“You done?”
“Oh, dude. That—” Felix continues to laugh “—that was hilarious. I’m totally saving that and playing it on a loop. Might even make it my new screensaver.”
“Shouldn’t you be watching anime porn or some shit, not obsessing over me?”
“The security system can pick up if a coyote is in the backyard, you think it’s not going to sense a six three dude falling out of a tree?”
“I didn’t fall out of the tree.”
“True, you didn’t even make it up.”
“Listen here, fuckhead, if you—”
“Oh, you’re going to threaten me? I’m sooo scared.”
“You’ll be scared when you wake up with a knife in your shoulder, smartass.”
I reach into my waistband and pull out my switchblade, flicking it open and waving it in the direction of the house’s back patio. I don’t know where the hell these new high-sense cameras are—and it’s on me for not looking into that beforehand—but I have to be close with my aim.
“Stab me, Daddy.”
“Jesus fucking Christ.”
A lot of people meet Felix and assumed he is the normal one. They’d be wrong. Somehow, I am the sanest person out of the three of us. Which is a terrifying realization to most. I suppose it is because I have some measure of self-control and patience.Some.
The ringing in my ear has dissipated, and my vision has cleared.
“Look, just keep whatever cameras off that you need to, and I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
“Technically, I have the cameras on a loop. If I shut them off, that would look suspicious.”
I count to three.
“I’m hanging up.”
“Try engaging your core this time so you don’t splat like a bug.”
“Goodbye.”
I hang up before he can get another word in and slip the balaclava back on. I stand up and dust myself off, ridding my body of the dirt and debris that cling to it before I make my second attempt. This time, I use my blade for extra purchase, and it makes for smoother work.
When I finally reach the sturdy branch that sits just above eye level with Blair’s bedroom, I smirk, throwing a middle finger at wherever Felix may be watching.
See? Piece of cake.
Blair’s bedroom sits at the far-right corner of the house, on the second floor next to an empty guest room, while her parents’ master bedroom is on the opposite side of the house, and her younger brother has a room on the third floor. Her large bay window overlooks the sprawling garden, and she rarely closes the curtains. Tonight is no exception.
The siblings got back twenty minutes ago, and after a lot of unnecessary sneaking around, they made it inside and to their respective rooms. I bet if they knew their mother downed sleeping pills like Tic Tacs, they probably wouldn’t have worried as much.
My switchblade flicks between my fingers, pulse thrumming deep under my skin, as I watch Blair toss and turn in her sheets, her smooth body framed by the moonlight.
The obsession I have with Blair is confusing. I loathe and love her. I hate the people she surrounds herself with. I hate the days she stood silently while Brett and his buddies beat me to a bloody pulp. I hate it that sometimes she’d come back to secretly clean me up. I hate the fear I saw in her eyes when I finally fought back. I hate that I want her so badly it has driven me to endless days and nights of watching her from afar.
Why couldn’t she have gone to college out of state? Why does she still have to live so close? Why does she always have to come back and torment me?
Blair pitches forward in her bed. She tosses off her sheets in the process as she buries her face in the palms of her hands before flopping back down on the mattress. She can’t sleep, and I hope in part that it is because of me.
Her arm reaches out and blindly slaps her nightstand until she finds her phone. The screen illuminates her heart-shaped face as she scrolls. With her sheets flung to the side, I have a full view of her luscious body clad in nothing but a tank top and tinyunderwear. The hem of the tank rises a few inches as she turns onto her side, the sliver of her stomach glowing like a damn beacon.
