Out of Time

chapter 18 - paranoia

"Why am I here, Lukas?" I ask exasperatedly. His car is uncomfortably expensive. The seats are white, so I repress the urge to sit cross-legged on the chair.

"You didn't answer my question. Who is Harvey?" By taking a quick glance at his facial expressions, it is evident that he's both curious and angry. For whatever reason, I'm not sure, but his fiery gaze is burning holes into the side of my face. It feels like deja vu; it is scarily similar to my encounter with Dillon.

"I don't think I have to," I interject. Nothingness envelopes us. "Why don't we just take turns in asking questions." He nods his head in agreement. The car was still parked on the side of the road.

"Who is Harvey?"

"Just someone I know, a friend if you will. Why am I here?"

"Because it is unsafe for people like you to be walking around at this time of night." The stop of his irregular tapping and the odd scratching of his neck signifies he is lying.

"Try again."

"What do you-"

"We both know that that was utter bullshit." He exhales loudly before turning on his car. I laugh obnoxiously. "You're seriously going to ignore that question?"

"What's your favourite colour and why?" he asks me. I think for a second.

"Light blue because it feels like such a pure colour. White is overused and is sometimes fakely manipulated but light blue feels..."

I trail off, trying to find the word.

"It feels authentic. Well, that was deep. What's yours?"

He answers bluntly. "Red."

"What do you like doing outside of school?"

"Nothing much." I groan in frustration.

"I can't carry the conversation this much. You have to-"

"What's your surname, Lara? I know it's certainly not Wright." My heart stops dead. I tilt my head and roll my eyes. "Stop being paranoid, Arnoult. Just because you have trust issues doesn't mean that I'm keeping my identity hidden."

"See, that's where you're wrong. I'm not paranoid. I just do my research."

"That's the exact same thing."

"I'm not para-" he shouts angrily before stopping himself. "Stop trying to change the subject."

"What's your question again? I honestly can't remember it."

"Your surname?" he asks irritably.

"Oh yeah. It's Wright."

He groans with annoyance, and I smile at my effective aggravation. We reach my house within minutes, much to my glee. I exit the sports car as soon as Lukas stops. He rolls down the window as I fast walk away from him. "I'm going to ask again, Lara. What is your surname?"

I almost impulsively bite out something about his suspicious surname, but I don't. I laugh lightly, "don't be silly, Lukas. It's Wright."

Probably angry with my answer, he waves his hand and says, "you can go."

Before I could retort he speeds off.

What an asshole.

As I shut the door behind me, I sighed in relief. However, my throat closes up once again as I come to a startling realisation.

I never told him where I lived.

~~

School had been great for the first half. Similarly to yesterday, I had ignored all the students, and the teachers left me alone to do the work by myself. However, my tranquillity was shattered when Gabriel pulled me into the cafeteria for lunch.