The Kissing Booth Why Now?

3. THE RENTS *

I walk up to my dad's room and knocked on the door. "Come in." I look at my dad and take a deep breath "dad we need to meet up with the Flynn's." "What is going on?" "Something happened today and well when I got home it looks like the same thing has been happening to Bradley." At that point, my dad's phone starts to go off "Ok, oh hang on this is Mathew. Yes, Mathew. Yeah, Elle just told me when should we meet up...yeah sounds good we will be over in about ten minutes." I watched my dad hang up the phone "you heard me go get ready and make sure Brad is ready as well." I nodded to my dad and checked in on Brad since I was already dressed "hey Bradleybear get ready we are going to the Flynn's." "Why?" "I will explain everything there."

It didn't take us long to get to the Flynn's. The look on Mathew and June's faces as we walked in let me know that Lee hadn't told them what is going on. "Ok, let's go to the dining room. Lee said this is something we all need to sit down for and he insisted we contact Noah and he is currently on skype Lee is talking to him right now." I nod my head and follow them to the dining room and see Noah on the screen. I look at Lee and he smiles at me pulling me into a hug. After I hugged Lee I looked around taking a deep breath. "Before we tell you what has been going on I need one thing." I look at Noah "you can't come running home, Noah. You need to let us handle what is going on." "What do you mean Shelly are you in trouble?" I can tell that he thinks it is something else and my dad looks at me "are you pregnant?" I laugh "dad hell no." "Oh, Ok."

I gulp and grab Lee's hand "look today when Lee and I went to the arcade to help him forget about Rachel..." "Shelly, did something happen between you two?" I look at Noah "No Noah. Nothing like that." "Then what the hell is going on." I look around and I cling to Lee knowing that once the family knows what is going on my whole life is going to change. Even though I am hardly ever alone I know that now I will never be left alone. Hell Lee and I might never be allowed out unless there is an adult with us. Lee takes a big gulp "while we were sitting there we noticed we were being watched. At first, we blew it off thinking it was just someone trying to figure out if we were dating or trying to see if they could get some dirt to send to Noah. We both know that there are a lot of people not happy that they are together." I clear my throat "that was until I got up and went to the bathroom. Lee noticed the person kept their eyes on me. I also noticed when Lee would get up they would watch him but return their gaze to me. They even followed us out and watched us drive off."

My dad looked at us "did you see them again today." "No, after we left the arcade we didn't see them again. We ended up at the uniform shop since I did not want a repeat of last year and then our usual dinner where we bumped into Eddie and met these two girls that were checking out Lee and Eddie." "Elle sweetie, Lee made it sound like it is really bad." I look at the rents "we were not going to tell you all yet until we had proof or were certain we were being watched or followed. We were blowing it off as if it was just someone interested in our friendship." My dad looked at me "what happened to change your mind." I looked at my little brother "Bradley did." Everyone looked at Brad and I took a deep breath "when I walked in the door tonight Bradley approached me and told me he thought he was being followed. He let me know it has been going on for a few weeks and it scared me. He is my little brother and I will not let him get hurt. I called Lee and told him what Bradley told me and that we needed to tell you all."

My dad ran his hands through his hair "this is why you wanted all of us here." "Yes, I don't know if it is just me and Bradley they are watching or all of us. I wanted to make sure you all knew as for telling Noah we knew if we kept this from him he would be mad." We all soon here "you are right Shelly. I am a little mad you were not going to tell anyone for a while." Taking a deep breath "we didn't want to raise any alarm bells if it was nothing." "Damn it Shelly what if this person wants to hurt you guys. It could be someone connected to Rachel trying to get payback because they believe you stepped in the way of me being with her little sister. I mean granted everyone knows that I love you and have loved you for a while now since I kind of made a fool of myself at Prom to prove to Lee I deserved you. Yet, obviously, Rachel's parents were not made aware of what was going on." "Look when can I come home." I jumped up "No, this is why I didn't want to tell you. Noah you can't give up your dream to come running home to protect us. Let the rents be the ones to keep us safe."

