Locked Away (Preview)

Chapter 5

As Ryan left Kara's sanctuary, she watched him until the door closed then turned her attention up to the ceiling. For the rest of the night, she couldn't fall back asleep. Kara couldn't believe that she had broken down like that in front of Ryan while continuing to hold each other. She was worried he wouldn't be able to look at her the same way after what he had just witnessed. Yet Ryan seemed calmer than when he first arrived, leaving Kara to be the only emotional wreck. She felt like she needed something to distract herself from the soon-to-be waking world.

Reaching for her phone that was sitting on the nightstand beside the bed. She opened an app where people asked each other questions, ranging from randoms to people from school. Kara, by no means, was a popular girl but had the looks and enough of a following to get a few questions a day. Although she was only looking for a certain message in particular. Scrolling through, Kara hoped that one was sent from a certain individual, and sure enough, she stopped as a smile ignited on her face.

Kara had been chatting with some random boy for a couple of months, and she was starting to fall for him emotionally. She looked forward to talking to him, even though she had suspicions about a few red flags of his since he seemed too good to be true. Still, the website remained their only source of contact with each other, and it seemed harmless enough. At the moment, though, there was no one else that Kara wanted to talk to. His message was a simple Hey girl, wassup? Question, and she rushed to answer it before she was forced to wait.

A little pop-up appeared in a separate texting app, and miraculously it only took a moment for her random stranger to appear. As if he was also waiting in anticipation for her to respond, that just the subtle interest was enough to make a smile stay permanently on her face. Both emotionally and physically, Kara was drained. Still, no matter what obstacles were in her way, she was going to make an effort to talk to him.

His name popped up, and Kara immediately started typing the first message while whispering it to herself as she typed. "Hello, Jesse."

Other than Ryan, Jesse, this random stranger she had met on the internet, was the only other person to know about the recent events of her life. Kara had told him every last detail and mentioned how she might need a day to get her mind in order until they could talk again. Those twenty-four hours had just expired, so it was Kara's time to flirt, although the timing of it all was pure coincidence. Since being introduced to Jesse, Kara had gotten a fair amount of information from him in turn for some of hers. At first, Kara was worried about potentially being cat-phished by him, yet the reward of it all seemed to pay for the risk. Sending her a link to some photos of himself, Kara clicked through them, and they appeared to be legitimate. In Kara's eyes, this boy appeared to have been sculpted by the heavens, which made her wonder why Jesse chose someone like her.

There were countless shirtless pics of the boy, and in all of them, his muscles were prominently on display. Jesse didn't have a six-pack or anything crazy, but without a doubt, he was fit. For Kara, to make sure that it was him to ease her mind, asked him for a selfie with him holding up a piece of paper with her name on it. A few minutes later, sure enough, there was another shirtless photo with Kara's name written across his abdomen, confirming that he was, in fact, real. After ogling the picture for a few moments, Kara felt as if she needed to repay the favour and sent him a link to a photoset of her. She was confident that he would like what he saw, and as expected, the response she got was one word. Damn.

It made Kara's heart flutter, knowing that he was seeing some of her more racy photos. They showed off far more of her body than anyone had ever seen, but it also gave her the feeling that she was living the model lifestyle. Jesse had also become one of Kara's closest friends and one of the only people she could rely on. Yet Kara still hadn't met him in person, and the more she fell for him, the more her obsession with the boy grew. Kara's only goal was to make Jesse her boyfriend so she could have the real thing. The problem was that he claimed to live twelve hours away by car, and with everything that happened, Kara couldn't afford a plane ticket.