Valentine's Night

Chapter 11

I opened my eyes slowly, glancing at the clock as I lifted my head off my laptop's keyboard. 2:13am. I must have fallen asleep while I was playing my game. I glanced in the mirror and sighed in relief when I didn't see any key indents on my face.

As I stood up I felt a chill and glanced at my window to see it was open. I frowned and walked over to close it, looking outside before pulling it closed and locking it.

I sighed and walked over to my bed, dropping face first into the warm cushion. I rolled onto my back and stared up at the ceiling. The room was quiet. Almost too quiet.

"You look tired. Should I just come back later?"

I felt my heart skip a beat at the sound of the deep voice and I turned my head to see Jeff sitting in my desk chair. I sighed again and closed my eyes. "Probably. Sorry. I know you wanted to talk but, I have school in the morning."

He shrugged. "Yeah. But, no one can force you to go. I don't go to school."

I sat up and leaned on the wall behind my bed, facing Jeff. "You don't? Why not?"

"It's a waste of time. No one needs to go to school." He shook his head and gave a small laugh. "Not even you. You're smart enough to do what you want without the help of anyone else."

I made a small hm. "That's what flunkies say."

He chuckled. "Well, you're talking to one. I flunked, dropped, and left the nest a while ago. Who needs family or any of that, anyways?"

I shrugged. "Says you. Not everyone thinks that way."

He tilted his head, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "You think that way. You have always thought that way."

I frowned. "How would you know? You just met me yesterday."

"A person can learn a lot just by looking at someone."

I sighed and rested my head back on the wall. I could feel myself drifting off as I sat there. "Either way, you're wrong. My family may get annoying and I might get frustrated with them sometimes but, I love them."

He was silent. A few minutes later I opened one eye and saw the desk chair was empty. I frowned. He could have at least told me if he was going to leave...

Maybe I made him mad...

I shook my head and pulled myself up, making sure my window was locked and my room was only occupied by me. Then I dropped into bed and fell asleep.

*******

"Come on! Please? I just want to know what he looked like!"

J.J. was begging me for details. We had decided to go to the mall and while there I had accidentally let slip about Jeff's visit a few days ago. Now, J.J. was grilling me. "It's only what he looks like! I don't care if you tell me what you did together-"

"We didn't do anything. We just talked. That's all I'm going to say so just drop it." I retorted. As much as I needed someone to talk to she was not the right person. She'd start a whole big thing about tiny unimportant details and it'd turn into a catastrophe.

She pouted and crossed her arms. "Why are you being so secretive?" She asked.

"Why are you being so pushy?" I shot back.

We glared at each other for a long time, the air in the room tense. Finally, she sighed and leaned back against the wall. "Fine..."

I rubbed my forehead. "I'm sorry, J.J., I just don't think it's safe to give you information that could be dangerous to you. I don't want you to get hurt."