the boy who was afraid of the dark

ONE MONTH LATER: monday 2:14 am, eliott

  everything in my life seemed to be going right. it's been a whole month of perfection.
  i had the grades, i had the friends, i had lucas.
  l u c a s. 

  he was perfect.
  we were perfect.
  everything was perfect.

  and i didn't trust it one bit. my life doesn't just snap its fingers and become this amazing dream. it can't. it doesn't work that way.

  especially not with me.

  but there i was, laying in his bed very early on a monday morning with no school.
  and there he was, sleeping on my chest and wrapped up in my embrace, snoring with a cute little smile that twitched every now and then.

  i knew it would all go to shit.

  but i wasn't prepared.

  i was barely awake, drifting in and out of consciousness as my eyelids got heavier and heavier...until my phone dinged.

  it's the loud, annoying kind of ding so it woke me right up.

  i was about to groan, but then remembered lucas on my chest. so instead, i huffed quietly and reached over to grab my phone off the desk.

  i looked at the time.

  why was someone texting me at 2:20 am?

  it was a blocked number, someone i don't have.

  i unlocked my phone to check the message, but i was not prepared for what i saw.

854-666-6676:
i know your secret, pretty boy.
i know what you're hiding.

  my heart stopped beating, but my pulse quickened. i felt everything in that moment. every emotion. i was terrified. my mind raced through a million secrets i have, a billion things i've never told anyone.

  i looked down at lucas, sleeping peacefully.
  my biggest secret, sleeping peacefully.

  what does this mean for him?

  i gulped.

me:
who is this?

  what if this is a scam? or maybe not...maybe a stalker? am i being stalked? how do they know anything? what do they want from me? what the fuck ?!

854-666-6676:
(;

me:
what do you want from me?

854-666-6676:
i only want one thing, eliott demaury. and that's for you to get what you deserve.

  what???

me:
what did i ever do to you?

854-666-6676:
i guess you'll never know now, will you?):

me:
who are you?

854-666-6676:
quit the rugby team. tell the officials that your whole castlerock team's been taking steroids all season. forfeit all future matches, and remove your status from any previous. then this all stays between us.

  i didn't know how to react. that gave away that this person must be a rival, a rival team from another school. we haven't lost yet this season, so they must be intimidated for the championship in a few weeks.

  if this is the case, then it must be someone from bluebridge academy, our number one rival in almost everything.

  they're dirty. they would do anything to win. even stoop as low as blackmail.

  but bluebridge is five hours away by drive. we hardly interact with them. how could anyone there know anything about me? any secret of mine, especially lucas?

me:
bullshit. you don't know anything about me, you're just another bluebridge bastard. fuck off

he read it.
then he was typing.
then he stopped.
he stopped for a while.
then he started again.
for a while.

854-666-6676:
fine, castlerock, suit yourself. enjoy exposure, public school scum.

854-666-6676 has blocked your number.

this was all just a prank.
something stupid bluebridge tried just to scare me out of the match.

all just fake...right?