Who Am I Searching For?

At Home

John's POV

I was walking home from school, hesitant to continue on to my house. For most kids, the end of the school day is their biggest relief in that time. But I'm not one of those kids. School is a paradise when your mom is on another continent and your dad is abusive.

I looked around me to see if there were any other paths than the one I was on. I could run away.   I saw one path that seemed to lead into a forest. All I had to do was turn my foot in the other direction.

He'll find me I thought. He'll send out police to find me, acting all worried, and the second I get home, I'll be beat so hard I won't be able to come to school for a week.

I walked on, closer and closer to my house. When I got closer to the front of the house, I discovered that no cars were there. My father wasn't home. I smiled at that and ran up to the front door. I unlocked it and ran up to my room. My room was messy, as always, but it seemed comforting. I dumped my backpack next to my bed. When I pulled out my phone, I saw that there were several texts from an unknown number. I pulled up iMessage and checked the text messages.

Unknown: Hello

Unknown: I saw you at school today 

Unknown: I've decided to go after you 

Unknown: Cuz you're cute

I blushed at the last message, but soon felt absolutely terrified. This person sees me at school? Are the stalking me? I wrote back.

TurtleKing1776: Who are you!?

Unknown: You know me

TurtleKing1776: No I don't!

Unknown: Yes

Unknown: You just saw me today

Unknown: You were staring at me in history class

I froze. Could it be? No way...

TurtleKing1776: A...lex?

Unknown: That's me

TurtleKing1776: Then why is your name unknown?

Unknown: Oh, let me change that 

Unknown has changed their username to ScrapyNHangry

ScrapyNHangry: So yeah

TurtleKing1776: ...yeah what?

ScrapyNHangry: Well I said I was going after you

TurtleKing1776: What do you mean by that? You can't mean...

ScrapyNHangry: Mean what?

TurtleKing1776: Mean romantically...

ScrapyNHangry: Why not?

I quickly turned off the phone. Alexander Hamilton wanted me... romantically? Just the thought made me blush intensely. I flopped onto my bed and hit my forehead with the heel of my hand. My mom used to say that hitting myself was a bad habit, that it would lead to self harm. She wasn't wrong, but I never stopped doing it. I opened my phone one more time and wrote one more thing:

TurtleKing1776: See you at school tomorrow.

I shut my phone one more time and sighed. I looked up to see the door wide open. In the frame was a tall, messy figure. My father. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the belt in one of his hands and the stone in the other.