#noises

Damian was exhausted.

The longest four years of his life had just ended and now he was stuck in Kansas all summer with Jon and the elder Kents. Not that Martha and Jonathan weren’t great hosts but everyone was so peppy in Smallville. He needed a break from it all. A break from his break, how ironic.

It wasn’t just college and all the halfwits he had to endure, it was working with his father and siblings to take down a drug empire that was distributing dangerous narcotics around the city. When his team finally took them down it was like all the stress and worry he was holding in came flooding out and he still had to graduate which wasn’t any easier, not that he ever struggled academically but after all the death and gang wars he was spent.

He could deal with the early rising and all the farm work but he needed a break from the people.

That's why he was here at a small family owned restaurant by himself, while Jon was at the Tallon with his friends. That's where the young people in Smallville would gather to socialise while the place across the street remained relatively quiet during the work week.

Damian had been people watching from the quiet corner of the restaurant watching as people from the lunch rush poured out, no one particularly stuck out.

Something about you however instantly piqued his interest, he couldn’t put his finger on it exactly but he kept a close eye on you as you cleaned up the aftermath of lunch time, which he was lucky enough to only catch the tail end off.

Despite the fact that Damian acts like a stuck up asshole he notices you. You’re pretty but too enthusiastic, too nice if that was a thing, maybe not in Smallville but you’d never survive in Gotham.

At first he thought that it was how pathetically innocent you were that caught his attention but he noticed that every so often your mask would slip and you looked guarded, almost scared.

You noticed Damian the moment he walked in, you had seen him at the Kent farm when you went to pick up your weekly produce delivery. He was a new face, which was rare in Smallville.

You curiously eyed him from behind the counter as he pretended to look at his phone but he could see you in his peripheral, playing with the petals on the end of your pink flower shaped pen as you leaned over the counter resting on your elbows. 

It was about five minutes before he looked up from his phone, his eyes meeting yours instantly. His eyebrows raised and his eyes challenging you. A challenge that you welcomed.

You didn’t hesitate to walk around right over to him, standing at the edge of his table looking down at him expectantly like you were waiting for an introduction.

“Well..what do you want?”

“You’re Damian Wayne right?” Damian just eyes you suspiciously for a moment.

“Yes.” He replies dryly. The last thing he wanted was a Wayne sycophant following him around all summer.

“I’m just askin’ because I saw you at the farm the other day with Jon. Are you from the city?”

Did you mean metropolis? You obviously didn’t know him for his name then. “No, Gotham.” Is all he says in reply.

“I’m Y/N by the way. Why are you in Smallville?”

Damian chooses to entertain the conversation with you. “I just graduated, I’m taking a break from the city.” Or at least that's what his father told him he needed.

Despite his age he had no choice in being here and even though he did enjoy the company of his best friend, there was only so much of Jon he could take.

“I graduate next year!” You pull out the chair across from him and sit resting your cheeks against your hands. “Why do you need a break from the city? Did you get in trouble back home because my cousin did the same thing when he got in trouble in Metropolis.”

“Because..” His words were short and his tone was dry but you didn’t notice. You just sat waiting expectantly for his answer. “I had no choice, my father sent me here for the summer.”

“Why? You look old enough to make decisions for yourself.” You enquire. "I get it, my parents are really controlling too. One time-"

“Do you not have work to do?” He asks.

You make a point of looking around the shop before you answer. “Nope.” You say popping the p at the end as your eyes land back on him.

For a moment, his gaze softens as he studies you, a flicker of amusement passing through his eyes. You were weird, not Gotham weird or off putting, just different. You obviously didn't understand social cues (not that he was any better) and you dressed like a child, despite being around his age.

“Is it true that everyone in Gotham is crazy? My daddy says they’re all lunatics but you seem alright.”

“Thanks.” Damian replies sarcastically.

“Y/N! What are you doing?” Your Mother yells from behind the counter. “Leave that boy alone and do your job.”

“Mama! There's nothing to do!” You whine.

“If you have nothing to do, I'll give you something, lord knows there's plenty to do in the kitchen!” She yells once again making you stand folding your hand behind you as she approaches. “I’m sorry if my daughter was disturbing you at all young man.” Your mother says in a gentler voice. 

“No, not at all.” He smiles politely.

