Chapter 6: Home

It appeared as though everything around us became a hazy blur, and it was only two of us within a hundred mile radius. But it didn’t last long.

“Watch where you’re going, bitch!” A pretty blonde beside him said, drawing my attention to her. She had an irritated look plastered across her features as she raked my frame condescendingly.

I took a step back to put a good distance between us.

“Hey. Isn’t this that girl that we caught spying on us one time?” A masculine voice drew my attention to Aleera. She had also been caught by one of the men accompanying Vesper, one of his teammates, Julian.

“Yeah. It is,” another girl who was holding on to him replied, then pushed Aleera away from him. She landed butt first on the floor, and I hurried to help her up.

“You disgusting wannabes,” the bitch sneered at us, then clicked her tongue.

A part of me got enraged, but I fought to keep it tamed.

“Looks like she recruited a partner. Wannabe bitches,” she insulted again.

That’s when my control snapped. I’d had it with them. I turned to face the blonde girl.

“Wanna know who the real wannabes are? Girls like who have zero self respect and stick when men with community dicks all because of the fame,” I retorted sharply, earning gasps from all of them. Well, almost all of them. Vesper’s lips pulled up into a smirk at the comment.

I almost paused to stare at him, but I put myself in check. Damn, he looks so much like the man from the other night.

News had gotten round of how the boys slept around with girls, simply because they were football stars. Despite that, their girlfriends– who were members of their cheerleading squad– refused to break up with them.

Cheating is a dealbreaker for me, and I question women who stay even after being disrespected that way.

I didn’t wait for them to think of a comeback, or beat us to a pulp, probably. I grabbed Aleera’s arm and hurried away from them. When we were a good distance away from where they were, I let myself breathe before turning to face Aleera. I needed some explanations.

“Start talking,” I demanded when we had caught our breaths.

She looked away from me, her eyes everywhere but mine. “T-talk about what? There’s nothing to talk about.”

I grabbed her chin and made her look at me by force.

“Aleera. Talk to me,” I insisted.

She closed her eyes, squeezing it shut for a few seconds before blurting a “fine” through clenched teeth, and pushing away my arm.

“Fine. I have a crush on Julian Enzo. And last semester, I kind of stalked him all the way to the boys changing rooms,” She confessed her eyes on the floor. She couldn’t even look at me into face as she narrated that.

For some reason, I found that so funny. I picked up my jaw that had fallen, and burst into a disbelieving laughter.

“Julian Enzo? Why?”

I get that he's hot and all that, but most girls had a crush on Vesper. And unfortunately, that most girls included me. Even though the media portrayed him to be a chronic cheater, there was something about him that drew me in.

I have no idea if it was his aura, how hot he was, or maybe the fact that he was stinking rich.

“He’s hot. What can I say? And, there was a time when he actually helped me. When I first resumed school and had a bit of a bully problem. He was the only one that defended me,” she pushed in his defense.

I fought an eye roll. “Well, seems like that part of him is dead now. He couldn’t even stand up for you when his girlfriend was bullying you a few minutes ago.”

None of the boys did. And I can’t but say I was disappointed about that. Thought Vesper would have done something.

“Maybe —“

She got interrupted by my phone ringing. It was a call from my mum.

“Hey, Mum,” I greeted almost as soon as I pressed the phone against my ear.

“Sylvania! Come home now, it’s an emergency,” she said sharply in a tone that immediately threw me on high alert.

“What’s wrong, mum?” I asked, my voice pitching slightly in fear.

Aleera’s face perked up out of curiosity.

“I can’t explain over the phone. Just—“ And just like that, the line went cold.

“Hello! Hello!!!” I kept saying till I pulled the phone away from my ear and saw the call had cut.

I tried calling back again, several times, but it kept telling me that the line was switched off. How? Why??

Moved by a fresh stream of fear that coursed through me, I began running with one destination in mind. My room. I need to get home.

“What’s wrong, Sylvania?” Aleera asked from behind me, her breathing coming off short.

“I need to get home,” I responded as soon as I reached the elevator.

“What? Why?” She blurted as we got into the elevator.

I shook my head, my fingers wrangled in my hair.

“I don’t know,” I admitted, yanking my hair at the roots. When we got to our floor, I dashed out of the elevator and practically ran towards our room, counting the numbers on the door till I got to ours.

I checked the time on my phone. It was almost twelve noon. I could make it home in about two hours if I was fast enough.

“I don’t think that’s allowed, Vee. Lectures start tomorrow,” she tried dissuading as we entered the room.

I hurriedly grabbed my small traveling bag and began packing stuff inside.

“I have to try, I really have to try,” I blurted, zipping it close and flinging the strap over my shoulder. I didn’t know what was going on, and there was no one I could call to ask to check up on them or something. No one.

“Well, you could try getting a pass from the office on ground floor. Same one we went to,” she advised.

“Thank you,” I appreciated, pulling her into a quick hug. Her hands shook slightly as she hugged me back.

I hurried back out the room, to the elevator and to the office Aleera had suggested I went to. I didn’t knock on the glass door this time. I stepped through the wide open door straight towards the only man among the three people at the reception.

When I got there, I tried explaining myself and the reason why I needed to go home. They gave me a long list of procedures I had to go through before I could be granted leave.

Exasperated by the stress of it all, I almost screamed out loud, but I heard the voice behind me.

“Let her go.”

Standing behind me was my new stalker or should I say blackmailer? Ryder Miles. Why is he following me? What does he want from me?

Funny enough, as though he had a magic charm or something, they gave me a pass. I was free to go home. He walked away before I was able to leave the reception and when I eventually did, he was nowhere to be found. Great, he disappeared again.

I shook my head to get him off my mind. That was an issue for when I get back. The most important thing to me now was getting home to my family.

After hours of trying to call my mum to no avail as I jumped buses and trains, I finally got home. The neighborhood was just as I remembered it. A few people strolling around, street pets everywhere and the deserted look it always had was still there. Yep, nothing changed.

I knocked when I reached the door, but no one answered. When I knocked again, the door clicked and slipped open.

An instinct told me something was wrong, but I couldn’t put my hands as to what it might be. Maybe I should have brought Aleera along, or informed someone that I was coming here and given them my location because it feels like I’m stepping into a security hazard right now.

Regardless of the feeling, I pushed the door open, and stepped inside anyway.

“Mum? Sylvia?” I called out to them as I moved further inside.

The feeling I had while inside was as though I was stepping into a scene in a horror movie. Everywhere was so quiet and since the sun was about to set and all the lights were switched off, it was giving that haunted house kind of vibe.

All of a sudden, the door behind me closed. A gasp escaped my lips as my head snapped backwards. And standing by the closed door was a face I had prayed never to see again for as long as I lived.

Looks like that prayer wasn’t answered.