Frame It And Pin It

Chapter 5: Rip It

Alex and I had just started the journey back to my house when I got a call from Laura. I ignored it the first two times but she was persistent. If there was anything we had in common, it was that we were both stubborn and relentless. She was never going to quit calling me until I picked up.

"Jolene, where are you?" She asked, sounding panicked.

"I'm on my way home. What's wrong?"

"Someone broke into our house." She informed and my eyes widened in horror. Someone had broken into our house? This had never happened before. The estate guards always patrolled the neighborhood at night and they had managed to apprehend burglars and stop break-ins. How could this have happened?

"What?"

"Stay where you are, Jolene. I'll call you when it's safe to come home." She said and hung up afterwards.

"What's wrong?" Alex asked, glancing at me for a brief moment before turning his focus back to the road ahead of us.

"Someone broke into my house." I told him. I couldn't even believe my own words.

"What? Is your mom okay?"

"I think so." I said with a sigh. Laura hadn't exactly given me all the details before she hung up. "How could this have happened? Why my house?"

"It could've happened to anyone, Jo. Don't over think it."

"I'm not. It's just-you know how paranoid I can get, Alex." I sighed, running my hand over my face.

"So, what? You think you were targeted?" He briefly glanced at me and I shrugged. I could piece together a list of reasons why my house had been robbed but the most obvious one was the one that worried me most.

"I've lived in that house all my life and we've never been robbed. I can count on one hand the number of houses that have been robbed in the estate for the past twenty years. Three. The security's that tight. There's no way the guards could have missed the robbers." I stated and I heard Alex chuckle. I rolled my eyes.

"So, the guards are in on it?"

"It's possible."

"You sound crazy, Jolene. There's no conspiracy here." He said shaking his head in disbelief. He truly thought I was crazy, didn't he?

"I never said there was one."

"Well, that's what your insinuating." He countered and I scoffed, glancing away from him. If we kept this up, I was definitely going to loose my cool. I knew I had a slight case of paranoia but Alex never passed on a chance to label me crazy. He made it seem like I was blowing things way out of proportion but it was only normal to assess the situation. I was only trying to figure things out.

"Whatever, Alexander." I muttered, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Alexander? Are you upset?" I gave a sigh as he said this. I only called his full name when I was upset with him or when I was being very serious.

"Well, I'm not in a peachy mood. My house just got robbed." I said rudely. I was starting to get very irritated.

"Yeah but why are you taking it out on me? It's not my fault."

"Isn't it?" I blurted out before I could realize it.

"Excuse me?" He scoffed and I pursed my lips, mentally kicking myself for saying that out loud. I had my suspicions about Alex. His conversation with Michael last night, the call he claimed to have had with Diane, Diane telling me multiple times not to trust him, the weird way he and Michael had acted at dinner and now, my house was broken into.