And I Fell

9 - The Rendezvous

"Alright, Hughes." Zeke called as he made his way over to my car. "What's going on?"

Zeke's dark black hair looked messier than usual and he looked slightly out of breath. I wondered to myself if he had ran all the way over here to meet me.

"First of all," I began. "Why are you so sweaty? You're not the sporty type."

Zeke laughed. "You told me not to be late. What did you expect?"

I smiled. So he did hurry to meet me here.

"I have something to tell you, but I can't say it out here in the open." I replied, looking around the parking lot. I grabbed Zeke and pushed him closer to my car. "Get in."

"What?" he asked. "What do you mean?"

I opened the passenger door and shoved Zeke down on the seat. "Just be quiet!"

I walked around to the other side and sat down in the driver's seat. "Now, you can't say a word to anyone about this. Okay?"

Zeke ran his fingers through his hair nervously. "Alright." He met my eyes and nodded. "Well, go on!"

I cleared my throat nervously. Was I really about to tell him this? Maybe I should have just kept it to myself. Why should I get Zeke involved? This has nothing to do with him. Still, I couldn't resist. I had to make sure that I could trust him.

"I've been getting these letters lately. Letters addressed to me only. I've gotten them at school, at my house, at Damon's party, everywhere." I took a deep breath. "I think someone's following me."

Zeke remained silent for a few seconds before continuing. "Who do you think it could be? I doubt someone is actually following you."

"Are you sure?" I asked. "That doesn't make any sense. They must be following me to put the notes in my bag!"

Zeke shrugged. "Don't carry a purse then."

I shook my head. "No, it's not that. These notes have been stuck in my textbook, my mailbox, and my lunchbox too."

I reached into my backpack and pulled out every letter I had found lately. There had been four in total. I unfolded each piece of notebook paper and handed them to Zeke. He read over each one without saying a word.

"This is the one that was put it my mailbox." I added, leaning over in my seat. "It showed up without an address on it. Not even my address was listed on it. Someone drove past my house and stuck it in my mailbox. That's the only logical explanation."

"Erin," Zeke started tentatively. "I don't know what to say. Do you have any idea who this person could be?"

I sighed. "Not at all. But this has been scaring me.  Don't some of these notes sound threatening to you?"

Zeke glanced over each note again before giving them back to me. "I don't know."

I watched Zeke's face. He looked both anxious and scared at the same time.

"Can you think of anyone who may have a motive for sending you these?" he asked.

I thought for a minute. "At first, I thought it was Ash. When we had that fight, I was positive she was trying to get back at me. Last week, I asked her about the notes. She genuinely had no idea what I was talking about."

Zeke listened to every word I said carefully. "Anyone else?"

"I mean, I've wondered about Stefanie too, but that's impossible." Just then, I remembered that I was supposed to meet Stefanie after school by our lockers. I reminded myself to text her after Zeke left.