I hadn't slept last night- I had just been going over what happened in my head over and over. I had eventually texted Heather, telling her to be on time to school so that I could tell her what happened during our free.
I don't think I'd ever been this early to school. I was so early, the janitor was still unlocking certain rooms. I sent him a smile, jogging up the steps and inside the Sixth Form common room. Heather and Fred- who was awake this time- were sat on our usual corner sofa. I bounded over, flopping onto the sofa.
There was only a few people in the common room, since it was so early, but I decided to lower my voice just in case. You never know, they might tell my stalker what I said. He had said I would know him if I knew his name, implying our social circles weren't far apart. I wasn't sure why Fred was here so early, but knowing him he had probably just wandered here straight out of a rave.
"I got his number, yesterday." I hissed to Heather the second I sat down, making her eyebrows shoot up.
"How in the hell did that happen? You spoke to him? That's not safe, Cameron! You shouldn't have done that." Heather reprimanded me, sitting up straight.
"Dude, you're gay?" Fred blurted, looking at me confused.
"Shut it." Heather grumbled, looking past me warily.
I glanced over my shoulder, noticing a few people were looking right at us, listening intently. They had definitely heard what Fred said. It made me uncomfortable and I could feel in the pit of my stomach that they had something to do with what's going on- I wasn't sure what, but I was going to find out.
"Fire escape, now." I whispered, then returning to a normal pitch, "God I need a ciggie. Coming, guys?"
Heather caught on to what I was doing, thankfully. She loudly declared that she too needed a cigarette and we inconspicuously darted for the fire escape. We closed the door behind us, climbing right down to the bottom of the rickety old metal frame to make sure nobody could see us. Heather shot me an 'explain now' look and I sighed, taking a seat.
"I was going to stay in, like you suggested, but the twins showed up at mine. We walked to the park and chilled there for a bit. Everything was fine while we were together, no weird stalker, but I felt like I was being watched. While walking home, I fell on my ass and he appeared- asking if I was okay. I ran away and he followed me. I ended up calling him, but withholding my number- just to get some answers." I explained briefly.
"Did you ask him who he is?" Heather coaxed, hanging onto my every word.
"Of course. It was the first thing I asked. He refused to answer and gave me some bullshit about it being better if I didn't know. Apparently I know him- well, that I'd recognise his name if he told me. I just hung up on him; I didn't let him explain." I shrugged, watching Fred try to process what we were talking about.
"What if you angered him?" Heather paled, taking ahold of my hand.
"He's not going to hurt me, Heather." I jumped to his defence, surprising even myself.
I groaned, burying my head in my hands. What's going on with me? Snapping at Heather and defending my literal stalker? I was losing it. I mumbled a sorry and she patted my back comfortingly, saying I probably just needed a good nights sleep. She was right, I needed sleep, but that's not why I defended him.
"Don't hate me, but I'm attracted to him." I mumbled into my hands, afraid to look up at her.
"Attracted like you are to all of your girlfriends or..." She left the question in the air, essentially asking if I had felt genuine romantic feelings.
"Unlike anything I've ever felt before." I sighed, looking up at her finally.
"This is some kind of branch of Stockholm Syndrome. Attracted to your stalker? Trust you to pick the dangerous ones." She shook her head, giving me a half hug to comfort me.
"I spent half of last night trying to figure it out, but I can't make sense of it. I just feel immense attraction towards him- despite him being a creep."
"So you are gay?" Fred finally chimed in, making both of us roll our eyes.
"Even if he was, you wouldn't have a chance." Heather shot him down.
Fred shrugged, lighting up a ciggie. Fred would have a physical relationship with just about anything that moves, so it wasn't really much of a compliment. Besides, apparently I'm strange and only want relationship with men who follow me at all hours of the day, so Fred isn't my type anyway.
Except, I had been left alone since last night. I couldn't feel him anywhere, so he must have got the message and decided to just back off. I refuse to speak to him until he's willing to tell me who he is. Until then, I'll be doing research to find out who he is myself.
"I thought we could try and use his number to work out who it is." I suggested, catching Heather's attention again.
"That's actually a really good idea." She nodded, "You should give me the number just in case something happens, too."
I shrugged, letting her type the number into her phone. She named the contact 'Cameron's stalker', making me chuckle (since I'd also saved him as 'stalker'). She opened google, pasting the number into the search bar. I held my breath, waiting to see if any results came up.
"Dead end." Heather reported, showing me her phone.
"I didn't expect that to work, to be honest. That would be too easy." I joked, lighting a cigarette, "Try Facebook."
"Nobody uses it anymore, but sure." She shrugged, typing it in, "Dead end again."
"Snapchat." Fred offered out of nowhere.
"Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!" She cheered, pulling up the profile.
"You're joking." I spluttered, taking the phone from her.
Clear as day, the number was attached to a Snapchat profile under the name of 'X'. My mouth dropped open, astounded we had even made that much progress. This guy needed to improve his cyber security next time he decides to stalk somebody. I took a photo of the profile on my phone, just in case.
"There's no bitmoji or anything and he's on private. His profile name, can't you search it on Instagram and see if he uses the same screen name on both?" Fred pondered, making both Heather and I turn to look at him incredulously.
