It creeps me the fuck out, but I can’t explain why. It’s like that night, that night I thought I was sleepwalking but maybe wasn’t. Ugh.
“Shit,” I murmur, tucking some hair behind my ear and finishing up my text. At Chasm’s house, omw back.
I keep my phone clutched in my hand and hop off the porch step, adjusting the buttons on my blazer. Sometimes I hate the uniform—lack of self-expression and all that—and sometimes I like it because it feels like I’m in an anime or something. That’s what I focus on as I start the walk back down the hill. It isn’t far; I can already see the lake and the small shapes of my new friends in the distance.
About halfway down, I swear that I can hear someone creeping in the bushes beside me. I spin quickly, glaring into the growing shadows around me and frowning.
“Chasm, for real,” I snap, feeling that hot, itchy anger take over me again. The thing is, this time it’s underwritten with a cold fear. A person acting all sus in the bushes? Never a good thing. I wait there for a moment, hoping that I’m right, that it really is Chasm … but knowing instinctually that it isn’t.
With a quick glance down at my phone, I realize that I’ve somehow missed a few texts from Parrish.
Don’t mess around with Chasm. You and Kimber are fucking thirsty. Back off.
My teeth clench again, and I almost briefly forget about the person moving in the bushes. A twig snaps, and my heart leaps into my throat, convincing me to start moving again. The wind teases my skirt up around my thighs, causing the plaid fabric to billow. That’s when my neck begins to throb, and I know I need to get the hell out of there.
Sprinting down the hill, I end up falling on my ass and sliding part of the way down, hitting the flat ground near the lake and collapsing to my knees. I’m panting as I glance over my shoulder, but I don’t see anyone lurking in the evening shadows.
“So fucking creepy,” I murmur, standing up and brushing the dirt off my knees. I feel silly for overreacting, but I would’ve felt even worse if I’d underreacted and something happened. Who would be stalking you, Dakota? Who? As a teenage girl, I’m more than well-aware of how predatory men can be, but this feels like something different. It rings a different set of alarm bells, and I don’t recognize the sound.
“Are you ready to head out?” Lumen asks as I look up and find her waiting in a towel beside a cluster of blackberry bushes.
“I’m ready,” I agree, but I can’t resist just one, last look over my shoulder as I walk away.
Still, there’s nothing. Somehow, I feel like there is most definitely something.
Later that night, when I part Danyella’s curtains and peer out, I swear I see a shadow watching us from the edge of the property. But when I run down the hall and flick on the outside light, there’s nothing there.
I must be losing my goddamn mind.
Or … somebody else already has.
When I get home on Saturday, I head straight for Parrish’s room and throw open the door which, surprisingly, is unlocked. He lifts his head up from his sketchbook to stare at me through a slitted gaze.
“What the fuck do you want?” he drawls, as if he didn’t go out of his way to embarrass me in front of the entire school. I’m starting to see that Kimber’s assessment of the situation was accurate: if I hadn’t somehow endeared myself to Lumen, I might very well be in trouble here.
“You were creeping around in the bushes outside of Chasm’s place last night,” I snap, shoving the door closed behind me and putting my back against it. Parrish continues to do his prince of the angry sloth routine where he moves like he’s wading through molasses, pushing himself into a sitting position and frowning at me like I’ve lost my damn mind. “And Danyella’s, too.”
“Why the fuck,” he hisses, shoving some of that pretty tousled hair back from his face, “would I bother doing that? If I wanted to see you naked, all I’d have to do is wait for you to change with your door cracked which, I might add, you do on the regular. Trust me: I’ve seen enough, and I’m not impressed.”
Anger ripples through me, a boulder crashing into the serene surface of a lake. I had a good time last night, great actually. For the first time in weeks, I’m starting to see through the murky shadows of my situation. I don’t have to like Tess; I don’t even have to like Washington. But I can have friends, I can enjoy the experience of having younger siblings. I won’t let Parrish ruin that for me.
