The Loner and Her

Chapter Seventeen : Call in the Night

The sound of Gia's cellphone ringing is what suddenly brings her out of her deep slumber.

With one eye cracked open, she pulls one arm out of her warm and cozy covers and tries to grab at the annoying object that decided to rudely disturb her. When she finally grabs onto the cell-phone, and realizes that it isn't an alarm that usually wakes her up, but a phone call, she quickly slides the screen and presses the phone to her ear. Although, her mind is still half asleep.

"H-Hello," she mumbles, groggily.

She can hear cursing on the other line. "Dammit. I'm sorry, Giules. I should've known you'd be sleeping- "

Suddenly, Gia shoots up and sits her back against the headboard, "Griffin?"

She looks over at her night stand, noticing that the clock reads, 3:34 a.m.

"Yeah, sorry, Giules. It's just- I couldn't sleep, then I remembered what you said and- "

"I'm not going back on my word, Griffin. I'm up now, I swear!" Gia says very quickly.

She can hear him huff loudly. "Giuliana, go to sleep. I'll be okay."

"No, I'm fine. I won't be able to go back to sleep anyways now."

She shouldn't have admitted that.

Griffin curses. "I'm an i***t. Try to go to sleep, Giules."

She's too stubborn, "No. We're going to sit her on the phone and talk until you fall asleep."

Griffin lets out a defeated sigh, "Fine...So, how was your Saturday afternoon?" He asks, awkwardly.

Gia rolls her eyes and she's glad he can't see her, "It was fine. My Nonna called to tell me that she misses me and is waiting for my cry for help to beg her to make my mom move us back there. Then I studied for our Physics final, it's harder than I thought it'd be to remember. For dinner I ate some Chinese take out and now my Mom's working a graveyard shift, so I'm home alone."

Griffin laughs lightly, "It sounds like you had an eventful day," he jokes.

"Totally. How about you? How was your day?"

He, then, takes a casual moment to reply, "The usual. You know, Prescott."

"I don't, actually," Gia reminds him.

"Let's just say it was a laid back kind of day, okay?" He changes the subject back to the main topic.

Gia decides to turn the conversation, "Do you get along with your little brother?"

"What?" Griffin asks, caught off guard.

Gia laughs lightly, she loves surprising him. It makes his voice raise just a bit high and it's so different to hear compared to his much deeper and raspier usual one when he's calm. "Your younger brother... Do you two get along better than you and Lexie?"

"Nate and I get along a lot better than everyone else. He's eight-years-old, so my father hasn't had time to brainwash him, yet.

"Him and I get along more than he and Lexie do. She kind of forgets about him sometimes, which really pisses me off. Especially, when it's just them two home alone cause I'm working and then I come home to find him sitting alone on the couch, telling me he hasn't eaten dinner."

How do you forget to feed your little brother? Gia really cannot stand Lexie.

"What about your step-mom?" She has to ask.

"Well, we're a lot better than we used to be, believe it or not."

"What do you mean?" Gia asks him.

"When I first moved in, she couldn't even look at me, let alone say a word. She was disgusted with me because I'm the bastard child to her husband's infidelity." Griffin sighs. "I thought she was a total b***h, you know? She had to be if she's married to fricking Satan, and for those first six months she was living up to that b***h title real well.

But then, one day, she came with me to the hospital and saw my mom in her hospital bed. I guess her view of me changed."

Gia can easily tell that Griffin isn't speaking the whole truth. She doesn't bring it up, though. He will tell her everything, eventually.

"That's...interesting. How exactly did she change?"

She can hear him breathing softly on the phone. It is sort of distracting to her, but she's still able to follow along.

"She apologized to me once we got home. She said that she shouldn't have acted in such a manner, especially because I didn't do anything. She told me that she knows how much of a d**k head Prescott is. Then, we became civil and a couple months after that, we were more comfortable with each other and now we have a natural step-mother/ step-son relationship."

Gia lets out a breath, "So, basically, you get along with Nate and your step-mom, but not Lexie or Mr. Prescott at all?"

"Mhmm," she hears him hum in agreement.

"Do you wish you and him had a better relationship?"

He takes a couple moments to respond, "At first, yeah. But, then I got to know him."

"What about Lexie?"

"She's my sister, but she's a b***h. There's a lot of s**t that she does...." He sighs very heavily to himself.

"I get it. That's like me and my dad."

Griffin agrees, "Yeah. Except, your dad is actually cordial to you. Lexie and I don't talk to each other at all, unless we're fighting over something ridiculous."

She sighs in return. "You know, sometimes I wish my father and I had a better relationship. He's not really a bad guy. He just...got caught up in something that he never was meant to be caught up in. If that makes sense."

"You make it sound like you think he regrets ever being your father."

She's silent for a short while.

"He regrets meeting my mom, I know that."

Griffin lets out a short and irritated breath, "Why?" He almost snaps at the phone. Not at Gia, but at the situation.

"He has a family now. A family where it's his real children. He doesn't need me anymore. He doesn't need Nonno's money anymore. He doesn't need the appearance of our family anymore. He's moved on. I'm just something in his past that keeps getting brought up."

It's quiet between to the two teens for a little bit. Then, Griffin speaks up, his voice low and gentle, "Do you think he doesn't love you?"

Gia wants to laugh, "Oh, he loves me. Just not enough."

And sadly, Griffin can understand the truth of her words.

Gia opens her mouth to change the subject because it started to get depressing, but then the sound of her heavy front door opening very slowly can be heard from downstairs.

