4
Raine
All I wantedto do tonight was get some much-needed ass and a better place to sleep than Crow's springy couch. The two kind of go hand and hand for me. That certainly isn’t happening now. Instead, I'm following this girl back to her house to make sure she gets there in one piece. I'm keeping enough distance so she doesn't notice me, but I don't think she'd put up much of a fight if she knew I was behind her. I don't understand her or what she's trying to accomplish. I give her credit for the effort she's making, but it's borderline crazy.
She knows jack shit about me, but unfortunately for her, that isn't the case on my end. Her name swims through the local news on a weekly basis. People are always wondering where she is and why she isn't by her parents' side during town events. I've wondered about her myself, but mowing their lawn every week has given me the opportunity to catch a glimpse of her life. The sun is always shining directly into her window at ten in the morning, allowing me a clear view of the girl who stares out the window with sadness in her eyes. Sometimes, I see her reading on what must be a bench below her window. Other times, she appears to be looking for me. I've considered her attempt of getting my attention may be an SOS, but there is no way in hell I'm messing with the mayor's daughter.
I figured she was on the younger side, always appearing to be locked indoors, so I kept my interactions with her to a minimum. Normally, if I were to look inside a person's window and they saw me, I'd do what I could to cover it up, but she's wanted me to see her. That much was made clear last week when she stripped down in front of the window. She's screaming for help, but she doesn't realize it, or the fact that I can't even helpmyself. She's locked in, and I'm locked out.
"I know you're following me," she shouts without turning back to see me. How the hell did she know I was fifty feet behind her in the dark? "Change your mind?"
"No. I'm making sure your stupid ass doesn't get abducted on the way to your damn town," I tell her.
"Why would you care?" she asks, quieter than her previous shouts.
I speed up my pace, catching up to her. "I'm a human being, and most mentally healthy people don't wish for bad things to happen to others."
"Look, this is all a mistake," she says. "You're right. I'm an idiot, and I make stupid decisions."
I step in front of her, stopping her quick pace. "There has to be a reason for all of this. Obviously, you don't know a thing about me, so what is it?" My curiosity has definitely been piqued.
She walks around me, continuing at the speed she was going a moment earlier.
"I know more about you than you think I do," she says, taking a sharp left into the park and down to the lake. "Damnit, why are you still following me?"Why am I still following her?
She plops down into the grass and pulls her knees into her chest, keeping her gaze on the reflecting water that seems to split the horizon in half. "I heard my parents talking about our gardener—that's you. I was only listening in so I could find out what your name was, but that part wasn't mentioned. Wasn't as important as the rest of the information, I guess."
"Hmm," I say, sitting down beside her. "Care to share the gossip?"
"No," she says.
"Why not?" I ask, leaning back as I press my palms into the cool grass.
"I won't know what to say if it's true," she says. This town and their goddamn rumors, secrets, and truths.
"How come you never leave your house?" I ask her, hoping to redirect the focus from me and my sad life.
"I'm out right now, aren't I?" she quips.
"Fair enough." Haven wraps her arms around her body, vigorously rubbing her hands up and down each arm. I don't have anything to offer her other than the shirt off my back, and I'm thinking that would be a bad idea here in the public park. It would be a bad idea, period. "So, I'm guessing that you wait for your parents to leave at night and then you make a run for it."
She looks over at me, smirking as she straightens her posture. "Boy oh boy, you sure have figured me out," she says. "You don't think I'm sick like everyone else does around here? Evidently, either I'm sick, or I’m mentally unwell. I'm not sure which rumor I prefer."
"No." I chuckle at her question. The rumors in this town are the only things that should be considered sick around here. "I don't go around assuming things."
"Well, good. I'm not sick and I'm mentally stable. Not sure I can say the same for my parents, but it is what it is." While she may be trying to hide it, I hear an inflection of anger behind every word. She's looking past me, lost in thoughts I wish I had a peephole into. "They're embarrassed by me."
I don't mean to laugh, but it's the only response my body can generate. I'm not sure I even understood her correctly. "Embarrassed?"
The trance she was in while explaining herself breaks, and her eyes soften as she redirects her focus to me. "Yeah, embarrassed. I don't speak like them. I don't dress the way they want me to. I hate frills and makeup, and they haven't exactly come to terms with it. Besides that, I say things I shouldn't say, and it makes them nervous." Haven stands up and brushes the dirt from her backside before moving in closer to the water. A little more gracefully than I might expect, she lifts a small rock from the ground and tosses it across the lake. I watch in surprise as it bounces three times on the water top, as if it were a solid surface, before sinking.
"Impressive," I tell her.
A cynical laugh hitches in her throat as she shakes her head. "Right."
"You know what you believe in, and you don't give into what they want. Maybe it's a bit juvenile, but I think it shows the type of person you'll be someday. No one likes a puppet."
She glances back at me, her eyes wide and questioning. "The person I'll besomeday?"
