Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 69612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69612 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 348(@200wpm)___ 278(@250wpm)___ 232(@300wpm)
A low chain-link fence keeps the children in the yard. I step through the gate, though it would be just as easy to walk over it. There’s a garden path going to the house, but it is cracked and crumbling in multiple places. Laid without any kind of reinforcement, I suppose. A DIY job.
Laura’s stepfather stands up as I approach. He is wearing loose two-tone blue on blue shorts and a band t-shirt. His hair is thinning at the front and long and messy at the back. He makes eye contact with me while the small children ignore the both of us in favor of finding new things to hit each other with.
“Hello. I’m Doctor Rollins. I’m a lecturer at…”
“I know who you are,” the man says.
“You do?” I do not need to feign surprise.
“I saw you on TV once,” he says. “You’re the psychologist who says women shouldn’t date using apps.”
I have a faint memory of a puff piece I did for one of the major networks a year or so ago. I do them from time to time, for moments like these. People trust people they’ve seen on television.
“So I did,” I say. “I’m also teaching a class at the local college. I was wondering if Laura was in. She was supposed to pick up some extra credit work, but she didn’t show up, and that’s very unlike her.”
“I don’t know if she’s here,” he says. If someone else said that, it might be an attempt to dissuade me, a lie. In his case, I think it might be the truth. There are enough people in this house that a man like him, who has taken the youngest two on almost exclusively, might very well not pay much attention to what the older girls are doing.
“Mom!” a female voice shrieks. “She won’t take it off!”
“It’s not yours! I bought it at the same store you did! They don’t make just one of each piece of clothing, Serenity!”
“You don’t have any money, Eva!”
“Yes, I do! I’ve been babysitting! Stop grabbing at me!”
“Hey! Is Laura here?” Her stepfather booms over the general noise.
“Is what?”
“Is Laura here?”
“I don’t know!” Laura’s mom shouts back.
Again, I’m really not sure that the woman has any idea what’s been said to her. She’s working in the kitchen and she sounds harried and busy enough not to be taking in the slightest bit of information.
“Dad!” one of the smaller creatures yells, garnering their father’s attention.
By this time, I am standing on the porch. The front door is thrown open, and a young woman whose blonde hair has been colored with pink streaks looks at me with eyes very reminiscent of Laura’s.
“You looking for Laura?”
“Yes,” I say.
“She’s not here,” she says, closing the door.
Well. That at least gives me an answer. Maybe. A teenager with an attitude is not the most reliable source of information at the best of times. Laura might very well be close by, hiding in something like plain sight.
“What did you have for her?”
The stepfather is suddenly next to me.
“Hmm?”
“You said she was supposed to pick up some work. Where is it? We’ll give it to her next time we see her.”
“Of course,” I say, reaching inside my jacket.
There’s nothing there, of course. I didn’t think this far ahead. I did not imagine I’d actually be asked for the papers.
“I’ve forgotten them in my office!” I declare. “At any rate, please let Laura know. The assignment is worth forty percent of her grade.”
“You visit the home of every kid who doesn’t show up to class?”
This man is not as stupid as I mistakenly decided he looked. He doesn’t have the demeanor of a polished or educated gentleman, but when I look into his milky brown eyes, there’s a hint of violence that answers a call I feel deep in my gut.
“I do when I happen to be passing…”
“This isn’t really your kind of neighborhood,” he says. “That car out there. That’s fancy. Better be careful. The kids’ll have it stripped for parts before you can say ‘inappropriate age gap.’”
“Alright, I’m going to head out,” I say.
“Yeah. You do that.”
He stands, legs spread on the porch like an ogre defending his pad. I leave, not angry like I’d usually be if someone spoke to me like that, or obsessed with revenge, but interested. Laura’s family is more protective of her than they seem to be. She’s so independent, and spends so much time looking after them. I assumed her mother’s partner wouldn’t really care about her. I might have been wrong.
Laura
I breathe in for the first time since I realized his car was outside the house. Not literally, of course, but it feels like it. He found me so quickly. That was scary. I have been going around in my head as to how hard I fucked up by running away from him. The day I went to his office hours and gave him head, I was so close to chickening out. But kneeling there in front of him, knowing he was using me, knowing that he intended to keep using me forever, I knew I had to make that last-ditch effort to get free. Now I’m not sure any of it was worth it. I feel trapped. He knows where I am, and it’s only a matter of time before he gets me.