Chapter 19 Scared Kitten
Celene POV
I stared at myself in the bathroom mirror, scrubbing my teeth so hard it was a miracle my gums didn’t bleed.
I groaned around the toothbrush, spat the foam into the sink, then bolted back into my room and buried my face in my pillow. Another muffled groan tore out of me. I had been that all damn day!
I had to be dreaming.
I had been reeling for days because of that kiss.
I shot back up from the bed and returned to the mirror like it had personally offended me. I needed to get a grip. I slapped my cheeks once. Then again. But dammit, it didn’t help. I still looked like someone unravelling in real time.
I tugged at my cheeks. Pulled my eyelids down and released them. Closed my eyes. Opened them. Yup. I was still me, I was still spiraling.
I let out a loud, miserable wail.
“What kind of person kisses someone they don’t even know?” I demanded of my reflection. “And why am I still thinking about iiiiiitttt?”
I yanked at my hair hard enough that a few strands snapped.
That stupid kiss had upended my life.
A whole week had passed and I was still thinking about it. Still talking to my reflection like a damned lunatic.
After kissing me, owning my lips like hebwas a thirsty camel, he had smiled at me...smiled!!! and walked away like it meant nothing, leaving me trapped in a torture chamber inside my own head called my brain.
I hadn’t seen him since. I knew that for a fact because I had—hypothetically—looked. For seven days straight, i had not seen the black car anywhere.
The memory replayed constantly, and every single time it reached the kiss, my brain slowed it down like it enjoyed my suffering.
“You stupid, stupid girl. Celeeeeeene! Stupid girl,” I hissed. “You closed your eyes. Whyyy? Why did I close my eyes? What was the reason?”
I glared at myself, toothpaste dripping down my chin.
“That ugly, terrifying, stupid buffoon,” I muttered viciously.
I hadn’t told Maria. Not about the kiss. Not about the conversation—if you could even call it that. I had no idea how to explain it without sounding insane.
How did you even say it?
So he barely introduced himself, knew everything about me, had apparently been watching me for so long, and then he kissed me, and then he left.
I sounded deranged. Maria would lose her mind. She’d call the police. Which I probably should have done too, if I were normal.
But I wasn’t.
I rushed through breakfast, shoveling cereal into my mouth because I had an early class. My eyes snagged on the cereal box and my stomach tightened.
He knew my favorite cereal.
The thought made me go still.
Was he watching me now?
I slowly scanned the kitchen, squinting at dark corners, my pulse ticking up as I searched for… something. I didn’t know what. I just knew I had to look.
When nothing jumped out at me, I exhaled shakily and dumped my bowl in the sink, I did not care anout washimg it yet since I lived alone. I could deal with it later.
The sink was dirty anyway—old smudges, dried sugar from last night. It was a mess, but it was my mess. My space. I’d clean it when I got back.
With that settled, I got ready and left for school.
Classes were a welcome distraction. Maria launched into gossip the second she saw me about some lecturer quitting overnight, another student caught dealing meth in school, and how she could start an only fans.
According to her, the lecturer and student were deeply suspicious and required immediate investigation. It was funny how she left herself out of it.
Maria was bright and loud and warm in a way that made everything feel lighter just by proximity. Sitting next to her was like getting a contact high.
For hours, I forgot about the kiss.
Then, in my last lecture, it hit me, I hadn’t seen him all day too. I didn't why I thought i would definitely see him after he disappeared for a week after kissing me.
Strange.
Maria saved me again by spiraling into a dramatic story about her dog.
“I’m telling you, that dog will be the death of me,” she said. “She swallowed a whole chocolate bar.”
“Oh my God. Isn’t that poisonous?” I asked.
“She lived. that was divine intervention right there. Also, I met the new vet and she is fine.”
I laughed. “You fed your dog chocolate on purpose so you could meet and flirt with the hot vet, didn’t you?”
She wheezed out laughing “Get out. You’re insane.”
She eventually glanced at the time and cursed.
“I have to go. I dropped Peaches at the vet and I need to pick her up.”
“Say hi to the sexy veterinarian for me,” I teased.
She giggled and rushed off, leaving me alone again.
I got home less than an hour later.
The feeling hit me immediately...that wrongness. That feeling like someone else was inside my house. That sense of something being off. I brushed it aside, blaming stress, and went straight to shower. Crap! I needed it after walking in the damp, sunny weather.
Wrapped in my bathrobe, I wandered into the kitchen and tossed leftover pizza into the microwave. I grabbed a glass for water, walking past the sink—and froze.
I slowly stepped backward.
The sink was clean.
Spotless.
My cereal bowl was washed and sitting on the drying rack.
Still wet.
I stared at it, my brain refusing to process what I was seeing.
Because I knew...I knew...I hadn’t washed it.
And I lived alone. Which meant one thing, someone had come into my house and cleaned my kitchen.