“I’m serious. I do it for all my productions. It’s actually quite cathartic.” Keira opens the door to our classroom.
We find a table away from everyone else, which isn’t unusual.
When we pass Brandt, he leans in to say something to his assistant director. She giggles and glances at me before covering her mouth. My back straightens and I lift my chin. I’ll still be professional even if they aren’t.
“Okay.” Keira gets out some plain white paper we generally use for storyboarding and spreads it out on the table. She dumps a ton of different colored markers on it. Grabbing one, she makes a line across the top. “Timeline first. Starting with the most recent.”
I don’t have a better plan, so we begin with laying it out, starting with the social media attack and tracing it all the way back to when Chasenoticedme in class. “We were acting partners.”
Keira sits back. “That can’t be a coincidence.”
“I think he picked me or we were the last two left or something.” I shrug. My brain already hurts. I just want to go home and snuggle with my guys and hide. But that’s not happening anytime soon. School, rehearsal, study, then snuggles.
“When were the showcase announcements for fall done in relation to the acting class?” Keira taps the marker on the page.
“Before Chase and I partnered together. At the end of the spring production.” I make a mark on the timeline as the first point, writing beneath it spring production: announcement of directors for fall.
“Right, so Chase sought you out once he knew you’d be directing. Which maybe the intent was to show you how good he was at acting.” Keira looks over the timeline. We put the guys on it too. Damon’s accident in June. Olivia being the girl in the car. “Let’s focus on this school year. You found a list of the colleges you applied for in his room?”
“Yes, we never did figure out how he figured it out or why he had it.” I pause. “Wait, at Tom’s birthday party, there was faculty there from a few of the schools.”
“It would make sense.” Keira tapped her lip. “His dad wants you to stay with Chase, so he works to give you what you want. Make it seem like Chase is truly listening to you.
I shake my head, but it makes sense. “So what? Tom gets my list from the school and gives it to Chase to memorize for his part in winning me over?”
“It sounds diabolical, but yeah, I could see that happening.” Keira shakes her head. “What did the texts say exactly?”
I sigh and get out my phone. “I turned it off.”
“I would have too.” She nods and gives me a sad smile.
It loads and turns on after a minute. Notifications are off, so I don’t get a flood of them. But it’s still an overwhelming number of unread messages.
Keira holds out her hand. “Here. Let me. I’ll delete any that aren’t something we should report to the police or that you need.”
I give it to her, so done with this day already. She quickly goes through the most recent messages. She doesn’t open the ones from my guys, which I appreciate.
“I left the unknown ones that definitely weren’t from some asshat I know.” Keira hands me back my phone.
I go to the first unknown text. “I thought I lost you. After I replied, they said, I’m never losing you again, Evan.”
Keira adds the words below the timing of the first text. “So right after Chase left you in the woods and got taken into the police station. And after Jackson saw you at the football game.”
I nod. Now that I read them again, they’re very generic. “It could have just been coincidence with Jackson. There’s really nothing that ties him to it except the last hockey scrimmage when he showed up. He said he thought he lost me then.”
“Maybe. It’s pretty generic though.” Keira taps her lip.
“Honestly, I thought it was a cast member being dramatic.” Though not many people call me Evan.
She nods like that’s plausible. “And Chase texted you and didn’t get a reply to his number. But the person replied to your text with the never losing you again and your name because you insinuated they had a wrong number. Chase probably would have been cockier. Maybe. It depends on his motivation.”
I sigh. “Would I have even guessed it was Jackson if I hadn’t run into him at the football game?”
“That could have affected your perception.” She sighs and picks up a different color pen. “Okay, what did you receive next?”
“You can block my number, Evan, but I’ll always find you. You’re mine. I know where you live. I watch you get in your car. I can get to you. Don’t think I can’t. And next time I’ll finish what I started.” I blow out a breath. “That was before Jackson showed up at the scrimmage and said things that sounded a lot like that text.”
“But it was the night after Chase found out you were living with Damon?” Keira points to the timeline. “I mean, it’s a little odd with the blocking of the number. But you did block the first number. It’s possible Chase sent it to scare you or so you would seek him out for protection. You guys were broken up. He could have hoped it would help you get back together.”