“Holler if you need anything else. Okay?” Your mom smiles Damian gives her a curt nod, then she turns back to look at you. “You..” She points. “Get back behind the cash register.”

“Ma! We were talking..”

“Flirt on your own time.” She snaps back.

“I wasn’t. Stop embarrassing me!” You whine as you walk over to the cash register leaning back against the coffee machine folding your arms over your chest.

“Stop-” Your mother says in warning.

Damian cuts in before your mother can respond. “I was just going actually. Thank you for the food and the tea.”

He walks over to you standing on the other side of the glass display case holding the baked goods looking at you expectantly.

“That’ll be $12.50.” You say, sounding less enthusiastic than you were a moment ago. Damian hands you the exact amount then pulls out a twenty dollar bill to put into the empty tip jar while you’re occupied with arranging his change into the cash register.

“Would you like a receipt sir?” You say in a professional sounding tone looking over at your mother instead of him, only making eye contact when you're done with the sentence.

He smirks at your shift in mood. “No, thank you.”

“Have a really nice day.” Your mother calls.

You turn back to your mother as Damian exits the restaurant and he catches the beginning of your argument as the door closes behind him.

“Mom! Why would-” You begin to speak as he closes the door behind him.

He thought you were compelling, he wasn’t interested in you, just curious. Everyone else in Smallville seemed to be pretty much the same but you stuck out like a sore thumb, did your own thing like it was as natural as writing your own name and he wasn’t repulsed by your friendliness. 

But you were hiding something.

He wanted to know more about you; it was in his nature as a detective.. That's what he told himself. God forbid he actually be interested in a woman who doodled on her jeans and wore a dress as a shirt that looked like a box of crayons had thrown up on you. And you were so loud, which was nothing new to him having so many siblings with their own unique personalities and the only quiet people in Gotham were mute or hiding something from the cops.

As Damian crossed the street to go to the Tallon Jon exited with a group of his friends laughing loudly and shoving each other through the door.

“Hey Damian, care for a swim? We're going to crater lake.” A blonde girl whose name slips his mind despite this not being their first meeting offers as everyone splits off into their designated cars.

“..Or you can walk back to the farm.” Jon adds, earning him an irritated glare. “C’mon Damian. You’ve been here a week and you’ve been alone the whole time.”

“I was going to join you inside.” He argued knowing full well that that was a lie.

“Well now we're going to the lake, so get in the truck.” Jon replies.

Damian reluctantly follows Jon back to the truck.

It's not that Damian disliked Jon’s friends but there were so many of them in Smallville and they’re all so much like Jon, all too friendly and loud. Damian learned that on day one that they were too much for him and to take as many breaks from them as possible to avoid going insane.

Later at the lake Damian took the opportunity to be alone when everyone went into the water, despite the heat he had to endure it was worth it to be alone since he had to struggle to try to keep up in conversation while Jon was a natural at it.

When a car pulled up Damian ignored it, he thought everyone was here already. How could there be more of them? They were like Rats, when you see one there's a thousand others. All he could hope was that whoever was here right now would rather join the group out in the water than loiter around with him and talk.

“Hey, Damian Wayne!” You call from beside him, catching his attention. By no fault of his own a lot of people knew his name but when the sound of your voice was so fresh in his mind he couldn’t forget it. “Didn’t think I’d see you here. Why aren’t you in the water like everyone else?”

You drop your bag by your side and take a seat beside him on the checkered picnic blanket.

“Everyone else is exhausting.”

“..Well I just finished my shift at the lucky seven and Scarlet invited me, which was really nice. Have you met Scarlett?” You peer out into the water and point her out. “She's wearing the pink two piece.”

Scarlet the blonde one who talks a lot, he definitely remembers meeting her.

The conversation lulled and you just sat there beside him calmly smiling at the sight of your friend's rough housing.

“Aren't you going to join them?” He asks.

You look around almost like you’re expecting someone is nearby watching. “I don’t want you to be alone.”

“I don't need your pity.” He scoffs.

“It's not pity, it's compassion plus you look stressed.”

Really you didn’t wanna be there in the first place even though you went through the effort to lie to your parents about going to meet your friends at the Kent farm. They think you’ll avoid getting in trouble with the Kent's around, not that you ever get in trouble.

“I’m not.” He replies bluntly.

