Full of in anxiety I was waiting for his answer. If he’s so obsessed with me, then that would mean that he wouldn’t want to lose me.

Private Number: “I hope you aren’t serious. I don’t like such jokes baby.”

I took a big breath. I can’t fall back now.

April: “I am not joking. I will hurt myself even better I can do it now. There’s a hobby knife on my desk.”

Private number: “You’re lying…”,

To confirm that I wasn’t lying, I took a picture of the hobby knife and send it to him.

Private Number: “Why the fuck do you even have that!?”

I shrugged. Sometimes we are required to cut some thick papers or sometimes we get packages and opening them with the hand hurts like hell.

April: “Should I send you a picture after cutting myself or?” I threatened further.

Private Number: “Fine… I will spare his life this time. Throw that knife away now.”

Reading that I couldn’t help but smile triumphantly and there’s no way that I would throw something that saved my friend’s life. I was never planning to cut myself; I love myself way too much to do that also I don’t like pain. I would have just cut some of my hair at most.

I mean, I did say something of my body, didn’t I?

From below the desk, I could feel Cherry kicking me. I looked at her, asking her with my eyes why in the world she’s kicking me. She nodded frantically at something behind me. I frowned and slowly turned around in my comfortable wheelchair to see Mr. Moore staring at me.

“Mr. Moore!” I yelled frantically as I stood up. “What brings you here?” I asked awkwardly, trying to fix myself quickly. I really hope that he hadn’t been standing there ever since I was texting Jack.

“I just came to see how the financial department was doing without their manager. That’s when I saw you sitting there grinning from ear to ear, so I was wondering what got you in such a good mood.”

All eyes at that moment were aimed at me, causing my anxiety to spike up a lot. All words that I could have thought of at that moment were lost.

‘Come on… just say something, April… anything!’

“My apologies Mr. Moore, I was looking at the picture of my deceased puppy her death anniversary was coming up, so I went through some pictures that I still had of her. Her cuteness brought unknowingly a smile to my face.” I pulled out a picture of a dog out of my ‘dogs that are so cute that they are killing me’ gallery and showed it to him.

He looked at it. “A Pomeranian I see…” He said thoughtfully.

“Yeah… her name was Diamond.” I said, trying to act melancholy. I am not really lying this dog’s name is Diamond, and she did die last year. She had an Instagram page, and I took the liberty to save all her pictures. It seriously devastated me when the owner announced her passing.

However, I never knew that her saved up pictures would come in handy someday.

Thank you, Diamond!

“I am really sorry that I was doing this under workhours, sir. I will make sure to never do this again.” I bowed apologetically.

“No… no I am sorry for your lost. Please keep doing a great job.” He said.

“I will…” I simpered. Mission evading was a success!

He left with the Co-CEO who was sweating bullets of nervousness from the situation to the CEO’s office.

As soon as they left, I plopped down on my chair and let out a sigh of relief. But that was soon wiped away as I jumped, surprised by Cher’s head suddenly popping over my monitor.

“What the heck was that?” She asked.

“What the heck was what?” I asked as I was typing away on some documents.

“Don’t you answer my question with a question.” She said, irritated. “You and I both know that you never had a dog named Diamond.”

“So?” I questioned, acting like I didn’t do something wrong.

She let out an exasperated huff. “So why did you lie to Mr. Moore? Even better, what were you really doing?”

And now I must deal with this… great. How am I even going to dodge this one? Cher basically knows everything about me, so I can’t really make up a plausible excuse.

“I am waiting.” Cher said, urging me to cough up the truth.

“Well…” I said, avoiding eye contact with her nervously.

“Well…?” she repeated.

I scratched my head in frustration. “Uggghhh! You really want to know what I was doing?” I asked, hoping that she would drop it already.

“Yeah, otherwise I wouldn’t be asking, would I?” she commented as she rolled her eyes.

“I have been talking… with someone lately.” I muttered. I am going to regret this so much later. “So, I was too scared to tell Mr. Moore that.” I could feel my face heat up from embarrassment.

There was a pause of silence. I slowly glanced at Cherry, and I was caught off guard by her eyes sparkling in anticipation. “You’ve been talking with a boy!?” she whisper-yelled. “For how long!? Since when!?” She kept bombarding me with overbearing questions.

I hushed while pushing her back in to her chair. “It hasn’t been long, maybe a month?” I whispered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She asked, hurt clear in her voice by the lack of communication on my side.

