“Worth it!” we all toast with the end of our drinks with one last laugh.
After a quick clean up of the carnage on our table, which sees us cracking up even more after Betsy and Karen fight it out in a chopstick war, and a flurry of thanks to the staff, we all head out. I leave the girls with a big hug and a kiss with the promise of a repeat very soon. I wobble away in the opposite direction to them, their encouraging shouts following me down the path.
St Joseph's is as safe a place as can be, there are lights around the area, we have security guards everywhere. The college boasts many things and student safety is one of them, strangely though my subconscious is on hyper-alert. I feel a constant twitch between my shoulder blades as I walk along the well-illuminated path, past other’s walking back to their rooms also. I get the lingering feeling that someone is watching me.
My phone rings as I am walking along and I have to stop to dig it out of my bag. I should have grabbed it as I was leaving, basic safety 101, but the alcohol provides a haze to my thoughts. I am trying to find it, having no luck and a quick glance around me shows that despite being one of a few walking home just moments ago, now there is no one around. I place my bag on the middle of the footpath and kneel down to scrounge through it. Finding it on the bottom of my tote, it stops ringing as soon as I touch it. Of course.
A quick glance at the screen and No Caller ID shows with no message. Weird, I think, only a few people have my number, I don't hand it out willy-nilly to randoms.
I am just standing when once again, I get the sense again that someone is watching me. I turn to where I feel them the most. The night is dark and there are trees around, certainly no crazy stalker lurking behind me. From the edge of my vision, I see the Security buggy puttering along on the eastern perimeter, reconfirming to my nervous self, that I am safe.
The rest of my walk back to my suite is less dramatic. The cooling night air does me a world of good. By the time I swipe my security card back into my suite, I am back to facing a new day with a smile on my face. A quick hot shower and I am snuggled in bed within thirty minutes. It is not too late, but I know already that I am going to suffer the effects of our fun girls night, in the morning.
I am dead to the world when my house phone rings, next to my bed. Without thought, I grab it and answer a groggy hello. The night is dark now, the noise of the college, the activity on campus is stilled by the lateness.
"Are you upset I asked her out?" his voice rings out, taunting me to alertness. And then there is nothing but the beeping of the disconnected call.
My head drops back onto the pillow, as my heart all but gallops out of my chest. I don't know what game Hunter is playing, and for some reason, he certainly doesn’t want me to miss a play. Why taunt me? Why chase me around then not want me? But it has always been this way with him. I spend the next few hours in fitful, restless sleep remembering times being a kid he would cajole me in only to shock me by his actions. Hunter is a master of this push, pull game he plays.
Eventually, my alarm buzzes and I drag myself into the bathroom for another shower, grab some Tylenol and water and head out to my PT session with Drew.
