Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
Sailor
I chose a late-night class on Tuesday nights and told myself I wouldn’t let my fear hold me back. It’s a class I need, and I’d like to get it over with this semester rather than waiting until the next one. It’s a three and a half hour class, so the sooner I can get it done, the better.
But now I sit in my car, staring at the front door of my house that’s ten feet away, terrified to get out.
Why? What am I scared of? If Jaxon hasn’t bothered with me yet, he won’t do it now.
Am I worried about someone else getting me?
That was never a concern before. In fact, I was comfortable living alone, and only until I was kidnapped did it start to bother me.
All the times Jaxon broke in… it was different.
So maybe this has nothing to do with Jaxon at all, and it is just some trauma from someone breaking into my house with bad intentions?
That sounds right. Hell, that sounds like a normal reaction.
But it brings up a ton of new fears. All this time, I’ve been worried about Jaxon…
maybe I should worry about the people who took me in the first place.
My fear is misplaced. It shouldn’t be aimed at Jaxon, at least not entirely… it should be aimed at his mother.
“Not the sort of thing you should deal with right now, Sailor,” I chastise myself before grabbing my purse from the passenger seat.
With my keys in hand, I hurry out the door, slamming it a little too hard as I rush toward my house.
The porch light is on, but I fumble with the keys, dropping them twice before finally getting a good enough grasp on them and shoving the key into the top lock.
I turn it to unlock it, but nothing happens.
It stuns me, my entire body still as a stone.
I reach for the door knob, twist, and push.
The door opens, swinging inward with an eerie creak.
Did I forget to lock my door when I left?
No, I wouldn’t have. I couldn’t have. I was so nervous about coming home late, that I would have made sure it was locked.
Right?
Now I can’t remember. I don’t know what I did or didn’t do…
With my heart pounding, I step into the house, close and lock the door. I swipe the wall for the light switch. It illuminates the area, and I look around. Nothing is disturbed, and I don’t sense anyone is here, but that doesn’t mean it’s true—or that they weren’t.
The closet door taunts me, and I yank it open to make sure no one is hiding inside—it’s empty. Before going deeper into the house, I go to the kitchen and grab a knife, my blood rushing through my ears.
My hand shakes as I hold the knife outward, ready to stab someone if they jump out at me—though, I do know that scenario is unlikely.
The first room I reach is the spare room.
I turn the knob and kick the door open, flipping on the light, but of course that’s empty too.
There is no closet in this room, and no space under the platform bed, so there’s nothing left to check.
The piles of boxes are pushed against the wall, so there is no room to hide behind them either.
The bathroom is next, and it too is empty.
Tearing back the shower curtain nearly gives me a heart attack, but I do it.
I have to be sure. I won’t get peace if I don’t check every inch.
The only room left is my room.
The door sits open, as it usually does, and from here I see into most of it.
But there is a closet in my room. It’s not big, but it’s big enough to fit a person.
Same with beneath the bed. I slowly walk toward the room, being as quiet as I can and willing my hand to stay steady.
If someone is in my house, this is the only place left they could be hiding.
I’ve checked everything else. And I suppose it is the most likely place for someone to hide, wouldn’t it be?
I take a deep, quiet breath before stopping in the doorway and swiping the wall for the light.
The room brightens, and I see nothing under my bed from here, but I can hardly see anything underneath at all because of the angle.
I step into the room and glance into the open closet…
empty. I walk toward it, then bend down to look under my bed—which is also free of a person.
I fall onto my butt and lean against the wall, clutching the knife to my chest, and start to cry.
“Do you want me to come by?” Amelia asks on the other end of the phone.
“I don’t know,” I say, sniffling.
“I can, if you want me to. I’ll grab an Uber.”
“I just don’t want this to be my life, Amelia.”
“I know that, but let’s just think of it as a bestie sleepover and nothing more.”
Closing my eyes, I rest my head against the cool wall.
I haven’t moved from this spot in an hour, and finally decided to call Amelia because the quiet was getting to me. I don’t have any other friends to call, no one that I can trust.
My first thought was to call Sam, but that is such a bad idea. Then I thought to call Jaxon, and I can’t tell if that’s worse or not.
Shadow isn’t an option, because well, he doesn’t know where I live and what the hell could he do to help? I don’t even know him.
