All day was like stopping a stopwatch at five minutes while running for six instead; doing something extra for no certain reason. Instead of leaving at the same exact moment that the bell rang, as I usually do, I stay after class for "extra credit work". Which is so not true. It's to stay away from that mysterious boy who keeps saying nasty things to irritate the hell out of me. Every time he's around, I feel scared but safe. Of course, that's a stupid thing to say but it's nothing more than the truth. He looks suspicious, mysterious... odd. And I'm scared of that because those three things combined into one package is dangerous.
Mom went away for two weeks. She left a message stating that it was a "business trip". Mostly all the time is the same exact routine: waking up, finding out about her business trips the exact day she's leaving, and then having to live off of what we have- which is about one week's supply. But being alone isn't bad, really. I never have anyone over but Vee, and mom knows I don't throw rowdy parties- or any parties in that case. It's just the way it is in Maine (at least for me it is).
I sit on the island thinking of something interesting to do this weekend. Either going to Vee's or sitting on the couch watching a movie while eating popcorn. Yum, popcorn. A sudden feeling of hunger stabs at my stomach. When I open the cabinet, some weird shadow slithers from behind a bowl. "Oh my God!" The bowl falls on the marble floor along with the bag of uncooked popcorn. My mind is playing tricks on me, because when I went to check the bowl and bag on the floor, they were both in the cabinet perfectly... PERFECT!
I place my cold hands on my neck, where my pulse beats like a stampede. Then the phone rings causing me to shake violently for five seconds straight. "Hello?" No answer, just heavy breathing. "Hello? Who is this?" The person on the other end breathes as if his windpipe were crushed.
"Nice to speak to you again, Nora Grey." I freeze in shock. It's him, the man who tortured me until I screamed for mercy. "Listen carefully. Do not get close to that guy. Don't even befriend him, got it? And if you do so... just know that I am watching." His threat fills my head 'just know that I am watching'. And who is 'that guy'!? But at the exact moment I was going to ask he hung up the phone.