Several minutes later as I browsed the clothing website of the store that I work for, a text came into my phone from that fuckin’ secret person! You’ll do anything for him, won’t you? I gasped as I stared at the text. It was obvious to me what this person was talking about. I had no doubt about it now that it was John who was in fact sending me these texts and knew that I was the one who pushed Lisa off of the stage, even though I thought that no one saw me do it. “STOP FUCKING WITH ME, JOHN!!!” I yelled, and then threw my phone across the room.
CHAPTER 10
“I love your new phone, Vanessa,” Ava said to me with a grin, as we walked into school on Monday morning.
I grinned back at her. “Thanks. I told my parents that I dropped my old phone on the concrete in the parking lot at Sparkle. I couldn’t tell them the truth, otherwise, they would’ve told me to save my work money to get another one, and that would’ve taken a long time since you know I’ve got to have the latest and greatest!”
“Don’t we all!”
We laughed as we walked to our lockers.
“Like I’ve been telling you since I received this latest text, I still think it’s John. I mean, I have to admit that I started receiving them the night that I left John’s house — you remember, the night that Brad showed up at his house while I was there — and I’ve been getting them ever since. I’m sorry, but I just can’t believe that it’s anyone else besides John, especially since that last text since he was there that night. Just when I didn’t think anyone saw me push Lisa off the stage besides that drunk dude.”
“Have you confronted John about it?”
“No, and I’m not going to. I don’t wanna talk to him or about that night anymore. I admit that I was wrong because Lisa’s never done anything bad to me — I simply did it because I’m jealous that she has Brad and I’m his secret lover.”
She grinned. “I think all the girls can agree that we’re jealous of her because she has Brad.” She closed her locker. “See you later.”
Several minutes later as I sat in Accounting waiting for class to start, everyone was talking about Lisa being pushed off the stage by an unknown club goer.
“Lisa should’ve really found out who did that to her instead of just leaving,” Marie said to me.
“Well, it’s obvious that she didn’t want to,” I said while I checked my mail on my phone.
“I would’ve searched that club for her and beat her up outside — Lisa could’ve really gotten hurt.”
Yeah, right, I thought, about her beating up the person who did it, considering the fact that Marie was the type who would run from a fight rather than start one, but then again, I was the one who did it so I don’t know if I would’ve been running from her if she found out that it was me. But I couldn’t help but notice that she said her, like she just knew it was a girl. “So Lisa said it was a girl who pushed her off?”
“Well, she said that the hand felt small like a girl’s hand so she just assumed that it was a girl. It probably was, more than likely — some bitch probably hating on her for having Brad,” she said.
“Yeah, probably. She does seem to have a lot of haters because she’s with Brad,” I replied. I didn’t wanna carry on this conversation any longer so I focused my thoughts on Brad and about how I hadn’t talked to him since Saturday nor had I seen him today, but I knew that he was here since we had the DNA-thing this afternoon. I wanted to text him but I didn’t wanna seem like I was bothering him because if there was a chance that him and Lisa ever broke up and I became his girlfriend, I didn’t want him thinking that I was the bothersome type.
During lunch, Ava and I were at a coffee shop off campus.
“I haven’t spoken to Brad today,” I said, and then sipped my coffee.
“How come?”
“I don’t know. I feel bad about what I did to Lisa on Saturday. I have a feeling he’s gonna keep asking me about it and I might end up breaking down and telling him that it was me.”
“Everyone is talking about what happened to Lisa.”
“I know they are; I was hearing it all morning. Marie said that if she would’ve found the girl who did it she would’ve beat her up.”
She rolled her eyes with a grin. “Oh, please! Marie is so full of it. I have yet to see her in a fight with anyone.”
We laughed.
“But what I’m glad that people aren’t talking about is me pulling out my fuckin’ panties at the table that night! I guess I have to hand it to everyone — they didn’t make a big deal out of it like the way I thought they would, including John.”
“Well, see, I told you that no one would. I mean, people who wanna go on and on about shit and twist it and make a big deal out of stuff have no lives and just wanna make other people miserable, so it’s obvious that everyone that was sitting there is not that type of person.”
I smiled. “You’re right. But you know what? I really think that John was the one who put that rose in my car.”
“I think so, too. To me, it’s too obvious that it was him. I mean, he couldn’t even use a different type of flower! He’s trying to get you to back into a secret relationship with him, you know that, right?”
“Yeah, and I really believe that after that night. The way he was holding me while we were dancing and asking me did I wanna finish what we started in the back of his car the night before told me a lot. But sorry, I’m not interested.”
“I know you’re not, because you wouldn’t said no to Brad and continued to see him.”
“Exactly!”
Once again, I was glad that Ava and I decided to have lunch off campus today. I just didn’t feel like seeing Brad and Lisa all over each other all day, and I had to think about the fact that this was the second time in less than a week that we had lunch like this. I knew that this all started once I started secretly seeing Brad, and it hadn’t even been a week since we started seeing each other. I hoped that it wasn’t gonna be like this all the time despite him saying that he wanted to see me at lunch, even though we knew that we couldn’t sit next to each other.
