Falling Slowly

Chapter 15- Going from Bad to Worse

My heart raced as the weird guy from the bus almost caught up to me. Shit. What do I do? My mind formed two options. Slow down or speed the hell up. I quickly glanced behind me. Yup, there was no way I was outrunning him. I suddenly slowed down and almost stopped walking. The guy practically bumped into me because he was right on my tail before I decided that I literally couldn't run away from my problems this time.

I casually took out my phone and pretended that I got a notification or something and that was why I stopped walking. Glancing up, I noticed that the guy was now standing right in front of me, as if waiting for me to pay attention to him. Okay, now this stalker is being pretty obvious. I slowly put my phone down and looked at him. He had short black hair, blue eyes, and was wearing a black hoodie and jeans. Not scaring the shit out of me at all.

"Who are you?" I asked, slowly backing away and keeping my finger close to the speed dial button on my phone.

He made no move to come closer to me and instead smiled at me.

"Hey, Rebecca. I'm sorry we haven't formally met yet, but my name's Keith. I didn't mean to alarm you, just wanted to introduce myself."

I continued backing away from him, feeling extremely disturbed by how he knew my name. "Did you- did you know I would be on the bus? How did you know that? And how do you know my name?"

I started panicking and freaking out. My palms got sweaty and I could feel the blood pumping through my body.

"Rebecca, relax. I'm a friend of Jacob's. He told me that you suddenly left and wanted me to make sure you got home safe."

I looked at him in disbelief. Jacob had a friend stalk me? And then horribly introduce himself to me randomly on the empty sidewalk? This was stupid.

"If you don't believe me just call him." Keith the stalker suggested. I cautiously lifted my phone and called Jacob.

"Hey. I-" I cut him off before he could say anything else.

"Jacob did you send a creepy guy out to stalk me?!" I yelled into the phone. Keith, who I just yelled at for being creeper and a stalker, smirked and glanced at his shoes.

"About that, you see I was worried and so I-"

"How did you know I would be on the bus?"

"What do you mean? I didn't. It was just a lucky coincidence."

Lucky? Please. But coincidence? There was no way I was going to believe that.

My breathing had calmed down as I glared at Keith who was smiling like a little kid who won a bet.

"So he's not going to hurt me right?"

"Of course not! Keith is a friend. You can trust him."

I sighed and said goodbye to Jacob before hanging up the phone.

"Well, now that you've introduced yourself can you leave? It would be highly appreciated." I began walking toward the direction of my house which forced me to walk past Keith. As I was about to move away from him, he stepped out in front of me which made me stop with our faces close together.

"What the hell is wrong with you!" I shouted and tried to push him away.

He smiled. "I think you recognize me. You do, don't you? From the dance."

I froze and turned to look at him. So I remembered him from the dance? But I didn't recall meeting anyone named Keith.

"You were standing with Jacob. All dressed up. For once there was a hint of a smile on your face. I wasn't particularly happy that I had to ruin the moment but I had to talk to Jacob. You on the other hand became delighted for an excuse to flee."