Song: Say Something by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera

Chapter Forty-four: You're not being fashionably late with what you're wearing

"I can see you." I told the unrecognizable figure.

I had just stepped out of my house and was about to enter the car when I saw movement in the plants. The person still didn't come out as I said that.

"I said I can see you, which means you should come out now."

No movement. Maybe I'm being paranoid. Maybe I'm just seeing things. I unlocked the car door and was about to enter when I saw the person about an inch closer to a car behind mine from the side mirror. Now that I noticed, it wasn't a familiar car.

I turned around sharply, the person didn't notice, so he froze by the car door, looking like he was caught in the act.

Huh?

"Jayden?"

He smiled weirdly and waved. He took a step closer and I took one back.

His brows creased. "Are you afraid of me?"

Well your brother tried to kidnap me, so yes.

I ignored his question and asked my own. "Are you following me?"

He kept his gaze steady. "You didn't answer my question." He took another step to me and I took one back. "You're afraid of me, aren't you? Why?"

Why? Why?!!

Maybe because you have an uncanny resemblance with your brother who tried to kidnap me!!!

"Why not? For starters, you're following me."

He looked around. "For a good reason."

"And what reason is that?"

He didn't reply. "How old are you?"

"How old are you?"

"Are you always going to reply my question with a question?" He asked, obviously frustrated.

"Are you ever going to stop asking questions and reply mine?"

He sent me a small smile. "I'm 20."

"How old is your brother?"

"25."

"And what do the both of you want from me?" I snapped.

"I don't want anything from you."

"So you're here because?"

"My brother wants you." I hid my shudder. "And have you come to get me? Because I have 911 on speed dial."

"And we both know why you haven't pressed it."

Because that'll get them to find out I'm Avery. God!

Why does that matter? You're being utterly stupid.

I opened my car, eager to enter and drive off as far as I can.

"I'm not here to get you."

I stopped and turned back to him. "Then what do you want?"

He knotted his hands together and looked down at them. "Jaxon left home earlier this year to find his way without us, his family. He's always had his..." he tried to find the words, "problems. We don't know what it is and we never found out because he doesn't think anything's wrong with him, so when he left we let him be."

And I thought I was being mean calling him a maniac.

"Then he came back a few weeks ago and seemed worse than ever. He was frantic and so closed up and I never found out what he came back for. So I followed him here. Not followed him, followed him, but came with him. I've been with him for a while and so he's become more open to me. First, all he talked about was a girl named Avery and I didn't understand why he was so obsessed with her. Then he comes back home one day, bruised and angry, but at the same time he looked shocked. He ranted about how she was with someone, and how her boyfriend just attacked him for talking to her."

"That's not what happened."

"I know. I don't know what he did, but I could see through his lies. Next thing I knew he was obsessed with another girl called Charvi. I was so confused, but then I took it as him going through a phase. Then he showed me the pictures of both girls and I noticed they were you. You look like her with the red hair and glasses." He looked up at me before looking back to his hands.

I inwardly groaned. I knew I should have picked the blue wig.

I thought red was more natural.

Well look where your instincts has gotten us to.

My brows creased. "Who's 'her'?"

He fumbled, obviously unsure about whether he should disclose this information. I mean it was still his brother after all. "Jaxon's ex-girlfriend. She died years ago. He didn't take it well, but I thought he got over it."

Is it bad that I didn't feel bad for him?

Jayden continued. "I decided to seek you out at where Jaxon said he usually meets you. I looked at you for a long time to be sure it was you before I approached you. The sheer horror on your face when you saw me was all the proof I needed. You thought I was my brother which meant he had done something."

"Okay. Nice story. Please tell your brother to stay the hell away from me and hang a picture of his dead girlfriend on his wall because I don't give two flying ducks. Maybe when he's picking out his next girlfriend, he shouldn't knock her unconscious and try to stuff her in his trunk. So yeah..." I began entering my car, but his voice stopped me again.

"Yeah, that was over the top."

"I do not like him nor love him and I never will."

"He's not going to like to hear that?"

"So?" I didn't mean so, I just wanted to know what he meant without seeming like I cared.

"When he gets angry, you wouldn't want to be near him. And I don't want to die just yet. Literally."

He wasn't smiling. "You're kidding, right?"

Still not smiling. "I wish." I must have looked scared because he added, "Lucky for you I doubt he'd ever hurt you."

I gave a disgusted face. What the hell did he mean by lucky? "Doesn't he have a job or something?"

"We both work under my dad. I put aside school for now. But when he left, it was literally the same as quitting his job. Dad still sends him money every week anyways. Enough for him to buy guns." He joked, but I kept a straight face.

He stopped smiling. "That wasn't funny, was it?"

"Not one bit." I continued. "Can you just call the police and lock him up?"

He gave me an incredulous look. "He's my brother. Would you lock your brother up?"

He's talking about Shane? How does he know about Shane? I met Jaxon long after Shane had gone to college. "Is there nothing you and your brother don't know about me?"

He actually thought for a while. "He doesn't know where you were yesterday and that has him really angry."

"He follows me?"

"No, but he has people watching you. Only in town, so you must have left town with your boyfriend."

"Does he know you're here?"

"I paid the people watching your house a lot of money to be quiet. This is why you can't go anywhere alone."

"I'm not going to be living in fear for the rest of my life. And I most certainly don't want a bodyguard."

"Then take your boyfriend everywhere with you."

"That's ridiculous. We may be dating, but we have our separate lives."

As he was thinking, I made up my mind. "This is insane. I'm calling the police." Avery Adams can't hold anything against me anymore. This Jaxon guy is simply insane. I would say he should find another girl to be obsessed with, but that would just be wicked.

