girl next door ✰ l.h.

7 || luke

I speak of a Jeffrey Dahmer in this chapter, a brutal serial killer and touch on the things that he did to his victims. This is a trigger warning, and this chapter contains brief mentions of extreme violence and sexual assault.

-

I'm so stupid. Why would I wink at her like that? God, she probably thinks I'm a creep.

I held my face in my hands, feeling the blood rush to my face. I sat down on my bed and peered around my messy room. Clothes were thrown everywhere. My computer sat halfway shut on my desk that was littered with school papers. I groaned as I got up from my bed and started changing into something less hideous.

Audrey was tough to crack. I don't even know why in the world I wanted to crack her. She was mysterious, sarcastic, dark, reserved. She snuck out and kept to herself, but at the same time didn't mind asking random neighbors for rides places in the middle of the night.

But God, was she gorgeous. Audrey glimmered in the sun and beamed in the moonlight. She put Monet's and Van Gogh's art to shame. Her olive skin complimented her dark eyes so magnificently. Audrey was small and she knew it. But she somehow though she could tower everyone she knew. Even me.

Audrey's looks were just a plus, though. She was brilliant and so sophisticated for such a young age. Audrey had depth, maturity. She was only 17, but I felt that she had lived so much life. That's how she portrayed herself. Well educated, well traveled, well mannered. At least from what I can tell so far.

I headed downstairs and out the front door, thoughts of Audrey rushing through my mind.

"Hey!"

I jerked my head to the right, squinting at Audrey as she excitedly wave at me. She made her way towards me, her long hair flowing in the wind.

She held a book close to her chest. I squinted at the title as she came closer towards the steps leading to my front door. I could make out the words "Jeffrey Dahmer" in title and I raised an eyebrow. I didn't consider it typical for someone to cling to a book about a serial killer with evidence based cannibalistic tendencies.

"What's up?" Audrey asked. Her voice was chipper, a 180 from the way she spoke to me from her window a few moments ago.

I took a few steps down the wooden stairs to meet her at the bottom. "Standing on my front porch with you and your-" I cleared my throat as I found the right word to describe my feelings about her book. I now towered in front of her, and I carefully plucked the book from her arms, "-interesting novel."

Audrey innocently looked at the book in my hand as a flipped through a few of the first pages. Her head tilted to the side like a puppy. "You don't like this stuff?" She asked.

I laughed, handing the thick piece of work back to her and folded my arms over my chest. "Why would I like a man who murdered, raped, and dismembered like what? Ten people?" I said, more sarcastic than I intended. She lifted her pointer finger to fact check me.

"Seventeen."

I rolled my eyes, Audrey obtained a lot of knowledge on things that weren't typical. I actually really liked that about her, and it made her a...unique character.

"And it's not about liking the person at all," she added. "Or liking anything about his awful actions or death or anything like that. It's the behavior and psychology behind him. What forms a person to be a crazy killer like this. It's super interesting." She rambled on. When she spoke, even about a murderer, it was a sweet sound.

I smiled at her, "Okay."

-

Audrey was in the passenger seat of my car, seat leaned back, and flipping through songs on her phone to play over my speakers. It sounded like they could burst at anytime from how loud it was, but that didn't matter to me. What did matter to me was that Audrey was opening herself up to me in the moment.