"Alright," I announced, entering the dance studio, "What's this fucker want now?"
"It's a warning," Kim answered and handed me the sheet. "That makes no sense."
"Liar, liar, pants on fire. Keeping secrets is bad, especially when someone else knows them. One of you is still keeping a secret. Tick tock. You only have so long before something happens to someone other than you." I read, "So who's keeping the secret?"
"I don't know," Kim shrugged, "I honestly have nothing to confess. If it meant keeping you guys from getting attacked, then I'll spill anything."
"Who's the only one who hasn't had to do anything yet?" Haylee asked.
"Well, I had to tell you guys about my drumming endeavors, Kayleigh had to confess something and you got your guitar ruined. That leaves Taylor."
We all looked at. With a blank expression she said, "I don't have anything to tell."
"Then it's settled. This bitch is on crack. Let's get started."
I loved Kim's simplicity. We changed into dance clothes and the backup dancers arrived. The next four hours were frustrating, long and painful, but we managed to get a lot done.
"I'll design the costumes," I said as we were changing, "Daddy know someone who can create them so we don't have to do it ourselves."
"Steven MacQueen?" Haylee joked.
"Hold off on doing that until we know for sure if we're in the finals or not. No need to waste money on costumes we'd never use." Kim advised. She looked at me and then exclaimed, "Holy damn Kay, you and Alex must have had fun last night."
I looked at her funny until I remembered all the love bites on my collarbone. I checked them out in the mirror. They were a lot darker than they were last night. I giggled, "I guess you could say that."
I reached into my bag for my promise ring that I had taken off to shower. I couldn't feel it in the bottom of my bag, so I emptied the contents. It still wasn't there.
"Have you guys seen my ring?" I asked.
"Isn't on your hand?" Taylor asked.
"No, I took it off to shower."
"I haven't seen it," Haylee said.
I started to panic. I searched my bag again and again. The others stopped what they were doing and helped me look for it too. After ten minutes of searching the change area, high and low, we couldn't find it.
I left to go check the dance studio again when I saw a note taped to the door. Anger and fear rushed through me as I tore it off the door and took it back to them.
"Looks like you didn't learn your lesson the first time. Kim lost what was precious to her, now it's your turn Kayleigh. Two out of the three have a secret to tell you Kayleigh, but which one is going to tell you first? It'll take both of them to get your ring back." Kim read since I was too angry to even speak.
"So which one of you is it going to be first?" I demanded, finding my voice again. "I know for sure it's not Kim since she's already been through enough."
Taylor stayed quiet but Haylee spoke up, "Kayleigh, you have to believe me when I say, I have nothing to tell you."
"Bullshit!" I screeched, losing control. "Just tell me!"
"I don't know what she wants me to tell you!" Haylee yelled back.
Why did it seem like I was being attacked either way by Z? Either I was losing someone or something, or I was being forced to confess secrets. I just couldn't be left alone.
"Fine, fuck you both then!" I picked up my bag and stormed out of the studio. My eyes fill with tears of frustration. Why the ring? Why not something else? That ring meant almost as much to me as Alex himself.
How the hell was I supposed to explain this to Alex too?
Oh, hey, some psycho stalker bitch stolen the ring you bought me because they're fucking sadistic and watches too much TV and my friend's won't meet her psychotic demands so I don't get the ring back. How was your afternoon?
Yeah, not happening. I started to hyperventilate while walking so I stopped at that park to calm down. I sat on the swing and swung slightly.
Why couldn't I have wait until I got back to Alex's to shower again? Why did I take the ring off? Why was this person hell bent on fucking with us?
I swear to Jesus, if I ever find out who did this, I will knock them the fuck out.
My phone vibrated in my pocket.
To: Kayleigh
From: Kim
You okay? I know you're really upset, but don't worry, you'll get your ring back soon.
Her reassurance did nothing to comfort me.
I trudged back to Alex's hoping that he wouldn't notice the lack of sparkle on my left hand.
"Hey babe, how was rehearsal?" He asked, greeting me at the door. He wore baggy grey sweats, green checkered boxers peeking over.
"It was alright," I mumbled, wrapping my arms around his half naked body. I could get used to been greeted by him like this all the time. I was surprised he was shirtless because the love bites I gave him were almost worse than mine.
"What's wrong? You seem bummed out?"
That was an understatement.
"Just tired," I only half lied.
"Why don't you two go lie down and be all cute while I make dinner?" Isobel offered, appearing in the door way.
"Thanks," I smiled. Alex took my hand and pulled me to his room.
