Natalie's Diary

[04] Anxiety

ANXIETY

"Were you expecting someone?" Dean asked. The expression on my face must have answered that question for him.

He stayed behind me. Dean Garnett stayed behind me, like I could defend us better than he could.

Maybe that was the reason I crept back, still facing the window. A black form shifted, obscured by white curtains.

"This way," I whispered, tracing my entrance, tiptoeing to the back door.

The hinges creaked, but the wind also rustled the leaves against each other. Around this house, any sound could be attributed to the place settling.

Isn't that what they always say in horror movies? Don't worry, it's only the house settling. A thing parents say so their children don't have nightmares.

Dean either thought I was brave or he was a coward. I further tested this theory, taking a left out the back door where Dean instinctively moved right, toward my house.

Did I convince Dean I really was a ninja?

The bulk of the house blocked most of the light at that angle, getting between the window rattler and the sliver of moon still hanging in the East.

And I was smaller, darker than the lanky figure at the window. A long-limbed figure in a black hat was much less intimidating than the indistinct shadow blurred at the edges outside the window.

A car rolled by on the street and the figure turned to catch any roaming eyes that might've noticed someone trying to break into the Driscoll house.

On silent feet, I inched up the wall toward the window.

"You should've tried the door first," I said.

Long limbs betrayed him, leaving him falling backward into the grass. Even in mediocre light, his eyes managed to catch just enough to be intense and bewildered.

"Don't do that to people," Rhys muttered.

"People who try to break in through windows?"

Rhys shrugged helplessly. "I don't try doors I expect to be locked."

"You break into a lot of houses?" I asked, trying to discern from his face whether or not I should have guessed him to be a serial burglar.

"It sounds so much worse when you say it like that," Rhys protested, pushing himself up off the ground. It was admittedly easier to drill him when he wasn't standing over me. I'd never had the luxury of looking down at him before. 

"Guys," Dean interrupted, evidently deciding to grow a backbone and not just hide around the corner.

The line of his finger pointed at the window, his eyes trained on the wispy shape on the other side of the curtains.

Click.

The window squealed as it rose up, revealing Kate Haumann.

"What is going on here?" Kate hissed leaning out the window.

˚˚˚˚˚˚

Kate flicked on an antique lamp. "Is this some kind of sick party or something?"

She sounded so scolding and motherly for someone who equally had no right to be in the house.

Gathered into the living room, Dean and Rhys collapsed onto the couch almost immediately, on opposite ends.