Chapter Twenty Four
One week later and the situation still hadn’t gotten any better. I felt like a chew toy that was being stretched between two dogs. I was worn out and Mason had left to sort some stuff out back in Dalla. I wish I had snuck into his car and joined him – it would have been so much easier than staying here.
“Marzipan, what’s up?” Thom whispered. I was massaging my temples and wondering how I had gotten myself into this situation. Maybe it was karma?
“I’m just very tired.” I wasn’t going to bring it up, but a certain somebody tried to climb into my house, yet again, to be “helpful” and to “help look after my baby”. It’s safe to say that they had a nice, huge bruise from a pan. I was not going to be intimidated in my own house or be forced to look after anyone I didn’t want to.
“Are you sure it’s just that?”
“I think you know the rest.” For the past week, every time I had tried to do something I got a text off Will (God knows how he got my number) or Tristan. Either that, or they would both mysteriously appear if I was in trouble. It was unnerving and annoying. And there was never a moment of peace.
“How about we escape?” Currently, Tristan and Will were now arguing over who was going to buy me a healthy drink. Tristan was arguing that Will was only out for himself and that he wouldn’t let me pick whereas Will was accusing Tristan of not caring about the baby’s health. If I was going to be honest, I would have rather spent the last of my change on buying myself a drink.
“Right, because that’s going to be so easy!” I hissed, trying not to be too loud. Even though they were arguing among themselves, I didn’t want to risk Tristan or Will (or both) having a go at Thom, assuming that I was angry because I was shouting at him. Most of the time it was true, but I would rather shout solo than have a posse behind me repeating themselves like parrots.
“Just pretend to go to the toilet and then run. Simple!” I rose an eyebrow at Thom. It could work, but I didn’t exactly feel like running. It was worse than running up the stairs without any support. My mind quickly changed when I heard them talk about who would be taking me home and who knew best for me. I refused to have my life dictated by two idiots.
Without saying a word, I stood up and made my way to the ‘toilet’. Within seconds of leaving the table, I heard two voices call for me. I stopped, rolled my eyes, and turned to face them.
“A girl can’t pee in private?” I remarked and walked off without a reply. Rather than just leaving, I did ‘empty my bladder’ (as they say) since I had no idea where Thom would take me and I was not risking running around like a headless chicken looking for a toilet.
After relieving myself, I opened the door so that it was wide enough for me to check that Dumb and Dumber weren’t looking at me. When I was happy, I walked out and through the café casually, as if nothing was wrong. I didn’t look behind me, not until I was out the door and across the road. No-one was screaming my name so it was safe to say I’d successfully escaped! I felt like celebrating. My first real freedom, outside, in a week.
“Mars!” Dread filled me before I realised it was Thom. He and Tristan sounded alike, but Thom had a slighter higher voice. I thanked the man who hid in the clouds for giving me relief.
“You scared me for a second.”
“Scared? You?” He laughed really loudly. I’m sure the few oldies roaming the streets stopped to stare (and they definitely were not happy with the noise). “You’ve been in a couple of fights, stood up to Sophia, whacked Will over the head and now you’re scared? Even after all the ‘supposed’ drama you’ve been in when you lived in… wherever it was?”
“Oh shut up. I wasn’t in danger of being suffocated.” I would have preferred them both fighting me. That would be less painful than whatever situation I was in now. Neither gave me a choice, and if they ‘allowed’ me freedom, they would still be lurking. It was insane – it was like I had my own personal psycho fanboys.
“You’re not being suffocated.”
“Really?” Was he actually saying what I think he was saying? Did he not see them try and follow me to the ladies’ room? “So, I’m not being stalked 24/7?”
“You’ve got to be exaggerating.” He blew me off, thinking I was lying. No. I, Samara Ray, did not exaggerate. I may lie, I may manipulate and I may threaten but I did not exaggerate.
“So, I’m not being followed, and it wasn’t Will that I whacked with a pan last night?” Thom stared blankly. I sighed at him – he just didn’t understand. “Look, three times this week, I’ve found Will sneaking around my house. And then, one night – I swear I’m not lying about this – there was some… thing in our garden that just sat there.” I shivered at the memory. This massive creature that looked like a monster just sat, staring at my window. There was no way to begin to describe what it looked like!