“So you haven’t talked to Brad at all today?” she asked, as if she couldn’t believe that I hadn’t.
“Not since Saturday.”
“I don’t think he suspects you of doing that to Lisa.”
“I’m not so sure, Ava. It was a certain way he was looking at me after it happened, you know? When we were all standing around the table and he was comforting her? So I really don’t know. I know we haven’t been seeing each other for even a week yet, but I feel that I already need a cooling-off period; things got too hot way too fast between us.”
“I agree with that, but keep the communication lines open because you don’t wanna be the type who’s afraid to talk to him about things.”
“I know. I’ll also feel a lot better if I wasn’t so stressed out about so much stuff.”
“Yeah, we all have things that we’re so stressed out about, but we all have to admit that a lot of the stress we cause ourselves.”
I looked at her when she said this since it seemed like she was talking about me. “So you’re saying that me going from one secret relationship into another secret one is causing me undue stress?”
She looked at me with a slight grin. “Well, Vanessa, we all have our things that we’re stressed out over. I can’t speak for you when it comes to that since you only know if doing what you did is greatly stressing you out. But like I told you on Saturday, I don’t think that you would’ve put yourself in the situation that you’re in if you couldn’t handle the stress that comes along with it. I mean, you knew I was in a relationship with two guys at two different schools, and they found out I was dating them both because both of them put that they were in a relationship with me up on all of the social media sites that they’re on.”
I laughed since I clearly remembered that. “Yeah, and you were so incredibly stressed and was complaining to me all the time about which one you wanted to let go and which one you wanted to be in a
long-term relationship with.”
“And it served me right when both of them dumped me! I was fine with it because I felt all of that stress on me instantly get lifted off of me — I was truly relieved!”
I laughed harder! “Yeah, you were! I could tell!”
We laughed even harder.
“But you’re lucky that both of them went to different schools. Brad and John go to the same school as me, plus, they’re really good friends. I honestly hope that Brad is serious about leaving Lisa like how he said he is,” I said.
“And what if he isn’t? Will you just get back into a secret relationship with John again? Or maybe even openly see each other?”
I looked at her. “Only he knows if he’s serious about leaving her, and hopefully he’ll prove to me that he is. But in terms of getting back into a secret relationship with John if Brad isn’t serious about leaving Lisa? Like I said before, I’m just not interested, so that rules out openly seeing him because I’m just not feeling John on a boyfriend level, you know?”
“Yeah, I guess,” she replied with a grin.
“What do you mean you guess?” I asked with a grin.
“Because John is hot as hell! Not as hot as Brad, of course, but definitely the hottest out of Brad’s entourage of friends!”
I laughed as I nodded in agreement. “Yeah, you’re right. But he’s been acting like an asshole since I broke off the secret relationship with him and I guess I can’t blame him. He also seems to be controlling now as well. He said on Friday night that since we’re both free that we can do whatever we want, and now he thinks that means still having sex with me whenever he wants.”
“Yeah, it does seem that way. But you know to take the control if he tries to do that shit again.”
“And I will,” I pledged. “I also can’t rule it out in the least bit that it’s John that’s sending me these secret texts, especially the latest one that I got on Saturday night, and I know for sure it was him who put the rose in my car because I didn’t want to admit that I forgot to lock my doors that night. This is causing me an overload of stress that I didn’t ask for. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I can’t seem to get myself to fully believe that it’s him that’s sending me those secret texts at least, I just don’t know what it is.”
“Well, Vanessa, if it is someone else, we’ll find out who it is, guaranteed.”
“And I’m gonna beat the shit out of this person, too!” I pledged.
We laughed.
“But getting back to Brad’s entourage of friends, I thought that you would think that Marc was the hottest after Brad?” I asked with a grin.
She grinned back at me. “Marc has a downright fuckin’ sexy voice and body, but he doesn’t have the best-looking face — just being honest. But for some reason, he makes up for all of it because of his personality and the two things that I mentioned!”
I laughed. “Yeah, that’s true. You two seem to like each other as more than friends,” I said with a grin.
Once again, she grinned back at me. “It seems that way, but we don’t. We’re just very flirtatious with one another, and since he’s not with Natalie anymore and I don’t have a man it’s all good.”
I nodded with a smile. “It most definitely is.”
She looked down at her watch. “Come on, lunch is almost over with. And we have that DNA crap as well.”
I laughed. “Yeah, I’m really looking forward to that, too, but like Brad said, it has to be done.”
“And he needs to be done with Lisa.”
We laughed.
I sighed. “Well, the bottom line is that I can’t force him to end things with her; that’s totally up to him.” She nodded with a smile as we walked to her car.
Several minutes later, we stood in the gym as everything was set up for everyone to give their DNA, including the teachers as well as other staff. I got lightheaded when I saw other students closing their eyes as they cringed when the needle was being injected into them to draw blood. I heard several screaming “Ouch!” when a hair was plucked out of their scalp, and most gagging after the cotton swab was put in their mouth from collecting their saliva. I also saw a lot that were cursing as they tried to rub the black ink off of their fingers after giving their fingerprints. Whether they were all doing this to be funny or not, I didn’t know.
