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The hooded man reaches me, he bends down and swoops me up underneath the knees and around my waist.
“Whoa, what’re you doing? Put me down!” My slurry voice shakes, and I can’t see a damn thing. There are no streetlights nearby and cars don’t really drive down this street. It’s pitch black.
I try to wiggle out of his hold, but the strong grip he has on me keeps me in place.
“Logan? Please, put me down.”
No answer.
“Logan, is that you?”
Nothing.
“Logan?”
I try to twist to get a better look at his face. Anything, really. He turns out of my view so I can’t see, and when I see the trailer park, I finally stop panicking and just hope he’s bringing me to my house.
Whoever he is.
The constant rock back and forth lulls me into a kind of daze, and by the time we make it to my front steps my eyes are getting scratchy with exhaustion. I rub at them, assuming that this stranger will leave me in front of my front door, but when he opens it up and walks straight to my room, my eyes go wide again.
“What’re you doing? You can just leave me here.” I try to wriggle out of his hold again, but his fingers squeeze around my thighs, keeping me in place.
He walks into my room, setting me on the bed and turning to leave.
I can’t take the suspense. As quick as possible, I sit up and pull on the back of the hood. It drops down and pure shock makes me gasp and fall back onto my butt.
The very last person I ever figured would help me. The last person who I thought would touch me, walk me home, or come to my rescue.
“Jackson?”
He stares at me, face void of all emotion.
He blinks. Once, twice, three times, and then leaves.
I slowly lay back in my bed, surprise and wonder keeping me up most of the night.
Derek is out of school the next week. When he does come back, it’s with a broken nose and a busted-up face. The worst part is his eye. He had some damage to his optic nerve and was permanently blinded in his right eye. He never spoke on who did it. I never heard the story he made up.
He never looked my way again.
Jackson and I never spoke about that night. I figured it was a fluke, a blip in Jackson’s judgment. He’s never seemed to care about me in the past, so why care then?
But looking back, I’ve realized…it’s Jackson.
It’s always been Jackson.
