FictionPress.com - let the words flow| FictionPress.com - let the words flow |
| Home Just In Communities Forums Beta Readers Dictionary Search | Login Register Extras |
The story so far: Lynne goes to Josh Mitchells’ house for another one of her appointments with his psychologist Mom. Weird thing is that when she gets there, she finds her favorite and long-lost doll Anastasia that Josh has kept for all these years …
Chapter Seven
-
Sort of Stalkers
“He kept Anastasia?” asked Viv incredulously.
“Yeah,” I brought my fist down on the table and opened my mouth in an impassioned speech. “I knew it, there was always something wrong with that kid! I only work at the mental hospital. Yeah right! He’s probably their resident patient or something-“
“He … as in Josh Mitchells?” interrupted and repeated Viv with the same air of disbelief. Her yoghurt spoon hung mid-air between its container and her mouth, its destination apparently forgotten in light of the shocking news I had.
“Uh-huh,” I nodded my head solemnly. “Of course, I should have suspected, with him living in a house filled with wooden object. I mean seriously, you can never underestimate a doll-napper. It might start with dolls, but sooner or later he’ll be on the news wanted for hijacking some bus filled with mannequins or something. Wait-“ I narrowed by eyes, “Viv, remember that time when I placed my baseball bat in the garbage bin and the next day-“
Viv merely waved her free hand impatiently, as if brushing my remark away like an annoying fly. “Wonder why he’ll do something like that?” This time she was the one looking thoughtful, her blue eyes concentrating on something that I couldn’t read.
“Because he’s a stalker!” I declared, bringing my fist down yet again and attracting much irritated stares from my other canteen neighbors. It was only the day after my first in-house appointment with Ms Reynolds but by the time I had my breakfast, my hamster-wheel had already done far more turns than it would have normally bothered, resulting in me being absolutely positive that Mitchells was as nutty as peanut butter. It was the only adequate explanation to his eccentric behavior with Anastasia.
“Who’s a stalker?” asked Seb carelessly, appearing out of nowhere and plonking himself down on the chair next to his sister. As he said this, his hand moved not-so-subtly towards Viv’s Mars Bar and Viv, though distracted with some contemplating thought, had surprisingly sharp eyes and immediately snatched it away from Seb’s reach.
“Mine!” she stated clearly and Seb pouted.
I grinned, my suspicions on Mitchells temporarily forgotten. Then I noticed a slip of green paper in Seb’s hand.
“Hey, what’s that?” I pointed.
“Oh, the student council was handing these out in the corridors. It’s just a flyer on the Christmas Dance next month.”
“Oh really!” Viv perked up and made a move for the flyer. However Seb, sensing blackmail material, was too quick and held it out of reach.
“Whatever,” Viv rolled her eyes and handed over the Mars Bars. Seb smirked and it was only then did he let Viv see the flyer.
“It’s a bit early for Christmas,” Viv scanned the green paper, slightly disappointed. “It’s in November – why can’t they ever have it on Christmas Day?”
“’Coz nobody would bother attending, that’s why! Why go to some boring school function when you can do better things on Christmas?” I said grouchily.
“Hey! You went to last year’s, it wasn’t that bad,” defended Viv.
“Correction: I was forced go. And if I recall correctly, the perpetrators of the incident were you two!” At this, I narrowed my eyes at the Montana siblings. This was one of the moments where their similarity was uncanny – they were both staring at me with the same wide blue-eyed expression of insincere innocence.
“You had a blast,” insisted Seb and he exchanged smirks with Viv.
I rolled my eyes. More accurately, Seb and Viv had a blast. No sooner had Seb stepped onto the dance floor, a crowd of fanatic girls surrounded him like a swarm of locusts and I became disorientated by the smell of their sickly sweet perfume and bright flashy dresses. Once I had recovered, however, I realized that there was an empty space where Seb stood just a few seconds ago – the swarm had evidently carried him away – and the sudden coldness on my right indicated that Viv was not nearby either. On the contrary, during the swarm invasion, she had spotted this guy with an afro and was chatting animatedly to him. I remember rubbing my arm awkwardly, and deciding that as it was way too weird witnessing my best friend flirting with another guy, I had no other choice but to hang around Seb, whom I was used to girls drooling over.
