Healing Together

Chapter 1: Stalker Guy

It's been two years since the traumatizing encounter I had with my father. I'm eighteen now and a senior in high school. I now live with aunt Denise since I had no one else to stay with. My mother passed away when I was 14 and my aunt now has full custody of me. I think my mother's death is when my father lost himself and started abusing me. So yeah, I don't have parents anymore. I've dealt with a lot of trauma throughout my life but I'm finally getting past it and living a normal life.

~~

“Megan, you’re gonna be late for school!”, my aunt called from the kitchen.

I rolled my eyes, “I’ll be down in a minute, Auntie!”

I quickly pushed my unmanageable curly hair into a low ponytail, laced up my boots, grabbed my backpack, and made my way downstairs.

My aunt looked at me with a confused facial expression, “Where’s your coat? It’s too windy outside for that tiny jacket that you have on.”

“I’ll be fine, Auntie. I promise.”, I responded before kissing her on the cheek and walking out the front door.

My Aunt Denise has been very overprotective of me since she found out about my dad’s drinking problem. I know she means well so I don’t stress it as much as I used to.

“Bye sweetie, have a good day at school!”, she called out as I walked off the front porch.

I walked to school every morning since I only live two blocks down. This particular morning felt different though. Two minutes into me walking, I felt as if I was being followed. I slowly looked behind me and saw a tall guy I’ve never seen before. He looked about my age.

“Maybe he’s just walking to school like I am...”, I thought.

After another minute of walking, something still felt odd. I pulled my cellphone out of my back pocket and video called my best friend, Joyce. Joyce lived very close to me and we sometimes walked to school together, other times, she would leave earlier to walk her two younger brothers to the bus stop.

please answer, please answer, please answer.

“Hello?”

“Hey! Are you in school already?”, I asked.

“Yes, I’m at my locker. What’s up?”, she responded.

I discreetly looked behind me and whispered “Joyce, I feel like this guy behind me is following me. I’m scared. I figured maybe if I called you, he wouldn’t try anything.”

“Are you almost at the school?”, she asked in a concerned tone.

“Yes, I’m like three minutes away.”, I answered.

“Okay, good. Don’t hang up until you get here. First period starts in eight minutes, hurry up!”

I nodded and began to speed up my pace. I noticed that when I started walking faster, so did the guy behind me. At that point, I realized that he was definitely following me. Two more minutes went by and I still felt like I was being followed. I tried not to panic but I was already creeped out by the situation; it’s pretty impossible for me to keep calm when I’m afraid... in regards to my past and all.

“Where are you now?”, Joyce asked.

“I’m across the street from the school”, I answered.

“Okay, I’ll be waiting by your locker, don’t hang up until you see me!”, she demanded.

I laughed and sarcastically said “okay, mom”.

When I finally arrived to the school, the same guy walked in behind me.

“Okay, so he was walking to school just like I was. . . still doesn’t explain why he sped up as soon as I did”, I thought.

I made sure to get away from him as quick as possible and headed to my locker where I saw Joyce.

“There’s my bestie!”, she said as she ended the video call.

I smiled and began opening my locker, “Thank you Joyce, I was seriously scared.”

“Girl, Just hurry up and get your things so we can go to first period. I’ve been standing here for too long.”, she responded.

I laughed, gathered my books and closed my locker. “Let’s go, crybaby.”

~after first period~

“. . .yeah, so that happened and I really could care less, I just went on with my day”, Joyce babbled on while we walked to our next class.

Joyce and I basically rearranged our schedules to have as many classes together as we could. Since we were seniors, we didn’t have many classes to begin with. We tried doing this every year but it never worked out, it’s only right that it happened in our senior year.

“What did he look like anyway?”, she asked.

“Who?”

“Stalker boy.”, she answered.

“Oh, umm... I don’t know. He was tall and was wearing a navy blue jacket, that’s all I can remember. I only looked at him for half a second”, I responded.

“Was he cute?”, she asked.

“Why does that even matter, Joyce? He’s creepy.”

She sighed, “you’re right, I guess.”