“Okay,” I finally say. “But let me order the Uber for you.”
“If it’ll make you feel better.” I hear her eye roll through the phone.
“It will.”
I put the phone on speaker while I navigate to the app, enter her address and mine.
“It says one can be there in twelve minutes,” I say.
“Sounds good to me. My stuff is already packed.” I hear her shuffling around. A door opening and closing. “Have you eaten yet?”
“Not since before class,” I say, glancing at the clock. It’s nearly eleven.
“Does anyone deliver pizza this late?”
“Let me check.” I pull up the search engine and type it in. “There’s one place that delivers until one.”
“Yes! Let’s do that. I’m starving—and I’m paying.”
“It’ll be easier for me to do it because I can do it right now.”
“Sailor! Stop doing that. I can pay for things too.”
I ignore her, because we have this argument all the time.
“What kind of pizza do you like?”
“Anything with meat. I love meat.”
I laugh as I find a meat lovers one and add it to the cart.
“Mozzarella sticks?”
“Hell yeah!”
I check out. “Should be here within the hour.” I go back to the Uber app. “Uber says five minutes.”
“I’m already waiting downstairs by the front doors.”
We make small talk while we wait for the car, and stay on the phone until she pulls into my driveway. I make sure the door is locked after she comes inside.
“This is cute,” she says as she looks around.
“I haven’t changed it much since my grandparents died.”
“I feel like it’s all very you. Very homey.”
“Thanks.” I walk deeper into the house. “So, you can sleep on the couch if you want, or I have a spare bedroom, but it’s filled with boxes and there’s no TV.” I open the door to show her. “And the sheets probably need to be changed because I haven’t washed them in a long time.”
“I’m fine with the couch so we don’t have to go through the trouble of changing sheets.”
“I don’t mind. It’ll take me five minutes.”
She waves me off and drops onto the couch, grabbing the remote.
“Can we find a scary movie to watch?”
“Are you kidding?”
“I wasn’t, but I can see why I should have been.” She turns the TV on then hands me the remote.
“You can pick something,” I say as I sit on the couch.
“No, I was going to suggest a rom-com and realized that was a bad idea too, so whatever you want to watch is the safest bet.”
I roll my eyes and take the remote to scroll through the options.
“Oh, have you seen this before?”
“The Greatest Showman? No…”
“It’s a musical, but it’s amazing.”
“I like musicals.” She shrugs, pulling her legs up to tuck beneath her. “Oh, Zac Effron! Count me in!”
I click on the channel it’s playing on, but it won’t start for another fifteen minutes or so.
“Do you want something to drink?”
“What do you have?”
We get up and go to the fridge to browse.
“I’ll take this, thank you very much.” She grabs a Dr. Pepper. I take one too. We go back to the couch and finish the current movie. We’re ten minutes into The Greatest Showman when the bell rings, and I nearly jump out of my skin.
“I’m sure it’s just the pizza,” Amelia says, getting up and going to the door. “Yep, definitely pizza.”
She unlocks it and pulls it open, taking the food from the blonde woman and then locking it back up. She puts the boxes on the coffee table in front of us, and I get up to get plates and napkins.
“I can’t believe we haven’t done this before,” I comment.
“Well, no offense, but you seem to keep people at arm’s length.”
“Yeah…” I hand her a plate. “It’s not you.”
She shrugs, opening the box. “I figured, but I didn’t want to push you either. I know I can be a lot—”
“It’s not a problem.”
“I wasn’t apologizing for it.” Her southern accent is heavy with that sentence, and I laugh a little. “I was just saying I know I’m not for everyone, and that’s okay.”
“Well, you’re definitely for me. I appreciate you coming here.”
“We should do it more. It’s nice being here instead of that loud ass dorm.” She looks around. “I could actually get homework done here.”
“You can come here whenever you want from now on.”
She smiles at me, then takes a huge bite from her pizza, the cheese stretching as she breathes funny because it’s too hot.
When the movie is done, and most of the food is gone, I go to my bedroom. But even with Amelia guarding my living room like a watch dog—her words not mine—I still can’t sleep.
All I can think about is Jaxon. If he was here, if he was the one in my house today… and the fact that the thought of him being here like that, even after everything that has happened, doesn’t bother me like it should.
In fact, it gives me more relief than having my best friend asleep on the couch.