Page 11 of Stag

He signed after tapping my hand once more. It was my go to for getting my attention, but it was starting to irritate me. Every touch felt unwelcome, because he wasn’t a friend. Not a person I wanted touching me. Just a colleague. We were supposed to be planning our schedules for our next classes, so they were coordinated for those students taking both courses, his for learning more complex signing, and mine for learning to teach others.

*I’m sorry. It feels like more than just nosy people seeing our fingers fly. There’s someone watching for other reasons. Watching me.* It sounded so dramatic, probably conceited too, but it was how I was feeling.

Jethro cast his eyes around again, flipping his light hair back, while I suddenly pictured dark hair and expressive brown eyes instead of his green ones.

*I don’t see anyone paying extra attention, but that doesn’t mean you’re wrong. Do you want me to walk you back to your place?*

I chewed my cheek as I darted my eyes right and left again. Wait. A flash of hair… hair like mine. Fuck’s sake!

I tucked my phone and purse into my shoulder bag and tapped Jethro’s arm this time as he was perusing the coffee shop.

*Don’t worry about it. I just saw my sister out there. She’s probably waiting to walk me home anyway. See you tomorrow.*

He nodded, watching me leave, and the second I stepped outside, I ran around the corner I’d seen her disappearing to. It had to be her. She was always there lately. Maybe it’d been happening longer than I realised.

“MARISSA!” My voice felt raw and ragged as I yelled out for her, and someone tapped my shoulder, tearing an even rawer scream from my throat.

“You okay?” She was behind me. See? This is the thing with her. Darting around, hiding in the damn shadows, and spying on me.

*Why are you stalking me?* I should have used words, so I could try and portray my frustration with her, but she got it. My face was identical to hers, so she understand my facial expressions better than most.

*I’m not stalking you. I was…* her fingers stilled as she glanced down the street. *I was going to the chemist.*

“Bullshit!” I blurted out loud, and she glared at me belligerently. She knew she was caught, but she was still trying to weasel out of it.

“Fine! I was worried. You didn’t answer my text.”

I dug out my phone, knowing she’d stop talking while I couldn’t see her, and if she happened to be muttering to herself, I would never know.

Marissa: Are you coming home soon?

It was sent ten minutes ago. Just ten minutes. How did she know where I was? Was she stalking me or not? Was it coincidence or something more sinister?

“You followed me.”

She shook her head. “Coincidence, I swear.”

We walked home together, and she didn’t have a chemist bag in her hand, nor did she insist we go there first, so I knew she was lying, but what could I do? She was my sister. My twin. She was my roomie, my best friend, my protector. She didn’t have bad intentions. Just the opposite. So why was I starting to feel really unnerved by her presence?

Chapter Five

Is it stalking if I mean well? If I’m just keeping an eye on her so I know she’s safe? Is it stalking if I follow her home, just to make sure she’s safe behind her locked door before I go home myself? Is it stalking if I… I feel like if I have to keep asking myself, there’s a chance someone would say it actually is stalking, but that’s not how I see it. I’m watching over her. Like a guardian angel.

Sure, I’d really like to strip her off and fuck her like a devil, but that doesn’t mean I’m not a good person too, does it?

A ton of shit’s been happening lately, what with Henley getting his ass kicked a while back, and us finally doing away with the Double Ds, something that should have happened long ago. Me doing community service because that bitch got me arrested for stalking, and there was some fucking ‘initiative’ to discourage ‘anti-social behaviour’ that I’d been drafted into, that’s really pissing me off. It’s not the lack of sleep, no. It’s the fact that it’s keeping me from watching over my girl.

She is mine, even if she doesn’t know it. She’s mine to protect and keep safe, and besides, her sister’s a fucking hypocrite, because it is stalking the way she does it.

I couldn’t watch over her at nights, and that was starting to freak me out. What if she was attacked in her home or something? How does a deaf woman know if a fucker breaks in? I’d found her address by accident after I saw her out recently. Her sister was living with her too, which was a small comfort, because that woman was fucking insane, but her sister was safe with her at least. I think.

After I finished my manual labour at the damn motorway, and got my hours signed off, it was natural for me to just swing by her place and check everything seemed fine. She lived too near the high street and industrial centre for my liking. Too much foot traffic, too many people just passing by her place. It was like inviting opportunists. I parked up down the road and walked to her place, keeping my helmet in my hand ready to twat any bad guys lingering around her place.

It was almost completely silent, being nearly four in the morning, and her lights were all off, just like the other homes either side of hers. It was so tempting to check the windows were all closed, and my fingers literally twitched as I took a step closer, but I knew there was a camera up by her front door, and I could see a security light above it. I didn’t want to cause her any panic if I set off anything, so I watched for a few, maybe ten, minutes, and nodded to myself like it was a job well done.

I did my part as best I could. I checked the area, and I couldn’t do more than that unless I found a way to get closer. I could work on that. Maybe if I put up a camera of my own, I could watch over the place from the site too. Grease might know of ways to do that.

I sighed and headed back down the street to my ride, but movement caught my eye down by the high street, near one of the many closed stores, and curiosity had me following. On the offchance there was crime going on right now so close to her address, I wanted to make sure it was coming nowhere near her.