FABLE

Chapter Twenty One

We move into the living room to get away from the racket Tammy and Sam are making outside the front door. By the time I'm done explaining to my parents who Felix is and why there are two girls in hysterics on our doorstep, those two girls have multiplied into four.

Mallory Wright, a quiet girl around my own age and who lives opposite me, isn't being so quiet at the moment - she's yelling outside my house, calling Felix's name over and over.

She must have spotted the other girls from across the street and came over to investigate.

"Ashling? Mr Shields? Mrs Shields? Hellloooo? Is it true? Open up!" she shouts. She's usually timid and soft spoken. I had no idea her voice could get this loud. 

Another, more familiar voice, chirps up from outside. "Ashling! It's Olivia, you remember me right? I was a year above you at Southwood Lakes. Is Felix Lockhart really in your house?"

Olivia. How could I forget? We used to carpool together before I moved schools. Since the accident she hasn't spoken to me once.

"Maybe we should let them in," my dad suggests. "Or throw him out to them."

"That's actually not a bad idea," Felix says without missing a beat. "I'll go out there and take some photos with them. That's all they want."

"NO!" I surprise myself by yelling. "They've probably already texted their friends. If you go outside now you'll be mobbed. We need to get you out quietly through the back."

Felix shrugs. "Ashling, you're overreacting. That is not a mob. I've fought my way through crowds of hundreds. You're talking about three or four girls."

From the voices I can hear from outside though, it sounds like he might be wrong. 

I walk up to the living room window and look out at a small but steadily growing crowd. More and more people are arriving every second. Several cars have pulled up outside our house. 

By now, his location is probably trending on Twitter. 

How many are out there? Twenty? Fifty? They've come together so quickly. Every girl in Portland is going to be on my front lawn in just a few minutes.

I need to think fast but nothing's coming to me. One thing's for sure - we need to get Felix out of here.

"Did you drive here?" I ask him.

My heart sinks as he shakes his head. "I walked. We're staying close, at the Rose Inn. If I leave the house now it'll draw the crowd away."

As he says this, something smacks hard against the living room window, inches from where I'm standing. I jump back with a shriek. It looked like a cell phone.

"They're throwing stuff now?" My dad says. "Felix, maybe you shouldn't go outside." 

My mom is pacing the living room with her phone in her hand. "Should we call 911?" She asks. 

Just then Deja Vu starts playing. Felix takes out his phone and walks into the hallway to answer. 

I can hear bits of the conversation - Felix giving the person on the other side of the line our home address, him telling them to calm down.

"Don't bother calling anyone," he says as he steps back into the living room. "My driver will be here in a few minutes. It'll all be over soon."

My dad marches out the room, followed closely by my mom, muttering something about locking the doors and securing the perimeter.

I turn around to face the window again. Before I can step forward, Felix is beside me. 

"Get back," he says, drawing the curtains closed.