by Kelly Oram
“Awful,” I said. “I think I would fail miserably as an actor. I can’t ever relax around him. I haven’t let him kiss me since we talked to Detective Pierce. He knows I’m scared of him. He knows I’m upset. I don’t think I’m keeping him happy at all.”
“But do you think he knows we’re talking to the cops?”
I shook my head. “He thinks I’m scared of him because of Travis. He keeps telling me that he didn’t attack Travis. He thinks I don’t believe him.”
“You don’t,” Angela pointed out.
“I know. But he’s not supposed to know that. He also knows I’ve been upset about my friends and thinks I blame him for not being able to play hockey anymore.”
“You do.”
“I know. The worst part is, he’s been extra sweet because he’s trying to make everything okay again. If he weren’t a serial killer, he’d be the perfect boyfriend.”
It seemed I couldn’t do anything but sigh anymore. And gorge myself on ice cream. “I don’t know how long I can do this, Angela.”
“Well, hopefully you won’t have to much longer. I mean, there’s a good chance he’ll try to kill someone this Saturday, right? Then Detective Pierce will get him and it will all be over and things can go back to normal.”
My stomach churned when Angela said the word normal. I scooted my ice cream far away from me. “Normal?” I scoffed. “Nothing about my life is normal anymore. It hasn’t been all summer.”
“Holy pink shirt Batman!” a voice called out from the curb in front of my house.
When I looked up and saw the J’s walking up my front lawn I let out a shriek and jumped to my feet. Josh happened to be the closest, so he was the one I tackled. I was so relieved to see them—and so desperate for something in my life to make sense again—that I didn’t care how girly it was.
I ran full force and literally leapt at Josh, wrapping him in the tightest hug I had in me. Josh was forced to catch me, but try as he might to stay on his feet, my attack had come as such a surprise that we tumbled over. “What the hell, Westley?” he screeched when we came to a stop in the grass—me laying on top of him. “Get off me, you psycho!”
I rolled off him and Jack helped me to my feet. I was still so blissfully happy to see them that the minute I had my balance I wrapped my arms around an unsuspecting Jack and squeezed like I was never going to let go.
“Um, Westley?” Jack asked as if I’d completely lost my marbles.
“Sorry. I’m just so glad you’re back,” I said, but couldn’t make myself let go.
“Geez, Westley,” Josh murmured behind me. “They said you went crazy, but…”
That’s when Jack started fidgeting beneath my embrace. “Guys?” he squeaked. “Little help?”
I finally pulled back. When I met Jack’s eyes his face went all pink, which then made my face go all pink and I quickly looked away. But looking away didn’t help, because I found myself staring at Jesse. He watched me for a second, but then broke into a grin and held open his arms. “Well, come on then. I’m not scared of you.”
I don’t know why, but his acceptance of the new me is what made me lose it all together. I fell into his arms and actually got misty-eyed. “Thanks, Jesse,” I whispered, praying that none of them would hear the emotion in my voice.
Jesse squeezed me so tight that I started to believe maybe my life wasn’t going to come to an end. Maybe I could still be the new Ellie and it would be okay.
Of course, Jesse had to go and ruin the moment by saying, “Dude, you really do have a nice rack. That’s crazy! All this time I never knew.”
I finally realized why he was hugging me so hard. I ripped my chest away from his and punched him hard in the stomach. “Perve on me again and I’ll make sure you never have children!”
As soon as Jesse could breathe again he started laughing. “Good news, guys. She may be hot now, but she’s still the same old Westley.”
“Shut up, dillweed.”
Josh threw his arm over my shoulder and said, “If it helps, I still don’t think you’re hot.”
We all finally burst into laughter and just about the time somebody yanked on my ponytail, a door slammed rather loudly across the street, bringing me back to reality. The guys all questioned my sigh, but I just muttered, “I’ll be back,” and headed across the street without further explanation.
I pounded on the front door and when he didn’t answer I yelled, “They’re my best friends! I’ve known them my whole life. What do you want from me?”
