Page 6 of Fractured Fate

The door stood cracked open, and the interior light was on. Did she leave it on that morning? She couldn’t remember.

Hooking her bare foot around the door, she pulled the door open and lifted the bat, ready to pummel whoever stood on the other side.

Nothing.

Stepping deeper into the bathroom, she passed the small counter where a small mirror hung on the wall above the sink and stood in front of the toilet. She poked the shower curtain with the bat, and when she didn’t connect with anything hard, she pulled the curtain open. Her shampoo lay in the bathtub, having fallen from the shelf. Lowering the bat, she shook her head. Her nerves couldn’t keep up.

She turned out the light, shut the door, and returned the bat to the front door before returning to the loveseat. She picked up her phone.

Almost one in the morning.

Aiden would be asleep, but her nerves were wrecked. Her mothers would only make it worse when they freaked out themselves.

With a sigh, she opened her contacts and pressed the button to call Aiden.

One ring… two… three… four… maybe she should hang up—

“Hello?” Aiden’s deep voice, gravelly from sleep, filtered through the phone.

She shivered at the sound so close to her ear. She had never heard his voice like that before.

“Hi, Aiden.”

Shuffling sounded through the receiver, and Aiden cleared his throat. “Charlotte? Everything alright? It’s one in the morning.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry to wake you.”

“No, you’re fine. I was actually having a bad dream, so I’m glad you called. What’s going on?”

“Bad dream?” she asked, deflecting from the question, grabbing a pitcher, and filling it with water.

“Yeah, it’s nothing.” He groaned. “You sound out of breath.”

“I just got home.” She crossed her kitchen into the living room and started watering the plants on her entertainment center in decorative planters accented in moons, suns, stars, and zodiac symbols.

“Where were you so late? Isn’t it a school night?”

“I was at Rachel’s apartment with the others for our group project.”

She didn’t even have it in her to make a joke about him parenting her like he did his other friends.

“Rachel… the girl who used to live down the hall from you?”

“Yep.” She returned the pitcher to the kitchen and crossed to the living room again to sit on the loveseat. “She lives a few minutes from here at another apartment building. Her lease was up a few weeks after I got here, so she moved.” She pulled her legs up, tucking them beneath her. “Speaking of moving…” She took a deep breath and blew it out, preparing herself for her next words. “I’m thinking about coming back to the valley for the rest of the summer and pick things up again in the fall.”

“What? Why?”

Other than someone following me around and flower deliveries?

The first bouquet she received came the same week she started at UGA. She came to Athens at the beginning of April to get settled in, but classes didn’t begin until May fourteenth. Until her first week of classes, she only felt like someone had followed her from time to time—which she tried to reason away. Now she knew for sure; it wasn’t paranoia.

She couldn’t tell Aiden, though. He’d think she was crazy for suspecting someone of stalking her. She hated even labeling it as stalking. Who was to say this wasn’t the first time and all the previous instances were genuine paranoia? Overthinking it made her head hurt.

“I’m not sure if accounting is for me. I think a major change might be in my future. This stuff is a nightmare.”

Not a lie, but not the entire story. Giving part of the truth made her feel less guilty about what she didn’t tell him.

“That’s fair. At least you know now and not a couple years into your degree.”