I walked to my bed, and went underneath the covers. “Yeah, I just don’t like the thought of someone watching my house. It’s scary.” I said.

He stood at my window looking around. “Don’t worry.” He told me again.

“You can stop saying that,” I requested him.

“Does that mean you’ll stop?” His eyes were still outside checking it out.

I chuckled, “I’ll stop worrying when this is all over. Aren’t you at least a little scared? I mean you don’t know anything about this guy. Surprisingly enough, neither do I. I’ve dated Jake for two years and I’m starting to realize how much I don’t know anything about him.”

“Can you stop mentioning you’ve dated that jerk?” He asked me.

I laughed out loud this time, “Aww, are you jealous?” I asked. “It’s good to know that a change in species didn’t let you forget how old you are.”

He scowled at me, “Can you please insisting that I’m jealous? I am not jealous. I just don’t like hearing it because…”

“Because…?”

Gerald sighed, “Because when I hear his name, he reminds me of how much I want to break his jaw and all his humanly parts. Along with his father.”

I nodded, “Okay, so hearing that I dated this jerk for two years reminds you of how much you hate him and his Dad?” I wanted to clarify.

“Yes, and it also reminds me that you were once in love with him, and I don’t need to hear how sweet he is because that won’t change the way I feel about him.” He expanded.

“Ah, I understand. Well, no one is saying how sweet he is. Do you know what he gave me for our first monthsary? A rose, which I can mention is from my own garden. So not only was it a stupid, pathetic gift, he destroyed my father’s rose garden. He told me he wanted to give me something close to home and something that would remind him of me; so what better than something from my own backyard and a perfect rose? I laughed so hard. The only thing I got out of it was a dead rose in a week and a gift I’d never forget, and that’s not a good thing,” I played with the fringe on my comforter.

Gerald laughed. “For my first monthsary with my ex-girlfriend, I burned her a CD with all the songs that reminded me of her.” He looked down at the memory.

“I’m sorry about your girlfriend. I’ve never been in love like that, the way you described Ashley. But my boyfriend before Jake, his name was Enchong. He was the sweetest. For our first date, he brought me to the carnival. He won me all these stuffed animals,” I pointed to the dresser where all of them stayed. “I thought we’d be together forever, but I was 14. He made me believe in love, the possibility of two souls meeting and just being happy together.” I smile as I remembered him.

“What happened?” He asked.

I laughed, “He got transferred to a different school a month later. The day he left, he gave me a gift I’d never forget either, my first kiss. It was awkward and wet,” he burst out laughing as did I.

“My first kiss was when I was twelve; it was during a school play.” He admitted.

I laughed, “Wow, they let you kiss the leading lady?” I asked surprised.

“It was actually backstage.” He chuckled, pushing his hair away. He now was sitting on the chair I spent most of the night on. “You know what I realized, I’ve shared so much about myself and you haven’t returned the favour.”

I leaned on my headboard. “Well, what do you want to know?” I didn’t meet his eyes, nervous of what he was going to ask me.

“What do you want to be after high school?” I assumed he was starting off easy.

“I was thinking about doing something in business, like marketing. But I also wanna do fashion designing. You know, make my own fashion line.” I smiled at the idea of me walking down the runway and everyone clapping at me with lights flashing on me.

“Okay, I think you’d be a good fashion designer. Especially with all your designer clothes.” He pointed to my double-door, walk-in closet. I laughed, embarrassed.

He stared around my room, “I’m assuming your favourite colour is pink.”

I smiled, “Yup. What about yours?”

“Red.” He answered so easily. “Favourite memory as a child?”

