He must’ve sensed my thoughts were racing a mile a minute, because he told me, “It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out together, one step at a time. I’ll probably be at work tomorrow when you come home, but I’ll try to swing by around lunch time.”
“Don’t bother. I’ll be too busy unpacking. I’ll just see you tomorrow night.”
“All right. I’ll let you go, then. Night, kiddo. Love you.”
“Love you too, Dad.” I ended the call and then had to make the rounds to the guys. Kieran didn’t answer, still MIA, but Mike and Fang did. They both offered to help me tomorrow, which was good. The less I had to do, the better. You’d be surprised at how much shit you could pack into a room like this, plus I had some things scattered amongst the rest of the house.
I stayed up well into the night, packing up as much as I could. Kelly never poked her head in, not that I thought she would.
It didn’t make sense for me to be angry with her. She had every right to feel the way she did. If anything, this was another indication that I wasn’t normal, that I could never be normal, that fitting in with an average, everyday person was impossible for me. I’d much rather hang out with Lola than Kelly, even though the former was literally a serial killer.
What did that say about me? A lot, and none of it good, but I knew as much already. I wasn’t trying to be normal… was I? Was this whole thing with Kelly and going to college my last-ditch effort to be a normal nineteen-almost-twenty-year-old? I shouldn’t be surprised it was blowing up in my face.
I needed to accept the fact I was different, that I craved things normal people would never. Once I did that, maybe things would start to turn around for me and this whole Tessa situation would resolve itself.
It was about three in the morning when I finally laid down to get some rest. The exhaustion caught up to me quickly, and I was out in a matter of minutes.
I had weird dreams, too. Really weird dreams. Dreams involving a whole lot of blood and a certain tattooed man named Jason. All in all, not bad things to dream about.
Mike and Fang were lifesavers. Really, I hardly lifted a finger during the move. My role was the dedicated watcher and pointer, while they lugged all my bags and boxes and such. Kelly was gone, and with two cars, we were able to do it all in one trip. I left my key to the house on the counter in the kitchen for her to collect whenever she got back.
I’d say it felt like a new chapter was beginning, but that’d be a lie. No, if anything, it was like I was returning to the middle of a book after a long vacation away from it. I was smack-dab in the middle of a big pile of shit, so to look at this whole thing as an optimist just wasn’t my jam.
What was I going to do when it came to my classes? I didn’t know. Driving to and from them every day seemed like an awful lot. Maybe I’d just drop the semester. It wasn’t like I was having any fun in college, anyway. Even now, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. How sad was that?
Finally finished unpacking, the three of us are scattered amongst my bedroom, among the piles of things I need to put away. Fang was the one who asked, “Do you want us to stay with you while you unpack?”
“No, that’s all right. Thank you two for helping,” I told them, sticking my hands in my pocket and meandering to my bed. It felt like it’d been an eternity since I slept in this bed, but in reality, it hadn’t been that long. In a weird way, I was getting a sense of déjàvu.
Here I was, back again. Back to where it all started. Still, be that as it may have been, I was not the same girl I was all those months ago. I’d been angry at the world, at my dad, at the wrong people. Now I knew better, and I had a target for the rage in my heart.
That pregnancy would not protect Tessa forever, and if Jason came at me again, I’d be ready.
Fang grinned at me. “Of course, Princess. I’m always ready to lend you a helping hand.”
Mike stood near the window, the sunlight shining brightly around him, making him appear silhouette-like. All he did was nod at me, and I knew he’d leap to help me anytime I needed him, too, even if he didn’t say it aloud.
Now, if you looked at the third man in the picture—the third man who hadn’t reached out since he stormed out of Fang’s place yesterday—you might think Kieran wouldn’t do everything for me. He would, but he was clearly in the middle of something. Something about Jason spooked him, and I hoped he got over whatever it was soon and let us in.
“I’ll walk you guys out,” I said.
At the front door, we said our goodbyes, and I watched as they drove off before ducking inside the house.
To say the house was quiet would be an understatement. It was so much larger than the rental house I’d shared with Kelly, and since I was the only one currently home, you could hear a single pin drop from rooms away.
Okay, maybe it wasn’t that quiet, but it was damn close.
I wandered into the kitchen to grab myself something to eat, needed to fuel up before I went on an unpacking frenzy in my room. Poured myself a tall glass of ice water and decided on a French bread pizza I found in the freezer. I pre-heated the oven and wandered to the living room to watch some TV while I waited.
Honestly? I was expecting a quiet afternoon. Nothing too crazy. Maybe a call from Kieran, but that was it.
Really, I should’ve known better.
My phone went off, from an unrecognized number. At first, I wondered if I should answer it or let it go to voicemail—so many spam calls these days. But then, the more I stared at thescreen and the unfamiliar number, the more I started to wonder if, perhaps, a certain someone was calling.
I answered it, “Hello?”
A low, manly voice said, “Meet me in the park in the center of the city. Alone. If you bring anyone else, I’ll go back for that roommate of yours.” A threat to make me compliant. I hated how sexy he sounded, even when threatening someone who was innocent in all of this.