The door between us swung open and Seth glared at me, too enraged to speak. When I opened my mouth to start yelling, he yanked me against him and smashed his lips on mine. At first his kiss tasted of anger, but it quickly melted into something so sincere that my muscles relaxed.
His hands came around my waist, holding me up when I threatened to collapse. His breathing was ragged and his eyes burned wildly as he stared into my face more fierce than I’d ever seen him. “I know things aren’t good between us right now, but I can’t lose you, Ellie,” he said. “I can’t.”
He shot a worried glance over my shoulder and I remembered the J’s. I whirled around, my face burning, and sure enough, they were standing there gaping. Jesse looked shocked, Josh looked slightly disgusted, and poor Jack looked really confused.
I dragged Seth over to the J’s and shrugged awkwardly. “Seth, these are the J’s. Guys? Seth. My, um, my…”
“Boyfriend,” Seth grumbled, annoyed when I didn’t say the word.
“So we noticed,” Jesse said.
“You’re not gonna start doing that in front of us all the time now, are you?” Jack asked.
Josh nodded vigorously and added, “I just threw up in my mouth a little.”
“Yeah,” Jesse chimed in. “You never see me sticking my tongue in anyone’s mouth.”
I shuddered. That was something I hoped I never saw.
“Only ‘cause no chick would let you, Jesse,” Jack said.
Jesse smirked. “Your mom doesn’t have a problem when I do it to her.”
Jesse got punched again and as he and Jack fell to the ground in a wrestling match I gave Seth a dry look. “Do you see now why the J’s are not an issue?”
“Then what is the issue?” Seth asked.
“There’s no issue,” I said quickly. “Everything’s fine.”
Josh, who was now trying to hit on Angela, said to Seth, “Don’t let her snow you, dude. Westley’s a big, fat liar.”
“Do you mind?” I snapped.
Josh flashed me a big grin. “Not at all. Actually, this whole Westley-has-a-boyfriend thing has potential.”
I was about to give Josh the finger, but Seth grabbed my hand. “Can we talk?”
“We are talking.”
Seth’s face flushed with anger. “Alone?”
“Um.”
“Ellie, you can’t keep avoiding me!”
Apparently one rumor that hadn’t reached the J’s yet was the news of Seth stabbing Travis, otherwise they might have thought twice before starting in with the crap.
“Ooh, lovers spat!”
“Trouble in paradise already, Westley?”
“Better watch it, dude. Westley’s not so good at carrying on a conversation without punching people.”
“This ought to be good. Ten bucks says Westley lays him out in less than two minutes.”
I could see Seth’s temper nearing its boiling point. “Please? Before I kill one—or possibly all—of your best friends?” he asked, trying not to growl.
I glanced nervously at Angela and she mouthed, “Keep him happy.”
I looked down at Seth’s white knuckles and swallowed back my nerves. “Yeah, okay, fine,” I said, and Seth practically raced me inside his house.
“Better make it a quickie, Westley!” Josh hollered loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear. “We still have to show you all our sick new skills.”
“Looking forward to it! It will be that much more pathetic now
when I cream you!” I yelled and shut Seth’s front door. I leaned against it and let out a breath. “Idiots. Why did I want them to come home so bad?”
“That is going to get old really fast,” Seth said, glaring at the door.
The loathing Seth displayed for my best friends was overwhelming. I guess it’s a good thing he wasn’t going to have to put up with them much longer. I pitied his cellmate.
“They don’t mean it,” I said. “If they’re razzing us, that’s a good thing. They’re not completely freaked out. And right now they’re the only people still talking to me, so you should be nicer.”
Seth’s face crumbled when I glared at him. “Ellie, I didn’t touch Travis. I know how it looks, but you have to believe me.”
“I do believe you.”
“No, you don’t! You’re scared of me again. You’ve been on edge with me for days, and I don’t understand, because when I came home from the police station you said you didn’t care. You waited here all night for me to come home and were happy to see me. Everything was great, and then later that day something happened. What are you not telling me?”
