A Glimpse of the Story

Sofia's Stalker Neighbor

picture of sofia on top^^ and tora on the bottom

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"Oh come on, pleaseeee!"

"Sofia, i already told you i have work today. And i'm not going to help you spy on your pedo neighbor." i pursed my lips together while i grabbed my coat of the rack and slipped on my shoes.

"You promised me tora! We were supposed to find out what that creep is doing, we have to see why he's been acting so weird!" she whined as she followed me to my car with her backpack on her shoulders.

"Mmm, last time you wanted to do this and guess who chickened out? You! I don't have time for this, i need the money. My mom won't pay for my stuff and i'm in need of new socks. Plus he's always acted weird as fuck." i hopped into my car and started the engine as she slid into the passenger side.

" well i'm sorry if he kept looking around every ten minutes. I didn't want to get in trouble or worse, have no one find out where he hid my body!" she buckled up and turned to me waiting for my response, while i backed out of the driveway.

" can't you do this on your own time? Or maybe invite Florence? she's a good stakeout buddy right?" i asked.

"ughh , i mean she's decent but not as good as you." she groaned. "Drop me off in my driveway, i don't want the creep to come and talk to me when i'm halfway up the driveway again." she shivered in disgust.

"Alright. I'm not even that good at stakeouts dude, and you know that." i glanced at her, stopping at a stop light.

"Yeah you are! Your really good at driving, and you watch a lot of cop, FBI, and CIA shows. Also your gut is almost always right." she reasoned

"My gut?" i asked. We were close to her house when we saw someone get out of their car and walk up to her door.

Suspicious was the word you would use to describe this person. Hooded figure, no license plate on the car, actually scratch that, it was a white van. Ones that you see kidnappers use in the movies.

"-you even listening to me?" sofia asked as she tied her fading turquoisehair up into a messy ponytail.

"Do you know that person?" i asked seriously.

She looked away from me and towards her house as we slowly got closer. Her demeanor instantly went from happy to nervous.

"I-uh no." she stuttered as she went pale.

You see sofia is somewhat of a scaredy cat, she wants to be the brave detective when we have stakeouts, she want to try and do daring things but alas she can't because of her paranoid self and her parents constantly tearing her self confidence down whenever they get the chance to. Thus making her timid and shy when trying to be the person she was a couple years back. It saddens me that she is the shell of her former self, a ghost of what she once was. Sofia was the type of girl that you would go to if you ever needed cheering up, she was the person that everyone wanted to be friends with. Now she's the girl who's parents control basically her whole life from friends to how much she eats to how many times she can go outside a day. And the girl who doesn't like to socialize much because she's afraid people will insult her.

"Okay, well i want you to discreetly take some pictures as we go past the house and try to get a good look at what's inside the van and if anyone else looks suspicious on your side, i'll do the same." i said as i slowed down a bit so that she could do what i told her to do.

I checked each mirror of the car to make sure everything was okay and i glanced outside of the car on my side a few times. " did you get it?" i asked.

"Yeah." she whispered, putting her phone in the front pocket of her bag.

"Okay, well i'm not taking you back to my house because we don't want this guy to follow us back if he ends up seeing our car. Looks like you'll be coming to work with me." she slightly nodded as she stared outside the window.

"Wait so what were you telling me about my gut again?" i said trying to get her mind of of the very suspicious stranger in the front of her house.

She looked at me and grinned a bit "well as i was saying earlier, your initial gut feeling saved us so many times. Like that time that you told me not to go into target last year because you felt that something was wrong? You were right, we could have died. And that other time were you smacked the candy out of my hand and said 'there's something wrong with it'. You were also right. That my friend is your gut telling you 'NO THAT SHIT IS OFF!'."

"Frist of all, that target incident? The worst thing that could have happened would be the homeless woman cussing you out and maybe throwing a banana at you. And i said that we shouldn't because everyone who went in ran back out. That's called common sense kid." i glanced at her as we pulled into the parking lot of a bakery/coffee shop called Paris Bakery.

"And the halloween one? Well- well actually that one was gut. I'll give you that one." we hopped out of the car and and as we walked to the back doors i locked the car.

The halloween incident? Well i slapped the snickers bar out of her hand because the little plastic wrapping looked tampered with and so did the candy itself. It was the year that the police warned everyone that people were putting razor blades in the candies like Reese's peanut butter cups, Snickers, Almond Joys, Kit Kats, and Butter Fingers. Sofia was commenting on how the companies were "down grading on their wrapping" and how it was very messy and how it looked not very presentable. She was just about to take a huge bite of the snickers bar when i slapped it out of her hand. When she had asked me why i did that i didn't say anything and stomped on the candy. I remember bringing my foot up to find the razor lodged in the sole of my combat boot that i was wearing that night with our eyes wide. My only explanation as to why i did that was because of a strange and uncomfortable feeling in my stomach. The gut feeling.

We walked into the back room and waved at one of my co-workers as she left through the back exit we came through. I still had 10 minutes before i had to clock in and start working. Jason came into the break room where sofia and i were chilling out in. "hey tora, sofia." he smiled at us.

"Oh hey jason!" sofia's face brightened at the sight of him. I so ship them. Honestly they would make a really cute couple.

They started talking about last night's episode of American Horror Story when i interrupted them. "Jason are you off?"

"Yeah, but i was planning on staying here until someone else comes so that you won't be here alone and potentially get robbed." he said still looking at sofia.

I chuckled a bit, "are you sure i'm the only reason you're staying?" he looked at me as i wiggled my eyes between the two of them and walked away.

I walked out of the break room and into the kitchen. I grabbed one of the aprons, tied it around me and clocked in. I walked to the cash register.

" hi welcome to Paris Bakery! What would you like today?" i asked. I looked up to see someone i wish would die in a hole, sofia's stalker neighbor grinning showing off his nasty yellow stained teeth.

Aw crap.