Mistake Number Two. (The first one was coming to this stupid dance in the first place!)
For the moment Seb flagged me down and made me sit next to him with his usual enthusiasm, all the girls around us glared at me with this look … not too dissimilar from the one that precedes homicide. And, in his attempt to rouse me into jovial spirits, Seb made it worse by slinging his arm around my shoulders and forcing me to dance with him as every new song was played. I grimaced – he even called me “his date”!
“No way,” I said firmly, the memory of the last dance all too clearly ingrained in my head. “I’m not going!”
“But you’ve gotta,” insisted Viv earnestly. “Christmas Spirit!” She gestured eagerly at her green and red streaked hair.
“Erm...”
“Plus!” she added, “It’s our last year! We’re seniors now and you’ve got to make the most out of it while you can.”
At this I softened. Viv was right, it was our last year. “Oh yeah… well…” I started, actually considering.
“Besides, Lynne,” said Seb good-naturedly. “You can be my date again!” He gave me a wink.
That seriously put me off.
“Okay, I’ll go,” I conditioned, “but alone. Sorry Seb, you’re a nice guy and all, but last time I was your “date”, I almost ended up as road kill.”
“Fair enough,” grinned Seb. “That might put a damper on our party.”
Well, theoretically, that was what would have happened had not Josh Mitchells been my next door neighbor. In reality, unfortunately, the smooth rumble of his Ferrari disturbed me from my late night Friday – and incredibly frustrating – Maths homework, unmistakably signaling his return home. In one great surge, all the suspicions I had of him as a doll-napper, stalker, psychopath et cetera et cetera came back full flow. I abruptly closed the blinds to my bedroom window, which had the unhappy experience of being right opposite one of the large dark windows of the Mitchells Mansion. The window reminded me of a foreboding, ominous shadow and I vowed vehemently to stay away from potential Mad Mitchells. I quickly cast a worried glance at Anastasia to make sure he hadn’t stolen her back and was relieved to find her sitting safely on my shelf.
With this paranoid feeling in my mind, I was determined to make sure my bedroom blinds and window stayed shut as they were the only barriers protecting me from the notorious Josh Mitchells.
But by the late evening, the acrid smell of smoke from Dad’s attempt at cooking (“No Dad, when the oven is burning like that, it usually means your lasagna isn’t going too well!”) had eventually suffocated the whole house and I was forced to swing my window wide open in order to get that necessary thing called oxygen.
Gasping for air, I savored the biting coldness of the night breeze on my face. In the distance, I could still hear Mom yelling at Dad and a grin found its way on my face as I imagined Dad cowering from her. Mom rarely shouted and in the rare cases when she did, she could turn from a peaceful vegan Buddhist, preaching harmony and amity, to someone who looked capable of murder – faster than you can say “Peace?”! Tonight, Mom was particularly annoyed, not only because dinner was reduced to a bowl of instant noodles each but Dad had burned her best set of chopsticks in his futile attempt to save the smoldering remains of his lasagna. They were the special ones, made from plantation timber so they were environmentally-friendly in the sense that they weren’t made the illegal slaughter of precious rainforests. Yes, Mom actually refers to it as slaughter.
Which Dad is probably fearing right now.
I laughed into the darkness and it was then did I realize how late it was. With the whole Dad-Burning-Lasagna Fiasco, it was now well past eleven o’clock. Yet the smoke was still stifling our house and I could not consider going to bed until the horrible pungent smell had ran its course. As I seriously considered vacuuming the air, wondering if it would suck the smell out, I heard a soft meow coming just outside my window. Squinting out in the darkness, I made out the familiar black and white markings of a tomcat. Boo was staring back at me, perched on a thick branch of the tree that was wedged between my little house and the Mitchells Mansion.
I smiled tentatively at him. His blue eyes flashed in the moonlight.
