Shackles

5

"Wait... what?" Jade asks, her head tilting.

I throw my head back onto her pillow. It's early evening and all of our lectures are finished for the day. Nights are slowly beginning to draw in earlier, so it's relaxingly dark for this time of day.

I stare at the ceiling, barely producing a mumble. "I don't know how he knew my name?"

"Hold on," she says, a calmingness to her voice, "Don't panic. Let's think logically about this."

I throw my head to the side, glaring as she swivels in her desk chair. "I have a tendency of acting irrationally."

She shakes her finger, "New year, new you. We're stopping that tendency."

I frown. "It's October. New year was ten months ago."

"That's beside the point," she groans, "He was in your flat, right?"

"Right," I confirm.

She gestures her hands out, as if she's cracked it, "So then he must've seen something lying around which had your name on it!"

My eyes narrow. "Like what? I don't exactly label my milk."

"Any of your worksheets?" she continues, ignoring my slightly rude comments.

"They're all labelled 'Wilson', so no."

"There has to be something we're missing," she exclaims, stretching out her legs and folding her arms. "There's just no way a random man can find out your first name from nothing."

"You're acting as if him knowing my name is the weirdest part," I scoff, cracking my knuckles.

She sighs, "Why don't you speak to Leon about it?"

I accidentally laugh, "You're joking, right?" When all she does is shake her head, I continue, "He's just as weird as his dad, there's no way he would tell me anything."

"Well," she begins, slightly dreadingly, "The first step would be to contact the accommodation office to request a flat move. If that doesn't work you'll have to get the police involved."

"After everything, how has this happened to me?" I complain, shoving my palms over my eyes. "How have I managed to secure a flatmate who has a stalkerish dad?"

"You've had a very unfortunate pattern of bad luck."

"That's an understatement," I scoff.

She tips back in her chair, drumming her fingers along her lips for just a moment. A glint hits her eyes and she hits me with a proposition.

"Fliss..." she slowly begins.

"Yes?" I curiously respond, catching the shift in her tone. I peek out of the corner of my hands and watch her fold her hands together on her lap.

"Let's do some investigation of our own. I mean, if he can find out your name, we can surely find out things about him, right? How hard can it be- he's old. Old people are never careful about oversharing personal information."

"He's not that old," I grin, "Plus he's a high class businessman, he's probably more clued up than we are."

"Bullshit," she exclaims, sitting up straighter with a jolt, "We will be like spies!"

"Spies?" I laugh. "Jade, this isn't some kind of children's television show. We can't just declare we're spies and go around snooping in some random man's business. Also the fact that he's a weirdo anyway, he'll probably catch onto what we're doing before we find out anything about him."

She dramatically rolls her eyes, huffing at me, "You're such a bore. What harm can come from it? He's spying on you for a reason we're very much unaware of, let's just do a little bit of investigation back?"