“Well you didn’t have that crease between your eyebrows when you left the shop earlier.. Now you look like you wanna be anywhere else.” He gave you the well practiced Wayne stare which you ignored.

“What's it like staying with the Kents?” You ask in your usual chipper tone.

Damian just looks at you for a second before realising you’re not willing to back down from the conversation just yet. “It's fine- It's a farm, we wake up early and work.”

“But what is it really like? What do you do? Do you miss the city?”

“There's not much to miss. Gotham is dirty and filled with criminals.” It was brutally honest opinion of his hometown but who were you to question his opinion?

“You don’t get much of that here. Crime I mean, I couldn’t be a criminal. I can't run fast enough and my parents would disown me..”

Just as you go to continue you hear your name being called from the water. When you look, Scarlett is waving you over while the rest of the group continue to enjoy the water.

“I guess I should go say hi.” You say as you stand dusting the sand off your calves and Damian just gives you a short curt nod in response watching you walk up the dock obviously with no intention of getting in the water.

“Hey Scar.”

“Aren't you getting in?”

You eye your clothing knowing you were wearing a bikini underneath and it's just you and your friends but then you hear that voice telling you that someone is hiding in the tree line. “I can’t get my hair wet.” You lie.

You scrunch your nose as you look over the water. It looked nice but there was that nagging voice in your head again telling you to be careful, you couldn’t let yourself be vulnerable right now.

“Boo! Don’t be boring!” Alia yells.

“Hi, Ali.” You wave at the girl sitting on her boyfriend's shoulders.

“Hey, Y/N! Get in here.” Bailey yells, at that everyone else finally turns to greet you.

You were happy to see your friends. You really were but things weren't going great for you right now to say the least.

While you’re distracted saying hello to everyone someone grabs you from behind making you scream in panic and as you fly off of the dock into the water.

When you resurface above the water you cough, drawing a deep lungful of air, your heart is hammering in your chest, everyone is laughing including the culprit; Danny as he jumps back in the water beside you creating a big wave that crashes into you fogging your vision.

“Hey, sorry. I had to do it to ya.” Danny says with a shrug.

“Not cool..” You frown looking down at your shirt that is now clinging to your skin. “Now my clothes are wet.”

“Danny! What is your problem?” Scarlett asks, sounding exhausted with him.

“What? We’re at the lake, You’re wearing a bikini-”

Scarlett doesn't even let him finish. “She didn’t wanna get her hair wet, idiot!”

You make a point to get out of the water as soon as possible, wringing out your shirt at the ends before pulling the material away from your skin so you can start drying your clothes. When you reach your stuff you toss your shirt aside as you look for the towel you packed completely ignoring the stare of the man next to you.

Damian notices the frown on your face, obviously you weren't happy about what just happened.

“Are you alright?” His eyes met your and his features softened.

“Yeah, I just didn’t wanna go in. Now they’ll definitely drag me back.” You grumble, toweling your hair and shoulders dry before standing again to pull your shorts off. “At least it's hot out..”

Damian doesn’t respond and you walk away with your dripping clothes in a heap in your arm. You lay your shirt and shorts out on the hood of your car to dry, thank God your car was close enough for you to keep in sight.

“Hey, Y/N I’m real sorry.” Danny says with a fake pout on his face.

Scarlet cuts in. “Yes, please don’t let him ruin your night.” 

“I didn’t know you weren’t gettin’ in. But hey, now you can?” Danny suggests.

“I guess.” You sigh.

“Nah, you're getting in. You can’t just sit here shivering like a wet puppy.” Dan adds.

You laugh at his choice of words. “Okay just don't throw me in again.” You warn.

He salutes. “Scouts honour.”

“You got kicked out of the scouts..” Scarlett says from beside him.

“You guys go ahead. I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Okay, let's go asshole.” Scarlett says, grabbing Dan by his ear, pulling him along with her.

There was nothing stopping you from going in the water now you were already stripped down to just a bikini, your hair was soaked and your clothes weren't going to dry anytime soon. Yet you were still nervous. Damian definitely noticed, green eyes focused on you, they lowered to the sight of your hand twisting together nervously.

“You don’t have to go.” He doesn’t know why he said what he did. He could tell that you didn’t want to go and he knew you were going to anyway. “They’re too distracted to notice anyway.”

