Page 80 of The Stalker Snafu

There are no words.

Our duet is in less than a month, and he decided to go be a freaking fugitive.

I finally met the rest of his secret friends, and it turns out I already knew most of them. Small world, right? Julian even wants me to stay with him for the foreseeable future because… well, never mind. Honestly, you wouldn’t believe me if I told you.

Plus, I’m not sure if I’ll be signing my own death warrant if I write about it here.

Maybe that linebacker put me into a coma when he ran into me, and everything since then has been a concussion-inspired dream. Otherwise, reality is so much stranger.

I don’t know what to do.

Also, Noah paid a lot of money to take me to Providence. Like a lot, a lot.

Currently Freaking Out,

Emma

The day didn’t get much better after that. Julian said all we could do was wait for now, and while I didn’t agree, it wasn’t like I had any other ideas or leads. I didn’t have phone numbers for Noah’s family, so I couldn’t call them. I hadn’t even known who his friends were, outside of Julian, before today.

I’d hit a dead end.

Most of the guys left after our trainwreck of a meeting, but Julian and Oliver holed up in the kitchen for something top secret.

So, after texting Teresa and assuring her I was safe, I took a page from her book and pulled out my homework. While not technically doing it, I spent the next couple hours curled up on the couch with a textbook open to the same page. A blank notebook sat on my lap as I stared at Henrietta, and I couldn’t seem to refocus my brain on anything aside from Noah.

I couldn’t even begin to imagine where he was or what he was doing right now.

Oliver strolled out of the kitchen with sandwiches for lunch at some point, but I wasn’t hungry. I felt useless, sitting on my butt and staring listlessly at a pen that held more meaning than I currently wanted it to.

“Julian told me he asked you to stay here until things get cleared up with Kincaid,” Oliver said as he set the tray with sandwiches and chips on the coffee table. He’d even brought glasses with iced tea. Noah’s favorite. “You going to stay?”

I chewed on my lip, looking at the glasses. “I’m staying tonight, but not sure about after. I feel bad imposing on him.”

Oliver chuckled and sat next to me on the couch. He wasn’t even that close, but I still had to fight back the warm flush crawling up my neck. “Trust me, you’re not imposing. He misses having a roommate, and he’s always excited when one of us stays over.”

“Oh.” I made a face and tapped Henrietta against the blank notebook page. “I’m actually struggling with that. Trusting you guys, I mean. Look where it got me with Noah. I feel like I’ve been stupid to even stay this long.”

Oliver nodded and kicked his feet up on the coffee table. “I get it. What’s going down with Kincaid sucks. But Julian’s helped you before, right? He told me about the accident.”

I winced, rubbing at my forehead where it’d been rammed into a stone bench. Good times. “That’s true, but Noah helped me, too. He just happened to be lying the whole time.”

“Then maybe you don’t need to trust us.” Oliver shifted to get more comfortable. “Instead, think of it as staying safe. Florez knows who you are, and there’s a good chance he’ll find out Kincaid’s on the List. I don’t know what he’ll do about it, but you won’t have to worry about that if you stay here.”

I doodled a little music note in the top corner of the page. “Maybe. But I still don’t understand how that Florez guy ties into all this. What was he doing at your party?”

He shrugged. “He has a taste for classical music.”

I squinted. “But why was Noah talking to a guy like him?”

Oliver’s jaw tightened. “It’s not my place to say.”

Of course it wasn’t. I pursed my lips to stop more questions from pouring out. It wasn’t like I’d get any answers.

“So, will you stay?” Oliver asked after a beat. “You’re safe here.”

He made a good point, but I still felt icky just being at the duplex. Noah and I had been playing house in a place that belonged to his friend. “I don’t know. It doesn’t help that now I feel guilty about Noah kicking Julian out anytime we came over here.”

Oliver snorted. “Don’t feel bad about that either. You’ll learn it feels good to inconvenience Julian after he starts annoying you enough.”