We collapsed into his bed and I put my head on his chest, him snaking his arms around me.
"Can we stay like this forever?" I whispered.
"Forever wouldn't be long enough," He answered, making me feel all fluttery and smile.
"I love you."
"I love you too, beautiful."
Could this moment be any more perfect? He traced patterns on my back with one hand while I played with the slight hair that was growing on his chest.
We laid there completely content and I forgot about my problems for a while. It was nice to be worry free for a bit even though I knew I had to face reality sooner or later.
Thankfully, for the rest of the night, Alex didn't notice that my ring was gone, or he did and just didn't say anything. But I assumed it was something you notice and have to point out so. My worry spiked up again before going to bed, but with Alex breathing softly next to me my head in the crook of his shoulder, I fell asleep almost instantly.
I woke up to the feeling of something heavy on my lips. My eyes fluttered open to meet chocolate brown ones. I instantly smiled, reconnecting out lips.
"I swear," I said once he pulled away, "If I woke up like that every morning, I would definitely be a morning person."
He chuckled slightly and I sat up, wrapping myself in the blanket. Alex stood up, wearing absolutely nothing but a white towel wrapped low around his waist. A ran a hand through his still damp hair and then shook it out. I stared in awe, watching a few droplets travel down his back, the towel absorbing them. Another couple of droplets slide down his torso and straight down his treasure line. Oh how I wanted to be those water droplets.
"Enjoying the view?" He smirked.
I grinned and nodded but then faked a frown, "But I can't believe you showered without me."
"Awe, babe, I was going to invite you, but you looked so peaceful and adorable in your sleep. Plus, I know you needed the rest. Next time?"
"I'm holding you to that," I said, crawling across the bed and rummaging through my bag to find clean clothes. I left the room so Alex could get dressed and so I could shower.
My shower was quick since I took two yesterday, but I couldn't stand not showering before school. I got dressed and left the steamy bathroom and went back to Alex's room. He was stretched out across his bed in black dress pants and a white button up shirt. Of course, just to drive me wild, he had only done up the middle three buttons, leaving the bottom two and top two undone, and the sleeves rolled half way up.
"Damn, I don't know what's better, you in that towel or you looking like this," I told him, dropping the wet towel on the ground.
My hair took an extra twenty minutes to do because Alex kept distracting me with kisses and playing with my hair. I wore minimal makeup, Alex clamming I looked beautiful no matter what. It's not like I worn the makeup to impress other people, so if he said I didn't need that much, less work for me.
It was only once we were headed towards school that I started to panic about Z and my missing ring. What if she sold it or gave it to someone else? Or lost it? Or decided she just didn't want to give it back.
Also, what the fuck was it that Haylee and Taylor were hiding? I was still slightly mad they wouldn't fess up yet, both of them knowing how much the ring meant to me.
When we got to school, Alex and I parted ways, him going to find Jack, who I assumed wouldn't be meeting at my locker with us until him and Kim worked things out, and I went to find the girls.
A mix of emotions flooded me when a white piece of paper was on the door to my locker.
"If you won't tell them, then I will. They won't be as forgiving if they hear it from me. I'm looking at you carrot top. Now fess up. All of it." I read once everyone had gotten there.
"By carrot top, I assume she means you," Kim said, looking at Taylor.
Panic rose in her eyes. "I-I-I don't have anything t-t-o tell."
"Z seems to have a different idea about that," I said shortly.
"Jesus fuck, just spit the goddamn truth out for once in your life," Kim snapped.
"Fine! But you're not going to like it," She said, looking at me. "After we had that talk at Alex's mom's ball thing, and you had forgiven me and all, I was still over the top jealous that you had won Alex and I may or may not have thought of a plan to try to break you two up." She confessed but then added quickly, "I didn't go through with it obviously, and I didn't think anyone knew."
Furious was an understatement of how I felt.
"Really? Even after I had forgiven you and made it clear that this whole little competition between us for Alex was over, you still had the audacity to even THINK about trying to break us up?" I asked her, my voice hard and cold. Why waste breath yelling, when saying it like that was much worse?
"But there's more, isn't there?" Kim jumped in. "Z said all of it, and that definitely doesn't sound like all of it."
Taylor sighed and continued, "On Friday I found a note on your locker telling me to tell you that or else. I didn't think it was serious so I didn't."
"So that's the reason Z took my fucking ring? Because you decided that after everything that's happened you weren't going to take it seriously?" I screeched.
"Kayleigh I—"
"Did you not see what Z did to Kim after I didn't take it seriously? You are so goddamn lucky that it was the ring and not Alex, because I swear to Jesus Christ that if it had been my relationship Z ruined, you would be so fucking sorry."