You shake your head. “Oh they’ll notice I promise.”

“Don’t give them anything to worry about.” He stands gesturing for you to follow him.

“Where are we going?”

“We're walking and you’re gonna laugh and smile and no one will think anything of it.”

“Thank you.” He did a quick once over of you before nodding in reply. 

By the time you walked a quarter of the way around the lake it had been fifteen minutes and a few people were getting out of the water, you and Damian decided it was time to turn back. Damian did his best at reciprocating conversation but you carried it most of the way talking about your family's restaurant, your favorite foods and animals.

The conversation with you was easy for him, you spoke, he listened and chipped in when necessary. Damian didn’t do awkward things, he didn't hang around people he doesn’t get along with for long enough to let things get to that point but listening to you made it easy to reciprocate the conversation.

He even told you how he was The Wayne heir and what that meant in real world context and what it was really like living in Gotham. As soon as he mentioned his fathers name (Bruce Wayne) you knew who he was.

“Scarlett dressed as Harley Quinn for halloween, Alia and Bailey were Poison Ivy and Canary and I was Catwoman” You say excitedly. “Isn’t she so cool?”

“Not exactly the word I would use..”

By then you had reunited with the group you rushed to grab your phone to show Damian a picture of last years Halloween costume

“When I saw that picture of her in the park feeding all the stray cats I just knew I wanted to be Catwoman.” You tilt your phone over to him to show him the picture of you in your costume.

As his eyes roamed around the screen he couldn’t help but think you almost looked like someone else. The pose and costume you chose were almost accurate to what Selina actually wore with a few modifications including wearing a short one piece instead of Selina’s usual full length body suit.

It was a big contrast to what you looked like in person and the person he had met today. It wasn't as playful, really the only thing about it that was still you was the small cat shaped bag under your arm and the half contained grin on your face. The clothes and the way you posed were so sexy, they contrasted your usual demeanor so drastically. There was just something about how your eyes looked as you smiled into the camera.

“I love cats.” You say as you turn your phone off putting it in your back pocket. “All animals really, I wanna have a farm one day.”

“..I have a cow.”

You stop in tracks to look at him, your eyes light up. “In Gotham? Really?”

He nods. “At the manor.”

“Oh yeah! You must have so much space-”

“Nice to see you made a friend Damian.” Jon says, patting his friends back roughly with a wet hand. “What were you two talking about?”

“Damian was just telling me about how super rich he is.” Damian cringes at your choice of words and Jon looks at him in mock surprise knowing you well enough to know it was a joke.

“I didn’t say that.” He corrects.

“Close enough.” Jon adds and Damian says nothing, he couldn’t deny that the Wayne’s had more money than most people could ever dream of or use in one lifetime. “So what brought you two together?”

“She was keeping me company.” He lies. Jon raises a brow at that, intrigued at the idea of Damian Wayne of all people needing or wanting company. He didn't believe it for a second.

“There’s my favourite girl.” You hear as an arm swings over your shoulder and his hand hangs dangerously close to your breast which you don’t notice but Damian does, you however don’t seem uncomfortable at all with his touch. 

“Hey Jack.” You reply.

“Bring us any snacks?” Jack asks.

“Of course I did.” You smile. “I wouldn't call them snacks though. It was a really slow day, so there's a lot.”

“I think I can handle it, I’m on a bulk. Did you notice?” Jack says, eyeing Damian just for a moment before pulling you along with him back to the picnic blanket.

You hum looking him up and down from your awkward angle under his arm. You contemplate your choice of words. “I think so. Your shoulders look bigger.”

“You’re gonna wanna try this food.” Jon says, following you and Jack back to your bags.

“I did.”

Jon falter for a second. “She gave you first dibs? Not fair.”

“No, I ate at her family's restaurant earlier.”

While you watched everyone eat you felt a buzzing coming from your back pocket. It must have been your mom or dad texting to let you know they won’t be home till late. When you look at your phone however your eyes are met with pictures of you, from today. Pictures you had no idea were being taken. 

Anonymous: *Image*                       *Image*                        Who is he?

The question was referring to the pictures they sent of you and Damian in your family's restaurant and from just a few minutes ago when you were walking along the water together.