… He was still furious with me.
In my haste to put out the raging flames from the oven, I barely saw Boo under the staggering weight of the bucket that I was carrying and not only did I manage to trip over his tail, but all the water from the bucket poured onto him in one fell swoop. Yowling and hissing madly, Boo vented out his feelings on me with some deep scratches from his surprisingly sharp claws before scampering wet and thoroughly disheveled out of the house.
Though not without shooting one last dirty look at me.
“I’m sorry,” I pleaded to my cat. “It was an accident, accident!”
Boo simply sniffed the air disdainfully and shook his fur, which, remarkably, was quite dry now.
“Well your coat’s looking better,” I tried some flattery.
At this, Boo bared his teeth, as if to demand You know how long and how many furballs that took to get it cleaned up?
Before I could open my mouth to protest, another cat leaped from the open window of the Mitchells Mansion to the tree. A tabby cat with beautiful ginger fur purred as it gracefully prowled up to Boo and snuggled next to him.
I looked at it curiously, somehow overcame by a sense of déjà vu. Then I remembered. It was Mitchells’ cat – Rhoda, was it?
They looked so cute together. Purring almost in unison, they nestled together with both their tails swinging contently. As my mind started forming the word “Aww…”, another, more disturbing, thought cut through my mind like glass.
Boo’s not de-sexed!
Mom always rejected such “barbaric practices” and as a result, Boo was one of the few cats in the neighborhood that was quite capable of breeding. And if … if he could breed … and … Rhoda was a girl … a girl on awfully friendly terms with Boo…
“NO!” I shouted at the cats and Boo glared at me again for ruining the moment.
But I paid no attention. Because no way – no way was Boo and Josh Mitchell’s cat going to have kittens together if I could stop it! Sure I had no problem if it had been a different cat and the kittens would have been adorable, but this was Josh Mitchell’s cat we were talking about! I didn’t want to be related to him anymore than next-door neighbors! And who knew – Mitchell’s freaky stalker-ish ways could have rubbed onto Rhoda and we could end up with freaky stalking kittens!
“Okay Boo,” I said warningly, “Come back now.” I gesticulated at the branch closest to my room then pointed to myself, making it clear which path he should follow.
Boo didn’t budge a bit.
Growling under my breath, I raked my room until I found the packet of Kee-T treats that I always had in supply to spoil my already indulged cat. Kee-T treats were Boo’s favorite and I knew he would not be able to resist them.
I made my way back to the window and shook the purple packet hopefully at Boo. The tips of his ears immediately perked up at the familiar rustle and for a split second, I thought that he was going to accept the bribe. He stared at me, blue eyes wide open. He twitched his pink nose. He …
Yawned.
Yawned to show me his pearly white teeth … and lack of interest.
“Kee-T treats,” I called desperately to Boo. “Your favorite!”
Boo stood up and I was about to start a victory dance before I realized that he was heading in the wrong direction.
“Not that window!” I hissed. “My one!” I realized he wasn’t paying any attention to me - on the contrary choosing to follow that ginger cat in front of him - yet I still had hope. “Hey! Come back, Boo!”
He turned his gorgeous head back to look at me, shooting his final smug look, before following Rhoda’s suit. With a grace only gifted to felines, he leapt from the branch, through the open Mitchells Mansion window and into the darkness of its accompanying room.
Boo was really mad at me.
It hurt me somehow, and I considered for a moment of giving up. But then the image of kittens and Josh Mitchells popped up in my brain and I knew I couldn’t let it happen. No way was Boo going to father kittens with Josh Mitchells’ cat!
So in one great, wild impulse, I stuffed some Kee-T treats into the pockets of my pants, climbed through my window and stepped onto the branch of the overhanging tree. I was an expert tree-climber in my childhood days – better than Seb, with his clumsy feet, and Vv, with her sweaty hands, combined – so it was with confidence did I step onto the branch.
Only I had forgotten how much weight I had gained since I was six and right after I landed on the tree, there was a loud crack. Giving a small yelp, I clung fearfully onto the branch with a vice-like grip, rather convinced that I was going to die.
