The Fire

Chapter Nine

Present

Going home was a relief, but hard. I tried to avoid my mum. She didn't deserve that, and I knew I was making the same mistake as last time by not telling anyone, but I was extremely limited for choices. He hadn't even touched me yet, but I still felt his tight grip around my life. It would be so easy for him to grip too hard and shatter everything I had. He was unpredictable.

And he was in control.

As much as I could have pondered on him all night, I was so behind on homework it was ridiculous. My stack of test papers sat ominously on my desk, accompanied by my equally as terrifying phone. I hadn't checked it since the car. I walked over and collapsed onto my chair, swivelling around a couple times before picking it up. There was one message. But it was from Christian.

Text me when you're free, I didn't get to talk to you much this morning xxx

I sighed. I felt awful for leaving him out of this. But for now, I just had to brush everything off around him.

I know, promise to speak more tomorrow, just one of those days, meet me tomorrow? 11? Xxx

Sure :) where you thinking? Xxx

The usual :) xxx

Gotcha ;) xxx

I looked back at my maths work. Whose idea was it to take a maths degree? Mrs Filtrey had set us some pointless mental arithmetic, far too easy for this level of maths, but it was due tomorrow, so I had no choice. I started the repetitive task.

33 x 200 = 6,930

20 x 625 = 12,500

45 x 90 = 4,010

Beep. Beep.

I turned my head and stared at the phone I'd left next to my arm because I somehow knew it was him, and I knew it wasn't good.

Wrong! 45 x 90 = 4,050. Better luck next time!

I looked back at my work.

He was right.

What the hell? Was he watching me?

I ran to the window and scanned the garden for a sign of movement, but no one was there. I pulled the curtains closed so they overlapped, before realising that whoever it was would have had to have been able to see my book. He was close.

Too close.

Beep. Beep.

Ignoring me won't make me go away Sophie, I'll always be watching you...

Another ping.

Until the day you die.

I gulped. I was no longer safe in my own home, and he wouldn't stop until I was dead.

Everything was silent after that. I rightly corrected my maths work, finished it and shoved it in my bag for tomorrow. All while being extremely self-conscious of everything I did because I believed he was watching my every move, although I didn't know how. I had already grown to hate this time of night; I was alone, everything was dark and quiet, too quiet. I could never wait for the next day to arrive. I hoped tomorrow I could make it up to Christian.

I didn't sleep too bad, considering. I was more than happy to get out of bed and act like my life was normal for the next few hours.

Seeing Christian really was like a breath of fresh air in a cloud of smoke, and he didn't even know it. I was meeting him by the bench where we had our first date, ever since then, it was our favourite place to go. It was surrounded by fields of daisies that fed on the light that leaked through the trees above. This was our place of serenity, and it brought me peace at any moment. When I saw him walking up to me, I ran towards him and our lips met.

"Hey! You're eager to see me," he said, after pulling away from me. He had a huge smile on his face and I could only return it.

"I know, I felt bad after the other day," his hand came up to stroke my cheek, and his face turned to concern.

"Please don't apologise about that, it's okay, I promise." I didn't deserve this man, well, at least until he opened his mouth again and began to sing. "Love of my liiiiiife-"

"Oh my god, Christian please do-"

"Don't leave meee-"

I couldn't help but laugh, but it was so embarrassing. "Christian O'Connor please stop singing to me."

"Oooooh 'Christian O'Connor,'" his laugh was so infectious, "you love it really don't you?" He was right, I did, that was my favourite song. "I'll take the silence as a strong yes then," he finally let me go so we could sit down on our bench. We sat in silence for a few moments with our shoulders touching, looking around at the beautiful setting in front of us. "So, you're okay, right?" There it was.

"Yeah, I am."

"Promise?"

"Promise," I didn't look at him when I said that, but I saw him looking at me in my peripherals. I couldn't tell if he knew I was lying, but he took my hand.

"I love you Sophie Lepton," he whispered, I looked back at him because this bit was true.

"I love you more Christian O'Connor."