"Wait, my mom's here?" Gia mumbles to herself, and walks to her bedroom window to look out front of her house in search of her mom's car. It's nowhere in sight.

Gia's eyes widen in fear and her breathing suddenly becomes erratic. She whispers, her voice scared, "Griffin."

"What?" He asks, noticing the urgency in her voice.

"I-I-" she starts to stutter, "I think someone's in my house. What- What do I do?" Her eyes fill up with tears as she rushes quickly to her bedroom door, trying to be as quiet as possible as she locks the door. "Griffin, I'm scared."

"Shh, honey, it's okay," Griffin tries to calm her down, but she can tell he's just as freaked out as she is. "Giules, is there anyway for you to get out of there?"

Gia frantically looks around her room, "Shouldn't I call the police? I- I need to call the police!"

"No, Giules, no! Do not hang up on me! Babe, is there anyway you can get out of there? At all?"

Gia heard the sound of rustling going on downstairs. Tears fall freely down her cheeks.

"Griffin, what do I do?"

"You gotta help me, honey. I've never been in your room. Is there a window?"

Gia sniffs, "I'm on a second story."

He sighs, "Giules..."

She lets out a strangled sob, "Griffin, I can't! I'm so scared, Griffin!"

His breathing becomes shallow. "f**k, Gia. You gotta do it. You gotta get out of there, babe. Please, for me. I can't f*****g lose I you."

She cries again, "Please, help me."

"Dammit," Griffin curses loudly. "Look out your window. Is there, maybe, a drain pipe to climb down? Or a- "

"There is a drain pipe!" She whispers.

He sighs, "You gotta climb down it. I know you're scared, but you don't have another choice."

As Gia begins to shakily open her bedroom window,  she hears her mother's bedroom slam open. "Oh, Griffin, they're upstairs!"

"It's okay, Giules. You got this, babe. You got this, I know you can!"

"Griffin, I have to go! I can't talk to you and- "

"Okay, just- dammit, just call me when you get down there, okay?"

She hangs up quickly, right before slipping on the first tennis shoes she sees.

With his words circling around her head, Gia takes a big risk by swinging her leg out her window. Grabbing the drain pipe with both hands, she prays  she doesn't end up breaking a limb.

Using all her upper arm strength, she swings her body right around and locks her legs around the drain pipe, using the bottom of her shoes to stick to the white cement wall of her house. She lets out a shaky breath, her arms begin to weaken and she knows she needs to hurry or else she'll end up falling straight to her death.

She goes down, as quickly as she possibly can, and halfway down she hears her bedroom door swing open and the sound of heavy footsteps slam against her hardwood floor.

Dammit.

She tries to move quicker, but she lost all focus and her footing was off. When she's three-quarters of the way down, her arms give out on her and Gia falls straight towards the ground, her back landing on the grass of her front lawn.

"Ow," she groans, that hurt more than she thought it would.

The face of an unfamiliar male sticks his head out the window. Her eyes widen in fear. "Hey, girl!"

Ignoring the pain in her back, Gia scrambles up off the ground and rushes off her property and towards the direction of the maze.

Luckily, she lives in a neighborhood, where there's so many different streets and random dead ends, that it reminds her and her mother of a maze. It's pretty easy to get lost in if you're not a local.

She's turning the corner, when she sees the creepy stranger barely leaving her house.

She runs as fast as she can, hoping he doesn't catch up to her as she makes random twists and turns, not going in any particular direction.

She slows down just a bit after five minutes to catch her breath. Turning around slightly, she doesn't see the guy anywhere in sight, but still on high alert, she continues to jog and calls Griffin, immediately. What if the guy has a car and is going to follow her that way?

Thinking ahead, crouches down behind a bush, right in between a brick wall and the side of  a stranger's house when she finally takes a stop.

Griffin answers the cell-phone immediately, "Gia?"

"Griffin, I'm okay."

She hears him subtlety whisper, "Thank you, God. Thank you." Then, his voice raises, "I'm so f*****g proud of you, Giules."

She can't help but smile, even with tears in her eyes. "What do I do now, Griffin?"

"First thing's first, where are you?"

Gia hiccups, "I-I don't know. I just ran. I ran so fast, Griffin. I've never ran so fast before. I was trying to lose the guy, he ran after me! But I think I got myself lost."

He's quiet for a second, then says, "Look for an address. Are you still in your neighborhood?"

She nods her head, forgetting he can't see her. She was fast, but not that fast.

"Giules?" He asks.

"Oh, yeah, I-I am. Hold on." Grabbing whatever ounce of courage is left in her body, she peeks her head out from behind the bush. Her eyes are wide and in search of a street sign. They narrow instantly at the little blue one that comes right before the stop sign.

Blue Ave.

She turns her head to the right and glances at the front of the house. On the wall, beside the window to what looks like is the living room is the address.

421

Shakily, she says, "I'm at 421 Blue Ave."

He sighs in relief, "That's not too far away. I'll be there soon. Wait for me."

She doesn't get to response, because he immediately hangs up the phone.

Hiding once again, Gia sighs to herself, praying the stranger never finds her.

After another five minutes, Griffin's truck pulls up to the house. Gia rushes towards it, feeling fresh tears appear in her eyes.

Once Gia shuts the car door, she finds herself being engulfed into a giant hug. Griffin's head is rested above hers while her small arm encircle around him.

"I'm so glad you're okay," he whispers softy to her.

She lets a couple tears fall silently down her cheeks, "I was so scared. I thought- I thought I was gonna die- "

His arms around her tighten just a little tighter.