The Clifford Project

Chapter 6

"This is bad Paisley. This is really bad and I don't think you're understanding that." I shrugged my shoulders as I tied my hair into a ponytail getting ready for work. 12:30. 30 minutes until work, 1 hour and 30 minutes until this mystery message sender would be revealed.

"I understand you think this is bad Luke but I have work to do and no matter how dangerous, I have a job."

"Paisley please." He pleaded. But I wouldn't cave in. I walked towards the door stopping next to Luke and giving him a peck on the cheek.

"I'll be careful Luke. I promise ." As I walked to work I started getting a little anxious. What was I getting myself into? I could get killed in the middle of a Australian suburb diner! I COULD BE RAPED IN ONE OF THE DIRTY BATHROOM STALLS THAT LUKE DEFINITELY DIDN'T CLEAN DURING HIS LAST SHIFT! I went in through the back clocking in and putting on my apron. I made my way to the front to see a boy around my age sitting alone at one of the booths. He was really tanned and had to black lip rings on his lower lip. He also had a bunch of tattoos creeping up from under the collar of his black tee. His hair was rustled and his eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the menu. I walked up to him, slowly but as confident as possible.

"Um may I help you sir?" He looked up at me and smirked.

"Yes you can. You Paisley?" I was debating whether or not I should tell him before I nodded my head. "Sit." I did as he said, sitting in the seat across from him.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the one who texted you. The names Calum. Calum Hood." A shiver went down my spine as I looked into his cold dark eyes. "I'm not gonna hurt you. Yet, at least. I just want you to know that I'm not afraid to if things get out of hand." I started to shake, my fingers curling into a fist.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to keep you safe from me and my boys. Also, Michael." I cocked my head to the side, not understanding what he was talking about. "Of course he didn't tell you."

"Tell me what?"

"I was the 'Bad Shit' Michael got into in high school." He put air quotes around the words 'bad shit'.

"What did you do?"

"What any bunch of high school students who want money do. We dealt. Heroin? We had it. Coke? We had it. Roofies? We have  them. We were on top of the world. Fuck boi was my left hand man. Until he slipped up. He hadn't delivered and the buyer was pissed. Mike slipped him our names and that was it. We were caught and put in jail. Three months later we were out. We've been hunting for him ever since. He's been everywhere but he made a huge mistake coming back to Australia. I mean it wouldn't be fair to kill him, so we just torture and kill everything he loves. So I think you can see our problem. He loves you. And I'm giving you the chance to save yourself. So you need to stay away, so I don't have to get involved. Do you understand?" He reached across the table and grabbed me by my chin. I didn't answer instead I let out a small whimper. "I SAID DO YOU UNDERSTAND!?" He banged my head up against the window aggressively.

"Yes." I whispered.

"Good. Stay safe bitch." He got up walking to the door as I ran to the back room where Luke was clocking in. I slammed my back against the cold wall and slid down pulling my knees up to my chest and sobbing.

"Oh shit Pais!" He ran over picking me up into his arms and tracing shapes on my wrist until I calmed down. "What happened to you?" He asked lightly touching my forehead wound which now had blood gushing from it. I flinched and he pulled away.

"It was the person who texted me. He said his name was Calum." I started to cry again.

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way Paisley."

"Why'd he do it?"

"He started out for the money. But he knew it was bad. So he tried to stop. But Calum wasn't okay with that. So he did the only thing he thought he could to do to get his attention. He raped his girlfriend. Poor girl. He took her out roofied her, raped her, than killed her. It hit Mike really hard. Cal said next it would be his mom, then me. That was where he drew the line. He gave out Calum and the boys location after not delivering. It resulted in a huge gang fight. Our friend Ashton was taken. We haven't seen him in over two years. Anyway, the police arrested both gangs but Michael got away. He was terrified so he moved to America. After a while he left there and went to the UK.  Now he's back and Calum is not cool with it. He wants you and eventually he'll come for me. I'm so sorry."

"I wanna go home Luke."

"Lets go talk to the boss and get you home and cleaned up. Then I'll stay at your apartment for a while okay?" I nodded as we went to find our boss. "Hey Joel?"

"Yeah Luke what's up?"

"I'm really sorry but Paisley's brother was just in a pretty big car accident back west and I need to drive her back straight away." I sniffled for ultimate effect.

"Oh I'm sorry to here that Paisley. You two kids go ahead. Make sure to call me and tell me if everything is okay."

"Of course. Thank you Joel."

"No problem. You kids be safe." I nodded before walking to Luke's truck and getting in the passengers seat. This definetly wasn't the adventure I was looking for.

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A/N:

So I wrote this whole chapter on Friday and then it was like "Yo fuck you." and it didn't save. But now its done! Also this was really hard for me to write because Cal is such a little nugget its hard to write him as a dick bag.

-Sophie/ Cashton baby