16. CONFIDANT

16

CONFIDANT

W atching the sun set over the horizon from her bedroom window, Charlotte leaned back against her pillows with her phone in hand. She needed to reach out to someone before the things eating away at her insides devoured her whole.

Having Aiden there felt nice, but she couldn't tell him everything. She didn't even know if he understood how frightening it felt to have someone invade her privacy and believe they were entitled to pieces of her life without her consent.

She knew someone who would understand. Someone who experienced the invasion of her privacy by someone who thought they owned her. The difference was this person knew the identity of her personal boogeyman. Her own stepbrother.

Opening her contacts, she scrolled to her best friend's name and hit call. The line rang twice before Blaire's voice came through.

"Hey, Charlotte! "

She smiled, her eyes misting. She missed her friend more than she realized. Her voice alone made her eyes burn.

"Hey there."

"What's up?"

A deep male spoke in the background, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

"Am I interrupting?"

"Not at all. Lukas is on the phone with Aiden."

That made her pause. Aiden was supposed to be at the police station reporting the dead bird box she found in her bedroom. They had already touched the box, so they tampered with the evidence, but she hoped the police could find something from the interior. They left that alone.

He had insisted she stay home after she got out of classes earlier in the day while he made the report. He reasoned she had already experienced enough emotional turmoil, and he wanted to take care of it for her.

When she asked him why he didn't go this morning while she made her presentation with her group, he told her he wanted to stay at the apartment in case the guy tried to break in again. She didn't understand how he could be so brave. To take on an intruder without thought. If she didn't know any better, she would say it wasn't bravery but sheer stupidity.

"He's gone now. He took the phone outside. So, how have you been? Riley said something about Aiden staying with you. What's that all about?"

Straight to the point it is.

She propped her head against the wall above her headboard and closed her eyes. She needed to do this; needed to tell someone.

"I've got a stalker," she said in a casual tone, lighter than the heaviness she felt on her chest. When Blaire said nothing, Charlotte opened her eyes to look at the screen, squinting when she saw the call still appeared active. She put it back to her ear. "Blaire? You there?"

"Did you just say you've got a stalker?"

"Yep," she said with a casual air, trying to remain relaxed.

"What the hell, Charlotte?" She heard shuffling on the other side of the line. "What are you talking about? Who? Since when?"

"I'm talking about someone following me around, sending me weekly flower deliveries, breaking into my home. I don't know. Since moving up here."

"You sound way too calm about this."

"Trust me, I'm not."

It took great effort for her to rattle off the bullet point summary of the actions the man had taken against her in a calm, steady tone.

"Hang on," Blaire said.

Charlotte's phone started making noises signaling a FaceTime call. Serious conversations always called for video. At least that never changed between them. Part of her almost wished it had.

She braced her forearm on her knee and accepted the video request.

As soon as her friend's heart-shaped face filled the screen, tears filled Charlotte's eyes and spilled over her cheeks.

"Oh, Char…" Blaire sniffled, trying to hold it together for her. "Talk to me. Tell me what's happened."

She detailed everything. How she thought someone followed her, saw someone, the calls, the break-ins, and now the dead bird. By the end of the explanation where Blaire sat silent with a horrified expression on her face, Charlotte felt exhausted.

"Do your moms know?"

"Absolutely not, and you can't tell them. I can't make them worry more than they already are about me being up here."

"But Charlo—"

"No." She swiped her cheeks and sat up, crisscrossing her legs, and giving Blaire her most intimidating stare. "You say nothing."

" Fine. But what are you going to do about it?"

"I've made a couple police reports."

"Charlotte, you need to come home."

She grumbled. Now Blaire sounded like Aiden.

"Aiden's staying with me until they solve the case, so I'll be fine. Or at least that's what he said."

Blaire tucked her long hair behind her ear. "If he said it, he'll do it. You should know him well enough by now to know that."

She wasn't wrong. Charlotte had spent more time talking to Aiden than she had her own best friend since Blaire joined Blackthorn Academy last April. It seemed surreal.

"I still don't understand why you wouldn't come back home. I would have packed everything up and hopped the first bus south the first time I knew for sure."

She didn't doubt it. She knew the only reason Blaire didn't make a run for it when her stepfamily made it their mission to control every aspect of her life was because the Wilcox family had too much power. Her life was in danger if she left.

The thing Blaire didn't understand, though, leaving Athens put everyone Charlotte cared about at risk. Anyone she associated with might fall prey to the stalker. He'd never expressed what he wanted with her. She didn't know how far his delusions went. Who they might extend to.

Then there was the attack she witnessed in the alley.

It benefited everyone for her to remain put. Everyone except Aiden. She hated putting him in the crosshairs by being near her .

"I want my life to be normal. I want to make this work. The police will catch this guy soon, and if I up and leave, he might switch his sights on someone else. At least now I have someone with me. Who knows, maybe the guy will leave me alone if he sees me with Aiden."

Stalkers gravitated toward people who lived alone, right?

"Maybe," Blaire said, but the frown marring her face spoke of her lack of faith in the statement. "Weren't you considering quitting?"

"Let me guess… Riley?"

"No, you."

"Huh?"

"You've talked to me and Riley about it a few times in the past month."

Her hand at her side gripped the comforter beneath her. "I forgot," she mumbled.

This wasn't the first instance where she forgot something she'd done or said to someone. It seemed to get worse when things were unstable around her, but what could she do about it? The doctor already had her on medication. She didn't want to make another appointment with everything happening.

