They both waited until I got there and then, Jess whispered, “What the…”
I quickly interrupted her. “I dumped him. He must have seen it coming because apparently he had been with Ashley for a few days, I guess…Oh well!”
“But…we didn’t know you were thinking about breaking up with him,” Emily said, sounding disappointed.
“Sorry guys, I kinda wasn’t sure about it at first, I wanted to be sure it was definite before I told you.”
Emily sounded more cheerful now. “That makes sense. Well, it looks like you made the right choice. I just can’t believe that skank would go after him like that though.”
“Eh… I guess they are kinda perfect for each other in a skanky kinda of way,” I laughed.
Jess, Emily and I got in the bus to go back to school and face a day that was about to get weirder and weirder.
TWO
On the ride back to school, I talked my best friends’ ears off. That was my way of showing them how much I didn’t care about Justin and Ashley.
Justin and Ashley sat a few seats in front of us and every once in a while, especially when we laughed out loud, Justin tried to discreetly look back.
I guessed the way I turned things around, breaking up with him before he could do that to me, really got to him because he didn’t look too happy.
Jess and Emily were already spreading the news that I had been the one who broke-up with Justin, and it was obvious that once he heard that everyone knew what had happened, well, what I manipulated to happen, Justin would be even more furious.
We finally got to school and Jess, Emily and me were walking toward the parking lot when we heard Ashley calling out to us.
“Hey guys, wait! I need a ride.”
I turned to Jess and Emily, “She must be kidding, right?”
They both looked back at Ashley and gave her an evil look that I was glad I wasn’t on the receiving end. Ashley didn’t say anything. She just turned around and went the other way. Jess and Emily said they were going shopping and asked me to go, but as much as I hated to say no, I had to catch up on my chores before Kelly started taking away my privileges.
Last month, I had actually hired a cleaning service to get my chores done. This month, those four hundred dollar boots put me in a hole for the month… but it was well worth it.
I got home, did my chores, which took way longer than I expected. Then, I did my dreadful homework while I watched some lame reality TV show. It was one of those that was so pathetic that you knew you were just never going to get that time back, yet, I couldn’t turn away from the drama.
Kelly and Andrew had car-pooled that day, so they got back from work at the same time.
Andrew said that he was taking Kelly out to some charity event for his work and asked if I minded ordering some take-out, which was way fine by me.
After eating some yummy pizza that I would have to workout triple hard at the gym to get rid of all those calories, I grabbed Kelly’s laptop (I wasn’t allowed to have a computer in my room)… and went to my room.
My room was actually pretty awesome. I had no complaints there. It was huge and well furnished, other than missing a damn computer…
I walked in and turned the lights on. I put the laptop on my bed, took my shoes off and got on the bed, getting ready to check on Ashley’s Facebook to see what kind of lies she was already making up.
I had just got on the website when my cell phone started to ring, scaring me to death. I had actually changed my ring-tone that morning and I totally forgot about it. I looked at the caller ID to see that it was Justin.
I was kind of curious to know what he wanted… So I finally picked up the phone, probably right before it was about to go to voice mail.
“What?” I said as I answered.
“Kayla, don’t hang up!”
“Kay, I made a mistake. I am sorry. We are the ones who are perfect together… Can’t we just like, get back together?”
Okay, didn’t see that coming. I was tempted to say yes, just to get back at Ashley. I could always break-up with him again in a day or so.
I was just about to agree when I heard the sound of someone sobbing coming from outside of my room.
“Kelly?” Sometimes, she didn’t answer, just to get me to call her mom…”Mom?”
Nothing.
“Is everything ok, Kay? Is that a yes or no, to my question?” he asked before me even answering whether I was okay. Jerk!
“Justin, I don’t have time for this, I gotta go,” and I hung-up on him.
I walked to my door and the sobbing seemed more distant than before.
“Andrew? … Anyone home?”
No answer. Great!
It sounded like the sobbing was coming from downstairs. I followed the noise, holding my phone and having it ready to dial 911, even though the smart thing would have been locking myself in my room and calling someone. I always made fun of scary movies because people never think things through, and make the dumbest choices…funny how that is just human nature, and acting on instinct is not always a good thing.
I got downstairs, walked into the kitchen and the door leading to the basement was opened.
“You have got to be kidding me!”
I went to the kitchen counter, grabbed a knife and continued to follow the sobbing sound, which was just…strange. It was almost as if that sound had a volume switch, going from extremely high to barely noticeable at times.
“You know… whoever you are, I already called the cops, so you might as well just show yourself now,” I lied, hoping that would scare whoever it was.
I opened the door to the basement all the way, grabbed a flashlight and went down the stairs.
The closer I got, I realized how familiar that sobbing sounded. Okay, so now I’m getting paranoid.
I used the flashlight to see inside the basement, but there was nothing…. just that sound. When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I turned the basement light on.
The noise was coming from the closet. I put the flashlight and my cell phone down, and firmly grabbed the knife with both hands to stop myself from shaking so much. I walked toward the closet door. Freeing one of my hands from holding the knife, I swung the door open as fast as I could.
I didn’t know if I felt relieved or freaked out.
Sitting all curled up in the corner there was the lost girl from the museum… Carolyn.
About the author:
DANIELE LANZAROTTA
is the author of fantasy/paranormal novels, including Imprinted Souls Series, Academy of the Fallen, and A Mermaid’s Curse. She enjoys reading and writing young adult novels with just about any sort of paranormal or supernatural bent ... vampires ... ghosts... Daniele currently lives in Virginia Beach, VA with her husband and two daughters.
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Table of Contents
DEDICATION
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
MORE TITLES BY DANIELE LANZAROTTA
About the author: