Switching Places

17. Promise

   "This is so weird." I said to Blair as we sat on my bed after school Monday.

   "Whats weird?"

   "Being back. I was getting so used to sharing a room with a kid, and the small apartment. Everything feels so empty in this house. I used to love how big it was, and how empty it was. I used to always want to host huge parties, and be the girl everyone wished they were. Well, I guess I still want to do that, but I just never realized how lonely it actually is in this house."

   "I guess it could get really lonely here. I mean, you are the only one home most of the time." Blair said,

   "It's not even like I'm home alone. Frank and his wife are always near, and then there are the security camera everywhere. But Frank and his wife are usually so quiet."

   "Wait a second, did you say security cameras?" Blair said, suddenly sitting up on the bed. I followed after him.

   "Yes. Security cameras. I thought you knew about them?" I said.

   "I did. But I forgot about them like you have. They're placed in just the right places that you never see them. But don't you see what this means?" He was up and pacing across the room now.

   "It means I have no privacy, even though it feels like I do? I don't know Blair, would you sit down!" I yelled, and stopped to look at me.

   "You have security cameras."

   "Yes. We do. What about it? Did you have sex with Chloe and are worried my parents are going to see it?" I said.

   "Oh my god Promise! You have security cameras! We can see who put the letter on the pool house! Or who was up in the attic that night when Chloe was!" Blair yelled. His words to a second to sink in, but once they did, I was up and running to the control panel near the kitchen, so I could access the files.

   "Why did I never think of this?" I said as I pried open the control panel. "I'm so stupid!" I finally got the thing open and downloaded the files onto a memory stick, then led Blair back to my room.

   We got comfortable on the bed, and I plugged the memory stick into my computer. We searched through the files, deciding we wanted to see who was in the attic that day with Chloe first.

   "Here it is. This one." Blair said, pointing to a file on the computer screen. I clicked on it.

   The file was long, it contained all the stuff from that day, so we skipped past to the upstairs hallway and the time we needed, and watched. We then saw Chloe open up the door, and head up the stairs, leaving the door open. I skipped through a bit, because I know I was on the phone with her while it happened and no one came up till near the end. Finally, Blair and I saw a shadow walking up the hallway. Their back was to the camera and they disappeared up the stairs. We held our breath till we saw them appear again, this time coming down the stairs.

   "Oh my god. It that..." Blair said, speechless.

   "Dana?" I answered him. "Sure is."