| 𝙾𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚎𝚍 | - '𝚈𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝙱𝚘𝚢𝚏𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍' 𝟷𝟾+ 𝙵𝚊𝚗𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗

Home Away From Home - Part Eight [16+]

[WARNING: 16+ Content Ahead. Slight Lime.]
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"There's... this guy." I began cautiously, swallowing the heavy lump that was stuck in my throat, "I met him the other day after my shift at the diner. I dropped my server book on the way home from work, and he was 'nice' enough to give it back to me. I didn't really think anything of it at first, until... he showed up the at the restaurant the next morning."

TK's eyes narrowed, and they crossed their arms firmly over their chest. If this was a cartoon, you would be able to actually see the smoke pouring from their ears. It took a lot to get a fun-loving person like TK angry... and right now, it was easy to tell that they were beyond pissed.

"You're talking about the asshole in the diner, aren't you? The one I made a milkshake for and he responded by being a total dick."

I dolefully nodded my head.

"It just seemed like a crazy coincidence, you know? That we'd see each other again... so that's all I wrote it off as. After work that day, he offered to give me a ride home because it was raining outside. I was so tired, and I didn't see the harm... so I told him I'd appreciate it. After the drive, I was just about to say goodnight to him, when I realized something."

I took a deep breath, my knee nervously bouncing up and down in a fit of uncontrollable anxiety. This whole situation was so strange and surreal to experience first hand. It's the kind of thing you always hear about happening to somebody else, but never to you or someone you know. Some stranger on the news, or some poor unfortunate soul on the internet. When you think about it, though... we're all 'somebody else' to 'somebody else', aren't we?

" I... I never told him my address."

TK's face flooded with worry, and Lucy looked more uneasy than I had ever seen her before. She grabbed both me and TK by the arm, pulling us into the apartment and promptly locking the door behind us; deadbolt and all. The gesture may have made both of them feel safer, but deep down, I knew that It was fatuous. A locked front door wasn't going to stop somebody like Peter from getting what he wanted in the end.

"So he's been, like, stalking you? How else would he know where you lived?" Lucy inquired in a frightened tone, pacing around the living room, "Fuck, dude... That's really creepy."

"Creepy isn't the right word. It's fuckin' psychotic, is what it is. Y/n, what else has he done to you?" TK intervened, walking up to me. They placed their hands on my shoulders, looking dead into my eyes with a desperate expression resting on their face, "And tell me the truth. Do we need to go to the police?"

I stared up at them, as quiet as a church mouse in the middle of prayer. I didn't know what I was supposed to say. The truth was the ideal choice, of course... but I didn't know if I was able to tell Lucy and TK just yet. I knew they cared about me, and all they wanted was to be able to help in this horrifying situation... but admitting everything to them was a lot harder than one would think. Growing up the way I did, I had to learn to be independent at a very young age. That meant solving your problems all on your own; without the help of anybody else no matter how badly you needed it. Even though I was an adult now, and I understood that relying on others wasn't always the wrong thing to do, I still found myself stuck in that same mindset. It was a hard thing to shake.

"Can we not talk about this right now?" I asked with a troubled frown, shifting uncomfortably where I stood, "I just... I don't want to, okay? I want to forget about it for a little bit. I promise, I'll tell you guys everything later. But for now... I just want to leave it alone."