"So, are you gonna tell me what happened?" Blake asked as they sat beside each other on the couch. They walked through the door at least an hour ago, and Emma still hadn't mentioned the letter in her bag.
Alex was upstairs playing games on his Switch, and now would be the perfect time to talk about it all, but she just couldn't find the right words to start. She was scared to bring it up because it would make the whole situation much more real. Emma wasn't sure if she could face the reality that she literally had a stalker, possibly following her out to kill her. To her, there was no question on who sent her the letter. It had to be Jason... who else could it be, after all?
Blake didn't want to pressure her into talking, but she sounded terrified on the phone when she called him. He honestly couldn't take the waiting around anymore. "Can't we just sit here a little longer?" She laid her head on his side before looking up at him. He pulled away a little, making her sigh. "Emma, by the way you sounded on the phone, this doesn't seem like something that can wait."
She nodded. She knew he was right; if she just let this go, who knows what could happen. She picked up her bag beside her, sliding it onto her lap before opening the zipper with shaky fingers, pulling out the news clipping. "I found this with the other mail when I came back from hanging out with the girls this afternoon. It was in a white envelope with my name on it." She passed him the paper.
He slowly took it from her hands.
He scanned over the clipping as she sat quietly beside him, fidgeting with her fingers. His face went from confusion to anger very fast. He stood, looking down at her. "What the hell! Is this some kinda threat or something?" She shrugged as he passed her back the gray paper. She put it back into her bag as he paced in front of her.
"Well, it has to be that Johnson guy, right? We have to go to the police about this." She shook her head, not feeling like correcting him this time on Jason's name. And there was no way she was about to take this to the police.
He let out a heavy sigh before sitting back beside her. He pulled the pack of cigarettes out of his pocket. She watched as he put one between his lips, lighting it up, taking a long pull from it. He was probably stressed out by this situation and needed something to relax his nerves. To be fair, she hadn't seen him smoke in a while. She guessed this situation pushed him to smoking.
"Then what are we going to do, because I'm not just going to wait around until something happens to you. You're too important to me to just sit around and wait," he said, meeting her eyes, making her smile softly.
She agreed she couldn't just do nothing about this, but if she went to the police, word would probably get back to her parents, which was something she wanted to avoid. Looking down, she thought it over. "We could confront Jason about this, you know, get him to back off." he took the cigarette out of his mouth, blowing out the smoke "Tomorrow?" he asked while nodding as if it were set in stone.
She set her bag back beside her before turning to him. "Tomorrow... maybe he'll cut it out after we confront him about it," she said, although she wasn't very hopeful about it. Even with Blake beside her, she had no clue how Jason would react. He was unpredictable. After all, Jason was kinda crazy, so he may not stop just because they go to his house, but there was always a possibility.
"Hopefully..." he whispered before leaning forward, opening the magazine on the table. When he opened it, she noticed the black cigarette circles covering the inside pages where he put out his cigarettes. He took out the cigarette out of his mouth, stomping it out on the paper.
"I should get Alex ready for bed. Will you be okay down here on your own?" She nodded, giving him a smile as he closed the magazine. Standing up, he watched as she yawned into her hand.
"Or you can go ahead upstairs into my room. You can change into one of my shirts." She whispered a thank you as he headed upstairs to Alex's room.
She followed after. While she walked into Blake's room, she heard Blake telling Alex to get ready for bed, and Alex whining about not being tired.
Walking into Blake's room, she closed the door behind her, locking it so she could change without worrying about being walked in on. She opened his closet, hit in the face with the smell of his cologne. She pushed around the clothes, looking for the perfect shirt for bed.
She saw something green on the ground. Looking down more closely, it seemed to be a few Christmas presents he'd wrapped. Leaning down, she read "Kandy" on one, another read "Chris," but there were two with her name on them. Probably one for her birthday and the other for Christmas. Both were pretty small, which was good because she didn't want him to go crazy with spending money on her. She wanted to reach out and touch them, to shake them around and guess what was inside, but she didn't want to ruin the surprise.
Holding herself back, she stood straight again. Looking through the clothes, she pulled out a simple black V-neck tee shirt. Taking out her clothes and shoes, she put them in a neat stack on his desk beside her bag before pulling on the shirt, running her fingers through her hair while looking at herself in the mirror. She walked over to the locked door, unlocking it before climbing into the bed underneath the blanket.
A few minutes later, he walked into the room, light still on. "Em, you up?" she grumbled, eyes still closed as he left the door, turning off the lights. He left the door slightly cracked, light from the hallway streaming into the room before climbing into bed beside her.
A few minutes of silence passed before she whispered, "Can you hold me, Blake..." He wrapped his arms around her waist, pressing himself against her back. He laid his head into her hair.
"I'm scared, Blake," her voice slightly shook. Eyes opening, he moved his head to lay against her neck, whispering, "I know... I'm here. I'll keep you safe." He linked their fingers together loosely. She closed her eyes again, attempting to fall asleep once again. But this time, with the thought of Blake being beside her, she was able to finally fall asleep.
YOU ARE READING
It Started With Hello
Romance***** Emma Pear knew she wasn't the most popular girl in high school. Her nose was usually buried in a textbook, and her grades were as spotless as her reputation for always following the rules. "Nerd" was a label she'd long since embraced. Her pare...
