Trust Me

Chapter 7

He parked the car in the parking lot of a building I had never seen before.  There was a light on in only one of the windows, which surprised me, because it looked like an apartment building.  What apartment building had only one light on at one in the morning on a Friday night? 

I followed him out of the car, stopping behind him when he stood still at the glass doors in front of the apartment. 

“You need to be absolutely quiet.  Don’t make a sound.  Don’t speak, cough, sneeze, yawn, or make any other sort of sound until I tell you.  Okay?” he told me.  Oh, God.  This was some sort of kidnapping!

“Why?” I asked.

“No one knows I know where the key is,” he said.

“You mean the key you gave me to hide?”

“Sort of.”

Finger to his lips, he silently stepped inside of the apartment building.  I silently followed behind him, not even sipping my coffee, and waited patiently while he disappeared under the stairs.  He emerged with a copper key, not unlike the key he gave me to hide. 

We ascended the stairs, passing floor after floor.  The place looked so vacant.  I felt like Aidan and I were the only two there, and it unnerved me.  It would be the perfect place for him to commit a crime on me.  For him to back me in a corner and rape me.  For him to lock me in a closet and hold me hostage.  For him to murder me and hide me in a ditch or something.  Suddenly, my coffee wasn’t sitting so well in my stomach, and I was fighting not to throw up.  What had I gotten myself into?

Finally, we reached the top floor.  He sat me down on the stairs and walked out of view.  I could just barely hear the sound of him sliding the key into the lock and opening the door. 

“Ash, you can come here,” he whispered loudly.  I stood up and saw him standing in the doorway of an apartment in the middle of the hall, or better described as the lobby, being as it was just a square room with three doors on either side. 

Without a sound, I slid into the apartment and had a good look around.  Was this where Aidan lived?  A small kitchen branched off to the left, containing a dark wood table that filled almost the entire space.  It hadn’t been cleaned today, apparently, because there were two brightly colored mugs sitting on the table and a teapot sitting on the counter.

The living room opened out from the door I had just come through, a dim lamp sitting on a table in the corner beside a white, generic-looking couch.  Two doors rested in the wall to my left, completing the whole, tiny apartment.  It really wasn’t much at all.

“You can make sound now,” Aidan instructed.  I turned to him and bit my lip.

“Where are we?” I asked.  He walked over to the couch and had a seat, inviting me to sit next to him.  As uncomfortable as I was sitting next to him, I accepted the invitation and had a seat on the other side of the couch, keeping my distance.  I crossed my legs to be sitting what every kindergarten teacher calls criss-cross-applesauce, leaning back into the corner with the wooden arm rest digging into my lower back.  He did the same on the opposite end, though I wasn’t sure if he was mocking me or what.

“Are you making fun of me for the way I’m sitting?” I demanded.  He smiled and shook his head, leaning in towards me while propping his elbows on his knees.

“I am most definitely not making fun of you.  Are you awake yet?” he questioned, nodding his head in the direction of the coffee in my hand.  I had only completed about two-thirds of the 20 ounce cup.  The caffeine was just starting to give me a buzz, and I knew I wouldn’t be falling asleep any time soon.