There were so many emotions flashing across my eyes. One moment it was terror, the next it was worry, fright, confusion, or wonder. Layne couldn't stop pacing on the landing before the stairs. He was trying to figure it out by talking to himself.. with a lot of weird hand gestures. The rest of the day was spent with no concentration on what I was supposed to be doing. Any little noise that I heard made me jump. My thresh hold was once again getting shorter and shorter as the day goes on, but the end of fifth period I looked like a walking seizure. I tried to think over the last 2 weeks if anything had changed in what I had done, or what I found out. I couldn't think of anything different except the different guys my mom had every night. The guy from last night was the first one that wanted something from me though. I shuddered remembering the look on his face when he tried to come for me. I felt a hand on my back, it made me feel ice cold, but when I turned around the hall had almost cleared. The chilled feeling never left the spot on my back, it really hurt, it was almost like a burning sensation. I shook it off, grabbed my backpack and made my way to the practice field. Layne couldn't miss another practice or else he was kicked off the team and his scholarship was out the window. Before I went outside i put on my baseball cap, it was 27 degrees outside I would be crazy if I wore a sweater outside. Through the parking lot and across the soccer field I finally came to the bleachers of the practice field. Layne was already on the field running lines, the coach was pushing him harder than anyone else because he missed practice yesterday. I waved when he looked over my way, he stopped for a second to wave back, as he did he got tackled. I chuckled a little bit and pulled out my math homework. A few pages and a hundred questions later I was done. Eyes. The feeling was back, but this was a little different than the other times. This was coming from right behind me, not peeking around a corner or hiding in the trees. I turned my head enough to see all the way behind me and nothing was there. I had a moment of bravery and moved my arm behind me, exactly where i felt the eyes coming from as my arm passed over the spot a burning welt appeared in the shape of a hand. My back started to burn again the same time the welt on my arm started burning. I tried to keep from crying out but I couldn't contain it anymore. A loud grunt escaped from my throat, and I doubled over in pain, it felt like my back and my arm were being set on fire, I tried to compose myself by the time that Layne walked over with his bag slung over his shoulder.

"How was practice?" I sucked up the burning sensation long enough to spit out my question.

"Meh, felt a little uneasy about 10 minutes ago" Layne shrugged it off and sat down beside me. Ten minutes ago, that's when I felt the eyes. I moved my hand away from the welt on my arm and stuck it out in front of him.

"This happened 10 minutes ago" The sun made it burn some more, it was still bright red and stuck out. Layne grabbed my hand and examined my arm,

"Jay how did you get this?" I didn't respond yet, i lifted the back of my shirt high enough to reveal the bottom of the mark on my back. Layne grabbed my shirt and yanked it up farther, "Jay when did you get these?" His voice was stern, concerned.

"What does it look like?" I turned my head over my shoulder to look at him,

"It looks exactly like your arm but the welt is bigger" He put his hands on my shoulders to spin me around, His warm hands found my face once again, he leaned forward to touch his forehead to mine. Almost whispering all I could see was his eyes, "Jay please tell me now"

"The one on my back happened in the hallway by my locker before I came here. This one happened about 10 minutes ago. I felt like someone was looking at me so I turned around and found it empty like every other time. I waved my arm behind me and in the exact spot that I felt the eyes this appeared. It was almost instant, I went over that spot and the next second I had a welt and my arm and my back started to burn." The burning started to dissipate a little but the tingling came back, it felt like my arm was numb and the blood was coming back but it didn't go away after a few minutes. On the way back to my truck Layne's mom called and told him that he had to come home. He reluctantly complied,

"Ok, I don't want to do this but I have to leave you. I will go home find out what my mom needs and I will come straight to your house after okay?" Questioning eyes was enough of a facial expression for me. I just nodded, i had nothing to say, I was going home alone. What if something happened? What if my mom already had another guy there? I shook my head to clear the questions.

"Just call me when you know what's going on. I'll call you if anything drastic happens." He pulled me close to him for a hug, he was all sweaty and smelled really bad but I didn't want to let him go because I knew that meant he was leaving me alone. I tried to hold on as long as I could but eventually I did need fresh air. A small wave was all I gave him, I didn't want to say anything else.

