Chapter 26 Stalker
Nina
I slammed my laptop shut. “Fuck!” I yelled, then covered my mouth when I realized that I might have woken up Jessica and Lori.
Just as I expected, there was a knock on my door. Lori opened the door a crack and poked her head in, her eyes half- closed and her black hair a mess.
“You good?” she asked. I shook my head and she came in, with Jessica trailing behind her; Jessica, of course, was wearing bright pink pajamas with an eye mask on her forehead, which was a stark contrast to Lori’s ratty band t-shirt and shorts ensemble. “I’m sorry,” I said, tears welling up in my eyes. “I didn’t mean to be so loud.”
Jessica immediately noticed my tears and came running over to me. “It’s okay!” she said. “What happened? Did Justin do something again?” I shook my head and her eyes widened. “Was it Enzo? I’ll kill him!”
“No, no,” I replied. “It wasn’t either of them, I don’t think. It’s just… Here, I’ll show you.” I opened my laptop again and showed Jessica so she could see the new pictures. Lori shuffled over and looked over Jessica’s shoulder.
Both of their eyes widened when they saw the pictures. “Who keeps taking these?” Lori asked, pointing at the laptop screen.
“That’s, like, a total invasion of privacy,” Jessica chimed in I shrugged. “I don’t know,” I replied. ” It was dark outside the rink, and I was focused on not falling, so anyone could’ve slipped in and taken these.”
“Do you think Enzo is having someone do this to you to humiliate you?” Lori asked, folding her arms. Truthfully, I didn’t know. He hadn’t. necessarily given me a reason not to trust him yet, but if what he said about himself in the anatomy lab was true, and if I wasn’t imagining the whole incident with the skeleton, then…
Maybe I couldn’t trust him. Weren’t werewolves supposed to be evil, scary monsters from fairy tales? Who was to say that he wasn’t trying to rope me into trusting him so he could hurt me?
I would have to do some research on my own, because Lori and Jessica would never believe me. For now, I would just have to keep it to myself until I had definitive proof.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think I’ll just stay away from him, just in case.” Jessica sighed and rubbed my shoulder while Lori nodded alongside her. “I think that would be for the best,Jessica said.
I decided to skip class that day and feign sickness to avoid dealing with bullying. Jessica and Lori took the day off too. We made pancakes for breakfast and watched movies, and soon I was feeling a lot better.
Unfortunately, I did have to go to work at the diner. I promised my boss that I would work tonight, so I put on my uniform and headed to work. I made a pit stop at the anatomy lab to see if my phone was there, but unfortunately it wasn’t.
It was a bit busier than normal, but nothing I couldn’t handle. If anything, the work kept my mind off of all of the drama in my life; the generous tips helped, too. I was a few hours into my shift when the last person I wanted to see right now strolled in with her gaggle of bitchy friends. Lisa.
They sat down at a booth, whispering and giggling amongst themselves; one glance at Lisa’s phone, even from afar, told me that they were laughing at my pictures. It had to have been Lisa who took the pictures.
I hesitated for a while, pretending to be busy with other customers, but I knew that I would have to serve them eventually. Was this job even really worth it? I could walk out right now…. But I needed the money. My textbooks this semester were more expensive than usual and I was struggling, and apparently now I needed to replace my phone.
Taking a deep breath and putting on my best customer service face, I walked up to their table. “Hi. Can I get you started with some drinks?”
Lisa slowly turned her head and looked up at me. There was a long silence, during which one of her stupid friends chewed her gum as loudly as possible and blew a big bubble as the entire group eyed me up and down like a piece of meat.
“Oh. My. God,” Lisa said while her friends snickered. “What, you don’t get paid enough for your cheap blowjobs, so you have to wait tables to make ends meet?”
I scowled and tossed their menus down, pulling my notepad out of my apron in an attempt to just do my job and ignore their bullying. “Drinks?” I repeated.
Lisa scoffed. “Waters,” she replied. ” we don’t consume liquid calories. Maybe you should try it sometime. You look like you could stand to lose a few pounds.”
“Sure thing,” I replied and walked away to get their waters, trying my best to not let their words get to me. I had never considered myself to be overweight, and I wasn’t going to let them convince me otherwise.
I returned with their waters and set them down. “I’ll be back to take your orders,” I said, turning on my heel to go and hide in the back.
As I started to walk away, I heard the sound of glass breaking and the girls snickering from behind me. The other guests in the diner went silent for a moment, and I turned around to see that Lisa had pushed her glass off the table and onto the floor, spilling water everywhere.
“Oops!” she said, holding her manicured hand over her mouth. ” Waitress, could you clean that up? Someone could hurt themselves!”
I balled my fists up at my sides in anger, knowing fully well that Lisa broke that glass on purpose, but put on a fake smile and walked away to get a towel and a broom. I returned and started sweeping up the glass, then crouched down to wipe up the water while Lisa and her friends watched.
“I think you missed a spot under there,” Lisa said, pointing underneath the table. “Seriously, Lisa?” I said with a frown.”
I know you’re just trying to humiliate me.” Lisa smirked, then looked over my shoulder. “Hey, is that your boss?” she said. I turned around to see Phil standing behind the counter with his arms folded across my chest and giving me his signature “don’t fuck up” stare.
With a sigh, I got down on my knees and crawled under the table to wipe up the water. While under there, I felt a hard kick on my ribcage, which made me jump up in pain and hit my head on the table, which as a result made the rest of the waters topple over and spill all over the floor and Lisa’s friends. They all jumped up, screaming that I ruined their clothes, while I sat back on my knees and held my rib in pain. “Ugh! Let’s go eat somewhere else!” Lisa said, grabbing her bag and storming out. Her friends followed.
The rest of the restaurant was silent. I kept my head down and continued cleaning up the mess, even though my ribs hurt like hell from that kick, but I could feel Phil’s stern gaze on me. I finished cleaning up and carried the broken glass to the kitchen as tears streamed down my cheeks.
“You just cost me five customers,” Phil said, following me into the kitchen. ” And your performance lately has been a lot worse.” “I’m sorry,” I replied quietly as I dumped the glass into the trash can.
“I think you need a break,” Phil said. His words were stern, but his tone was soft. He was never a mean old man just a business owner. “No,” I replied, turning toward him. “I won’t let it happen agai-”
Phil shook his head and raised his hand to stop me. “Just take a break,” he said. “Focus on school. You can come back in a few weeks.”
I tried protesting, but Phil wouldn’t hear it, so I grabbed my bag and my jacket and stormed out into the chilly night air. The streets were dark, with very few cars and absolutely no one walking. It was like a ghost town.
“A few weeks?” I muttered to myself as I walked briskly down the dark sidewalk toward the campus. “A few weeks of no pay, over spilt water? Hmph.”
“That sucks,” a strange male voice behind me suddenly said. I stopped in my tracks and whipped around, my heart racing, to see a stranger in baggy clothes. They had their hood up and were wearing gloves, a surgical mask, and sunglasses.
We stared at each other for several moments as I processed what was happening. Was this just an overly friendly stranger on the sidewalk in the middle of the night, or was this my stalker?
All of the potential scenarios started to run through my head as I backed away and the stranger continued to walk toward me, closing the gap between us. Images of my body being thrown in a dumpster by a crazed killer flashed through my mind, making my heart race even faster.
All I knew was that sticking around was probably a bad idea. My fight or flight kicked in, and I chose flight.
