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Disclaimer: I am not writing this as my own. All characters and ideas belong to Laurie faria Stolarz
Stacey POV
The annoying sound of a wooden pencil tapping against an oak table echoes throughout the length of the library. The plump freckled faced red haired girl sits at the table across from me performing the aggravating act. Stressful thoughts fill my mind, and the tapping noise strengthens them.
Today is Friday. Only one more day. Jacob's confident that I will not fail. He told me last night and he told me again this morning. I have to say waking up with Jacob by my side thrilled me. I've always felt warm and protected in his arms, but even more so now. We both are not attending our classes today. We agreed that talking to Tim, Trevor, and Porsha would make better use of our limited time. So while Jacob waits for Trevor to get dismissed from school, I will talk to Tim and Porsha.
I now sit in the library with pencil girl waiting for Tim show up. I called a meeting with him to inform him about the events of last night. He was a huge part in the plan, and he deserves to know the result. I wait several more minutes in the almost empty library before Tim finally comes through the double glass doors.
He appears model-like in his dark wash jeans, white sweater, and black scarf. Even pencil girl takes notice at his appearance and stops her annoying tapping as he strolls past her table towards mine. Tim pulls out the wooden chair next to mine and greets me with a hello before sitting down.
"So, how did it go last night?" he asks removing his scarf.
Before I say anything I look across to see if pencil girl is eavesdropping. She appears to be fully encompassed by the large three inch binder that is opened in front of her.
I turn back to Tim and whisper, "I'll just say it was shocking none the least."
His brow furrowed as I finished my sentence, "What do you mean?" he asked.
"It wasn't Chelsea," I said blatantly.
I then continued on telling him the story of last night. Waiting out in the woods, Jacob fighting Paul, and Chelsea telling me to stay away from her.
"How could it have not been her," he said looking confused, "Everything pointed to her."
"Almost everything," I said looking down at the table.
"Almost everything?" he questioned.
I turned in my chair so that I was facing Tim, "There were some things that weren't matching up. A small part of me questioned why things weren't fully matching up. But the bigger part kept saying that Chelsea's life was on the line, and I didn't have to time to question things."
His eyes stared right at me but he wasn't looking at me. He was thinking. Wondering how it couldn't be.
"Well," he said when his mind stopped wondering, "This completely sucks ass."
"Yeah it does," I said turning back to face forward in my chair.
After a few moments of silence Tim asked the number one question, "What are you going to do?"
It took me a minute to answer his question. What was I going to do? I had exactly one day to figure this out. My nightmares are as detailed as they're probably going to get. I have no clue as to who needs my help or who the stalker is. I should have the answers to all my questions, but I haven't been able to even check off any question on my long list.
"Honestly," I said turning back to Tim, "I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do."
"Well," he said putting his hand over mine, "I know what I'm going to do."
"And what is that," I said with a nervous tone.
He smiled sensing my tone and then said something completely off the wall, "I'm not hanging around Chelsea anymore. She didn't have to be a bitch to you."
"I can understand how I freaked her out," I said slipping my hand out from underneath his.
He didn't seem to notice.
Instead he said, "Yeah but she still didn't have to be rude. She could have a heard you out."
"Tim you can still hang with her if you want to, I don't care. I didn't tell her about you working with me."
He glanced at me and then laughed.
"What?" I said finding myself laughing also.
"I only put up with her whining and complaining for your sake. I told you I would help you if you needed it, and you did. So I helped you. Even if her voice made my ears want to bleed."
I laughed even harder. Pencil girl even turned around and told us to be quiet. Ironic since her tapping drove me crazy and I would gladly tell her where she could put that pencil.
"Well I got to go," Tim said looking at his phone, "My next class is in ten."
"Okay," I said.
He leaned and wrapped his arms around me and held me in a tight embrace. I took advantage of our close moment and said "thank you" into his ear.
He unwrapped his arms and flashed his movie star smile at me and said, "Anytime."
He then got up and got his books together. I said goodbye and was expecting to hear it back but he did something unexpected. He bent down and kissed me on the cheek before saying goodbye. The kiss shouldn't bother me. When PJ gets excited he kisses me on the cheek and I think nothing of it. But as I sit in my chair and watch Tim walk out of the door, I can still feel the feeling on my cheek where his soft lips laid a kiss.
A girl with purple hair rides on the back of a motorcycle grasping the boy driving tightly around the waist. The couple zoom past me as I walk on the sidewalk towards Porsha's house. Amber called me to check in after I left the library, and I think she would appreciate the violet color better than I do.
When I woke up this morning her and Janie were already gone. I was disappointed because I wanted to tell them about last night but I was soon informed that they already knew. Jacob had told them last night when they got home. They told me this in a letter they left on my side table along with a condum that had a sticky note stuck to it reminding me to "be safe, and push it real good".
After getting off the phone with Amber, I text Porsha to see if she would be home within the next hour. She said she would since her school gets out early on Fridays, and that she would meet me at her house in about forty five minutes.
So in the mean time, I purchased a coffee and chocolate croissant from the cafeteria and now I find myself on the sidewalk leading to Porsha's house. I make my way up the delicate white stairs towards the grand front door. I ring the doorbell and wait patiently for someone to answer.
A few moments later, the door opens to reveal Porsha on the other side.
"Hey Stacey," she says with a smile, "Come in."
She leads me into the living room and we sit next to each other on the plush white sofa. Her house may be grand and colonial but the inside is warm and cozy and reminds me more of a cottage than a colonial house.
"Do you want some tea," she asks standing up.
"I don't have a headache," I say realizing now that every other time I have visited I've had one of my treacherous headaches.
"Well how about some hot chocolate?" she asks politely, "It's the perfect weather for a cup."
"Sure," I say standing up and following her into the kitchen.
We mix up some cocoa powder and boil some water. As we were waiting for the water to boil, I told her about last night and how I was wrong about Chelsea.
Soon we find ourselves pouring warm tasty liquid into two large mugs and settling down at the small kitchen table.
"I'm sorry I didn't call you last night," I say after we both have taken sips from our mugs, "It was late when we got back and my brain was fried."
"Don't worry about it," she says putting her mug down.
"I don't even know what to do," I say.
"You just have to figure out a thousand piece puzzle with only ten pieces," she said.
"It just doesn't make sense. It's never been this hard before."
"We're obviously missing something," she says crossing her arms, "Tell me the details again."
I tell her the events of my nightmare and every detail I can remember. The light, Trevor, the woman, and the fact that I seem to get bashed in the head with something. After I'm finished, Porsha turns her head and looks out of the window and stares out towards the lush forest. I do the same and wait for her to reply.
Her attention then comes back into the kitchen, "Well, I got nothing. None of it goes together."
I lean back into my chair, "I know."
"Maybe we're reading it wrong."
"Reading it wrong?" I say sitting up.
"Yeah, I mean we read my nightmare wrong. Some aspects seemed like they didn't match up but in the end it turned out we read them wrong. They weren't what they originally appeared to be."
"True but the day of reckoning I guess you could call it is tomorrow. I don't have time to look into things."
We did kind of "read" Porsha's nightmare wrong. At least then we had more to go on. Now, it seems like my nightmares are made up of random things thrown together. I don't have time to sit and think about every detail.
"You're going to have to try Stacey, what other choice to do you have?" she pauses and then asks, "More hot chocolate?"