The drive home was uneventful for the 10 minutes that it took. Pulling into the drive way I noticed that my window was fixed. My mom couldn't have fixed it, she hasn't been sober enough in 4 years to even walk up the stairs let alone fix a broken window. When I walked into the living room there she was, sleeping on her side on the pull out bed. One arm and leg off the edge with the blankets only half on her, at least I know where I got my sleep positions from. That made a small smile come upon my face, I laughed a little as I walked up the stairs to try and lighten my worried mind. My bed room looked the same except there was no glass on the floor, I looked above my bed where the dent was still in the wall. I remembered the sound that came before we found the dent. I shook it out of my head,

"Jay stop it. Think happy thoughts" I told my self over and over. I tried to find something to keep me busy but my homework was already done, and my window was already fixed. The only thing I could think of was clean the broken bottles from the kitchen. I made my way down to the kitchen, every thing seemed normal, but it was also 2:30 in the afternoon and still very much daylight outside. I completely let it go trying to push the thoughts out of my mind that something was wrong, or that I was in danger. I rounded the corner to the kitchen and just stood in the doorway, a loud sigh escaped my lips this was going to take me a while. The glass crunched under my shoes, I had to walk through the entire kitchen in order to get to the broom closet. Bottle by bottle the kitchen started to look like its old self, the hardwood floors, rustic cupboards, with some new scratches in them. cleaning the floor is the worst, all the wine is dried into the floor and its sticky so it keep catching the mop. I grunted as i pushed the mop across the floor, this was starting to hurt my arms, it was more of a work out than gym class. I was starting to have some fun with it, I was using the mop as a microphone and I started to sing what ever songs popped into my head. It went from oldies to pop, punk, to musicals. When I started dancing I was laughing at myself now. I had my back to the doorway and was dancing my little heart out.

"Wow", I almost had a heart attack when I heard his voice come from behind me, I spun myself around so fast my heart almost jumped out of my chest. Layne was leaning in the doorway almost laughing. "Looks like you are having fun... Should I come back another time?" His smile grew wider, I dropped the broom and hoped over to him and threw my arms around his neck,

"No you should stay right here." I gave him a small kiss on the cheek and released my grip. "What did your mom want?" I fixed his hair while I waited for his answer. He seemed to take a long time, it could have just been me though, it was like whenever I saw him I got high off him. Even in light of what has happened to me the last couple of weeks, seeing his face still made me extremely happy. If I didn't have him I don't know how I would be getting through any of this. I looked over at my arm, the hand print was still there but no longer hurt.

"She needed me to move some furniture around, she is redoing her bedroom, and the living room, and the basement... Lets just say she is redoing the whole house." Layne just smiled, "Do you want some help?" he gestured towards the floor, I handed him the mop and I grabbed a washcloth for the cupboards.

By the time we were done cleaning it was about 5. Supper was my next thought, I haven't eaten all day and I know Layne is always hungry. It has been hours now since I have heard anything or felt anything, maybe it is starting to go away. Thud. Maybe I thought to soon, this one sounded like it came from the living room... I looked at Layne, his eyes were getting bigger by the second.

"Mom" I dropped everything I was holding and ran to the living room, I couldn't see her on the bed anymore, I quickly looked around the rest of the room and didn't see her anywhere else. I went to the side of the couch and finally found her.. She rolled off the bed. I let out a huge sigh and just looked at Layne and started laughing. Anything that happens right now I would probably just laugh at, I am in such a good mood, nothing could bring me down. The last couple hours of daylight had nothing eventful. Nothing happened, once we put mom back on the bed my bedroom was where we resided. Watching movies and playing silly games with each other trying to keep on another preoccupied. Layne knew that the longer he kept me preoccupied once the sun went down the faster the night would go by. The silly things he did to keep my attention on him, trying to stand on his head, trying to be a magician, singing karaoke. I haven't laughed this much in the last couple of months let alone the last few weeks. I looked over at the clock in between Layne's magic show, against all the good things that had happened today the clock was once again my nemesis. 3:37. A shocked grunt flowed out of my mouth, Layne stopped what he was doing, he saw me looking at the clock and didn't ask any questions just moved over beside me and grabbed my hand. He moved my eyes away from the clock and back to his face.

"Just look at me, don't think about it Jay" His arm on my back was warm on my now cold body. As soon as I saw the clock it was like I went from tropical paradise to Welcome to Canada! As soon as I get scared or worried all the heat from my body just seems to evaporate into the air, but it just gets colder it doesn't linger around. Layne put on another movie to try and distract me. I had so many things going through my head that it felt like a train going through my brain. The sights the weird sounds, the broken window everything just flashed right before my eyes. Layne was right in front of me and I could no longer see him, it was like a home movie playing in my head that I wanted so badly to stop. I blinked a few times and the last time my eyes just didn't open. My mind went blank and I was passed out.