“I feel faint, Vanessa. I think I’m gonna go to the nurse’s office,” Ava said to me.
“Ava, come on — it’ll be okay. We have to get this done whether we like it or not. I’m sure it’s only gonna take a few minutes so tough it out, okay?”
She laughed. “Okay. So when do we get tortured?” she asked me.
I laughed. “Well, we can start by getting in line,” I replied. Then, I looked around and saw Brad smiling right at me as he talked to his friends. I smiled back and waved to him; he nodded in response. I was glad that he wasn’t ignoring me because I just didn’t know what to think at first. I took a deep breath and then walked nervously over to a table to give my DNA samples.
CHAPTER 11
That following evening, I walked to my car after getting off of work. Ava was usually with me, but since she’d worked three days last week rather than two, she didn’t have to work today.
It was eerily quiet as I walked to my car, but that was normal since it was a weekday because usually there were hardly any people at the mall on weekdays and weeknights. It seemed darker than normal, but I felt safe since I had my mace on my keychain as well as a sound-alert device that made a high-pitched, deafening sound that would scare anyone off.
I was less than ten feet away from my car when I unlocked the doors. I looked back over my right shoulder and saw a car come speeding through the parking lot. The lights on the car were so bright that I couldn’t tell what kind of car it was. I continued to stare at it as it came right towards me as it continued to go at a high rate of speed! I ran to my car and jumped up on the hood of it to get out of the way of the car’s speeding path because it would’ve hit me for sure if I had stayed where I was! I looked at it as it made a sharp U-turn and sped off in the opposite direction as the person threw a can out of the car. I hyperventilated as I stayed on the hood of my car as I watched the small, dark-colored car with deeply tinted windows speed off into the night; I watched it until I couldn’t see it anymore. I looked around and saw two men run over to me that seemed to have come out of nowhere.
“Are you okay?” they asked me.
“Yeah . . . I think so,” I said while I still held my right hand to my chest, as I still sat on the hood of my car.
They helped me down off of it.
“Damn, what a fuckin’ maniac! Did you know that person? Because it seemed like they were targeting you,” the first man said.
I let out a deep sigh because I honestly didn’t know who it was. The car was not recognizable to me at all and since I didn’t recognize it, I couldn’t say for sure that the person was targeting me. “No, I didn’t recognize the car,” I honestly replied.
“Do you want us to call someone for you? Or follow you home to make sure you get home safe?” the second man asked.
“No, that won’t be necessary. I’ll be fine. Thanks, guys,” I said with a smile.
“Okay. Have a nice night,” they said.
I nodded with a smile and got into my car. I watched them as they got into a car and then left. I sat in my car as I still tried to calm myself down. I looked to my right, and there was another single red rose sitting in my vase! I tried my best to calm myself down, because something told me not to snatch it out of the vase and throw it away like what I did with the first one. Then, I looked to my left and saw the can sitting on the ground that the person had thrown out of their car in what it seemed like a pitiful attempt to try and hit me with it since they didn’t run me over. I immediately thought about the DNA Day that was held at school just yesterday, along with my natural instincts since working with DNA was something that I’d thought about pursuing a career in, so I knew that t
here was a chance that I could find out who it was, along with the rose, because no matter if they went to my school or not, we weren’t the only ones in this world that had given our DNA samples. I opened up my purse and got out a pen and an empty plastic bag that I coincidentally had on me. I opened up the door to my car and looked both ways. Then, I ran over to the can, lifted it up with the pen, and put it in the plastic bag that I had. I zipped the plastic bag, ran back over to my car, got in it, and drove off.
I calmed myself down enough to call Ava.
“Hey, Vanessa! How was work?” Ava asked.
I continued to try and calm myself down as I headed to her house since I wanted to talk to her about this in person. “Work was fine, Ava. It’s what happened when I was walking to my car that still has me shaking.”
She shrieked! “Vanessa! Oh, my God! What happened?!”
I let out a deep sigh. “I think someone tried to run me over in the parking lot — they came at me so fast that I can’t believe that I was not the target — I literally had to jump up on the hood of my car because that’s how close they came to hitting me! They then made a sharp U-turn and I thought that they were coming back around after me, but they threw out a can of soda as they sped off through and then out of the parking lot.”
“Holy shit, Vanessa! My God! Are you sure you’re okay now? Do you wanna come over here so we can talk some more about this?”
“I’m on my way,” I told her.
About ten minutes later, I was sitting in Ava’s bedroom with the door shut and locked. She gave me some water and I took some of my anti-anxiety pills that I usually took before I had a big test to calm me down. I reached inside my bag and got out the plastic bag with the can in it. “This is the can that the person threw out of the car; I believe they threw it at me. If it wasn’t for DNA Day yesterday and my interest in DNA in general, I would not have collected this. I wanna find out who did this to me.”
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