Seth’s gaze was accusing and it made my stomach flip. He was aware of a lot more than I realized. “What do you mean?” I asked slowly, trying to stay calm.
Seth was not calm. “I was at the mall on Sunday!” he yelled, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and yanking them in frustration. “I saw you and Angela talking to that cop!”
I blanched, and then I backed away from him, slamming my back into the front door.
Seth quickly reigned in his temper. “Who was he? What did he say to you that’s made you afraid of me?”
I was freaked out. What was I going to do? I had to come up with something and quick, but I was too scared to come up with a decent lie. If I couldn’t fix this right now, Seth would know we knew about him, and Angela and I would both be dead. “Were you following us?” I demanded, trying to stall.
Seth let go a frustrated breath and stalked upstairs. I thought about leaving, but my curiosity got the better of me, so I followed him. “What are you doing?” I asked when he pulled the toolbox from beneath his bed.
He didn’t answer me. He set the box on his dresser, popped the lid with his knife, and pulled a small box from it that hadn’t been in there when Angela and I went through it. “I wasn’t spying on you,” he grumbled, shoving the box into my hands. “I was there buying you this.”
I was scared to look, but too curious not to. My jaw hit the floor when I opened the case and found a necklace inside. A necklace with a freaking diamond hanging off it. “Holy crap, is that real?”
“Ellie, the other night was a bad night. When I came home and found you waiting for me…” Seth’s voice was suddenly clouded with emotion. “No one’s ever been there for me like that. Ever. I wanted to get you something special, so you’d know how much you mean to me. Something only a boyfriend would give you.”
I suck. I had to swallow back bile. Oh, the guilt. I’m a jerk! I’m scum! Here he thinks I was being this super supportive girlfriend, when really I was looking for evidence to get him thrown in prison for the rest of his life. But he’s murdering people, Ellie.
“I saw you and your sister talking to that cop and figured it wasn’t a good idea to interrupt you. I assumed he was asking you about Travis. But I also thought you’d come home and tell me about it. Only, you didn’t. You came home acting like you thought I killed someone.”
He knows! Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap! I started looking for an escape route. Seth grabbed me by the shoulders and said, “What did he say to you?”
“Nothing!” I gasped. “I-I-he…” I panicked and blurted, “It wasn’t about Travis. It was about the Saturday Night Slasher.”
Seth froze and I realized my mistake. If Seth didn’t know we were on to him before, he sure did now. I searched frantically for a lie. “That guy is a detective in the Slasher case. He just wanted to talk to me because I fit the profile. He said he’s been visiting all the girls he could find that could be at risk and telling us how to stay safe.”
I thought my story sounded reasonable enough, but I don’t think Seth bought it, because he got pissed. Scary pissed. It’s like he just shut off all his emotions and turned to stone in order to gain complete control of himself. It was the type of eerie focus I could only imagine he had when he was slicing up screaming girls.
“How did he find you?” he asked, his voice like steel. “Cops don’t just have a database of all the teenage redheads in the world.”
Oh, no. He didn’t just know the cops were on to him. He knew we turned him in. “Um...” I hated how much my voice was shaking. I didn’t like him knowing I was scared. “He didn’t say. But I did get hauled down to the big house last weekend. They didn’t take my fingerprints or anything like they did you, but I’m sure there’s a report somewhere with my name in it. Plus several cops there that day mentioned I was serial killer bait. Any of them could have said something.”
That seemed to do the trick. Seth stood there, lost in thought for a minute, but he eventually snapped out of it and switched back over to calm, loving boyfriend. He pulled me against him and murmured into my hair in a silky voice. “That’s what’s had you so upset this week? Why didn’t you just tell me?”
“I don’t know. I guess I was embarrassed. I feel like a paranoid mental case.”
Seth kissed my head and rubbed my back, trying to sooth away my nerves while he held me. His touch was so tender, his smile so sincere. And the way he got lost in my eyes? It was too much to resist. When he told me not to worry and promised me I was safe, it was hard not to believe him.
