Rude

5

I scrambled out of the car, my mask in hand but didn't begin to put it on. It made it too real for me what we were about to do, especially knowing Reed would sooner offer me up before going down with me.

I clenched the mask in my fingers as I shut the door hard and began reluctantly following Reed down the sidewalk. "So how are we supposed to get in, again?" I asked, and I heard him sigh. "You ask too many questions. Don't you ever shut up?" He muttered. I pursed my lips in response, silently looking up to the sky.

I loved nighttime, it was my favorite. I much preferred it to daytime. I liked to go into my backyard in the middle of the night and sit on the porch, watching the stars with my dog, Jack. My backyard was fenced in and faced the street behind us, meaning during the daytime there were kids and cars coming back and forth along my fence. There was a lamppost across the street from my backyard, providing only enough light to see Jack when he'd run around the yard. Jack was black with some white on his stomach and muzzle, and he had a crescent moon shaped patch of white fur on the back of his head. It was hard to see him at night unless he was running along the fence line.

At night, it was completely silent and there wasn't a soul around. It was peaceful. I used to hate going outside at night because I was so paranoid about someone coming out of the shadows to kill me, but I've grown more comfortable. The darkness doesn't scare me the way it used to. It's easier to love it because of that.

Reed was lucky he'd broken in on the day my mom had taken Jack to the vet because I couldn't promise that Jack wouldn't have attacked him had he been there. Jack wasn't a small dog, either. He came up to my hips when he was on all fours.

The closer we got to the school, I was becoming only more nervous.

We neared the school, the large building only visible because of the street lamps surrounding the parking lot, casting a yellow glow over the wet ground. It must've rained sometime during the day and I hadn't noticed.

I slipped my mask on after Reed as we walked across the deserted parking lot, our footsteps seeming loud to my attentive ears. I was paranoid there'd be someone waiting at the door to bust us, making me pay more attention to my surroundings. We got up to the front doors and I paused, "Don't they have security alarms?" I asked, cautious and Reed scoffed.

"Our school?" He sounded amused, "Fuck no. They don't even have new textbooks, Leila. Plus, this isn't the first time I've broken into the school. I already know they don't have alarms." He rolled his eyes. "Oh, okay." I mumbled.

I expected his way of breaking in to be quiet, but it was literally the exact opposite. Reed picked up a big ass rock and threw it through a window, shattering it. I gasped as the glass went flying both to the ground and into the classroom floor, gaping at Reed when he hoisted himself up, climbing through the broken window and into the building. He looked back at me, "Let's go." He hurried me and I reluctantly walked over to the window.

I began attempting to lift myself into the room but I guess I wasn't going fast enough because I felt Reed grip my waist, hauling me up the window more.

I jolted in surprise, going to grip the windowsill when Reed slapped my hands, "Don't fucking touch the glass, moron." He muttered, pulling me into the room with his hands resting lower on my hips. I slapped his hands away when I was standing straight on the floor, picking glass out of my hair as I looked up at him. "Thanks." I sighed, tossing the pieces of glass onto the floor.

He ignored me and pulled open the classroom door, leaving me in the dark room as he headed down the hall. I hurriedly followed after him, noticing that some of the lights actually were still on, which was odd to me. I figured they'd have turned them off.

We'd broken in through the back of the school, so we were only halfway to the front office when I froze in the middle of the 300 hallway. I listened intently but couldn't hear well over Reed's footsteps continuing down the hall. I quietly rushed up to Reed and gripped his shoulder, placing my hand over his mouth as he came to a stop. "Get your fucking hands off me or I'll remove them from your body." He hissed, shoving me.

I stumbled back a little but signaled for him to be quiet, trying to listen. He finally rolled his eyes and came to a stop, silently staring at me. That's when I heard it again, this time more clearly.

Footsteps.

I tensed, my whole body coming more alert as I tried to find out which direction they were coming from. I momentarily thanked God that it was dark before pulling Reed out of the hallway and into a classroom, keeping the lights in the room off as I quietly shut the door. I pressed my ear to the door, hearing the footsteps get louder as they neared the room and then passed.

When I could no longer hear them, I relaxed looked over my shoulder even though I couldn't see Reed or where he was, "They're gone." I whispered.

I jerked in surprise, hitting my head on the door when I felt his breath fan across my cheek, "Why are you so close? Get away!" I whisper yelled, reaching out to push him away by his stomach. "That's not my torso." He muttered. I gasped and jerked my hand away like it was on fire, "I'm so sorry!" I squeaked awkwardly, swinging the door open. "Whatever, let's go." He sighed. I went to leave but Reed shoved me into the wall before stepping out of the room first.

I rubbed my arm and followed him, shutting the door lightly.

We walked to the front office without coming across anyone else, Reed entering before me and heading to a door that I saw was closed. I closed the office door behind me before following Reed into the back room, making sure to close that one, too.

"Where do they-" I was cut off when Reed shoved his hand over my mouth, "Shut up. Let me do this." He snapped. I obeyed and stayed silent when he removed his hand, the sound of his footsteps echoing around the silent room as he moved. Suddenly a computer monitor turned on, providing a soft blue glow to cast over Reed's face and the space around him. I joined him at the computer, bending down to see what he was doing and came face to face with a bunch of different screens on the one giant screen. I realized it was a bunch of different camera views.

"How did you know this was in here?" I asked quietly. Reed didn't answer.

Instead, he began doing something with the keyboard and I watched as the date in the top right corner changed from today's date to the date the wires were cut. We searched the whole day to see if there was anyone but found nothing. "Let's check further back." I suggested, and Reed did exactly that.

He went back two days, all the way to the Friday before school started again and the bells weren't working. "Check after hours only." I said and he tossed me a weird look, "Why?" I raised a brow at him, "The bells were working that day, obviously they did it sometime between after school that day and early Monday morning." I shrugged, giving him a duh look. It only made sense. Reed nodded, "Right." He mumbled.

It took at least twenty minutes before we saw a sign of anybody heading somewhere. The person looked to be a male and clearly knew not to look at the cameras, their features unable to be seen. Something about the way they walked was familiar to me, their attire too, but I couldn't put my finger on who it was. His hair was dark and he was moderately tall, at least six foot. The guy walked into the office and I watched closely to see if he did it but then there was something I noticed as I stared at the video.

I'd been in the office Friday, right as school was being let out. I had been absent that whole week except Friday, and also the week before that due to being sick. I was a fairly observant person so I noticed my surroundings when I was there and it looked different on this camera.

I'd left my papers in the basket they had set on the edge of the front desk because there wasn't anyone there. In this camera, my papers weren't there. In fact, the basket was completely empty. I stared hard, noticing something else. The fucking waiting chairs even were different from the ones that were currently out there. The guy walked into the room Reed and I were currently in and simply cut the wires, quick and easy before leaving.

I stared at his figure in the camera, the way he walked and his hair. He was wearing all black, and just when I thought I'd never find out why he looked so familiar, he looked right up at the camera.

It was Reed.