After a few minutes of just clinging there, I realized that the branch was not going to bend any further and that I was still breathing, hence perfectly alive. Gathering up the remnants of my courage, I pushed myself up on trembling arms and cautiously proceeded towards the other side. All my previous tree-climbing confidence was gone in that crack and I shook as I tentatively chose one strong-looking branch after another. The whole ordeal must have been less than ten minutes but to me it seemed to last eternity as I was literally suspended between life and a quick yet humiliating death. I mean, how could falling off a tree after chasing your mad cat amount to anything remotely dignified in your obituary?
As if he knew what I was thinking, Boo appeared by the Mitchells windowsill and gave a soft purr, coaxing me in the feline way of giving moral support.
I simply glared at him. “It’s your fault I’m doing this!” I hissed.
Boo smirked at me by licking his lips then prowled back into the room.
In a way, Boo did help me for no sooner had he disappeared, I was fuelled by rage at my traitor cat and this propelled me towards the beckoning windowsill faster than I normally would have dared. I placed my hands on the sides of the sill and used my arms as leverage to hoist myself up and through the window.
It was dark inside and I could barely see anything, let alone what sort of room I had landed into. But as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, the white parts of Boo’s fur stood out in the shadowy room and I made a lunge towards him. I must have caught him by surprise because a blink later, I found myself wrestling with a tiny furball who was scratching and spitting madly in my arms. My eyes were becoming better accustomed to the dark so I could clearly see the annoyance written over Boo’s cute but very enraged face.
“Now come on, Boo, don’t be difficult! We shouldn’t be here and we have to go now!” I attempted reasoning with my cat.
“Yeow!” screeched Boo in reply, which translated as No way in my life am I going to leave with you, you crazy cat-woman!
I opened my mouth to explain more about the seriousness of our situation – being intruders in the Mitchells Mansion and all – but someone beat me to it. A groan was issued from the other side of the spacious room, catching me out of the blue as I hadn’t realized that there was someone else in this room too. I squinted towards the person lying on the bed and the sandy hair sticking out of the luxurious bed sheets gave me the final bombshell.
Josh Mitchells!
He was in my room! No wait … I was in his room!!
In my shock, I had slackened my grip on Boo … and paid dearly for my moment of distraction. Boo made use of my shock-quickly-turning-into-horror by freeing himself and scampering away as far as possible.
“No!” I whispered furiously at my now-so-dead cat. Of all the rooms in his mansion, why did Rhoda and Boo have to pick the one with Josh Mitchells in it?
Well, Rhoda is his cat and cats always sleep with their owners, my hamster wheel informed me quite unhelpfully. I mentally cursed at it and at the morbid dilemma of my situation. I was outraged by the fact that I was always getting into these types of messes – and this time, it was particularly nasty. I’ve broken into Josh Mitchells’ bedroom!
Has the day of reckoning come? Is tonight the night where karma will make me pay for all the sins I had committed?
I cast a fearful look at the sleeping Mitchells – and was relieved to find him only mumbling in his reverie, his eyes safely shut. Good I still have a chance of getting out without him seeing me! Unexpectedly, the funny side of me broke through my dread and for a split second I saw how, given another instance, the scenario might have been funny. Josh Mitchells sleeping soundly in his bed whilst I chase Boo like mad around his room.
But this was real; it wasn’t some weird fantasy of girls like Samantha Watson. It was a matter of life or humiliation. It meant business
A soft yet infuriating meow alerted me to the trail of Boo. He was perched on a desk next to the bed and his eyes were sparkling, as if we were playing one of the best games ever.
“This isn’t tips Boo!” I threatened.
The notion of the game, however, gave me an idea.
I pretended not to be interested in Boo, and walked subtly closer to him without giving him one glance. Then, in a surge of activity, I pounced towards him with open arms, ready to latch onto the annoying furball.
I didn’t see the thick woolen rug between us.