“Because I wasn’t sure about him yet and I only wanted to introduce him to you and Brandon after I was sure.” I blurted.

Man, I should have become an actress or something. I have been lying up a storm. Well… it’s not really lying, though. I have been talking to a guy, but that guy is not a love interest but an unstable person who I have to keep in check to protect everyone.

Life sucks, honestly.

Cherry nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah… I get it. Has he been good to you?”

My body went completely rigged and I couldn’t help but stammer. “Y-yeah sure.” I couldn’t even smile properly, which Cher caught on.

“Has he hurt you!?” she yelled in her normal voice, this time causing some colleagues to turn their eyes and heads in our direction, making them wonder what was going on.

I just nodded my head while smiling apologetic to them for the noise that we made and they all silently turned back to their work.

“No, he hasn’t”, will you just calm down already?” I whisper yelled.

“You sure?” She asked.

“Of course! I would have already asked you for help if that was the case.” I smiled, trying to put her at ease, but she had none of that and kept glaring at me in disbelieve.

“Cher, please…” I begged.

“There’s something going on, but you can’t tell me about it?” She asked.

I nodded silently.

She sighs, slouching further back into her chair, running her fingers through her hair in slight frustration. “I get it.” She said. “Just please… tell me… tell even Brandon if something is really amiss, okay?” She pleaded.

I smiled, not because she dropped the subject but because she’s an awesome friend. “I promise.” I said. “So, let’s get to work, shall we? Otherwise we might have to pull an all-nighter.”

“Yeah, we don’t want that. I also promised Brandon that I would come home early. He became such a worrywart after the homicide.” She talked like Brandon’s action slightly annoyed her, but I knew she was enjoying every bit of attention that she was getting from her man.

I giggled and bounced back to my seat.

…

Cher and I exited the company, walking like half dead zombies. The sky was close to being pitch black. The streetlights were already lit on, giving off some lights on the pavements.

“I can’t believe that we really had to work overtime.” Cher said, looking ghastly pale.

With my eyes half closed from tiredness and from watching at a bright lit up screen for far too long, I looked at Cher. “Why did you have to talk to me for so long? I could have already been sleeping on my couch while watching Netflix.” I accused her.

“Well, sorry for caring for my best friend; I won’t do it again. I won’t even bother searching for you if you would ever suddenly disappear.” She said, a bit pissed.

Oops, I forgot that a tired Cherry is a super cranky Cherry. And the only one who can put her in a slightly better mood is-

“Took you guys long enough.”

Both startled by the voice, we whipped our heads to see a tall 5ft8 man leaning against the wall crossed armed. The same man had caramel colored hair and eyes; long stubble beard and he was wearing sweatpants and t-shirt with a jacket over it.

Cher run up to the man and gave him a tight hug, which he gladly welcomed.

“Babe!” Cher exclaimed happily.

“Glad to see you, Brandon. If you called out to us even a second later, your girl would have killed me.” I said jokingly.

He chuckled, revealing his baritone voice. “Glad to be of help April.”

With his other arm still laying on Cher’s waist, he opened his other arm. “Am I not getting a hug from you? I haven’t seen your dork face in a while.” He said.

Why does everyone want a hug today? It’s giving me anxiety, however Jack already knows of my relationship with Brandon, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right? Augh whatever!

Without a care in the world, I gave Brandon a big hug. “How have you been, big bro?” I asked.

“Worried.” He let me go as he said that and looked at Cher and me with stern eyes. “Didn’t I ask you to go home early? Did you really think that I would stay at home after receiving your message telling me you guys would work overtime?” He said scolding Cher. Cher whimpered. “I’m sorry… we really didn’t know that we would work until late babe.” She said, talking softly. Brandon’s eyes softened, not being able to act angry as he stared at her face.

“It’s okay. I was just worried. That murderer still hasn’t been caught and I can’t stay calm when it comes to your safety.” He softly planted a kiss on Cher’s temple. “I know.” Cher’s said, smiling softly giving him a hug.

When I thought that he had calmed down, he suddenly directed his attention to me, making me flinch in fear for his expected lecture and I am not his girlfriend, so he’s going to be way harsher on me.

“And you, why did you refuse our offer to stay at our place for a while? And don’t give the ‘I don’t want to be the third wheeler’ excuse because you know that you can handle our romance time.”

