Goosebumps

Chapter 24: Who Took The Book?

I stopped screaming when the door burst open, slamming against the wall, flinching at the sound that rang in my ears. "Hazel?!" I heard a voice from behind me until I got spun around, facing Jackson. "What happened?!"

My face is now red. "U-Uh..." I tried to come up with an assuring answer, not wanting him to think that a missing book is stupid to scream about. "I, um, I..." My hung my head, defeated. "Sorry for screaming like that... It's just...one of my books is missing," I apologized, not looking at him in fear he'll start laughing for something so retarded.

However, I was caught off guard when he didn't laugh at me. "One of your books is missing?" he questioned in confusion. I looked up to see that his brows are squished together. "How do you know that one of them is missing?" he asked, looking at all of my books.

"I looked at each book title when I was unpacking my stuff when I first came here," I explained. "I know each title by heart considering that I read each one multiple times."

"Okay? But... which book is missing? It looks like you had all of them..." He kept looking at my books, going through them, reading the titles on the covers.

"Stine didn't pack all the books; just some of them," I kept explaining. "The book I'm missing is... Vampire Breath. It has a vampire coming out a coffin, holding dead roses in his hand with a bottle that has, I think, blue mist inside with a label that says Vampire Breath on it right in front of him on the floor, and the book cover along with the word Goosebumps is purple," I described, remembering the details of the book. "The tagline on that book reads open wide and say...mouthwash!" I added in. "A lot of these books have taglines, except for the newer ones like the Goosebumps Most Wanted series as an example."

"Are you sure you didn't misplace it?" he further asked, thinking that was the case.

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "Oh, puh-lease. Like I would lose one of my books from my favorite horror series," I dejected. "I take care of books very well, thank you. I made sure the book covers are in tact, the pages perfect with no tears or anything, and most importantly, keeping the books clean; no stains, no nothing. Not even markings." I looked at the books that he went through, picking one up. "I know that book was in the pile..." I set the book back down, running my fingers on the word Goosebumps, feeling the bumpy texture. "Trevor was in here, going through my books...wanting to borrow one to read..." I remembered.

"You think he took it?" I looked to see a raised brow from Jackson. "Since he was here, he basically took a book from the pile," he theorized.

Another eye roll came to me. "Yeah, right. I know he's a creep, but I don't believe he's the type of person that steals things." I drummed my fingers on the dresser top. "I'm still tired from last night, and I cannot think straight. Oh, by the way, Trevor dumped water on me, saying it was my fault for getting him into trouble yesterday," I informed greatly, raising the volume up a notch before going back to the dull version of it. "So both our beds are wet since I'm soaked from head to toe."

"That means he took your book!" Jackson exclaimed, raising his hands in desperation.

"No, he didn't!" I snapped angrily, my mood switching at an instant. "Besides, I need more sleep before I start my therapy sessions and before I take my combo, hoping it'll make me feel better," I muttered, not wanting to be bothered.

He seemed to catch my message because I heard him pitter-patter out the door, closing it behind him.

He's polite, I thought, meaning it very well, not being sarcastic. Rosy's right, he is a pretty nice fella, the fact that he's really...cute. My face burned a little more, the redness not going away when his name bounced inside my skull. I...really wanted to go out on a date with him whenever he gets the chance to ask me out again. But the thing is... I'm not sure it'll make me feel better...