Just as I was savoring a bittersweet victory, I felt my legs give way under me as I slipped on the rug, lost my balance and fell with a heavy thud onto the bed. The blanket was soft but all the same, I felt like I was hit by a ten-ton truck as the worst possible scenario had just occurred! At first, I was too scared to open my eyes and a part of me was still in denial, obnoxiously hoping that Mitchells was a deep sleeper. A very deep sleeper.
Unfortunately, I had landed right on top of him and he was beginning to stir.
“Wha-?” was all he managed to get out before I, in one act of spectacular irrationality, stuffed a nearby pillow on Josh’s handsome face.
…
In my defense, I would like to plead that it wasn’t that irrational. Because I would have died if Mitchells spotted me in his room and the only way out was obscuring his vision with the pillow.
It was a huge mistake, nonetheless.
If Josh Mitchells had been stirring before I placed a pillow over his face, it was nothing compared to this. If I had been fighting with a crazy cat a few minutes before, it was nothing compared to this. If I thought with certainty that I was going to die on the tree, it was nothing compared to this.
The “Wha-“ had dramatically altered into an “AH!”
Josh was struggling vigorously and I was just hanging on, barely keeping the pillow on his face as he tried to shake me off him. We were both competing for the pillow, him trying to wrench it off his face, me desperately trying to keep it on. But he was the elite athlete and I … I felt that I was losing.
You see, the vital problem with my predicament was figuring out how the hell was I going to get out of his room without Josh catching a glimpse of his intruder, aka me?!
Josh was still struggling like there was no tomorrow so all possibilities of him falling back to sleep were out of the question. As if proof to this impossibility, Josh gave a tremendous tug and I almost lost my grip on the pillow – his brown eyebrows were momentarily revealed before I managed to stuff the pillow back on his face. But I couldn’t blame him – what Josh was doing was a natural reaction and I was beginning to feel guilty for tormenting him like this (though I wasn’t going to give up and lose my dignity!). If our roles had been reversed, I would have been fighting even harder than Josh as knowing me, I would have thought that someone was actually living up to their promises and was “going to kill me” as threatened countless times.
“Get off me!” Josh’s muffled voice came through the pillow whilst I, who somehow ended up on top of him, hung on for dear life.
It was a crazy situation. There I was, fighting with a boy, incidentally the hottest one in town, on his bed, sitting on top of him, with my cat just staring at us.
My cat … Boo!
I gave an anguished look at Boo and he was merely surveying the whole situation with a curious and somewhat amused expression on his face. That did it.
“Help me Boo!” I shouted out in desperation.
Book looked at me, almost contemplatively, and pranced down from the desk onto the bed.
Hallelujah, I mentally celebrated, thinking that Boo was going to perform this miracle that would solve the whole mess.
Boo landed on the bed, sniffed the air – I bated my breath for the miracle – then proceeded to rummage though the sheets looking for … the Kee-T treats that were scattered everywhere! Confusion registered in my mind before my hamster wheel came to the rescue. They must have fallen from my pockets during my tousle with Mitchells! And Boo … Boo was hungrily eating all of them.
I cursed inwardly. “Boo, this is not the time for a midnight feast!” I started angrily but then Mitchells gave a small cry of pain. I stared at him, wondering if I had permanently disfigured his perfect face with the pillow, before I realized why.
Boo, in his search for Kee-T treats, had slithered under the bed sheets and was crawling up Mitchells’ chest.
I didn’t know why I did it.
Perhaps I thought that I could grab Boo and get the hell outta there – and in the confusion, Mitchells would not even notice. Me and my wishful thinking!
In any case, I dived for my cat under the bed sheets and managed to get a hold on a munching Boo. This meant, however, that nobody was fighting Josh and he was able to pry away the pillow from his face.
“What is going on!” he demanded.
At this, I gulped and dived deeper in the sheets, letting go of Boo in the process. Mitchells, sensing that someone was underneath the bed sheets with him, tried to pull the covers off but I clung fearfully onto them as if my life depended on it.
