A Dangerous Dance

Chapter 9

It's been a hot minute since I've updated this book and I'm sorry. Life got in the way, but this quarantine has given me back the time to write. With all the bad that has happened, perhaps some good can still come out of this <3

Stay safe, you guys!

Happy reading,

Anne-Eli

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Evangeline

I turn the lock on Rodney's door and place his key under the doormat. Yes, it's cliché and probably not much safer than just leaving the door unlocked, but my conscience feels better knowing I've locked his door.

That's how the mind works. You can trick it. Trick it into thinking that you're safe, that you're happy or that you're whole when in fact, there's this void that you've been unable to fill.

Tonight, I wasn't able to trick my mind.

I pull my jacket tighter around me and bounce down the steps of Rodney's apartment. Only one and a half mile to go.

The streets are deserted at this hour. It would be peaceful, if I didn't have the nagging feeling of being watched.

It's probably just my imagination, but I pick up the pace, keeping my head held high and my eyes alert. That's what I read in a magazine. If you look sure of yourself, no one will bother of you. Well, that or act like a crazy person. That works too, apparently.

I hear the faint noise of tires against the asphalt and start walking faster. I'm almost trotting now, but I won't start running yet. I see the shadow of a vehicle pulling up beside me.

I walk faster.

The car is still following me.

"Evie."

I halt and look over my shoulder at the familiar black Explorer.

Here goes to hoping he would eat his dessert and be gone by the time I got back.

"What do you want?"

I stop and face the SUV's open window as Ethan studies me, those impassive blue-black orbs like x-rays. So cunning and sharp, like they can spot everything wrong with me.

"You shouldn't be walking alone at night."

"You can stop now." I start walking again, eager to leave his scrutiny. "I don't need you to look out for me anymore."

I don't mean all the bitterness that escapes my mouth along with those words. It just seeps out like venom that has been trapped inside for too long.

"You know," he starts, looking at the road as though deep in thought, "I would kill for some pie from Dingy's right now, but I don't want to go alone."

I keep looking forward, ignoring the summersault my heart decides to start doing. Right there in my chest, along with my lungs constricting.

Because Dingy's would take me right back to a time I hate to remember, though fear to someday forget.

"What do you say, Evie? My treat."

Then, there is the fact that I'm starving and that I'm positive my mom will throw out every last trace of the blueberry cobbler she made tonight before I get back.

And I'm not sure how I'll be able to shake off Ethan even if I try to say no.

Liar, liar, thong on fire. You want to go with Ethan. You want to go back to that time. Even if it kills you a little more inside, you like to go there.