I sighed. ‘It’s because I’m trying to protect your lives, you ass-wipes’ not that I can say that, can I?

“It’s because I don’t want to be a bother to you guys.” I said, a bit sullen.

He huffed. “How would that be possible? We basically grew up with each other. You would be anything but a bother.”

Okay, so what is the best way to go around this, because I really am tired from everything that has been happening today and I am not sure if I’m able to spew another well thought out lie at this point.

As I was racking my brains searching for solutions, Cherry stepped out of Brandon’s embrace to stand in front of me. “Is it because of your mother?” It came out like a whisper, but it stung me badly.

“What?” Why in the world would she bring up that woman? “Why the fuck would you think that?” I said, trying to restrain the anger that has been boiling within me.

Her eyes quivered. Brandon stood behind her and stroked her arms, trying to ease her.

“I-I thought that it may have been the reason you would see yourself as a bother knowing how your life was there-“

“Why the fuck would you compare that to this!” I yelled.

“Calm down April.” Brandon said calmly.

“You expect me to calm down after your girlfriend brought that woman up?” I growled lowly in anger.

“She is still your mom, April.” Cher said softly.

I glowered at her as inched closer to her. “Now why the fuck would my best friend, who also defended me in the past, say that, hmm? I remember you saying bad things about her; the both of you!” I said while pointing at them accusingly. “So why are guys defending her? No, why did you even bring her up?”

“S-She..” Cherry stammered, struggling to get the words out of her mouth.

“She has been calling us.” Brandon said quickly.

My eyes became bloodshot. My whole body was at this point trembling in anger. “What…?” I asked through gritted teeth.

He sighed lowly. “We have been in contact with her for a while now; to be more precise, a year after you had broken off any communication with her. She calls or message us frequently, asking how you have been and where you’re living so that she could talk to you. Of course, we refused to answer the last part. She had been searching for you April...”

I could feel my tear duct trying to break open to let the tears stain my face, but I refused to let them show them my vulnerable side.

“You guys betrayed me?” I could hear my voice break, making it clear that they hurt me.

Cher shook her head. “No, we would never.” She said, trying to hug me, but I pushed her away and scoffed. “Bullshit, so talking to her is not considered a betrayal?”

“April…” Brandon said, but I cut him off quickly.

“Don’t you dare to say my name.” I said, my voice strained. “I trusted you guys. You knew how that woman treated me after dad died. You knew how my life was ruined from that point on! You knew what my stepdad did to me…” Not being able to stop it anymore, big tear drops started to fall from my eyes. “I had to endure it day and night scared that my own life was at risk until I ran away from that shit with only a bag that night.” I choked.

“We’re sorry April, but we truly think that you should talk it out with her; the memories have been haunting you, April.” Cher said, sobbing in Brandon’s arms at this point.

I whipped away my tears. “No…” I said, just above a whisper. “I’m sorry that I ever trusted you guys.” And with that I stormed off down the street, ignoring the calls from my so-called best friends.

…

Standing in front of my apartment in search of my keys, I grumbled underneath my breath about how awful day today it was. “Maybe I should stop telling lies seeing how it gets me in some type of annoying situation.”

“Maybe you should.”

I gasped in startlement and was slammed into the wall, causing me to drop my keys.

I stood eye to eye with my stalker, who was silently staring at me. His hand restrained above my head with both of my hands, cutting away my escape route.

I was about to scream, hoping that somebody would hear me, but Jack was already a step ahead by covering my hand with his gloved hand.

I whimpered and trash around, scared that he was here to kidnap me, but nothing in my head could think of any reason to why he would do that. I have been following his rules. I mean, yes; I broke some of them a few times, but I was still able to negotiate with him so that he would let it slide.

“Keep doing that and I’ll ravish you here and now.” He said whispering into my ear in a low disguised voice.”

I stilled my movement, not wanting that to happen.

“Are we calm now?” He asked.

I nodded with my head.

“I’m going to remove my hand slowly; I’m sure that I don’t need to tell you what would happen if you would scream for help.” He said.

I nodded my head in understanding. He would properly kidnap me here and now or maybe kill someone from the streets; point is that we don’t need to know what he would do.

“That’s a good girl.” He slowly removed his hands from my mouth.

“Why are you here?” I asked timidly.

He was silent for a minute before leaning more into me. “I’m here to compliment you.”

I looked into his dark sunglasses, confused.

“What?”