Be My First 3 - Tying Ends

47. Are You Sure?

Once again, I began getting ready to head over to Justin's house. He's been keeping me happy and honestly that's all I need right now. Life without Jack has been draining me and Justin has been able to fill those empty spots with fun things and jokes and the friendship I need since Barb is away.

I haven't even spoken to Jack. Not once. If anyone's going to be making the first move, it's him. He owes a huge apology and not just to Jack J, but to me.

After quickly getting ready and heading on the road, I noticed a black car driving behind me for quite some time. I was turning again, and of course the car was turning with me. They must be paparazzi.

"Hey Siri, call Justin." I said.

His number dialed.

"Hey!" He answered.

"Hey, so I'm on the way, but there's this guy in a black car following me and it's making me kinda nervous. He's been following for like 15 minutes."

"It's gotta be paparazzi. Can you lose him?" He replied.

"Well, he's been like, tailgating me the whole time. I'm sure I'd be able to lose him but I don't want to get pulled over or something. I mean, they probably know I'm going to your house."

"You're right. But everyone thinks we're dating, so what's new?" He laughed.

I giggled. "Okay, true. But this dude looks scary. He doesn't look like those normal paparazzi dudes."

"Hmm." Justin said into the phone. "Pull over into a parking lot somewhere and see if he follows. Stay on the phone with me."

"Okay.." I looked around. I was still in the city, but only slightly. There weren't many shops I could pull into. I kept driving for a second until I spotted a hotel parking lot. "I'm turning into a Marriott parking lot." I said.

"Where are you?" He asked.

I tried to answer the question, but I was focused on the man behind me. I was wearing sunglasses but I swear every time I looked in my rear-view, he was staring at me in the eyes.

"Uhm," I pulled into the parking lot. Sure enough, he did too. "He followed me into the lot. I'm like 25 minutes away from your house, right by that one neighborhood with the pink house."

"He followed you in there?" Justin asked.

"Yeah he did. God Justin this guy looks scary." I kept driving slowly in the parking lot.

"Okay, go somewhere in the city. He's obviously following you and you don't want to be somewhere where he can do anything to you. I'll meet you at the juice bar that's like 10 minutes away from you. Can you go there?"

"Yeah." I suddenly got extremely nervous as I was pulling out of the hotel. "I'll meet you there in 10, but can you stay on the phone with me?" I asked.

"Of course. I wasn't gonna let you hang up." He said.

I looked in my rear view mirror again, and this guy was staring at me. He was right on my ass.

"He's so close to me!" I said.

"Speed up!" Justin suggested.

I sped up so fast that I was flying past the houses in the neighborhood. I was looking at the guy in the mirror when suddenly, I saw the flashing of crosswalk lights in front of me, and a couple walking in the road. I slammed on the breaks- my tires screeching.

"AHHH!!" I screamed.

The guy completely rear ended me, and my car went forward- forcing my body to fly forward, and the seatbelt to forcefully pull me back. The airbags went off, and I couldn't see in the mirror anymore. I dropped my phone. Did I hit the couple in front of me?

"Paige, Paige, are you okay?" I heard Justin.

"Oh my god!!!" I yelled. "He rear ended me, I'm- ahh!! There were people!!!" I panicked.

I shakily unbuckled my seatbelt and jumped out of the car, regardless of how bad my neck and my knees got hurt. The couple was on the other side of the road safely, but they were obviously shaken up like I was.

"Are you okay?!" The woman yelled.

"I am, are you??" I asked.

"We're okay!" She exclaimed. I saw her eyes travel behind me, and I turned around. The guy who was following me was out of his car, walking towards me.

It's almost like he was walking as fast as he could, straight at me. I immediately began backing up. "Stop!" I said.

"What?" The guy took his glasses off. He seemed to be about 40 years old. His face just frightened me. "I was just trying to see if you were okay." He got closer.

"I'm fine, but leave me alone!" I said. "You've been following me since I left!" I shouted. The couple was watching closely, and a few bystanders were as well. He looked around at everyone staring at us, then quickly ran to his car. I ran to the side of the road as he sped off, almost crashing into the curb.

"What was that?!" The woman asked. She had short brown hair and she reminded me of my mom. The guy she was with looked terrified.

"I don't know! He was following me. Then he rear ended me. Oh my god, I'm so sorry for almost hitting you!" I said. My heart was racing and I'm sure my face was bright red with fear.

"No, we're okay! I mean give or take a few seconds and we definitely wouldn't have been. But we're totally alright. Nothing wrong."

"Okay, good." I was almost out of breath. I looked down at my knee, which was bleeding.

"Oh no." The guy pointed at me knee. "That doesn't look too good.."

"Oh, ew." I looked a bit closer and there seemed to be more blood than before. Both of my knees were impacted pretty hard.

"He's a doctor, our house is right here. Do you need us to bandage that for you?" She pointed behind her at a cute little town house with flowers covering the front.

"Uh, no, I just need to go." I said.

"Are you sure? I can clean and bandage it for you. Free of charge. I mean, it looks pretty bad." He said.

I looked down again, and it did look really bad. I looked back at my car, which was still in the middle of the road.

"Okay, I need to move my car first."