Now, our roles had really reversed – Mitchells was on top trying to pull the blankets away from me whilst I was cowering underneath, clinging to the blankets and watching my life flash past me as I was completely convinced that I was going to die of embarrassment. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that Mitchells still hadn’t seen my face, thus still had no clue to who I was.
He pulled the blankets away from me in a great heave.
Uh-oh … so much for that!
I saw his livid face come into view and he peered into the darkness, squinting into my own face. When he saw who I was, he literally took a step back.
“Lynne?” he said disbelievingly. He continued to stare at me with shock and this unknown emotion in his eyes.
“Err … surprise?” I offered weakly, thankful that the darkness prevented him from seeing how red my face was.
“What … what are you doing here!” he demanded. It was then did I realize that Josh Mitchells was not wearing a shirt and I couldn’t help but notice how the moonlight reflected off his well defined and lean physique. At the same time, he was discerning me, probably taking in my messy hair and incredibly flushed cheeks.
And together, we realized that he had one hand on my bare stomach, where my shirt had made its way up during our ‘escapade’.
We immediately sprang apart.
“Uh … ah … hmm….” I muttered awkwardly, trying to appear solemn in light of our little … brawl?
Josh Mitchells coughed and I noticed how pretty his eyes were, the way the light would bounce off his amber orbs in bronze flashes-
“Umm… Lynne?” he interrupted. He seemed unable to look at me for he only raised his head a little bit my way. “So why are you in my room again?”
“Err…I was …” I invented wildly. “Umm … looking for … Seb’s football jersey!”
I looked pleased with myself until I realized that what I had said made no sense at all.
“Seb’s football jersey?” Josh frowned but his frown didn’t seem to go with the nonsense that I had made up. More like … he had just tasted something unpleasant. His amber eyes pierced me. “Why?”
“Um … coz Seb said I could borrow it and … he said that you … um… had it and … err… I want to wear it for the game on Saturday!” I finished triumphantly. The last part at least was not a lie.
Josh nodded and my eyes widened. It was incredulous that he was even buying what I was saying.
“I gave it back to him, though – I placed it in his gym bag. Didn’t he see it?” Josh inquired
“Really? Well, he must have been mistaken. Too bad, I really want it,” I rambled.
“Yeah, you must have been,” Josh looked at me peculiarly, almost a bit stiffly with that odd look in his eyes, “to have broken into my room in the middle of the night to go searching for it!”
I gave a small laugh. “Er, yeah, I like the material. It’s very soft,” I nodded. “Cotton is good … “ I stated randomly.
Josh stared at me for another moment and I heard him rummage around his room. Yes, I heard him because my eyes were too busy being trained on the floor and my mind was trying futilely to suppress the warmth that was flooding through my cheeks. Josh’s naked physique was a bit distracting in its own appealing manner and I, being the strange girl I was, refused an opportunity most girls in my school would have killed for and decided to stare at the floor instead, as if bidden to memorize the intricate carpet patterns.
“If it’s so important,” Josh spoke, “you can wear mine tomorrow.” I felt an item of clothing being pushed into my arm.
I was desperate to get out of there so I just accepted the jersey without even looking at it. I turned my head back and said “Cool thanks.” I glanced at his window through the corners of my eyes. “I’ll …err… just go through your window so I won’t disturb your mom.”
Josh gave me this perplexed look and raised his eyebrows as if to say Doors are invented for a reason you know, but then he simply shrugged. I interpreted that as Whatever, your choice … weirdo!
Ignoring how this might appear to Josh Mitchells, I practically ran towards his window in my haste to depart our awkward situation. By now, I had figured that if I had survived being caught red-handed breaking into Mitchells’ bedroom plus having a fierce pillow fight with the aforementioned boy, well, I could do anything. That included climbing a fifteen foot tree, which was a piece of cake in comparison.
I was halfway through the window when Josh said,
“And Lynne?”
“Yeah?” I replied a little distracted as I was searching for a secure footing.
“You’re a terrible liar.”
