Chapter 29
EvanAnn
Wednesday, when I walk into second period, Chase isn’t there.
I don’t think I’ve even seen him in the hallways this morning.
Not that I care, but it’s like this little niggle in the back of my mind, because if he isn’t here for rehearsal, Jason will have to step in again.
We’re getting to the point where I need my actors present at every rehearsal.
Cam and I walk back to our desks. I’ve been texting with Keira, Mia, and Mark about finding a good day or night to get together for a movie or just to hang out, but with all this crap going on, I’m still on lockdown. It wouldn’t be the same if Hawk or Cam had to hang out with us.
And while this weekend sounds good for everyone, Damon comes back, which fills me with equal parts excitement and dread. There’s a lot we need to talk about, but I just want to feel his arms around me. I want them all to be with me so I can breathe again.
The usual buzz of people gossiping fills the room.
I haven’t looked to see what the latest post is on the social media account, but it’s apparently all anyone can talk about this week.
I wish it would just die, because there’s no getting it down.
Cam convinced me to shut off notifications, but it feels wrong not to know what to expect.
Hawk comes in with a smirk on his lips as he zeroes in on me.
He pauses next to my desk and leans over to give me a kiss. When he lifts his head, he gives me a grin before taking his seat. He’s definitely up to something. I turn in my chair and give him a questioning look.
What’s he all smiley about? When he doesn’t say anything, I let out a huff.
Clearly gloating, he nods toward the door. I turn and watch Chase walk in. A few guys stand and clap. Girls giggle behind their hands. Chase stops, and the pleasant mask he wears falls.
“Fuck off,” he grumbles before taking his seat.
My phone vibrates, and I look at the link Hawk sent me. It’s a video. I click on it and see Chase out in the woods captioned When he thinks he’s meeting a girl...
I watch it without sound. Chase walks into the woods and gets surrounded by guys. Then he waits there, crying, alone, until he runs to his truck in the same place he abandoned me. His truck lists to the side. Clearly one of his tires is flat.
My heart pounds. He’s left there alone in the woods exactly like he left me. I lift my gaze to Hawk’s. He touches my jaw, lifting my chin slightly.
“It’s better with sound.” He winks, but his eyes are dead serious. “No one fucks with you, Annie, and comes away unscathed.”
“Isn’t there a way to get this down, Adam?” Mom sits next to him, glaring at her phone. It’s been a rough week so far, and it’s only Wednesday. New pictures keep appearing, along with the deranged things the poster wants to do to me.
It’s also family mealtime. Without Damon.
It’s hard to stay mad at him when I miss my quiet time with him. How he scoops me up and makes me shower with him after his workout. How he brings me dinner in his room while we work on homework. How when I lie down on his chest I can hear the steady rhythm of his heart lulling me into sleep.
It’s hard missing Damon because it’s sullied with what he did. My chest squeezes thinking of how he bared my soul to my mom without even a thought. Was I lonely before him? Yes. Did he need to tear into my mom about it? Not at all. Mom didn’t deserve that. I didn’t deserve that.
I love being with Cam and Hawk. How they make sure I’m taken care of. Cam gives me flowers during the day and runs his fingers along my spine until I fall asleep. Hawk talks with me about Shakespeare until I drift off. I swear we could stay up all night talking.
And honestly, sleeping with just Cam or Hawk is a whole new experience that I’m loving. I wish I had more opportunities to be with them individually.
Adam clears his throat, bringing me back to the conversation.
“If EvanAnn were younger, maybe.” Adam shakes his head and turns his blue eyes to me. “I’m sorry you’re going through this.”
I nod. It’s all most adults have been able to say.
At this point I’m resigned to my pictures being on this Hockey Wh*re page.
It’s not harmful—they don’t have my name and address and phone number on it—just disturbing words and an invasion of privacy.
At least I already told my mom about the guys, or there would have been a lot of questions to answer.
We’re over that awkward moment of me sleeping naked on top of Damon. Okay, maybe not over, but we’re dealing. Honestly, these posts might have been a much easier and less embarrassing way to find out than how she actually found out about my relationship.
