DANGEROUS OBSESSION

15

BLAKE WRAY

Right now, I’m in front of my computer, in my living room, when I hear the sound of heels hitting the floor.

Not surprised at all, I don’t even bother looking back, because once again, she decided to invade my house.

“I was at the base with you,” I say, taking my coffee and not making any effort to look at her.

“And you ignored me there too,” she replies, and I sigh, irritated.

“And you decided to invade my house like a thief,” I say.

“That’s offensive, Blake,” she says, stopping in front of me. “You banned me from entering, and look… I learned from the best. None of your guards saw me come in,” she says, placing a bottle of wine on the coffee table.

“I told them to let you in, to spare you the embarrassment of being kicked out,” I tell her. “What are you doing here, Hailey?” I ask, setting my coffee aside.

She looks at me, her face slightly flushed. She’s wearing red high heels and a tight black dress.

She’s still beautiful, that’s undeniable.

“Because we need to talk, Blake,” she says, sitting beside me and then moving my computer off my lap. I simply stand up.

“Blake, come on…” she says as I go make myself another coffee. “I love you! What else do you want me to do so you forgive me? So you at least look me in the eye properly and talk to me?” she pleads, and I limit myself to looking at her.

“You used to value yourself more than this,” I say, and she sighs, looking offended but, apparently, not caring.

“Why are you acting like this with me? I already apologized, Blake,” she says, sounding frustrated, and I simply observe her thinking, or trying to identify any emotion I might be feeling, but I can’t find any.

Something I thought was impossible until some time ago.

“I messed up, I apologized, I’ve done everything I could…” she whines, and God, how I hate when people cry in front of me… “I love you, Blake,” she says, stopping in front of me, placing my hands on her chest and I pull them away.

“So that’s how it’s going to be?” she asks, and I drink my coffee while watching her. “It is, until you understand that it’s over,” I tell her.

“I know you love me too, Blake,” she says, and her lips move toward my neck as she rises on her tiptoes.

“Stop…” I say, making a motion to push her away, but she simply slides her hands over me.

“You don’t want me to stop,” she says, trailing her lips up my neck. “I know you miss me, my body, how I can handle you…”

Damn it…

“Hailey,” I say, trying to make her stop before this ends the way it shouldn’t and she gets the wrong idea out of it.

“I need you, Blake…” she says, lifting her gaze to mine. The desire shimmering in her eyes strips me of any will to care about her feelings or resist what she wants right now.

And that’s exactly what I do.

LAUREN MOSS

We walk into the dining hall, have dinner, I eat really well and even have dessert. I stand up and look at Noah.

“Shall we?” I ask as he stands up too.

“I thought you were going to rest,” he says, and I shake my head.

“I’m going to study first,” I tell him. “If you guys want to come help me…” I throw it to the rest of the group, and they look at each other.

“Sure, we’ll meet you there in thirty minutes,” they say, and of course I smile happily.

“Alright, then I’ll see you there,” I say, and they nod. I leave with Noah.

“Are you sure you wouldn’t rather rest? You didn’t look well not too long ago,” he says.

“No, I’ll be fine. I just need a shower and some coffee,” I tell him. I hate coffee. “Because if I sleep after a day like today, I won’t wake up in time to study.” I say, and I see him smile.

“Disciplined,” he says, smiling.

“Yeah,” I say. “It may not seem like it, but I try,” I add, walking beside him.

“The media usually creates a whole new personality for people just to sell,” he says, and I look at him.

“Pretty much,” I agree, sighing as we reach my little house’s door. “Well, I’ll see you in thirty minutes,” I say.

“See you soon!” he says, and then I walk in, locking the door right after.

And then… everything went downhill.

Everything that had been tormenting me came back: my father, the slap he gave me, that killer… and every bad thing decided to drop by too.

I cried a good amount, because it’s part of the process, then I got into the shower. I took a comforting bath. I had to wash my hair because I’d been sweating.

I get out, put on body lotion, do my skincare, dry my hair completely, put on my underwear, then my pink pajamas, satin pants and top and throw on a crocheted bolero because it’s cold.

I tidy up the mess I left all day, put clothes in the wash, and leave the ones that dried on the ironing table. I’ll iron them later.

I make my coffee. Grab my notebook. I was about to call Miriam, but I just give up because otherwise I’ll miss my schedule.

I’ll talk to her tomorrow.

It hasn’t been a full thirty minutes yet, but I can start on my own.

I grab my bottle with coffee, leave, lock the door, and walk there alone. There’s barely anyone around now. Everyone sleeps early to wake up early.

I step into the library, and my reaction is the same as yesterday: this place is huge, you have no idea.

“Come on, Lauren!” I say to myself, dancing my way to the table where I was before, just to see if my body wakes up a little.

I leave my notebook there, grab the books and some materials for the subjects I plan to study tonight.

I don’t know what time they’ll want to go to sleep. So the more time I have with them explaining these subjects to me, the better.

I place everything I think I need on each table—that way nothing gets confusing.

I sit down and make a list of the topics I want to learn today, just to make things easier. I’ve barely finished when the whole group walks in.

I talk as if it’s a big group, but counting Apia and Noah, it’s only three more people.

“You have way too much energy!” Alex says, and I smile, shrugging.

“Shall we start?” I ask them, taking a sip of my coffee.

“Sure, what do you want to start with?” Apia asks me.

“Anatomy, autopsy…” I say, walking to the corresponding table, and they follow me. “I only have doubts in these topics. I got the rest during class, and we can go deeper later when there’s time,” I say, and they nod while Noah grabs a skeleton.

“I also have some questions about that,” Zahara says as we sit.

“Then let’s begin!” Noah says, and I nod. And I got lucky, because they really are very good.

Turns out it wasn’t just me with a question here and there, everyone had one doubt or another about something.

We spent forty-five minutes on each subject.

And that time worked perfectly; it didn’t confuse us at all. I even managed to explain a few things to them.

There are several simulators here, so I helped them with the helicopter simulation, and that’s how the whole sequence went.

When it hit three-thirty in the morning, obviously they had to go. They helped me clean everything up, but I ended up staying here for another thirty minutes doing one exercise and then another, though I honestly can’t handle the sleep anymore.

I get up, grab my notebook—which is full—my now-empty bottle, and leave.

Time to sleep a little.

I step out and head to my little house, go inside, and lock the door.

I wash the bottle, head to the bathroom, brush my teeth, and then I simply throw myself onto the bed and fall asleep.

•••

“Blake...” I wake up startled, sweating cold, feeling my body hotter than lava after dreaming the most sinful thing I could have possibly dreamed.

“Great...” I mumble, blushing, running my hand over my face, incredulous.

“Lauren, you’re going to go insane,” I tell myself. “...” I sigh, now regretting having woken up, because it was way too good.

Too good to be true... After all, he doesn’t seem to have eyes for me, and he clearly has a girlfriend.

Someone like him wouldn’t be single...

It’s not Hailey, but it could be Irika.

And I don’t want to get in trouble, even though now I want to...

A lot.