Obsessed

Chapter 2

"Aaron," I said, two visits after the first one. "I totally forgot about this but I need an email or phone call for your doctor so I can reach him to let him know you've been showing up for your appointments. I wouldn't be pushing it so hard if it wasn't the law, now,"

Aaron grinned a huge grin. "No problem," he said. He scribbled it down quickly on a blue sticky note I provided him after copying it down from the notes in his phone. "I had to write it down to remember but it didn't come up last therapy session so I completely forgot about it." He deleted the email off his notes on his phone and then slid his phone in his pocket. "I'm sorry,"

"It's completely okay! I wouldn't have pushed it if it wasn't a mandatory thing, now. But even if it wasn't, I still like to stay in constant contact with my patient's doctors to let them know if they need to up their pain medicine dosages and just stuff like that. We like to keep in touch."

 Aaron grinned. "Who wouldn't like to keep in touch with you?"

I had Aaron every Sunday and Tuesday of every week. He came in completely unable to even move his legs but I had great confidence in him. Sometimes he'd get frustrated and cry things out like "Why can't things just be normal? Why can't this just be as easy as I want it to be?"

Aaron was really sweet and often came across as flirty but I didn't think anything about it. At the end of the week, I told Aaron he was already doing great in the amount of progress. "I just happen to have a great therapist," he smiled. When he wheeled his way out, he disappeared out of sight. 

At the end of the day, I made my way to my newly painted maroon Kia. I got inside and immediately locked the doors out of habit. It's something my paranoid mother had always done and it was a little habit I happened to pick up from her. I checked my phone for any urgent texts but with none, I made my way home and stopped for food. I ended up at the local Chinese food place. I got chicken fried rice to go, and heading home, I got a call from my best friend, Jessie. 

"Hey, what's up?" I asked. 

"Nothing, but hey can I stop by and eat with you? I know it's late and you probably already ate but I have a box of Papa John's and don't feel like eating alone." Jessie was dating a boy named Kris and they'd been together for a year and a half and lived together. 

"Where's Kris?" I questioned.

"I'll tell you if I can come over," Jessie laughed weakly through the phone.

"Yeah," I gave a sad smile through the phone, although she couldn't see it. "No problem. I'll be waiting." 

I pulled up just shortly before Jessie had arrived. My house was basically microscopic--it was a tiny two bedroom, one bathroom house. Since I lived alone, one of the bedrooms had been transformed into a guest bedroom. There was a king sized bed in it, a dresser, and tons of family pictures. When Jessie had gotten there and after I'd put my Chinese food inside on the counter I went out to meet her. There was a car that slowly passed behind her and I squinted, the sun in my eyes. I was unable to get a clear look at the person driving the car creeping along, but it looked just like Aaron--but that was crazy. He was in a wheelchair and could barely wiggle his toes. There's no way in hell he could be driving a car.

"Aaron?" I called out, but after that, the car sped up and drove away. 

"Did you know them?" Jessie asked. "They basically followed me here. I was so scared to get out but I saw you and figured I was okay,"

"I don't know," I said. "It looked like one of my patients, but Aaron can barely walk. There's no way it was actually him." I was frowning to shield my eyes from the sunlight.

"The light must be playing tricks on you," Jessie laughed weakly, holding the box of pizza with one hand. "Let's go in."

"Wait," I said, "So let me get this straight. Kris just ditched you for dinner when he said he'd be there?"

"Yeah," Jessie murmured. "He's such a dick. This isn't the first time he's done this."

"What do you mean? Is he not treating you right, Jessie?" I eyed the bruise on her upper arm.

She followed my guess and frowned. "Hell, no, Jer. It's nothing like that, honestly. He's just an asshole."

I sighed in relief and used my chopsticks to try and poorly pick up chunks of chicken from my fried rice. "Good. But he's been like this since you all moved in. Do you know where he's always disappearing off to?"

"Work," Jessie replied firmly. "I know because I've called when he claims to work late nights. He's always actually there."

"Shocker," I mimicked. She shot me a look. "Well you haven't always had the best interest in guys."

"I know, I know." Jessie groaned. "Stop reminding me, God."

She ate half the box of pizza and left me three slices. The other two she said she wanted to take home. I ate the pizza after I'd eaten my small crate of fried rice, sipping on my soda. 

Jessie ended up staying in the guest room that night, after she'd drank too much to try and drive home. I was equally as tired and thankful tomorrow was Saturday and I didn't have work. It was two a.m., and Jessie's phone buzzed with a text from Kris. 

"Had a meeting," it said, "Sorry to miss dinner. You coming home tonight? It's late. Where are you?"

I just ignored the message and didn't open it so he didn't know it had been read. I checked in on Jessie and put her phone beside her and crawled into my own bed. I couldn't stop thinking about that weird drive by. Who was that in the car? Why had they followed Jessie? What did they want from her.

I swallowed and then thought about something else. What if they weren't following her for her. What if they were following her to find me?