Chapter Two

"What do you mean locked in?" Brown Eyes demanded, standing up from his position on the floor.

"I mean I can't open the door genius," I snapped back. He scowled and pushed past me to get to the door. I pulled a face at his back and then sat on the toilet with my legs pulled up to my chest. I watched Brown Eyes play with the door for a while with my chin balanced on my knees, until I decided to cut in.

"Why don't we just use our phones to call for help?"

He spun around, his cheeks flushed with annoyance. "You let me stand here like an idiot trying to open this goddamn door whilst you were sitting on a good idea?" I pulled out my phone as he quickly wiped the lingering tears from his face as discreetly as possible.

I took out my Blackberry but there weren't any bars. I silently cursed my phone and its lack of signal.

"Actually Brown Eyes, I only just came up with that 'good' idea and there's no signal in here anyway." He looked confused.

"Brown Eyes?"

"Well I don't know your name do I? Although I suppose I could call you Vampire Kid, you're practically transparent."

"Fine then," he smirked. "I'm gonna call you Red." I rolled my eyes.

"Gee how original, like no one has ever called me Red before."

"And Brown Eyes is any better? You seem to be Captain of the Obvious." He scoffed.

"At least I don't spend my time crying in bathrooms!" I retorted.

Yeah I'm a bitch.

"Ah, but you were going to, weren't you Red?"

I smiled reluctantly, "touché Brown Eyes."

He sat down, cross-legged on the floor in front of me. "Just for the record, my name's Mike."

"Mine's Harley, call me Harls and I may just have to kill you." I joked. We sat in silence for a while before he spoke.

"So what's your story?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"Like what's your story, why are you here?"

"None of your business!" I snapped defensively. Mike put his hands up in defence.

So not ready to go there.

"Woah chill, you don't have to tell me."

"I won't."

"Okay."

We lapsed back into silence again and I shifted uncomfortably on the toilet seat.

"So what school do you go to?" I asked, desperate to rid the air of awkwardness. I'm not usually one to try and fill silences but with Mike I felt that if we weren't talking then the door would magically open and he'd leave. I didn't want to stop talking to him just yet. The only other company I'd had for the past few days was my dad. And he isn't the best conversationalist.

"Rosewood Day," he replied.

"I start there on Monday."

"Yeah?" He looked up at me and I was once again entranced with his eyes. It sounds so stupid but I couldn't stop looking at them. "I've never seen you around before; I think I'd remember that hair." Mike reached up and playfully tugged on a strand of my bright red hair. "So where you from?"

"England, I lived in Thanet." I replied.

"I gathered you were English from your accent, where's Thanet?" I grinned. Not many people knew where Thanet was, it's pretty small. And not exactly the world's prettiest holiday destination.

"It's a small place outside of London, along the coast." I answered. Mike nodded, looking thoughtful.

"Why'd you leave?" I hesitated.

"Personal reasons."

"We all have some of those," he said.

"What are yours?" I bowed my head quickly and hid behind my hair. I hadn't meant to say that. Great now I sound like a right nosy bitch. He grinned and shook his head.

"I can't tell you all my secrets now can I?"

"But you haven't told me any!" I blurted out.

"Neither have you," Mike replied quick as a flash. Crap, he's good.

"You obviously grew up with siblings," I said. "You are way too good at arguing."

"One," he answered, "my sister Aria." I nodded and absentmindedly twirled a strand of hair round my finger.

"I don't have any siblings but I get to practice on my dad a lot."

"You know-" Mike was cut off as an almighty bang sounded outside and the door flew open. What I assumed was Mike's dad, stood in the doorway along with my own father. Mike's dad looked relieved to see him but my dad just looked annoyed. It must have been such an inconvenience to have to tear himself away from his work to come and rescue his daughter.

"Mike! Oh thank god you're okay!" Mike's dad cried, before stepping forward and trying to embrace him. Mike sidestepped him and snuck under his arm and out of the door. A sulky look had replaced the mischievous grin he'd been wearing only seconds before. Before he disappeared around the corner, Mike looked back and waved.

"See you round Red," then he was gone. Mike's father looked a bit embarrassed and he muttered a goodbye before trotting after his son. My dad looked down at me and clicked his tongue irritably.

"What were you doing?" he demanded. I stopped myself rolling my eyes, no use making him even madder.

"The session finished and I needed to pee," I muttered. "I came in and the door got stuck." He raised his eyebrows at me and then turned on his heel.

"Well let's go, I have a meeting at three and I'm going to be late if you don't get a move on." This time I did roll my eyes. Luckily he was already striding round the corner and out of sight but it made me feel a little better.

Twenty minutes later I was lying on my bed and staring at the ceiling. My room was an absolute mess; there were packing boxes piled on every available surface, including the floor. I had my main furniture; my bed, desk, chest of drawers and wardrobe scattered across the room until I found places for them. Unfortunately I wasn't quite strong enough to move everything myself so I would have to try and befriend some strong guys and coerce them into helping me.

I glanced out of the window and saw a brunette about my age in the house opposite me. She appeared to be texting and I turned back to my, oh so interesting ceiling. I again tired pretty quickly of staring at it and briefly considered unpacking my boxes.

Nah.

So I decided to get up and explore my room. I walked around, looking in the window seat and checking all the nooks and crannies. For a laugh I decided to mess around with the floorboards to see if anything was stashed underneath them. I felt around and was surprised when one of them actually lifted up, out of place. I mean, what was this, a Nancy Drew novel? I wiggled it around a little and felt inside. My fingers curled around what felt like a book. I lifted it up and sat back on my butt to have a look.

I had guessed correctly when I thought it was a book. The cover was a pale pink and it was plastered in sparkly stickers. Hearts, rainbows, kittens; the kinds of stickers you had when you were like twelve. I opened it to the first page and written in gold pen was, 'Ali'. I smiled. This must have belonged to the people who owned the house before us; I didn't know they had a little girl. I flicked through the pages and realized it must be a scrapbook for the pages were covered in pictures and little doodles.

One picture stood out to me the most, I had no idea why. It just seemed haunting. It had been taken in front of my house and five girls were standing centre. From the left was a slightly chubby blonde girl with braces and next to her stood a muscular looking girl with dark hair. She was obviously a swimmer. On the far right was a girl with brown hair and a pretty enough face. She looked very haughty and proud. Further along was a girl with pointy chin and blue-black hair. She was wearing a pretty bizarre outfit and had a purple knitted beret perched on her head even though it was quite obviously summer. She actually looked a lot like Mike, with the blue-black hair and sharp features. But it was the girl stood in the middle who caught my eye. She had long blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. She had a heart-shaped face and stood with her arms around her friends. None of them looked happy; like there was something unpleasant on all of their minds. Except for the one in the middle. She was looking right at the camera and had a wide smile on her face.

For some strange reason, this picture sent shivers down my spine.