"Since when were you part of the Secret Intelligence Service? Mr.MI6." Heather teased, doing exactly as he said to do.
"You learn a thing or two about online presence when you deal drugs." Fred shrugged.
"You deal drugs, Fred? Mick's been looking for a dealer for ages." I chuckled, shaking my head, "I swear we know nothing about you."
"I'm not giving him mates rates." Fred warned, "He'd bleed me dry."
"Fred was right, he has a profile with the same handle on Instagram." Heather interrupted, gaining my interest.
I took the phone and looked at the account, scrutinising every detail. He and Heather had a fair few mutual followers, suggesting he was local enough that people would know him. His profile picture was one of the forest and his bio simply said the number nineteen- which I'm guessing is his age- and our town name. He was on private, so we'd need to follow to find out more.
"Should I request it?" Heather asked, "His account is so bland. It doesn't even say his name."
"At least we know it starts with an X. That's pretty uncommon." I mused, "Don't request it. It's good that we have an advantage on him, so we don't want to give that away. Let's ask the group when they show up if any of them follow him first."
"I feel like I'm part of a hacker team." Heather gushed, "We're so smart."
I laughed at the irony of that.
"Do we know anyone who's name starts with X?" I pondered, the others going deep in thought.
"Nineteen, lives in our town and starts with an X? Doesn't ring a bell." Heather shook her head, Fred doing the same, "Don't worry, though. It's a good start."
I agreed. It was actually a miracle that we managed to pull together that much information in the space of just half an hour. All from a phone number. I was secretly impressed with Fred, since without him we would have given up at Facebook.
Together we headed back up the fire escape, slipping back into the common room. People were still glancing at us occasionally, but it was a lot busier now, so we didn't have to whisper. We joined the twins at our sofa, slumping down next to them.
"Where were you guys?" Mike queried, "You're in early for once."
"Just went for a smoke." I brushed it off, stealing a slice of his toast.
"Dickhead." He cursed, kicking my foot jokingly.
"I could use a brew, if anyone's making tea." I batted my eyelashes mockingly, "Pretty please."
"I'll make you one, you lazy bitch." Heather teased, going towards the kitchenette in the common room.
"Have you noticed everyone's acting weird?" Mike muttered, glancing around us cautiously.
"Don't remind me." I groaned, not even bothering to check this time.
"Did you guys do something?" Mick joked, sending a sarcastic wave to one of the onlookers.
"Long story." I shrugged, "Keep your voices down, but do you know anyone who lives in this town, a year older than us and has a name beginning with X?"
"X? That's a weird one. Is it to do with the note?" Mike pondered, receiving a nod from me.
"Only person I can think of is a guy called Xavier, but he's twenty one. Can't be who you're thinking of." Mick concluded.
"Did you ask?" Heather prompted, coming back with two mugs of tea.
She passed me mine and I nodded, letting her know it was a dead end again. She was holding onto hope that they would recognise the instagram account, so she grabbed her phone to pulled it up once again. She waved it in their faces, demanding to know if they followed him.
"You're so dense. You can see who your mutual followers are- just go to one of them and ask to see his account." Mike pointed out, making us blush.
"Didn't think of that." Fred remarked, "That's not a bad idea."
Heather clicked on their list of mutual followers, taking a screenshot of everyone who popped up. We went through the list, trying to figure out who we could ask that wouldn't stab us in the back and tell him we were asking.
"Hold on, Ava follows him." Heather cheered, showing us the mutual follow.
"Is she in the bathroom with Oscar again?" I asked the twins, who nodded.
We all stood up in unison, ready to storm the bathroom. It must have been pretty loud, since the whole common room went deadly silent- staring at us. We avoided looking at them, speed walking out of there and into the bathrooms.
"Oscar? Ava? Get your asses out here." Heather yelled, knocking on the only occupied stall.
"One second." Came a breathy female response, making Mick blush.
"Please hurry." I chuckled, "It's urgent."
"This is great. It means we have a one up over him, so we can report him or scare him off. He's probably only harassing you because he thinks his identity's safe." Heather theorised.
"Is this about the post it note guy? I told you I had no clue about it." Ava grumbled, swinging open the toilet door.
Oscar stood behind her sheepishly, still buttoning up his shirt. We wolf whistled, teasing him, which made him go a bit red. It was fun to tease him- not in a malicious way, but as friends. He blushed pretty easily.
"Can we borrow your phone to look at this guys account? You follow him." Heather pleaded, showing her phone screen.
"Xavier's account? Why?" Ava asked, digging in her bag for her phone.
We all made eye contact, shocked by this revelation. The account actually did belong to Xavier? He wasn't nineteen, but Ava seemed pretty certain it belonged to him. She handed me the phone and Heather peered over my shoulder, looking with me.
There weren't any photos of him, so I didn't know what he looked like, but it was still a massive breakthrough. His account was a photography one, filled with photos of wildlife and animals in the woods. No wonder he loves the woods, it's a great place for a stalker to hide. He didn't have any tagged photos and his captions weren't anything special.
There wasn't much here to go off of, but Ava seemed to know him pretty well, so I guess it's interrogation time.