Escape | Updated Weekly

36

I've turned crazy.

I check my phone every hour. 

No texts.

I've gone through my friend's phones. 

Nothing. 

No one else had my number. How could a random person send those messages? 

I still wasn't sleeping, how could I when someone was out to terrorise me? 

It didn't help that me and Tom were still in a weird place together. We didn't hang out as much as what we used to. I never saw him at home, because of band practice. Any free time that he did get, he'd spend it with Chloe. I felt on my own for this, I couldn't expect him to just drop everything and come running.

There was one person I could turn to, even if it was just to distract me. 

I called Josh.

"Hey"

"Can I come over?"

"Of course. Come in an hour though. Just trying to wrap something up"

I heard noises in the backgrounds, it sounding like there was grunting. It was probably just the TV. 

"Okay"

Just then the boys and Chloe came in. Tom went straight into the kitchen, saying a quiet hello as he passed with Chloe. Brandon and Dani sat down in the living room with me. "You okay Eve? You look so out of it" Asked Brandon. I just nodded, I didn't have the energy to even speak. Tom came back in and started to set the game up on the telly. 

"You sure?" questioned Dani. They were both looking at me strangely. "Yeah. I'm fine" I pretended to be busy on my laptop so that they would stop asking questions. Tom had glanced over at me. "Who's the new guy?" he muttered. I was surprised he even asked. Chloe bit her lip, she must have been the one to tell him about Josh. 

"His name is Josh, he's 22 and he works in that garage in town" Tom nodded. I couldn't tell if he was judging me or if he was pleased for me. "When did you meet him?". I couldn't tell Tom that we had met at that concert. Now that he was actually talking to me properly I didn't want to mess that up. That's when it hit me. It wasn't that night that we had met. "I met him that same day I had the date with Lyl-" I stopped. 

Lyle.

The creepy dude that tried to Harrass me not once, but twice. Who backed of because Mac scared him. Both times. Now all of a sudden since we stop seeing each other, I'm getting weird texts. He would have known about me and Mac, pretty much everyone did now. Plus he had my number because Chloe gave it to him. 

How did I not realise this sooner?

"Eve?" I snapped back into reality. Tom was staring at  me with his eyebrows raised. "Sorry, I zoned out". I stood up putting my laptop down on the table. "I'm meeting Josh so I've gotta go". 

I managed to find out which block of uni halls Lyle lived in through his Facebook. Clearly the guy didn't understand that he should protect that kind of information. I knocked on the first door on the bottom floor. I wasn't expecting it to be Lyle's room, even though it would save time if by conincidence it was. 

A girl answered, guess it wasn't my lucky day, she didn't seem to pleased that a stranger had knocked on her door. "Can I help you?" she already sounded moody with me. "Hi, I'm looking for Lyle". She looked me up and down like she couldn't believe I was actually here to see him. "Middle floor. Room 35". She slammed the door shut before I could even thank her, but I didn't care. 

I sprinted up the stairs and found Lyle's room. I pounded on the door this time. Lyle came to the door, before it was even fully open I burst into his room. 

"Why are you sending me creppy messages Lyle?"

He looked shocked and confused all the same time. It took him a few seconds to process what was going on. 

"I'm not"

"Bullshit"

I showed him phone, he glanced at it still pretending to now know what they were. "Eve, I didn't send those I swear". I scoffed and pushed him gently, just enough so that he would stumble backwards. 

"Don't ever text my phone again or I will report you to the uni and to the police" I snapped. Then I turned on my heel and stormed out. He didn't need to know the police weren't interested. I just needed some sort of threat to scare him. 

I felt relieved now that I knew who was behind all of this, and that I shouldn't get any more texts. Even if I did now at least I would know who was sending them. Lyle was easy enough for me to handle. Next time I could just threaten to send Tom down instead of myself. 

When I got to Josh's I was in the best mood. Even he seemed to notice that. He'd ordered food in for us and we put a movie on. Not that we watched a lot of it.

We lay on the sofa together, baked under a blanket. Trying to catch our breath after our extra curricular activities. "You're amazing" he said. I grinned as he came closer and kissed me. "Thanks" I laughed. He hovered for a moment and then said "I want you to be my girlfriend"

I paused. 

"That sounds so lame" he put a hand over his face trying to cover up. Here was a guy that didn;t want to hide the fact that he was with me. Why shouldn't I give him a chance? 

"I would love to be your girlfriend" I replied and I took his hand away. He had the biggest smile on his face as he kissed me again. I barely slept again that night. Only this time it was for different reasons.