Stalker

s u s p i c i o u s

She yawned as her eyes opened and she woke up to a brand new day. She grabbed her phone off the nightstand next to her and looked at the time. '8:32'.

Sighing, she texted her friend that she was unfortunately up. She always texted her friend when she woke up and went to sleep as a way to keep track of her sleep time.

Of course she woke up this early on a weekend. It wasn't like she could go back to sleep either. Once she was up, she was up. As much as she hated it, she couldn't do much about it.

Her body was weird. She couldn't take naps or do anything of the sort because she quite literally could not.

She sighed before unplugging her phone and rolling to face the wall.

She unlocked her phone and just scrolled through Tik Tok for what she thought was half an hour.

When she checked the time, it was 11:24.

She plugged her phone back in and quickly got up and went to her bathroom.

Remembering she needs three minutes, she ran back to her phone, connected it to her speaker and started playing her music.

She brushes her teeth for a minimum of three minutes a day. She doesn't like using a timer because she believes it's too boring and it'll fee longer than it is so she listens to music and just brushes until it's over.

Once she was done, she spit out the toothpaste and rinsed her mouth before using mouthwash. She was the only one in her family to use mouthwash.

Her brother doesn't like the smell of it and her parents claim only people who don't brush their teeth correctly need the mouthwash. But that wasn't true.

Granted, she always forgot to brush at night but she tried to make up for it when she woke up the next day with her three minutes.

Her teeth have been getting a bit whiter but she knew it would take time and she was fine with that.

She left her room and went to the kitchen to see her mom making her usual smoothie, her dad in his "office", really just a desk in the living room where he works, and her brother watching TV while also on his phone. A usual weekend.

"Morning." She greeted. "Finally, you're up." Her mom said. Her father gave a half nod and her brother smiled at her. "I've been up since 8 am." She corrected her mom. Her mom just chuckled before continuing with what she was doing.

"Taylor, you hungry?" She asked her brother. "Yea- Wait, spaghetti?" He asked her. She shyly nodded with a small smile tugging at her lips. "Fine." He playfully glared at her.

She went over to the stove, took a pot and filled it with water before heating it up. "Let me know when it's done." She smiled to her brother before walking away after seeing his nod.

"Where are you going?" Her mom stopped her. "Hey, shh." Her dad said, pointing to his laptop. She took that chance to sneak back into her room.

She got back in her bed and curled up under her blanket. The remnants of the snow from weeks earlier still remained in the air, keeping its chilly wind.

As she was scrolling through Tik Tok once more, she saw a notification from her brother telling her the water was done. She got up and went back to the kitchen, ready to face her mother.

She got to the pot and removed the cover to let the steam out. She grabbed the box of spaghetti and cut it into two before dropping it into the hot water. She grabbed the salt from the cupboard and sprinkled a generous amount of the unhooked pasta.

She took out the tomato sauce they'd made earlier and brought it out, ready to be microwaved and used.

As she was on her way inside, she heard a knock on the door. She walked towards it and looked through the peephole. She didn't see anyone, just a man running away.