We continued walking and once we arrived there, we took our seats. Not too long into class, my mind started to wander off. It’s kind of a bad habit of mine. I always catch myself daydreaming and not paying attention to what the teacher is saying. Like now...

“Megan.”

“Uh- yes, Mrs. Morgan?”

“What is the answer? Were you paying attention?”, she asked.

“I, I-“ before I could finish my sentence,

he walked in.

“I’m sorry, Is this the right class?”, he said in a low, raspy voice.

“Yes, yes, you must be Sen, have a seat anywhere you’d like”, Mrs. Morgan said.

On his way to his seat he looked directly at me. I didn’t realize how attractive he was until now. His eyes were radiant, his hair was full of luxurious coils that stopped right before his shoulders, and his lips were perfectly aligned with his eyes and nose. His whole demeanor was just beautiful. His walk was even perfect. We made eye contact for about two seconds but he somehow made it feel much longer. I actually felt nervous when he looked at me, which is very rare. Usually, if a gorgeous guy like him looks at me, I just smile... but he made me anxious. Afterwards, he finally found an empty desk and took a seat.

He sat behind me.

I then looked at Joyce who was sitting two seats ahead of me in the next row, trying to get my attention. She lifted her eyebrows and quickly shifted her eyes in his direction, asking if it was him. I simply nodded and we both turned our heads to face the teacher again.

Time felt like it was dragging and the fact that this mysterious, attractive, stalker guy was sitting behind me wasn’t helping. I felt weird the entire class. As class went on, I kept feeling his eyes on the back of me... or maybe I was just being paranoid.

*bell rings*

Finally.

I gathered my books and signaled Joyce to meet me at my locker. I started walking faster than usual just to get away from him. I wasn’t really afraid of him the same way I was on my way to school. It was more of a not knowing what to say to a cute guy if he approaches me kind of scared. If that makes any sense.

“Oh my gosh, Meg.”, Joyce began to whisper, “stalker guy is cute.”

I shrugged nonchalantly, “yeah, you’re right”

“Girl, don’t look, keep opening your locker.. he’s coming over here”, she warned me.

Please don’t. Please don’t. Please don’t.

I felt a tap on my shoulder and slowly turned around. “Hi.”

“Hey”, he said. “I just wanted to come to you and tell you that I apologize for making you feel uncomfortable earlier.”

His voice was so nice to listen to. It was deep and a little raspy, but not too raspy. He also had a strong southern accent that I instantly loved. I’ve lived in Pennsylvania my whole life so southern accents were kind of my weakness. Not to mention, it was extremely nice of him to come up to me and apologize.

“I’m pretty sure you noticed that I was following you earlier” he continued, “but only because I am new here and needed to know how to get to school. I’m pretty sure I have it remembered now”, he laughed.

I smiled nervously, “it’s fine, thank you for letting me know.”

“No problem. What’s your name? Oh and you too.”, he said referring to Joyce.

“I’m Megan and this is my best friend, Joyce”, I answered.

He smiled showing his perfect teeth. I noticed that he had diamond studs on a few of his bottom teeth, which surprisingly looked good on him.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, I hope you know that now.” he said while placing his hand on my shoulder.

I looked up at him and his eyes were completely focused on mine. I wondered if he was doing this on purpose. You know, being one of those guys. The ones who know they look good and are well aware of the fact that a girl is very shy around them. I don’t know... maybe I was looking too much into it.

“Y-yes, I know.” I responded, “Nice meeting you.” I added.

He smiled and let out a small “you too” before walking away.

Although he was all the way down the hallway, Joyce just couldn’t wait until he had at least turned the corner.

“Oh my gosh!” she said in excitement, “Megan, he likes you!”

I rolled my eyes, “He doesn’t like me Joyce”.

“Well if he doesn’t like you, then he definitely thinks you’re cute. You saw how he looked at you? You can’t be that oblivious!” she responded.

“I’m not oblivious to anything” I said defensively, “I just think he looks at everyone that way. Maybe that’s just how he is.”

I didn’t want to get my hopes up. It’s not even logical for a guy that handsome to be into me; as much as I wanted to believe it, I couldn’t.

Joyce rolled her eyes, “Whatever you say. Come on, let’s go to class”.