Hunted

Chapter Nine: Alive to You

When I woke up the next morning, I heard the TV on downstairs, meaning that my parents were awake. I got up, wiping some dried mascara off of my cheeks with a towel, and went downstairs to have breakfast. My parents were sitting on the couch, bowls of cereal rested on their laps, watching the news.

"A police officer was in the building that burned last night." mom said quietly. "But he didn't burn to death. He was shot to death before the explosion occurred."

I pretended to be surprised. "What? Who was it?" I asked.

"Officer Riley. He was only in his twenties, Olivia. Someone murdered him." dad answered, not taking his eyes off if the screen.

"That's awful!" I exclaimed, trying to sell my look of horror as well as I possibly could.

Both of my parents nodded. "Just promise us that you'll be careful when you go out, okay?" my mom asked.

"Of course." I agreed. "I think I'm going to head over to Jessamine's for the afternoon, if that's okay."

"Yeah, that's fine." my mom said, and I walked back to my room.

I brushed my hair and slipped into a pair of jeans a t-shirt from my favourite band, before picking up my phone and texting Jessamine.

'Hey, is it alright if I come over for the afternoon?' 

She texted back almost right away.

'Sure!'

I started to walk to Jessamine's house- it was a little while away. I had only walked about six blocks when a car pulled up next to me.

"Hey, beautiful, can I give you a lift somewhere?" Ben said, sticking his head out the window.

I grinned. "I was just heading over to Jessamine's actually, if you aren't in a rush." I replied, walking around his car and opening the passenger's side door.

"Did you hear about last night?" he asked, putting the car into gear.

"Yeah, I did." I answered.

"Man, October is not a good month for this town." he huffed, and then he flinched. "Ah, God, Olivia. I'm sorry. It just slipped out, I wasn't really thinking."

I shrugged. "No, don't worry about it. It's true, isn't it?" I reassured him, but everything was quiet after that.

He pulled up in front of Jessamine's house a few minutes later, and before I got out of the car, he leaned over and kissed me. His lips met mine, and I felt a little bit safer, just for a moment, and then he pulled away.

"I'll call you later." he told me, smiling, but something in his eyes told me that he was upset about something.

"What's wrong?" I asked, taking my hand off of the door handle.

"Nothing, it's fine. Jessamine's probably waiting for you." he replied.

"Ben, I'm not getting out of this car until you tell me what's wrong." I argued, putting my hand on his forearm.

"I just... I just can't shake the feeling that you had feelings for Sam that were more than just friendship." he admitted, shaking his head.

I bit my lip, and looked over at him. "Ben, why is this bothering you so much?" I asked.

"Tell me that you and him didn't have anything, Olivia. Look me in the eye and say it." he said steadily, looking over at me.

"Ben..." I looked down. "A few days before he went missing, Sam kissed me. That was it."

Ben leaned forward and put his head in his hands. "I knew it." he muttered.

"Why are you being like this, Ben? That was a a year ago, and you know what? Sam isn't even around anymore." I said, becoming suddenly angry.

"Because he's not dead, Olivia." he snapped. For a second, I thought maybe he knew about the texts, but then he finished. "I mean, maybe his heart stopped, but he's not dead to you. Sometimes I feel like he's more alive to you than anybody else."

"He was my best friend!" I shot back at him.

"He was clearly a lot more than that near the end of things, wasn't he?" Ben argued, narrowing his eyes.

"You're an asshole." I said, opening the car door and slamming it behind me.

The car peeled down the road as soon as I stepped up onto the curb, and I sunk down to the grass, putting my head in my hands. I sobbed, trying to calm down.

"Liv?" Jessamine's voice asked from behind me.

She sat down next to me on the curb and put her arm around my shoulder, rubbing my arm. "Hey, hey, you're alright. It's okay. What happened?" she said, her voice comforting.

"He... he was jealous of Sam." I whimpered. "He said that he feels like Sam is more alive to me than he is."

"What?" she asked in disbelief. "He said that to you?"

I nodded. "I just don't understand why he can't just accept that maybe I was in love with Sam. It's not like Sam's around to threaten him anyway." I huffed, wiping my eyes.

Jessamine shook her head. "I just can't imagine Ben saying that." she said quietly.

"Neither can I, but he said it." I replied, standing up.

We went inside, and set up a movie in Jessamine's room. Her parents were fairly wealthy, so the flatscreen TV in her bedroom was just another one of the many perks of being friends with her, along with her humour and her tendency to always know the latest gossip.

After watching the movie, we decided to go shopping to help me get my mind off of my fight with Ben. I usually kept some money aside for clothes, and of course, shopping money was never a problem for Jessamine. We loaded ourselves into her car- a White Jeep that she referred to as "her baby", and drove to the mall.

After a few good hours of retail therapy, I thanked Jessamine for the good time and told her that I should be getting home for dinner, and she insisted on driving me home.

When we got to my house, I had just gotten out of the car when I heard a text come in on my cellphone. I pulled it out of my pocket, and opened the message, expecting another threatening text from the anonymous number, but it was just Danielle.

'Is it alright if we meet up later tonight? I need to talk to you about something.'

I got out of Jessamine's car, said goodbye to her, and replied to Danielle's message as I was approaching the front door.

'Sure, what time?'

The reply was instant.

'Nine.'

'And where should we meet?'

'I'll pick you up.'

'Alright, see you then.'

I got inside, and said hello to my parents, who were in the kitchen making dinner, and went up to my bedroom to put my new clothes in my pocket, stopping in the doorway. A gasp escaped my lips as I realized that someone was sitting on my bed, staring up at me.

"Sam?" I breathed.

"Hello, Olivia." Sam replied, looking up at me.