Chapter 2 How Does He Know My Name?
Gracie
The sound of someone’s voice from behind me makes me squeal and jump. I nearly fall headfirst into the lake, but manage to stop it and no more. The voice isn’t familiar to me, but, strangely, I still know who it is. It is him, the stranger I came here to avoid.
I don’t look at him as I answer. “I did not run away.”
A part of me hopes that if I don’t look at him and say as few words as possible, he may leave. I hear footsteps against the dock, silently wishing it is him walking away, but they are not closer, not further away. A figure soon sits down next to me.
He lets out a soft chuckle. “I would call it running away.”
“Maybe, but what do you expect? I had some stranger watching me. What was that even about?” I ask and finally turn to look at him.
Bad idea! A small squeak falls from my lips when my eyes meet his. Oh, wow, they are beautiful. His eyes are almost emerald. I swallow hard, no words willing to follow. I am speechless.
“I couldn’t help myself. You seem different from all those other girls. Why is that?”
“You do not even know me. How could you possibly know I am different from everyone else?”
He answers quickly. “The entire night, I have not seen you drinking or making out with anyone.”
The entire night? How long has he been watching me? It is creepy.
“How long have you been watching me?”
“You caught my attention the second you arrived.”
I furrow my brows in confusion. “What? Why?”
He shrugs. “Because you did, as simple as that.”
There is nothing simple about it. Out of all the stunning girls here, he happened to notice me. Yeah, I am calling bullshit on that one. I have nothing on most of the girls here tonight. More to the point, why is he here? This is for students starting senior year tomorrow. As far as I know, he doesn’t go to our school.
“Who are you?” My words come out a little bitchy. It is not what I intended, they just came out that way.
He laughs and gets to his feet. “You will know me soon enough, Gracie.”
“Wait, how do you know my name?”
He smirks. “You will find out soon enough. See you around, brown eyes.” With that, he rushes off.
I don’t get the chance to get up before he disappears into the darkness. What just happened? Who is he? The bigger question is, how does he know my name? I don’t know if I should be flattered or scared. I stay where I am, confused and try to work everything out. What I wanted more than anything right now was to know who he is.
I jump to my feet and rush back to where everyone else is, hoping to see him. If I can’t find him again, it will annoy me for the rest of the night. I look around, and he is nowhere in sight. How can he vanish? He only left the docks a few minutes before me.
“Gracie, who are you looking for?” I hear Lola laugh from behind me.
I turn to face her. “The strangest thing just happened.”
“What do you mean?”
I explain to her what happened, and by the end of my story, she seems as confused as I do.
“I don’t know if the full thing should freak me out.” I sigh.
“I honestly don’t know. What did he look like?”
“He is tall with dark, messy hair, green eyes and a tattoo on his neck. He is wearing jeans and a leather jacket. Have you seen him?”
“I think I did see him, only a few minutes before you showed up. He drove away in his car, though.”
“Damn it! It is going to annoy me all night. I don’t even know who he is. I haven’t seen him around before tonight.”
“I haven’t either. It is an odd situation.”
All I can do is nod in agreement with her. He said I would find out who he is soon enough. What did he even mean by that? Arghh! It is so frustrating. Who was he?
“I guess all you can do is wait and see if you run into him again.” She says.
I sigh, shaking my head. “I guess.”
I try to push him and the entire thing to the back of my mind. It isn’t easy. I am both annoyed and intrigued by what happened. I am irritated because he wouldn’t tell me who he was. I am intrigued because of the way he acted. All I can do now is hope I either see him again or that he disappears from my head. I am okay either way. I prefer the first option. At least that way I will know his name.
Lola links her arm with mine. “Come on, let’s ask around and see if anyone knows who he is.”
I am not keen on the idea, but she is insisting. I nod, going with her, but I let her ask the question. No one seems to know who he is.
“I swear if you didn’t see him, I would think he didn’t exist, and I was losing my mind.” I laugh.
Lola laughs too. “He may as well not exist at this rate.”
I groan, my frustration growing. I should stop thinking before it gets any worse. He is just some guy. I shouldn’t be so adamant about finding out who he is. Maybe he will always be a stranger that I will never know. Who knows. Time will tell. For tonight, I will try my best to forget about him. We can be strangers who passed in the night.