Homebound

Chapter Twenty

"Poppy?" it takes him a second to respond and for a moment I thought he had forgotten my voice but his answer proved he hadn't.

"Yeah, it's me" I mumble. I hadn't thought about what I'd say past this point. I wanted to get straight to the point and ask about the men and if he knew anything, more precisely I wanted to ask if it was him that followed me just after we broke up and if it was him I had seen in the mall when I was dress shopping with mum. I had been so sure it was him but I can't go firing questions if he knows nothing about the situation.

"Mum and dad told me you were calling around for me" the air is awkward between us as he fills the silence with anything he can think of "I didn't think you'd actually call though".

I nervously bite at my nail as I panic internally. On one hand this is the man I thought had been tormenting me for just over two years and to some extent I still feel he could be. But on the other hand I didn't want to make myself out to look like a dick and outright accuse him.

"Yeah... I wasn't sure if I would call" I mumble out. It's silent on the other end before he clears his voice.

"So, what are you calling about?" West asks. I hear murmured noises in the background of honking cars and city hussle. He must be inside a building that resides on a busy street.

"I, ah-" I clear my throat and take on a confident tone "I had some questions and I was wondering if you have the time to answer them?" I say.

"Questions?" he asks in confusion. I can understand his confusion, it's not every day you're ex-Platonic calls up and starts investigating you, especially two years after last speaking to you. "I mean, yeah, go for it" he gives me permission.

"When did you move to France?" I ask, hoping he gives me a date so I can put a timeline together.

"A couple of weeks after everything happened between us" he says. That meant he was still here the time I thought I saw him in the shopping centre. It also means he was still here when my car was first vandalised. "What's all this about, Poppy?" he asks as I hear him move around on the other end of the phone.

I take a deep breath and decide to go all out and ask the questions floating around in my head.

"When I was working at Hellbound, just after I moved into mum and dads house I had an incident with my car-" he cuts me off.

"An incident? Poppy, we're talking over two years ago, why are you bringing this up now?" he questions, the confusion clear in his voice.

"Some things have just popped up recently and I thought I'd look into them" I answer after a deep breath. "Someone keyed my car in the Hellbound car park" I pause, feeling stupid as my anxiety bubbles up again "we looked on the security cameras and... and the guy looked like you" I spit out.

He's silent again.

"Me?" I nod only to realise he can't see me. "Poppy, the last time I was at Hellbound was when I-I..." right, the time he barged inside and convinced me my mother was in the hospital. "It wasn't me, Poppy".

I gaze out the window, the phone still held to my ear as I get the confirmation I already thought, Amos and Ace had been around for a lot longer then they let on.

A honk in the background on his end snaps me out of it.

"Okay, that's what I suspected" I mumble, going back to biting my nail.

"Suspected? Poppy, what's going on?" West asks, the hint of concern in his voice takes me back years as I remember the caring Platonic I had and the perfect life we lived before Hex came in and tore it all up in the best way possible.