Keep Your Enemies Closer

He's here!

After school Mike kept me company until I was right in front of my house door. That's how it went the rest of the week. Sometimes Danny would be there too. Lila had to be home exactly twenty minutes after school ended. So she wasn't really helpful, but she wanted too and that's what counts, right?

It was Saturday now and I was looking forward to a relaxed weekend in my room.

"Allison Linda Parker." I groan at my mother's voice and pull the pillow over my face. It's too early to get scowled at. And from the tone in her voice, she was about to.
"Did you forget what day it is?" My mother asked and I dared to peek at her. The brightness in the room hurt my eyes, so I quickly closed them.

What day is today? We're still in April, so... oh. Oh! I quickly rubbed my eyes and sat up on my bed. The only important date in April is my pops birthday. Oh no, I didn't even realize.
"Why didn't you say something earlier? I don't even have a present." I groaned and looked at the woman in front of me.

She was already dressed in a red skirt and a black blouse. Her purple hair was outstanding and I admired my mother for her braveness. It takes courage to pull of that hair color.  She had round glasses and she even had her heels on already. Was she going somewhere?

"Wait, where are you going?" I asked her, before she could answer my other question.
"We are going to the mall, because I have top pick out pops cake. And you could look for a present in the meantime." She says, crossing her arms over her chest and I nod slowly.

When did she ever pick his cake up the same day as his birthday? Only once when she forgot his birthday. And since when doesn't she remind me? I smirk as I stand up and pass her, walking towards my closet.

"You forgot, huh?" I laugh, pulling out a grey shirt and black skinny jeans. My mom scoffs and I turn around to see my answer. Her cheeks are red and her confident stance is gone.
"What do you expect? That new job is tiring me out. I'm just glad he doesn't expect us until four p.m." My mom says and I glance at the clock.

"It's ten." I state.
"I know. That's why I woke you up now. You'll need that time." She says and I nod and wait for her to leave the room until dressing myself. She's right. I do need a lot of time to decide.

I put some bracelets and a necklace on, before walking out of my room.
"Why do I have to come with you?" I hear a tired voice ask and look at my baby brother Cyrus. Well, with ten years of existence he's not exactly a baby anymore, but he used to be and to me he still is.

"I'm ten and I'm old enough to stay at home. Plus, I already have a present for pops. Let me stay here, mom." Cyrus says and I ruffle his hair once I approached him downstairs. Mom just shakes her head and takes her purse from the living room.

"Exactly, Cyrus. You're ten and that's only five years older than five. Do you think I let you stay at home alone when you were five?" I hold back my laughter. Mom's strategy is to confuse him and I swear I can already see the gears working in his brain. I had to go trough this too.

"What? That- Allie!" He looks at me and I just shrug. Normally I would help him out, but I don't want to go shopping alone. He could be a great helper.
"Fine. I call shotgun then." He huffs and mom rolls her eyes along with me. He can be a handful sometimes.

We arrive at the mall shortly after. When I looked at the clock it said we spent almost half an hour in the car, so it was now almost eleven. So I have a little over four hours, since we still have to drive to grandma and grandpa's house.

"Allie, keep an ear on your phone. I don't want a repeat from last time we went to the mall and I let you walk on your own." Mom warns me and I nod, checking my phone. Last time I had the security call my name over the speakers. Which was embarrassing, so I definitely don't want a repeat of last time.

"Wait, I wanna go with Allie." Cyrus stopped me from walking away and mom rolled her eyes.
"But you stay by her side. Whatever she wants you to do, you do it." Mom says and gives me a look. I nod and pat Cyrus on the back, so he would follow me.

"Can we stop at a candy store?" Cyrus asks me and I roll my eyes and grab him by the collar of his shirt when he was already starting to head the way of the candy store.
"Nope, we need to find grandpa a present. And you know how long I take to make decisions. At least you're here to help me." I say and he groans.

"I think I wanna stay with mom." He rolls his eyes as I let his shirt go.
"Well, sucks to be you. Come on." I say and head towards the watch store. I know exactly that I want to get him a watch, since last time when I visited he told me, his old watch was broken.

"Can you even afford a watch?" Cyrus' words made me stop in my tracks. Can I? I opened my wallet to see how much money I actually had with me. I internally scowled at myself for not checking earlier.

I counted fifty dollars and a few pennies, so that's a start, right? I nodded at Cyrus' question and walked towards the first few watches. My eyes almost bulged out of my head when I saw the prices of the first watch. 245 dollars? I shook my head and continued looking.

I can't believe people would actually pay that much money for a simple watch. They're not even pretty. Cyrus was sighing impatiently while I was taking my sweet time. To be honest, none of those watches would look good on my pops. They were all a little too fancy. So I sighed and looked at Cyrus.

"Let's go to-"
"You." I hear a voice say behind me and frown. Me? I turn around and sure enough I'm starting to choke on my own spit. He's here! How? Cyrus pats my back and whispers assuring words to me and I thank him after recovering.

When I look at the boy in front of me, my eyes widen and my heart picks up its speed. I look around me. Would he kill me in front of all these people? I mean he would have enough money to pay every single one of those, so they would act like they wouldn't have seen anything.

Chandler Hawkes is here. Right in front of me and he doesn't look happy. He is glaring at me as he steps closer to me. I immediately cover Cyrus with my body and he frowns for a second, before going back to glaring at me.

I can't just let him kill me. I have family and it's my pops birthday. How awful would it be to loose a loved one on your birthday? I couldn't imagine.
"What is this?" I asked as I point at something behind him.

I almost laughed when he turned his head to look at it, but was too busy grabbing Cyrus and running away from Chandler. I didn't dare to look back and just continued to drag my little brother.

A/N: February 20th 2019, KYEC has 1.4M reads. You guys are awesome. Big thanks to crescendoe for the incredible cover. 🧡

If you have a cover you want me to put in a chapter, my twitter is @itspearlmae.