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“I don’t see anything happening in the window anymore,” I update O who asks me to keep talking to him. “Maybe she left?” I suggest. I walk over to see if I can take a better look at the window on the top floor. I go very slowly, because, well, that seems like the smart thing to do? Like going quickly will make too much noise or something. I observe the house on my slow crawl back to the fence between O’s and my garden. It’s all quiet and I can’t see anything. The quietness is making the hairs on the back of my arms stand up and I’m tense as hell.
“You still there Mor?” O asks and he scares the shit out of me. Somehow I had been so focussed on what’s going on in front of me, that I zoned out on what I heard through the phone.
“I’m still here,” I whisper as I try to crouch behind the fence a little so my head doesn’t stick out above it, “but I’m trying to see if I can locate Celia. Your bedroom seems empty again.”
My heart is beating so fast it’s almost painful. I wish I were a little more badass. I’m used to reading about strong females that take on the world and kick ass, but while I like to pretend I can relate, I really can’t. I’ve never had a real problem in my life, so I’ve never had to become more fierce, which is a good thing, I guess. There’s probably women warriors out there that would give their left tit to not have had to become the warriors they are now.
“Just wait there, okay? Don’t do anything stupid. I’m halfway there.”
I wasn’t planning on doing anything stupid, but I don’t tell him that. Somehow, I feel like talking right now would be considered stupid. So I just sit down crouched behind the fence and my legs start to cramp. Now that’s something you never read about happening to badass characters right? Sat in wait, got cramped legs. Well, I’ve got them. I’m nervously plucking on my clothes, unable to hold my hands still as my thoughts go a mile a minute.
“I’m on Magnolia Street,” O’s voice fills my ear through the phone. That’s close. It calms me down a little when I realize that he’ll be here soon. I decide to try and look again, so I get out of my crouch and peek over the fence, looking up to the window on the top floor where I can see exactly nothing. All seems quiet and I wonder where she went. What the hell is she doing in an empty house anyway?
I let my eyes roam over the ground floor and I’m scared half to death when someone is standing in the living room, watching out the window and staring right at me. Big, dark eyes stare into mine, like she was waiting for me to pop up. She looks like a ghost apparition, with skin that’s a few shades too pale and black hair falling on her shoulders. I scream so loud I make my throat hurt and quickly crouch down to hide behind the fence again, where I start hyperventilating. My fingers and my toes tingle when I feel like I can’t hold any air down.
“What happened? Talk to me!” O demands through the phone. There isn’t an ounce of kindness left in his voice, he just sounds tense. I’m surprised I can hear him at all, when the hyperventilating makes all sounds distorted.
“She was standing in the living room, looking out the window. She looked right at me, like she knew I was out there.” The thought of it makes me shiver. I see the dark-haired girl with eyes as dark as the night as if it’s burned on my retinas and it’s an image I want to forget.
“I’m pulling up now, stay hidden.”
The words unleash a feeling of relief through my whole body. Thank God, he’s here, I’m no longer alone. I nod, but then realize he can’t see me through the phone and almost chuckle. Sounds of O parking his car reach me right before I hear him getting out, followed by the sound of footsteps rushing to the door. I expect him to hang up the phone, but he keeps the line connected so I can hear what’s going on. I hear his keys jingle, which is followed by the door opening. Then everything goes quiet. I expect him to call Celia out or something, but he doesn’t. Not knowing what is happening makes my curiosity get the upper hand and I peek over the fence again. Through the window I can see O walking into the living room, but I can’t find Celia anymore. She’s no longer in the spot where she was staring at me, scaring the living crap out of me. O has his phone pressed against his ear and it’s weird to see him do that and realise that it’s me that’s on the other side of the line.
From the corner of my eye I see the curtain on the top floor move again, giving me some kind of answer as to where Celia must be.
“There’s movement upstairs again,” I whisper to O who’s still on the phone with me. “I don’t know if it’s wind or something, but my best guess is that you’re right and it’s this Celia chick you were talking about.”
“There’s no wind today,” O concludes as I see him walk through the living room in the direction of the stairs. I can’t see what happens next through the window, but I can hear O walking on the stairs.
Suddenly two legs come out through O’s bedroom window. Celia is getting out through his window, and she lowers herself until she’s hanging at the tops of her fingertips before she lets herself fall down. It happens so quickly it’s over in the blink of an eye. She lands in some kind of graceful roll, and damn, she has the warrior stuff down. She then proceeds to run away, leaving through the backyard and I lose sight of her. I just stand there, staring, being useless.
I remember I still have O on the other side of the line, and he can’t see what’s going on with her and I need to tell him. It’s communication 101, you know?
“She just climbed out through your window and fucking ninja rolled away,” I whisper to O. “Do I need to follow her?”
“No, stay put,” he demands, and he appears in the window of his bedroom as he pulls the curtain aside, looking outside and straight at me. His face is worried and while he looks like a snack in his suit, all I want to do is make his worries disappear. He sighs in defeat. “She’s already gone.”
I give the boys a nasty look that tells them not to screw with me. We’re in O’s living room and I’ve wrapped myself in one of the blankets I retrieved from my own home. I need comfort right now, and this is going to give it to me. While I’m perfectly safe again, I’m still spooked and I’m not okay with not knowing what’s going on.
I always thought it was special how fast people can come together when it’s needed. It’s just half an hour after O sent a text in the group chat he has going with the guys about what happened before they all showed up. I’m guessing Gil and Jonah had to come over from Kinseltown, but they arrived in record time. They had to have dropped everything as soon as they got the text and have broken the speed limit to get here this fast if we’re being realistic. Somehow the thought soothes me. These guys are here for each other. And I’m here for it.
“So, talk,” is all I say as I let my eyes roam over all of them.
Four pairs of eyes look at me. It’s like I’m leading an interrogation and they’re sitting in a line-up. I give them my best bad-cop impression, until it’s eventually Gil that starts talking.
“So these three dickheads all dated Celia,” he says ever so calmly, his hands folded on his lap. He’s got one of his legs crossed over the other, letting his ankle lean on his knee.
“But not you?” Because sure Morgan, that’s the important thing that’s going on here. Not the how and why there was a stranger that broke into their home.
“No, I don’t stick my dick in crazy.”
All the other guys scoff.
“Except Maria.”
“And Dorothy.”
“What was the name of that chick again that lived with her mom and didn’t mind it when she entered the room during sex?”
