Short Stories

Being Alone, But not Feeling Alone

When you're at home you focus on what you want to do, not the eyes watching you. In order to avoid the eyes you shut your curtains, and seal your blinds. Yet they still linger.

When you're outside in the morning and you hurry so you avoid your neighbors watchful eyes, even when it's still dark outside. You can't help but feel they're watching from their windows.

While you're walking down the hallway at school, and you speed walk everywhere to avoid their gaze.

My underlying fear, hidden in the mind. I hate the feeling of the eyes on me. Every second of every day, I feel their eyes watching my every movement.

As I walked out of my home to head to school, I felt the eyes watching my every movement. By the time I got to school, I kept looking around hoping I went unnoticed. Seeing a set of eyes watching me, I froze staring back at them. When their attention was no longer on me I sped off to my first hour with my head down. I felt eyes watching so I quickly looked up, but the hallway was empty.

I showed up to class early so I could avoid people staring at me. A few minutes later the person from earlier walked in, their gaze went straight to me. I kept my head down, hating the feeling of the eyes on me. I felt something brush against my arm so I glanced up, it was them.

"Hey I'm Jackson, you're Amelia right?"

I just nodded my head, still staring at my desk.

By the end of the day almost every corner I turned Jackson was there, waving every time he saw me. I even saw Jackson while I was walking home. I never engaged in conversation with him, in fact I tried to avoid him. But that didn't stop him from trying.

As he started to walk next to me, I sped up. Noticing he would glance at me and speed up as well. When I noticed my block coming up I started to worry, not wanting Jackson to know where I live.

"Hey this is my stop, maybe we could walk together again tomorrow?"

I heard the hope in his voice, so I gave him a small nod not wanting to be rude. Only then did I notice we were neighbors.

When I entered my home I gave my brother a quick greeting while rushing to my room. When I walked in I shut my door, and looked at my window noticing my curtains were open. Fear flooded my head, rushing over to my window to shut my curtains, I noticed Jackson in his house. At that moment he looked out of his window, we made eye contact, a smile starting to show on his face.

But I felt multiple eyes on me and saw some movement down my driveway, so I looked. Nothing was there, I slammed my curtains shut and grabbed three hair clips so no one could see through a small crack.

Even after I closed my curtains I felt the eyes still watching. Looking around carefully nothing looked out of order, so I continued on with my day. The eyes still lingering on me, making me feel slightly uneasy. I tried to do my homework but I was slightly shaking out of fear.

I stayed in my room the rest of the night, skipping supper. My family no longer expected me to show up to dinner every night, I just never told them why I acted this way. My brother Adam brought me a plate of food so I wouldn't get hungry. But I couldn't bring myself to eat.

Every half an hour I would look outside since I still felt watched. I noticed Jackson left his blinds open, slightly shocked he wasn't afraid of being seen. Jackson looked up from his desk and out his window. When he noticed my slightly open curtains and my head peeking out a soft smile appeared on his lips. It felt like he was staring me down as he approached his window. His actions scared me so I stopped looking out of my window.

That night as I laid in bed I thought I saw the silhouette of a person outside of my window, followed by some rustling. Then I felt eyes watching me, making me hide deeper under my blankets. Everytime I started to fall asleep I would see a figure or hear a rustle outside. I didn't get a lot of sleep that night.

When I heard my alarm go off that morning I jumped, wide awake. I looked at my curtains making sure they were closed before I got out of bed. I got ready for school wanting to leave earlier so I wouldn't have to walk with Jackson.

As I left my home I noticed the bushes planted in front of my room looked messed with. Approaching the sidewalk, I felt a pair of eyes on me. Looking around I noticed Jackson rushing out of his house towards me. Turning my attention back to the sidewalk in front of me quickening my pace.

Something about Jackson made me uncomfortable. He was everywhere I went, and he was always staring at me as well. He even knew my name before we actually met. The way he knew when to look out of his window every time I looked out of mine. Jackson also didn't seem to notice that I didn't want to talk, and was ignoring him on purpose. I don't trust him, I have never trusted him.

The next few days felt the same. Every morning Jackson would come out of his home rushing, so he could walk with me. He would come into first hour and sit next to me trying to start a conversation. Every time I turned a corner he was there smiling and waving at me. After school he would speed up to walk home together. Every night there was movement, and I still saw the silhouette of people outside of my window.

It was starting to drive me crazy. Every time I saw him looking at me I got closer to snapping.

I was already on edge before Jackson showed up in my life, he made everything worse. I started to assume that every time I felt eyes while walking down my street, or in the hallways at school, I started to assume it was Jackson. Even if I couldn't see him.

As I walked out of school I felt eyes watching, and saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Causing me to quicken my pace. Jackson showed up beside me and something inside me snapped.

I stayed silent as we walked together, Jackson tried to start a conversation but I never responded. As Jackson said goodbye and went home I didn't even nod in response. I had a blank stare on my face.

Entering my home I heard my brother yell a greeting, I never responded. Quietly walking into my room I noticed my curtains were open, just like every day. But today I didn't go to close them, instead I left them wide open.

If Jackson didn't come over today to visit me they wouldn't have found my body until morning. But I felt I had an answer to if Jackson had been the one watching my every movement.

But I couldn't have been more wrong.

As I continued to live on in the after life I felt eyes watching me. Only then did I understand it was all in my head...

A/N: This was originally a short story for my ELA class, but my friends convinced me to write Jackson's POV so that may be coming in the future. :)