"I am really sorry though," She said quietly.
"Shove it up your slut hole, bitch," I snapped and walked away.
Did that really just happen? Was I really stupid enough to think that Taylor was going to butt the fuck out for once? Jesus Christ. If my life kept going the way it was, I'd have grey hair by 20.
By then end of first period, I was sick of being angry, sick of being stressed out and sick of being kicked around by some anonymous bitch. It was time to start fighting back and figuring out who the fuck was going to have to deal with four very angry girls.
I spent my free period thinking of ways to corner Z. No way was she as dangerous as A on PPL, but this bitch was sneaky and no doubt had help. I slowly formulated a plan that might get us a step closer to getting rid of her, but it would take a lot of work and attention to small details.
I texted Haylee and Taylor to meet me and Kim in the music room during third period. It was empty but we still kept our voices extremely low.
"So here's the plan," I explained. "Text seems to be our only safety right now, but when sending texts, triple check who you're sending it to, and delete every text you send and receive right away. Now look, Taylor, I'm going to forgive again. Not out of the kindness of my heart, but because Z is looking to get a reaction out of us and she's not going to get that anymore. Which brings me to the plan. If we are told to confess something, confess it. I don't care what it is anymore. We need our friendship to be strong right now and letting Z bend and break it isn't going to get us anywhere. So, let's make a deal that anything that is confessed from here on out is automatically forgiven, no matter the circumstances, and never brought up again. We all make mistakes and we're all sorry."
We all nodded in agreement. "What about finding out who Z is?" Kim whispered.
"That's the hard part. She's really fucking good at this, but I'm thinking that if we stop reacting to what she's making us do, then she'll start to get desperate and sloppy. So we stick it out for a couple of days and then she should start making mistakes that will lead us to her."
"It feels like I'm in a fucking murder mystery," Haylee said.
We broke apart from the tight circle we formed and let the music room, going back to our classes.
At lunch, another sheet was on my locker.
"This just keeps getting better and better. You all look like my little bitches. Back to you Blondie. Tell Kayleigh what happened while she was on vacation last year." Kim read.
We all looked at Haylee, and I gave a slight nod.
"I had a thing with Alex while you were in Miami," She said, looking slightly ashamed.
I wasn't as shocked as I thought I would be finding out something like that, so when I shrugged I meant it, "Okay, cool. I want pizza, let's go."
Without another word about it we walked to the cafeteria, not bothering to wait for the guys since they were probably promoting themselves.
Once we got our lunches we sat down and started to talk about the All Time Low performance and what we hoped the guys would do. Kim subtly pulled out her phone and texted us.
To: Kayleigh, Haylee, Taylor
From: Kim
Do you think it's working?
I nodded and deleted the text.
The rest of the day went on without another word from Z.
Kim drove me to Alex's since Alex was practicing. Before even considering doing homework, I crawled into his bed and fell asleep.
"Wakey, wakey beautiful," Alex whispered in my ear.
I opened my eyes to meet Alex's brown ones.
"What time is it?" I croaked.
"A little after five," He answered. He sat on the edge of the bed and played with my hand as I tried to wake up and become more alert. "Hey, where's your ring?"
That did the trick. I racked my brain for an answer, "We were doing dissections' today in Bio so I gave my ring to Kim to hold onto at lunch. I must've forgotten to ask for it back when she dropped me off."
It was a complete lie. We were dissecting in Bio today, so I could get away with it.
"Oh," He said, frowning slightly. I guess the way I said it made it seem like I didn't care. I sighed internally. I can't wait to find out who this bitch is.
I kissed the side of his head and he turned to smile at me.
"Dinner!" His mom called. For once, I was glad for the interruption.
We got up and went downstairs, following the scent of spaghetti and meatballs. We sat around the table and talked about our days. Peter and Isobel were great at making me feel like part of the family. I think even they knew that Alex and I had no plans of not being together in the future.
After dinner we went back to Alex's room and actually did homework. It took longer than anticipated, but could you concentrate on linear equations when you had Alex sitting inches away from you, trailing kisses up and down your neck?
Didn't think so.
He didn't bring up my empty left hand again, but a few times I caught him looking at my hand where the ring was supposed to be placed. I had nothing to say, but I hoped and prayed to some force above that tomorrow I got it back. I couldn't come up with another excuse as to why it was gone.
I lay awake for hours, worrying about what to say if Z decided to be an asshole and not returned it. Needless to say, I got little to no sleep that night.