And Damon and I wouldn’t be fighting. I push my food around on my plate.
Damon and I still talk, but under the cover of darkness, when it’s just him and me.
Those conversations give me hope that we can get through this.
He said he wasn’t ready to apologize. That means he will, right?
And what will I do when he does? Will I be able to accept that he tried to blow us up because Mom thought he was my rebound?
When he gets back, we’ll talk and see how it goes.
Until then, maybe I can figure out some things we haven’t been able to get a handle on. I push my food around, trying to figure out a way to bring up the texts Mom got. There are ways to ease into a conversation like this, but I just need to know.
“You said the text that night wasn’t the first anonymous text you received?” I ask with an arched brow. “What did the other ones say?”
Mom glances at Adam and then down at her plate.
She releases her breath. “It was just little texts at first. Like do you know where your child is? It reminded me of a horror movie Jason made me watch. So I’d check in on you with either a text or find you in the house.
Most of the time nothing was happening.”
My cheeks flare with heat remembering the three times she interrupted me and Damon in the beginning. When he showed me his blackmail. After that first kiss. In the bathroom when he showed me his after he’d seen mine. Those were just coincidences, right?
“When?” I ask, feeling a little choked because if they happened at those times that means someone has been watching us in this house.
“After we moved here.” Mom shrugs like it doesn’t matter. “I blocked most of the texts.”
“It doesn’t bother you that someone texted you that I needed to be checked on? That the last time they did, you found me missing?”
What if I can’t stay here? What if we have to disconnect Damon’s cameras?
“They didn’t happen often, and came from different numbers. I didn’t always check on you, Evan.” Mom reaches across the table for my hand. “Are you okay? Why are you so pale?”
I set my fork on my plate and give up all pretense of eating. My mind spins with all the possibilities. I need to know everything. “Why did we move from the apartments, and why didn’t you want to go back there?”
Something happened. I know it did. I never questioned it because I wanted away from Jackson.
Mom puts her hand to her throat and sits back in her chair.
“You should tell her,” Adam says.
It hurts to know she trusted Adam with this and not me.
“The apartment building was inexpensive. It was what I needed to be able to get ahead on some debts.” Mom clutches her neck like she doesn’t want to tell me any of this.
Her gaze remains on her plate. “I figured if we could make it a year we’d be able to save up for somewhere better. Somewhere safer.”
I lean back in my chair and watch her as if she’s a movie.
She sighs and lifts her gaze to mine. “Our next door neighbor was a cop, and I thought that would make us safer, but his wife seemed to think he had a thing for me.” Mom shakes her head.
“She’d bitch at me about the simplest things.
Like you left your wet shoes out in the hallway once.
Or how you slammed the doors in the apartment, which you didn’t.
I could have lived with that, with her nitpicking. ”
“What made you move out?” I lean forward, expecting something like the husband finally made a move.
She reaches for Adam and he takes her hand. “Someone was breaking into our apartment when we weren’t there. At first I didn’t notice, but things would be moved or something little would be missing. I figured you moved it.”
My breath catches. It’s reasonable to believe it was me. “What made you realize someone else was doing it?”
“I noticed I was missing some panties.” Mom stops and covers her mouth for a second, and then she meets my eyes. “I didn’t want you to worry. When I realized what was happening, I rented the house the next day after staying up all night with a baseball bat and my cellphone next to me.”
It’s hard to think. I wouldn’t know if I was missing anything while we lived there. What if it was Jackson breaking in? What if it was some other monster?
Mom looks down at her plate before lifting her gaze to mine.
Her eyes shimmer with unshed tears, and distress lingers in the depths.
“I did what I thought would make it all go away. I rented the house, changed our phones, and got us out of there. I bought that security system and used it faithfully for months. Fuck, I was tempted to change our names and move towns, but I couldn’t take you from your program at school.
Jason would have never forgiven me, and it wouldn’t be fair to you. ”
She wanted to take me from here? Someone had been in our apartment, and I didn’t know? Energy flows through me with no outlet, releasing me from fear’s hold.
“Why did you keep this from me?” I jerk to my feet.