It took me awhile to answer this. “When I was ten, we were all at the cottage. There was this huge blackout for the entire afternoon. We were so hungry, so my Dad fired up the barbeque. I remember my Mom was putting the thawing chicken on the skewers and my Dad was putting them on the grill. Me and my sisters were tanning, and JP was just sitting down in the corner playing his Nintendo. He said he’d rather play until it died than help my Dad. After an hour two, after everything was finished, we starting going exploring around the cottage, and we found these water guns and balloons. We had the biggest water fight ever known to mankind.” I laughed. “That night, we sat by the fire telling stories. It was the closest I ever felt to my family. And after that day, I realized we could get through anything.”

He smiled at me. “You’ll get through this, your Dad’s going to get better, and you’ll have more of those times together,” he tried to assure me.

“You will, too. Remember, my Dad said you’re part of the family now.” I told him.

There was a big noise coming from downstairs, and our heads snapped towards the door. Gerald was at the door first, with me not far behind. He told me to get behind him, and I was not going refuse. Everyone was out their door now, and JP was holding his baseball bat. Gerald took it from him, and ordered for everyone to get behind him. Ate Twinkle stared at our hands. I didn’t even realize he was holding onto it. At the stairs he stopped. “Stay here,” he whispered. And then I grabbed onto Ate Lakam and JP’s hands, and Twinkle went in front of us, almost like a shield.

We heard noises still as Gerald was walking down the stairs. And the door slammed shut. We saw Gerald run and he ran outside, right when we heard tires screech. We all walked downstairs quietly and slowly, all following Ate Twinkle’s lead.

Gerald went through the door and locked it. Then went checking all throughout the house. He unlocked all the doors and then locked it again, making sure the house was secure, and then he shut all of the curtains and the light in the living room where everyone was now. “What the hell just happened?!” Ate yelled. “Who was that and what the F did they want?!”

His eyes met mine and fear flashed through his eyes, but only for a split second because then I saw nothing. “I’m not sure what they wanted, but they got away before I could get a clear picture of the licence plate.”

“I’m calling the police.” She grabbed the phone and went to the kitchen.

“I thought all the doors were locked.” JP mentioned. “Did someone unlock them?”

Ate Lakam looked terrified and she was squeezing my hand. “Did someone just break in?”

I stared at Gerald, searching for anything in his eyes that would tell me what the hell was going on. “Everything was locked. I remember locking the gate and all the doors.”

“The police are on the way,” Ate Twinkle said. “And Gerald, did you leave the light on in the pool house?”

He stared at me, “Yeah, why?”

“Because it looks like someone trashed your room.” Ate Twinkle said.

He ran outside to the pool house, and I ran after him. Apparently no one followed. Ate Twinkle was right, his place was trashed. The tables were all turned over, and there books all across the floor, and clothes thrown everywhere. “They’re looking for the book. Did they find it?” I starred at him.

He shook his head. “No, it’s all locked up and hidden.”

“Who do you think it was? Jake’s dad?” I asked him.

He took something out of his pocket and handed it over to me. “It’ll all be over soon. I’m not giving up.” I read out loud. “What does this mean?”

“What do you think? I need to call Isabelle and Chris.” He said.

“Okay, I agree, but they can’t see them,” I pointed to the full kitchen. “Let me get rid of them, and then do whatever you need to do.” I stood still for a minute, not knowing what to do.

I guess he noticed my unease. “Kim, don’t worry.”

I shook my head and tears began falling. “Gerald, this isn’t going as planned. My family is involved now.”

“I’m going to meet them in the woods, the police are on their way.” He told me.

But I grabbed his hand, “You can’t leave me here alone. I need you, Ge.”

He pulled me to him, and he me against him. “I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to fix this, Kim. I’m not going anywhere,” he repeated.

I nodded, and he led me back to the kitchen where we were questioned.

After the police came and everyone went back upstairs, Gerald began walking around the house again to make sure everything was okay and secure. But he also came back with a handful of videos. “Cameras,” he said, and we spent the next fifteen minutes watching each one of them.

The good thing was that he didn’t know about the cameras because he wasn’t wearing a mask. Therefore we got a look at the person’s face. It was…