"I don't think that's going to work out well for you."

"Why not?" I bit out.

"A lot of reasons. Number one being you have no evidence and if you accuse him, he'd deny it flatly. Two, the people watching you may accept a certain amount for not mentioning they saw me, but they would never betray Jaxon by letting you call the police. Three, Jaxon has enough money that he has friends on the other side."

"The other side?"

"I meant with the police."

"What am I supposed to do then?"

He pondered for a while. "I actually don't know."

I looked around searching for any signs of movement from the people watching me, but I guess they were better stalkers than Jayden. "They must be horrible people then. I'm a freaking 17 year old girl. Do people not have hearts these days?"

"You just told me your age."

I realized. "I lied."

"No you didn't?"

I scoffed. "Are you a goddamned lie detector?"

"Nope. I knew your age from the start. I just wanted to see if you'd lie to me."

I didn't feel like replying so I asked a very unsettling and stupid question. "If he has so many people watching me and he knows where I am every time, what is he waiting for?"

More like, why hasn't he taken you yet?

"I guess he's waiting for the right time."

I was so angry and irritated and annoyed and frustrated and I just wanted to scream.

"He should put a tracking device on me then or CCTV cameras around the whole goddamned town if he was so determined!!" I yelled to no one in particular.

"You're giving the people working for him ideas." Jayden inputted coolly.

I turned to him with a glare that should have melted him right on the spot.

"Do not follow me. You'll draw attention." I told him as I entered the car. This time, he didn't stop me. So I drove straight to Zahra's house ignoring the pounding in my chest.

Are we in trouble?

**************************

"You're not being fashionably late with what you're wearing."

I looked down at my leggings and shirt and back up at Zahra. "There literally has to be a compliment hidden there somewhere."

She just shrugged.

I scowled at her. "I am always fashionable so that better not be an insult."

"It would've been, but then you pulled that face." She teased.

I rolled my eyes at her.

"What took you so long?" Xander questioned as he handed me the bottle of coke he was drinking from.

I took a sip and was about to answer, but Leyla grimaced. "I know you two have this whole saliva sharing friendship thing, but you don't have to show it."

Xander chuckled and I just gave her an incredulous look. "We do not share saliva. I just drank out of his bottle."

"What's that called?"

"You're such a big baby." I teased.

"Am not."

Xander repeated his question before we went into a war of 'am nots' and 'are toos'.

"The house is pretty far from here."

"Has it become a habit to skip school now?" Kai asked.

"I also noticed your honeybun was absent too."

I smiled. "Guess who has a new boyfriend?" Leyla, Zahra and I exchanged looks and then squealed, really loudly. This was like me and Rev at the hospital all over again. I'm so unlike myself these days.

Xander blocked his ears. "What is this, elementary school?"

"That's not important." Leyla dismissed. "Charvi's dating Hottie McSugarBuns."

What the butt?

"Hottie Mc-what?" I laughed. "Please never say that again."

"Why not?"

"The actual question is not why not? but why?."

"That doesn't matter. Do you remember this? 'He doesn't see me that way. I'm just his friend'." Kai imitated.

They all laughed and I rolled my eyes. "That was a horrible impression of me."

"Yeah. It was more like this, 'He's in love with some hot model and I'm just a walrus that eats too much for my own good.' Zahra imitated as well.

This time I laughed with the rest of them. "I never said that."

She shrugged. "That's what I heard."

"That's what you chose to hear."

"What's the difference?"

"Don't couples have better things to do than mock their friends?"

They looked at each other. And next thing we knew, Zahra was on his lap and they were kissing. Leyla, Xander and I groaned.

Xander grumbled. "Char!!! You gave them ideas."

"It wasn't my intention." I fake sobbed as I begged them to stop.

They joined in my fake sobbing as Zahra and Kai began laughing at our dismay.

*******************************

"Ouch!"

I threw my duvet off me as I sprung off my bed. I grabbed my pillow ready to pulverize whoever that was. After an eventful and fun day with my friends, and Zane constantly calling to tell me he missed me, I just wanted a peaceful sleep to top it all off.

"Who said that?" I called out.

I heard a thud and then more movement. I think it's coming from the outside my window. I walked up to it, and cautiously opened it. I was quite shocked by what I saw.

There, lying on the grass was Zane trying to push a ladder off him. I didn't know I had been laughing until his eyes shot up to meet mine. "You think this is funny?"

"You're a grown man being attacked by a ladder, so quite frankly, yes."

"I'm not being attacked by a ladder." He scoffed.

I raised my brows even though he probably couldn't see it from down there. "You're not?"

"No. Plus, this wasn't part of the plan."

"What's the plan?"

"I was planning to rescue my Princess Fiona from her castle." He joked.

I nodded, amused. "I dig ogres, you know?"

"So you like green, smelly balding men with yellow teeth. Nice to see, I've found my Halloween costume."

Ah, Halloween. The event about 3 weeks from now. The Thursday 31st October. The week mum is going on her trip to Africa.

"If you're going as an ogre, I'm going as an ogre too, and that can't happen."

He laughed. "That would have been funnier if I had this huge ladder off me."

I laughed at that.

He groaned. "Just come down here and help me get it off."

I waved at him, shut my window, put on my slippers and headed downstairs.

***********************

Yes, Yup, Yea, Yeah and every other synonym to this word is what is running through my brain right now. Like wow, I can't actually believe I made it this far.

I hope you've liked the book so far.

Please vote, share and comment. Thanks and Toodles ;)