! You can’t just let complete strangers into the house.”
Reena looked flustered and she looked back and forth between us uncertainly. “He said he’s your friend.”
Avery turned to me and raised a brow. “I thought I made it clear we aren’t friends and we never will be.” She inclined her head to the kitchen then looked down at Reena. “Your brownies are burning.”
Reena scrambled off into the distance and Avery pulled her sweater closer, folding her arms over her chest tightly. “I’m just trying to be a friend,” I told her.
“You’re trying so hard to make me accept you. Is it so hard to believe there’s a girl oblivious to your ‘charm’,” she replied, air quotes around charm.
I gritted my teeth in frustration. “Is it so hard to believe that I actually care? I don’t want anything from you.”
“Then leave,” she exclaimed. “Get the hell out of my house.”
Reena rushed past from the kitchen with a tray of brownies in her hand. She pushed it under my nose and pointed eagerly at it. “It’s better hot.”
I reached to take one but paused as Avery raised a brow at me. “Let me guess – weed brownies.”
Avery rolled her eyes and muttered, “Bingo,” the same time Reena said, “Only the best.”
I pulled my hand back and smiled at her. “No thanks,” I mumbled, wiping my hand into my pants.
Just as I thought the small room was stuffy enough, the door swung open roughly and hit me squarely in the back. I turned and looked around, seeing two men enter with huge joints in their hands. They pushed past me as if I wasn’t even there. They both sat on the small sofa, seemingly breaking all the springs, they blew large puffs of smoke into the air.
Avery’s lip curled in disgust and she grabbed my hand and pulled me up the deteriorating staircase that creaked dangerously under our weight. There were closed doors lining the walls and she stopped at the second door and flung it open, shoving me inside and closing the door behind her.
I looked around the room and noted the way it was arranged, it was clean and crisp, a comfortable difference from what I’d just seen. I looked over to Avery and noticed she was wringing her hands nervously.
“You weren’t supposed to see that,” she muttered, almost inaudibly.
I rolled my eyes. “Why not, I feel like I’ve just had my daily dose of druggie soap opera.”
Avery sat on the bed and looked up at me. “Shut up. I still want you to get out.”
“One of these days I’m just going to stop caring and – “
She pulled in a shaky breath. ”What are you going to do? Hit me?”
There was silence while I tried to process what she had said. “What?” I just meant I hated the feeling of rejection and was aware of how those girls at school probably felt, not that I’d become violent.
“Go ahead, hit me. If it gets you to leave then fine.”
I stared at her in shock, still wondering if I’d heard right. She appeared to be awaiting whatever blow I was going to deal out. I raised my hand to run it over my face and she flinched noticeably, there was no going back now.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said, a short distance away.
Avery shook her head furiously. “Don’t say that because you will.”
I rolled my eyes to the ceiling in frustration. “At first you’re all ‘I hate Jason’ and now you’re afraid of me? Make up your mind, crazy.”
She sighed. “It’s a bit of both actually. I’m trying to convince myself that liking you is a bad idea.”
I grimaced, all resolve to find out what her problem was had vanished; now she just needed a friend, someone wouldn’t judge her for being dark-haired or who wouldn’t mind her being a murderer. Her craziness was starting to rub off on me.
“As a friend,” she continued, eyeing me weirdly. “Don’t be getting googly eyed over me now, I’m over popular guys.”
I smiled at her. “I don’t mind that. So, do you take part in their drug run?”
Avery nodded seriously. “Yeah, there’s a new one that I can’t get enough of.” As soon as she saw my expression she laughed. “You take me far too seriously.”
“Oh yeah,” I muttered, finally remembering something. “Someone asked me if I knew you today.”
Avery looked confused. “Who’d ask for me?”
I decided to choose my words carefully from then on. “A guy, he had hair like yours and…,” I trailed off, seeing how drastically her face had changed. Something bigger than I could comprehend was going on I could tell.
“Oh my God,” she said staring off into the distance. “Did you tell him you did?”
I shook my head slowly. “I didn’t, why? Is something wrong?”
“He’s just very bad,” she said, staring off into the distance. “He’s close, I can’t run anymore.”
“What did he do?”
Avery shot up from the bed and rubbed her hands together nervously. “Listen, I’ve got to go make some calls. I’m sorry.”
I watched as she flung open the door so forcibly it banged against the wall roughly. I stared after her in bewilderment. For a moment I was partially paralyzed, although I was expecting her to react that way I was still surprised. The room seemed bigger, more spacious now that she’d left. Her sheets were clean, her floors were spotless and her books were well-arranged. I took that to mean Avery was an organized person.
I knew I shouldn’t snoop around in someone else’s belongings but the temptation was mostly overwhelming since the house was quiet. The first thing I noticed was the heaps binder notebooks on a side table. I glanced toward the open door and headed over to them. The first one I picked up read ‘Case Notes’. I frowned in confusion and flipped through it. The elegant script breezed in front of my face.
A page caught my eyes and I stopped abruptly reading the heading:
‘June 16. 2012. Day 5 ’
My eyes scanned the page and noted more than a couple times the name Forbes. I flipped through until I got to the 20th. A brief citation was at the bottom
‘Although this is for actual notes, I must say Forbes is going down.’
My brows furrowed as I tried to decipher what this all meant and why my last name was written all over the book. Before I could flip to the next page, I heard footsteps coming toward the room. I slammed the book shut and threw it on the table. It was practically hard to look natural with all the surprising developments. Did that mean she came here for a reason? Or maybe that’s why she hated me that much. Or perhaps I was next on her ‘hit list’.
Avery entered, chewing her thumb nail nervously and cradling a phone between her shoulder and her ear. She actually looked surprised to see me. In fact she jumped so fiercely that the phone fell and the contents spilled out onto the floor. I didn’t get a chance to offer my help because she already was on her hands and knees, clambering to take up the pieces.
I wasn’t sure about her anymore and I hesitated for a moment before kneeling beside her. “It was a long distance call,” she wailed, miserably.
My heart sank, was she getting reinforcements to take me out? “It just takes a minute to boot up, don’t worry.”
Avery looked up at me and her brows smushed together. “Your niceness is annoying me.”
If I wasn’t sure of anything, I was sure she always surprised me.
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Trivia time, it helps with commenting if you don't know what to say, so dig in.
1. What do you think crawled up into Avery's ass and died?
2. What do you think of the new mysterious guy?
3. Do you think Avery needs to start treating Jason better now?
4. Where do you think this story's going?
5. Do you think Jason and Avery are ever going to get together?
Bonus question: are you completely disgruntled by my sporadic updates? You can tell me!
Thank you all again!
P.S. I saw this idea on either MonsoonB's story or LonesomeTear's but those girls are awesome, so check them out! (The idea for the questionaire I mean, haha.)