At this, my hands slipped from the sill and I spun around to stare at him, feeling my face heating up. I chose to play dumb. “Um ... What are you talking about-“
“This,” Josh pulled out a Kee-T treat and grinned at me. “Your cat was in my room, wasn’t he? You weren’t looking for Seb’s jersey.”
Was it me or did the room suddenly rise by a hundred degrees?
“I … I can explain!” I blushed furiously. Just as I opened my mouth to explain the truth of the situation – which was probably less believable than whatever Josh had assumed – Josh waved me off.
He smiled. “Nah, it’s okay.” He took a step and leaned down closer to me. “But Lynne, you know, if you want me that badly, you only needed to ask. You didn’t need to get Boo involved in this.” His amber eyes sparkled with mirth.
I gritted my teeth just as my face gave a whole new definition to red. “For your information,” I snapped indignantly, “I was not perving on you! My stupid cat escaped into your room and I was just trying to get it back!”
“Sure, sure,” Josh rolled his eyes. “That’s what they all say.”
“Yeah, I’m just rescuing a mad cat is such a common excuse,” I retorted sarcastically.
Josh burst out laughing. “Just joking Chester,” Josh grinned, his handsome face cracking up. “You’re so easy to pull one on.”
“Get lost Mitchells,” I said to the chuckling boy. “Weirdo,” I muttered furiously under my breath.
“Weirdo?” Josh’s grin grew even wider. “Don’t you think that’s a bit hypocritical?”
“In what way-“ I began until I realized the reason behind Josh’s pointed stare. I was climbing out of his window in the middle of the night – I mean, what sane person would do that?
I blushed again and shot Josh a glare. “It’s a midnight stroll, that’s all,” I tried to sound dignified about it.
Josh burst into another fit of laughter and at this point I grew fed up with him laughing at my expense, so I finally found a suitable footing and with a heave, I clambered up the tree as fast as I could.
This time round, the fear of heights had completely evaporated during my climb as I was immersed in more important, darker thoughts. I was furious, at Boo, at Josh and most importantly, at myself.
Why do I always embarrass myself in front of Mitchells!
Was this some mutated disease that I had contracted? Or was karma hell bent on making me pay for whatever I had done? Had I not been climbing this tree, I would have thrown my hands up in the air in frustration but I caught myself just in time before I could make that costly mistake. My own bedroom window loomed not too far away and with a well-calculated jump onto a lower branch, I slipped back through the open window.
The whole fiasco has left me drained and I was looking forward to nothing more than collapsing onto my bed, screwing my eyes shut and wishing desperately that what had happened tonight was all a scary dream. Rubbing my eyes tiredly, I lumbered towards my bed and prepared to leap in.
Only I couldn’t because Mom was sitting on bed, patiently waiting for me.
“So tell me Lynne,” she asked, “what were you doing coming out of that boy’s room in the middle of the night?”
This was one of the chapters that I was planning to add in later, but in the process of contracting the story, well … here it is! I hope you guys enjoyed it so leave me a review and let me know what ya think!
And yes, I cringe at my horrible periods between updating! Apologies to all (and I have read all your wacky/insane/crazily hilarious reviews so I know how annoying I can be)!
Now, here are some replies to the questions/issues that my lovely reviewers have raised:
.Special (and Wolf bathed in Star-light): Yep I've actually seen "All Grown Up" and it's kinda weird I must admit ... Tommy has hair!! Gasp, shock, horror! A real life Christina Chen? Serious!?
Iamthebomb: Don't worry, there's definitely gonna be more Lynne and Josh action - in fact, I hoped you liked this chapter! As for the evil girl ... maybe ... my lips are sealed.
ess3sandra: Sure, you can quote it if you wish ;)
codyismypup: Lol! Love your review!! Haha, cracked me up...
silvershadow23: Why I chose wood? No idea! But if that part confused you, you ought to go back to Chapter 3 where Lynne's obsession all began!
Ski Bird: Hmm? Lynne's mom didn't drive her to Josh's place ... they're next door neighbors after all!
Love you all and see you in 2010!
Haha, just joking!!
Jenecis
