You get to your road and stop, if by any chance your mother is still awake, it won't look good coming home with a man considerably older than you, no matter how safe he made you feel. Your mother would hit the roof.
"I'm ok from here," you tell Vince, "this is my road."
"You sure?" He asks, his big blue eyes meeting yours. He looked kind of sad for you to leave. You were kind of sad to leave him. But you have to.
"Yeah, thanks for… everything," you say gratefully.
"well I couldn't of just left you in that alley," he grins, "well, I could of, but that would have been well selfish,"
You both laugh and that moment happens again, where your eyes meet, but you brush it of and hold out your hand. He shakes it before pulling you into a hug. You close your eyes as you breath in his smell once again; the musky, fruity smell that reminds you of the tree in your garden. You almost consider asking him if you'll see him again, but you don't want to appear too forward. After all, he is quite a bit older than you. He probably has a girlfriend. You wonder what she looks like.
Is she pretty? Prettier than you? Forget it, why would he ever want you?
Your thoughts are interrupted as you realise you've been hugging for a little too long. You tear yourself away and mumble something about you getting home. He understands and gives you a nod. "Thanks," you say again, before turning and proceeding to trek up your road. You give it a few seconds before taking a sneaky look behind you, but Vince is gone. You swear you hear him shout something to you, but that's probably just wishful thinking. After all, what are the chances of you ever seeing that guy again?
However one thing did stick in your mind, and that was the bald man. No not the barman, the other one. The bench one. The staring one. At that moment you hear footsteps approaching you and quicken your pace. They speed up too. Why did you tell Vince you'd be ok? You break into a run and reach your house just as you hear the footsteps catching up with you. Without even looking back you fumble in your pocket for your keys, let yourself in and slam the door behind you. You suddenly realise the time. The clock in your hallway says 4am.
"Is that you home love?" Shit. You quickly slip off your shoes off and your slippers –conveniently placed by the door- on.
"What?" You say innocently, "oh. No I've been home for ages. The cat was meowing so I thought I'd let him out, go back to bed mum."
Your mum sleepily wanders back to her room. Phew. You hurry upstairs and peek through your bedroom curtains. Nobody is outside. You shake your head and sigh, You're so tired, You were probably just hearing things.
As you're getting undressed for bed you feel something drop on your foot. Bending down to pick it up you realise it's a business card. It must of fallen out of your jacket pocket. It's for a shop called 'Nabootique', you don't remember ever going to such a shop.
…Unless someone slipped it in your pocket.
You remember losing your jacket, or at least, thinking you'd lost it, last night. You remember Vince giving it back to you. What if he had put the business card in there, thinking you would discover it and go to the shop. Maybe he worked there?
But what if someone else had slipped it in there. What if the creepy barman had slipped it in hoping you would go there. Maybe it's some sort of brothel?
You don't know what to do. But you'll ponder it some more tomorrow. For now you need to get some sleep.