“Wait, Will was outside your house?”
“I whacked him when he came in.” His jaw dropped for a second before he started to spit out sounds. Whatever he was trying to tell me was not being communicated very well.
“He broke in!?” Before I could say anything, he threw out more words. “What… I… God! I’m going to kill him!”
“Don’t even think about walking back in there.” I threatened. “Look, we’re wasting time here. It’s not going to take them long to figure out I’ve made a run for it – especially since they’re alone now.”
Not wanting to take a risk and let Will or Tristan catch me, I started to walk. It didn’t matter what direction I was heading in because as long as I escaped, I was happy. Checking behind me as I walked, I signalled to Thom to come with me. I saw him give a panicked glance to something on his side before he sprinted to me. When he got to me, he grabbed my hand and slowed to a jogging pace.
“I think it’s time we got going.”
~ ~ ~
Sitting back on the bed, I let the film wash over me. It was something that some fling of Thom’s had left. One of the Twilight films. I didn’t understand why they were appealing to anyone! All it was, was some boring girl who falls in love with some paedo-vampire and some weak werewolf. It was nothing like Van Helsing (which was amazing, and I, for some unknown reason, fancied Count Dracula). Where was the fighting? Where was the emotion?
“So, you actually sat through this, just to get laid?” Disbelief filled my voice, and it had every right to. Was Thom that desperate?
“Well… no. I mean, I was always kinda curious about the whole thing and why girls were so attracted to Squashy Face.”
“Squashy Face?”
“Yeah, the guy who can shift into a massive wolf. Or whatever that thing is.” His face scrunched up in disgust. “I mean, he’s not even a real werewolf! He just looks like a ball of hair.”
“Thom, you do know that none of this is real, right?” As I pointed to the screen, I shoved some more popcorn into my mouth. I thanked the stars that Thom didn’t put any salt in – I loved sugar sprinkled all over mine.
“Don’t you believe in werewolves?” I grabbed the remote and paused the film. My pausing was perfect as Sparkles was caught in mid-speech and his eyes seemed to be everywhere.
“Seriously?” I waited for him to answer. After seconds of silence, I carried on speaking. “You’re asking if I believe that people can turn into animals?”
“It’s a valid question! People believe in aliens!”
I scoffed at him before shaking my head. “No, I don’t.”
“Why not?” Oh. My. God. Thom believed in werewolves? In that nonsense? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing!
“Why not? I may not be great at science but I’m pretty sure bones can’t grow. I’m pretty sure that fur can’t spring out from nowhere! Why do you even believe in it?”
“There’s so many weird things in the world! Who says werewolves can’t exist? How do you know that they do, it’s just that no-one has seen one?” I started to laugh, but stopped when Thom threw a dirty look at me. His eyes narrowed and I was slightly scared. “I’m being serious here. Do you seriously not believe there are… there are other things out there?”
I eyed him up. What was he getting at? “Look, I’ve never really thought about it and I don’t see why I need to. Anyway, what’s the time? I’m supposed to be back by nine.”
Glancing at his watch, he told me it was around six-ish. I decided that I didn’t want to sit through any more of this ridiculous film and I had a sneaky feeling that Thom was going to convince me that the boogeyman was real. Not wanting to have any tension between us (I knew I’d get angry and snap), I decided to leave – and hopefully avoid my stalkers.
“I’m gonna head off.” Thankfully, Thom didn’t try and persuade me to stay. Instead, he nodded and his shoulders slumped.
“Do you need a lift?”
“I’m alright. I wouldn’t trust you behind the wheel anyway.” I joked. All I got in response was a nod. I felt as if Thom was disappointed in me because I didn’t believe in werewolves (although, I don’t even know why he wanted to).
“Fine. Well, you know the shortcut back to yours and good luck avoiding Crazy and Crazier!” I thanked him and left him to watch his film by himself. Now, it was just luck if I could get home without being spotted.