Around The World With You

TWELVE: Locked

"They were red. Scarlet," I said. I had to know what that meant.

Jake's face froze. And I froze with him, fearing the answer.

And the silence was broken when laughs erupted from his mouth and shook his head. Dimples gracing his face and flashing his perfect teeth he said, "Red?! What have you been drinking? How can a person's eyes become red? Have you gone nuts? Must have been the panic of me passing out."

He ruffled a hand through his hair and picked on his nails, keeping silent so as to allow me to think of what I just said.

I was born to make moments awkward right? First I think he was a soul. Now I think he had red eyes. Something is definitely wrong with me. Maybe I should consult a psychiatrist or something.

It must be the absence of imaginary Jake that's driving me this crazy.

I sigh and tap his ankle before getting up and out of the room, thinking about how to solve Blake's anger issues and depressed state. I was out of the room when an amazing idea hit me in the head straight that I almost fell from the impact.

Pumped up and excited, I peeked my head back into the room at Jake. "Well good night then. I'll see you at eight tomorrow in the out house. You have a job to do."

Before he could ask any questions to clear up his confusion, I skipped out of the room and into mine and crashed down into bed, my face staring at an intricate clock's hands set at 3:18 A.M.

I was dreading the thought of getting up again to brush my teeth when sleep pushed me down and shut my eyes close as my mind drifted off to an endless void.

❤️💔❤️

I hated alarms.

That's why I never kept one. That's also why my eyes opened to the sounds of loud vigorous banging on the door. Powered by the adrenaline rush right in the the morning, I scrambled out of bed and unlocked the door which revealed my brother when it swung open.

Panicked, my words came out rushed, "What happened?! Is there an earthquake?" I frantically looked around," The ground isn't shaking! Oh my god......did Terese die?!"

Terese was our dog.

"Ryan tell me! What happened?!"

His face scrunched up and said, "There are strangers in our home. And they're looking for you. Three of 'em. They're waiting downstairs. See what they want and shoo them away."

And with that, he walked away, humming to 'Girls Like You'.

I let out a frustrated groan. That's all? That's why the door banging concert was for?!

Thank God it was nothing about Terese.

Though, I wondered who those strangers were. And why were they looking for me?

Too lazy to comb down the awful monstrosity of my hair, I tucked all the strands into a beanie and after a quick brush of my teeth, I went down to take a look at my visitors.

The girl stood up from the couch as soon as she saw me. Followed by the young boy sitting next to her. She held out a hand as I neared her and I shook.

Smiling, I realised that Ryan was wrong. These were not strangers. They were in the play. I had called them for rehearsals.

"Hi Marie," I nodded towards the boy, "John." I rubbed my hands on my legs, ready to start the day. "This way."

And I led them down into a huge hall reserved just for big events and in this case, rehearsals.

"The others will be coming in the next half an hour," Marie informed me as I inserted the key to the door that closed the big hall. "Susan has a slight increase in temperature so don't expect her. I guess she'll be fine by tomorrow."