DERANGED

Twenty Eight: News

Lexi's POV

We sat in silence in the Uber. It wasn't exactly a great time to talk about the situation. We were headed to a motel but we didn't book a room or anything yet.

"So are we gonna go after Michael?" Noah asked from the front seat. 

"I don't think we should. Clearly he's with Theo and what Theo wants is for all of us to come after them. He wants Sam and Lexi." Luke said. 

"Well I wanna go. What if he's gonna hurt Michael or his sisters?" Sammy said. 

"I don't want to. He could hurt us, Sam." I added. 

"I still don't think it's a good idea. If Michael and Theo were friends I doubt Theo would hurt him." Luke shook his head. 

"We don't know that! Clearly he's not himself right now, Luke." Sam argued. 

"Hey... Sam and I can go figure out where Michael is and you guys don't have to come. Okay?" Noah said, silencing the three of us in the back seat. We arrived at the motel and we all got out. Noah and Sam went into the motel to book a room, while Luke and I just sat outside on one of the benches. 

"Where are we supposed to go?" I asked. 

"What do you mean?" He asked me. 

"I swear everywhere we go isn't safe and somehow Theo is gonna know where we are!" I said, starting to panic. 

"We're gonna be ok-" Luke started to tell me. 

"No!" I said raising my voice, and standing up from the bench. "No, it's not okay and it's not gonna end until he's dead, Luke!" 

"Hey! Don't yell that..." He shushed me. 

"We're not okay, clearly! I know I'm not." I shook my head. He stood up and wrapped his arms around me. 

"I know, love. And I'm sorry." He said to me. 

"I just wanna be somewhere safe. Where he's not gonna find us." I sighed. 

"I think we need to do something fun." Luke said. I followed his gaze over to the beach that was down the road. It wasn't very busy which was surprising considering it was almost 2 in the afternoon on a sunny day. 

"You're serious?" I asked him. 

"Yes. You need to do something fun. Don't you have a swimsuit somewhere in your bags? You packed most of your clothes didn't you?" He asked me. When we had to leave school I did grab a bunch of clothes and my other belongings. 

"Probably." I nodded. We went inside and followed Sam and Noah to our room. I started looking through my bags until I found a swimsuit. 

"Really?" Sam asked, eyeing the swimsuit in my hands. 

"What?" I asked, heading towards the bathroom. 

"You're gonna go swimming? Like nothing is happening right now?" She asked, crossing her arms.

"It was my idea." Luke said. "Just to get our minds off it for awhile." 

"Ok." She sighed. I turned around and went into the bathroom to change. Luke changed after me and we walked out of the room with towels and my purse. We left the motel and started walking down the sidewalk. 

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked my boyfriend, overthinking.

"I think so, love. We should be okay." He nodded. We walked for only 10 more minutes before we made it to the beach. We laid our towels out and I took off my t-shirt and shorts that were covering my swimsuit. I sat down on one of the towels and watched the water. 

"C'mon baby." Luke said, standing in front of me. He grabbed my hands and pulled me up. He started pulling me towards the water. 

"Noooo." I protested. He picked me up suddenly and ran into the water. 

"Luke!" I giggled as the cool water hit my body and he let go of me into the waist-deep water. 

"I had to get you in somehow." He laughed. I rolled my eyes before splashing him and immediately swimming away as he came after me. 

"Okay okay, I'm sorry." I said out of breath once he caught me and had me wrapped tightly in his arms. 

"I guess you're forgiven." He said, pressing his lips to mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he picked me up as we kissed. A minute or so later I pulled away and a thought ran through my mind.

"BABE, SHARK." I said loudly, looking behind Luke, trying to keep a straight face. 

"What?!" He moved quickly, letting me go, causing me to laugh. 

"Gotcha. That's for dragging me into the water." I said. 

"I hate you." He rolled his eyes.

We swam around for probably a couple hours, and we started to make our way back to the shore. Once it was shallow enough, we walked up onto the sand and wrapped up in our towels. I saw Luke looking towards the street and I noticed an ice cream stand. 

"Do you want an ice cream?" Luke asked me, reaching for his wallet from his shorts that were laying on the sand.

"Yes please. Can I have strawberry?" I smiled. 

"Of course. I'll be right back." He said, kissing my cheek before walking away. I checked my phone as I waited. I got a text from Sammy asking if I had seen the recent Twitter update our school had retweeted. I went to Twitter and clicked on the most recent tweet which was from the local police department. It was a link to a news website with the title, 

'TEEN, 19, ARRESTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER, STALKING, FRAUD'

I stared at it in shock. I clicked on the link and once I was directed to the news article, a mugshot was at the top, and it was Theo. I scrolled down and read the article, which said that Theo was arrested almost an hour ago, near the hotel we were at before. I felt tears roll down my cheeks, but for the first time in awhile, they were happy. Luke returned a few minutes after and I told him the news, and I finally felt one hundred percent safe.