You Can Never Escape Me(BxB)

f o r t y f i v e

Anthony Lawrence

"What do you have on your arm?" Jasmine questioned as I accidentally made a wrong move, causing my shirt's sleeve to shift higher, revealing the bandage wrapped around my upper arm.

Cole lifted his head from the countless applications, we were going through for Jasmine's cafe, so that she wouldn't rely on Cole's and my help anymore. Though, I didn't mind helping her out.

"I was focused on cooking and burned myself by accident, nothing serious." I reassured them. They didn't have to know every little detail about the bad things that had happened in my life because one question could lead to another, so that they could inevitably find out about my newly discovered feelings for Elias, which I didn't know how they would take it.

I still had a hard time figuring out when I even developed feelings for Elias in the first place. During the time he held me captive there have been a few moments here and there, where he had been a little nicer than usual but that wasn't enough to make me fall in love with. In contrary, I hated him even more because I knew this was all part of his manipulative game. And, also after escaping him, we had our rough times.

It was as if these feelings started slowly forming in the background, so that I hardly noticed them, only to hit me full force like a truck at some point.

And now, I was totally stuck.

"I thought you hated cooking?" Cole questioned skeptically, briefly looking behind the cafe's counter to check if all clients were at ease, before returning his attention back to me.

I slapped myself across the face internally. Not only was I the worst liar, I forgot obvious things about myself when I got nervous, inventing stories that were far from believable.

"I'm always open to trying out new things," I explained, trying to hide my hesitance.

Thankfully, Cole couldn't ask me any more questions as a new client entered the cafe. So, that he stood up instantly to take their order.

However, Jasmine simply decided to take over his role and continue with the interrogation.

"Is this some sort of new coping mechanism you developed?" She questioned worried. Since, I had refused to go to therapy for now because there was still too much going on for me to simply sit down with someone and talk about my feelings, Jasmine spontaneously decided to become my therapist by buying every book she could get on the market on how to help victims of kidnapping.

And though, I loved how caring she was, I preferred having her support as a best friend, rather than a self-taught therapist.

"Jasmine, I-"

I got cut off by Cole, who rushed over to us, an expression of panic written all over his face.

"Ant, there is someone asking for you." He told me slightly terrified, making me instantly turn my head to analyze all the clients that were sitting in the cafe. And since, Jasmine's cafe was more on the cozier side, it didn't take long for me to notice a certain man that was excitedly waving his hand at me as our eyes met.

My chest tightened painfully with each shallow breath, each intake of air feeling like inhaling shards of ice, sending shivers down my spine.

However, fleeing wasn't even an option. Not with all the innocent clients and my two best friends in the same spot.

"Do you know this man or should we call the police?" Jasmine asked me, a ghostly palor washing over her face. "He looks like the yummy kind of man that kidnapped you. I know their techniques by now. They use their appearance to attract their victims and then it's over."