Even if the mandatory student health plan covered the service, she didn't want to waste a professional's time when she couldn't be open about what she experienced. She didn't want to trigger a false diagnosis.

She knew she had depression. The symptoms were the same as before. She recognized the problem, but if she went and expressed further concerns about her cognitive functions, they might misdiagnose her when she didn't reveal the whole story. She didn't relish the idea of what that might mean.

"Do you need me to come up there? It's summer break. I can stay with you." Blaire's eyes shifted up over the screen and her face fell. " I forgot about that," she said. Her gaze shifted to the screen. Her expression looked pained with whatever thought crossed her mind. "I, uh… I actually can't. I can't leave."

Charlotte didn't ask her what would keep her from coming to stay with her. She didn't have room for Blaire anyway, and she wouldn't put her friend in that kind of danger. Aiden was here because of their agreement. She could stay only if she allowed him to stay with her. He was big, strong, and male. That would discourage her stalker—she hoped.

"That's alright. There's only one bed here, anyway, and the couch is too small to sleep on."

"What?" Blaire's eyes went as big as saucers. "Where's Aiden sleeping?"

"Oh, well…" Her face screwed up, teeth sinking into her lip with her guilty smile. "Here. In the bed. With me." She forgot Blaire had never seen her apartment. Still, she didn't want to lie to her friend, so it didn't matter.

The camera jerked about, and Blaire rose to her knees as she squealed, "What?"

Charlotte's face heated, likely turning the same shade as the lingering cherry lowlights in her hair from when she colored it last.

"I can't believe you're sleeping together!" Blaire looked up. "Yes! She's sleeping with him!"

A male voice spoke in the background. Lukas must have returned.

"We're not sleeping together like that. Don't be weird."

Blaire lowered herself down, the camera losing its shaky quality. "Oh."

"Don't sound disappointed, either." Charlotte rolled her eyes.

"I'm not!" Blaire laughed. "I don't know what I was thinking."

The door rattled, making her spine stiffen and her breath catch .

"Charlotte? What's wrong?"

"Someone's here," she whispered.

"What? Now? No." Blaire's voice sounded far away as fear tried to pull Charlotte under. "Someone's there with her. No, not Aiden."

Aiden.

"Crap. It might be Aiden," she said with a shaky breath, her senses coming back to her.

She had given him a key to come and go freely, but completely forgot about it. He should be back by now, so it made sense.

"Charlotte?"

The familiar masculine voice coming from the other side of the wall made her sink into the pillows and close her eyes. They needed to come up with a better way to let one another know when they were coming into the apartment. Maybe texting first. She didn't know if her heart could handle the unexpected scares.

"Is it?" Blaire said, her voice sounding panicked.

Pulling in a deep lungful of air, she opened her eyes to see both Lukas and Blaire staring at her with concern. "It's just Aiden."

"What's just me?"

"You're texting me before you come in next time. You about gave me a heart attack."

Aiden looked over his shoulder, back to where he came from, and then at her. "I scared you? Shit, I'm so sorry." He lowered himself to sit next to her against the pillows, his arm brushing hers. "I'll text you next time. I put your notebook on the kitchen counter. You left it in class. Noah dropped it off." He finally took notice of the phone. "Oh, hey. Why didn't you tell her it was me?"

"Hey," Blaire said. "I didn't know."

"No, I mean, him."

Lukas shrugged. "I didn't know. We've been off the phone for a little while. Told you I was going to get a game."

Blaire waved a hand, dismissing their back and forth, making Charlotte giggle. "Charlotte was just telling me about her little… big problem."

"Yeah?" Aiden looked from the screen to Charlotte.

"Yeah." She looked at Lukas, noting his expression didn't hold an ounce of confusion. She looked at Aiden. "You told him?"

Both Lukas and Aiden's eyes widened in response to the question. Bingo.

"It's okay," she mumbled. "He's your best friend, and you're kinda living with me for now. Besides, I didn't really expect Blaire to keep it a secret."

"Hey, I can keep a secret. It's Riley you have to worry about."

"To be fair, she's gotten better about that," Lukas said.

"It's not that I didn't think you couldn't keep it to yourself," Charlotte said. "I just didn't expect you to keep something so serious from him. Lukas is my friend. I want him to know."

Lukas cleared his throat and lowered his eyes, his hand raking through his long hair as he sat back out of frame.

Blaire laughed. "He's shy."

"Hardly," Lukas said with a grunt.

"What? You're not happy she considers you her friend?"

"By the stars, woman," he muttered. "Yes. She's my friend." With a sigh, he added in a gruff tone, "I'm happy about it."

Charlotte's brows pinched. "Did you just say, ‘by the stars'?"

Blaire's head whipped to look at the screen, her laughter fading. "What?"

"Stars? I've never heard that phrase before."

"I didn't hear that." Blaire looked at Lukas again, and he shrugged.

"I'm starving," Aiden said, drawing Charlotte's attention. "You want to do takeout?"

"I can't really splurge after the grocery shopping we did." She frowned. "I can cook."

"Well, it would be my treat, but I won't turn down a home-cooked meal." His smile made her stomach swoop.

"We'll let you guys go. We're heading down to the cafeteria for dinner, too." Blaire's cheerful expression fell. "Please call me if anything happens, Char. I love you. I want you to be safe. If it's too bad, promise me you'll come home."

Charlotte's throat felt tight as she swallowed. "Yeah, I promise."