It All Started With An Apple

Chapter 3

“How the hell did you get my number?”

I was shocked.  Completely shocked.  I glanced toward the kitchen, hoping, praying, that my mom hadn’t picked up the other cordless phone and decided to stalk the conversation because there was a guy on the other end.

Dannon, the reason for my anxiety, chuckled softly.  “Hello to you, too.”

My jaw, which had just managed to close itself, dropped again.  He was acting like we were best buds, like we’d talked on the phone a thousand times.  I found the strength to move and collapsed on the couch, my free hand going to my forehead.  I was going to have a pounding headache later. I could just tell.

“Brianne, language!” my mom hollered from the kitchen.  I snuck a glance in her direction, containing a small laugh.  She’d always been after me and Garrett for our terrible language.

“How did you get my number?” I demanded softly again, cleaning it up for my mom’s benefit—you know, in case she heard.

Everybody Loves Raymond continued to play, but I could barely hear it.  I could see Raymond’s parents arguing, I could see Raymond and his wife standing there and staring at them.  But I couldn’t really hear them.  The most I could hear was the automated laughter that the television programmers added in.

I stood up again, moving to the window.  The two squirrels were there, chasing each other after that single nut that both of them wanted.  I leaned against the sill, closing my eyes for a moment before opening them again.

“Well, I was looking through past yearbooks,” Dannon began.  “And . . .”

“And?” I pressed, my eyebrows rising.

Dannon paused for a moment before replying.  “I found your picture and called around in the phonebook.”

My eyes widened.  He’d found my last name in the yearbook and called around?  How many people with the last name Nichols lived in the area?  How many houses had he called going, “Hey, is this Brianne?” 

I pulled away from the window and shot another look toward the kitchen.  “So you’re saying,” I drawled lowly, moving toward the stairs.  At least this way I wouldn’t have to whisper, “that you found my last name in the yearbook and then called a bunch of people seeing if I would be the one that picked up?”

“Uh . . .” Dannon paused.  “Yeah.”

I wanted to laugh at how unsure he sounded, but I couldn’t bring myself too.  “And you did this why?” I demanded, hurrying up the stairs and making my way to my room. 

I opened up my bedroom door and flopped onto my bed, looking up at the ceiling.  This whole situation was just so weird.  I wondered for a moment if that apple had given him a concussion.  That would explain why he’d eat the apple off the floor.  I mean, the concussion could have made him crazy.  Or maybe he was always crazy and no one noticed.

“I don’t know, really,” Dannon answered finally.

My eyebrows knitted together in confusion.  “So you just had the urge to do the most legal way of stalking?”

Dannon chuckled.  “Sure, if you want to put it that way.”

I sat up, tempted to switch on my TV even though it didn’t work.  All I would get was static, but it would at least be something to look at.  “Are all you popular people like this?” I demanded bluntly, the words slipping off my tongue before I could stop them.

Dammit.  I really had to stop doing that.  It was making me look like a jerk.

Dannon didn’t sound offended, however.  I sagged back, relieved, as he said in a cheerful voice, “Popular?”