He wandered to the window to watch the sun finish coming up over the buildings.He was about to go get himself something to eat when movement in one of the parked cars across the street caught his gaze.It was awfully early for someone to be up and about already.
He watched the car, waiting for it to drive off, but it didn’t.Maybe he’d been mistaken about seeing someone moving in it.Frowning, he kept watching.He hadn’t been wrong—there was definitely someone in the car.They were just sitting there.Like a creep.The more he watched, the more he worried.It was too much of a coincidence to be just some random person outside his home, sitting and waiting and watching.
He told himself to calm down, but his brain was rabbiting and it was hard to convince himself that everything was okay when there was someone in a car out there, awake when no one else was, just sitting there, creeping.He shivered, worry making his insides feel tight and hard.
He should call the cops.
First he went and woke Charma.
“Charma.Charma, wake up.”He shook Charma’s shoulder.
“Darcy?What?”Charma sat up, blinking, looking confused.
“I think we need to call the police—maybe the officer who gave us his card?”
The sleepy look on Charma’s face vanished.“What’s wrong?”
“There’s a car parked outside with someone in it.I mean maybe it’s just a coincidence…”
“That’s an awfully big coincidence.”Charma got up and went to the window, staying to the side of it and peeking down.“Oh for fuck’s sake!”
“What?”
“It’s someone from my family.”
“What?”he said again.
“I recognize the car.One of the many cousins.”
“What are they doing creeping at our place?”Darcy asked, looking again.
“I have a pretty good idea.”Charma grabbed his phone and jabbed at it, then put it to his ear.It took a moment, but then it was answered.“I swear to the goddess, Mom, I will never speak to you again if you don’t call off your watchdog and promise not to sic anyone else on us.”
He listened for a moment, shaking his head.
“I don’t care what time it is, do you know what kind of heart attack you gave us when we saw someone lurking about in a car outside our place?I mean it, call him off and don’t do it again.Darcy was ready to call the cops and I will let him if whoever you sent doesn’t drive away in the next five minutes.”Charma hung up the phone.
“Did your mom really send someone to spy on us?”
“She called it protection, but you know, she says potato, you say potaato.It amounts to the same thing.”
They both looked out the window and about two minutes later, the car started up and drove off.
Darcy sighed.“I think I need to call my parents.”
“You need to do what now?”
“I have to call them and tell them to leave me alone.I can’t spend my life freaking out every time I see a parked car with someone in it, or if a truck pulls up to the curb near me.Or if a burly guy in camo comes toward me.”Darcy shook his head.He didn’t want to talk to them, but he needed to let them know that he wasn’t going to put up with them trying to turn him straight.
“Are you sure?”
Darcy nodded, that tight feeling inside him again.He took Charma’s hand.“For my own peace of mind, I do.Sit with me?”
“Of course!”
Darcy took a deep breath and looked at the numbers, realizing he didn’t remember the number anymore.He laughed softly, tickled that for his part, he’d entirely put them out of his mind.
“What’s funny?”
