Starting Off Wrong [𝐠𝐱𝐠]

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟐𝟕: 𝐌𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐐𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬

"'I know?' Now what does that mean?" Suri asks, confused. "That's so creepy," Karina quietly says. I nod and hold the note out, hoping someone else will take it. Aurelia cautiously takes it, her voice small and quiet as she reads it again.

"I don't understand," she says, looking at me. "What could that mean?"

"It means, there's a stalker here," Karina asks, rubbing her arms as if she's getting the chills. "Someone clearly knows something about someone."

"And it must be about ... " Suri looks at Aurelia and I, choosing not the say the next words. "Us," I finish for her, looking at Aurelia.

"But we don't have anything to hide," Aurelia asks, struggling to defend ourselves from this mysterious source. "What could they know about us that we would be worried they know?"

I grit my teeth together, feeling all my secrets surrounding me in a thick black cloud, visible to everyone if they really looked at me. I'm no open book, but I'm sure it's written on my face that something is wrong.

"We have to find out what this is," Suri says, determined. "Let's go down to the mailroom," she rises up.

"Man, I'm getting nervous," Karina says, as we all stand up. "I don't think it's all that serious," Aurelia says, avoiding any eye contact with me. Probably because she knows if she looks at me, Karina and Suri will surely see that we have some secrets of our own to hide.

I pick up the box carefully, feeling as if there's some sort of bomb in it. It really could be nothing. It's could be someone who somehow got their packaged mixed up in transit and it got left on our door as a result. So why can I shake off this sick feeling from my stomach?

With all the ominous text messages, the coincidental fire drill, and me trying to hide my identity, this just doesn't feel like a mistake.

We head towards the door, Suri leading us. She presses her ear to the door just as Aurelia did, listening. She nods her head, indicating it's alright, yet she opens the door with a heavy breath.

Only a few girls remain in the hallway, not attached to the issue surrounding the mysterious box. Unbothered by us, they continue their own conversations.

We all step out as Aurelia locks the door behind us. "Let's go," Suri says, walking swiftly down the hall, eager to get to the mailroom. I have to agree. Holding this package out in public like this is practically empty asking to get laughed at.

Like Aurelia already knows how I feel, she throws a flannel over the box, covering it from view. I look at her and she smiles. "I grabbed it off my chair before we left."

"Thank you," I say, breathing in a sigh of relief.

Aurelia looks at Karina and Suri's backs, watching to see how distracted they are. She looks at me, eye eyes asking me if I have any theories about the message in the box, or just anything in general. I gently shake my head and mouth a quick "no".

"Elevator or stairs?" Suri asks, directing her question towards me since I'm the one holding the box. "Oh–uh–stairs are fine," I quickly answer, a bit flustered because she might have caught my and Aurelia's secret messages.

Karina glancing at Aurelia and I slightly before walking down the stairs. She looks like she wants to say something. I would ask her, but I'm not even really sure to ask. Maybe she's just nervous and she, herself doesn't know what to ask.

I think we're all trying to figure this out. I just don't know how anyone could have found out about me.

We reach the ground floor and instead of going straight down into the dining hall, we all turn towards the left, continuing our walk down the long corridor, lit up brightly by the floor length windows.