He felt it the instant I relaxed. He looked at me with these big hopeful eyes and asked, “So you weren’t just afraid of me? You really do believe me about Travis?”
I couldn’t lie to him. I couldn’t stand there and look into that face that wanted me to have faith in it so badly, and tell a lie. “It’s the Slasher I’m scared of, Seth. Talking to that cop made it real. I mean, if that detective could find me, then the Slasher could, too. I’m sorry I’ve been a little crazy.”
Seth held me in an embrace that could have created world peace. It ripped my heart in two. How could this boy be the Saturday Night Slasher? I wished there were a way I could separate the two of them and just keep this Seth.
I hated how he made me want to trust him. I hated how he made me feel. I wished I could just hate all of him the way I needed to, but I couldn’t. Especially not when he broke the tender silence in the room by whispering, “I think my aunt was right, Ellie. I think I’m in love with you.”
His declaration was so raw it was terrifying, and yet the way my heart reacted to his confession was even scarier. “Seth,” I breathed. “I—I don’t know what to say.”
Seth shook his head. “You don’t have to say anything. I just needed you to know.”
As I stood there battling feelings I couldn’t recognize and emotions I didn’t know I was capable of, Seth clasped the necklace around my neck. After making sure it was straight, he regarded my overwhelmed expression and then hesitantly brought his lips to mine, giving me time to protest if I needed to.
I didn’t protest.
As he gave me the world’s most loving, tender, perfect kiss, I realized that my heart belonged to him forever, and nothing in my life has ever caused me more pain. I ripped myself away from him and staggered back, trying to catch my breath. “I’m sorry, Seth,” I said, gasping. I took off the necklace and left it on the nightstand as I backed out of his room. “I—I have to go.”
I raced downstairs and across the street, pushing away the sound of Seth’s voice calling me back, and ignoring the J’s stupid taunts. There was only one person in the world that I wanted to see right now and that was Angela. By the time I got to where she was still waiting anxiously for me on our front porch and threw myself into her arms, I was full on crying. No, not crying. I was sobbing.
Somewhere, a new rift was just created in th
e space-time continuum.
“Ellie?” Angela asked.
I could feel the J’s standing behind me and couldn’t even begin to imagine their shock.
“What happened?” Jack asked, while Josh demanded, “Did he hurt you?”
“We’ll kill him!” Jesse said, and I didn’t doubt they’d give it their best shot. They’d get the beating of a lifetime.
“No,” I said quickly. “He didn’t hurt me. He didn’t do anything wrong.” I was hit with a new wave of tears. “He did everything right.”
Behind me I heard someone mutter, “Chicks.”
“Go home, you idiots!” Angela barked over my shoulder. “She’ll call you later.”
After my once-in-a-lifetime, never-to-be-repeated emotional breakdown on Wednesday, I told Angela everything. She turned out to be a surprisingly good listener and didn’t even judge me for being in love with a serial killer. Much. She listened, cheered me up as best she could, and helped me hide my depression from my parents until they left for their vacation later that night.
I’m all for this new sisterhood Angela and I seemed to have, but by the time Saturday came and we were officially on lockdown for the night, I hadn’t seen or talked to anyone but her in days, and it was starting to show. “No,” I said when she flipped to MTV. “I am not watching this all night. No way.”
“Well, you can forget about ESPN.”
“Don’t you have some boys you can go call or something?” I snapped.
“Don’t you have some video games you can go play or something?” she spat back.
I snatched the remote from Angela and started flipping through the channels. “Saturday TV sucks.”
“Forget this. I’m going to Rachel’s. Mom and Dad aren’t even home. They’ll never know if we leave.”
“You’re just gonna leave me here alone?”
“Well, why not? You’re probably the safest redhead in southern Michigan. Not only did Detective Pierce say that Seth can’t hurt anyone he knows, Seth loves you. He’s not going to kill you. Besides, it’s eight o’clock already. He’s probably out stalking his next victim right now.”