Mathew nodded his head "well said Elle sweetie. Son, we have this and if we need you I promise we will bring you home. You can not come running home and risk your future or the future we spoke about." "Ok, dad. You all promise to keep them safe." All the rents nodded their heads. I looked at my dad and he cleared his throat "uhm Mathew, June is it possible the kids stay here until we know what is going on or I get a security system installed. I do not need to be worried about them when I am at work." Mathew nodded "of course Max. As you know we think of Brad and Elle as our own so they are welcome to stay here as long as needed." June smiled "Elle you will stay in Noah's room and Brad you can have the room next to Lee's. I would give you the room at the end of the hall Elle but Mathew's nephew is going to be staying with us for a while."

I nodded and I heard Noah clear his throat "on that note. Shelly baby please do not leave my room in anything I would not approve of in front of my cousin. If you all thought I was a player you haven't met my cousin. Unlike me where everything was just rumored I happen to know he has actually closed the deal." I nod my head "yes Noah baby I promise." "Ok, look I don't like this at all. Someone is stalking my family and I am not there to protect you guys. Just keep me informed of what is being done and if you see the person again." June speaks up "we will son I promise. Just study hard and we will let you know how we are taking care of everything." It didn't take long after that before my dad took us to the house and had us pack bags to go and stay at the Flynn's.

I really didn't want to stay at the Flynn's leaving my dad alone. How was I to know whether or not the person was after him as well? None of us were happy about the fact someone had taken an interest in our family. All we knew was that Lee and myself were no longer allowed to go anywhere alone. My dad contacted my Uncle and he was coming in to stay with my dad along with his stepson to help keep an eye on me, Lee, and Bradley. Turns out my Uncle can work from anywhere so he was more than willing to come and help out with monitoring us kids. The good thing was that Brad had just started to do things on his own so he was ok with going back to having to have an adult accompany him. Lee and I on the other hand were not happy. The good thing was my Uncle was willing to go with us and keep his distance.

They also told me since they didn't know the extent of what the person wanted since none of us could tell whether or not the person was male or female that I was not to get undressed or dressed in front of an open window. That meant that even though Noah's balcony looked out over the pool I had to make sure that the curtain stayed closed. This was not going to be fun. Not to mention that my step-cousin was going to attend Buckner and as luck would have it he was a Senior and was going to stick to us like glue. I know the guys are not going to like that one. Even though they do not see me romantically they will not like a newcomer keeping that close of an eye on me. I was able to get my dad to agree to have him step back in school since the guys would probably kick his ass the first day.

As the first day of school approached we told the gang what was going on and they told us not to worry they would have our back. They even mentioned they would send all our group selfies to our parents so Mathew could go through them to see if anyone was lurking in the background. Turns out Lee and I have been watched for a while. Hell, there were even times the person watched me and Noah. Yep, the rents went through our pics on our phones, and Mathew was able to pick out an individual in several pics. The person usually popped up in a picture at least once or twice per week except when we were at the beach house. I guess with it being such a small town they didn't want to get caught so they stayed away. Noah was not happy since he was not sure how much they saw when we were together. The only thing that kept him sane was that the only time we made love was when we were in his room or at the beach house. He was also grateful that we had only had shared ourselves twice since neither one of us wanted to deal with an accident happening and holding us back from building a strong future.

Of course my dad's freak out lead to me and June having the talk and when I admitted that Noah and I had been intimate twice and it was months ago she relaxed. She was also glad that both times we practiced safe sex. She wasn't thrilled that we had progressed to that part of our relationship but she was happy that we were being adults about it and realized that continuing could destroy our future. Lee of course when we talked about it just glared at me and said "you know you're disgusting. I can not believe you saw my brother naked." I laughed and told him "well it is not like he was the first guy I ever saw naked." He glared at me "yeah but that doesn't count since we were five."

I just laughed at him as I walked to Noah's room "yeah, but I am glad that was the last time I saw you naked." I heard "excuse me." I turn around and standing on the landing was my dad and...