You don't know who had been sending them but you'd been getting texts from an unknown contact for over a year now and they get creepier every time. The worst part was they all disappeared before you had the chance to show anyone.

Your phone buzzes again.

Anonymous: Is he your boyfriend?                       He can’t have you, you're mine.                       *Image*

This time the image was of Jack with his arm over your shoulder. You didn’t realise how exposed you were in your bikini, you weren't even wearing shoes. You had just been walking around in the skimpy outfit for the last half hour completely unaware and now you felt insecure.

Anonymous: I’ll cut his hands off.

You wince at that last message. It was so much more aggressive than the others they’d sent in the past.

You decide to try a new tactic and take a screenshot but when you check the images don’t show up in your camera roll. How was this happening? You check your recent messages again but the texts are all gone.

“Hey, what's up?” Scar asks, noting the distressed look on your face.

Scarlett knew exactly what that face meant, there were only a few things that could upset you like this and since you just finished your last semester of the year last week it could only be one thing.

“Are you getting them again? The texts?” She whispers. She was the first person you told after months of receiving anonymous text and emails. 

One day you just broke down to her telling her everything and she believed you, she told you how easy it was for people to hack you now and that it wasn’t all in your head. Without hesitation she told you to go to the police but you had no evidence. 

She led you away from the group to talk privately. 

“What did they say?”

“They sent some pictures first just a couple of me and Damian and a text asking if we were together and that he couldn’t have me but then they sent a picture of me and Jack. He had his arm around my shoulder. They said they’d cut his hands off.” You sob out the last part.

“Shh, it's okay. Y/N I think we should tell my dad, he’s the sheriff, he will help..” She always does this; she tries to appeal to your senses. “Please..? You can’t let this guy keep intimidating you.”

“But they haven’t actually done anything to me..” Yet you wanted to add but the idea of thing escalating further sickened you.

“So the months of emotional torment and threatening Jack aren't enough?”

“I have no proof.”

“There is proof somewhere. If they are making texts and photos disappear from your phone they probably have spyware installed on your phone somewhere.” Scarlett had been doing her research ever since you first told her.

You wipe the tears from your eyes and begin to walk back to the group. “I just need time, Scar.. I don’t wanna think about that right now.”

“Just promise me we’ll talk about it later?”

“Yeah.. I promise”

A few hours later when the sun had finally started to disappear behind the tree line you decided it's time to go home, your parents would start to worry and you’d never really liked driving alone at night.

“I gotta go.” You say checking the time on your phone for the eighth time in the past ten minutes.

Damian watched as you rose to your feet, you hadn’t spoken much since going off to speak with Scarlett, you were on edge. He wanted to know what was wrong but it wasn’t his place to ask.

Jack jumps up making his way to your side, pulling you into a far too drawn out hug before mumbling a goodbye into your hair. As everyone else said their goodbyes Damian stayed put on the blanket just watching you as you interacted with your friends.

“I’ll walk you to your car.” Scarlett says standing with you and dusting sand off or herself.

“Scar.. I’m good.” You almost scold her, trying not to look annoyed but she ignores you grabbing the cooler box with remnants of food in it.

“I know.” She says walking ahead of you.

You follow her to the car unlocking it and tossing your things into the passenger seat and grab your now dry clothes off the hood of your car slipping into the shorts first.

“So what are we gonna do about your stalker coming back?” Straight forward Scarlett as usual, she didn’t bother mincing words or trying to ease you into it.

“I don’t know Scarlett.. I haven’t had time to think about it.”

“I gave you time to think..”

“It’s been three hours and we were with our friends, I didn’t wanna think about it.”

“I’m sorry, okay.” She sighs. “I just think, we should do something.”

“Just call me later?” You ask as you step past her to get to the driver's side.

“..Yeah.” She hugs you for a few moments too long. “You better answer.”

Before you get in the car you see Damian making his way over to the two of you. You eye him curiously and notice something in his hand, your phone..

“You left this behind.” He says.

“Thank you-”

“Yeah she can be really forgetful.” Scarlett adds earning a glare from you.

“It was nice meeting you, Y/N.” Damian says, awkwardly transferring his weight from one foot to the other. He must have looked dumb from Scarlet’s point of view standing in front of you awkwardly.

“You too, bye.” Your response isn’t what he expected, it's curt and short almost like after your mother scolded you earlier.

“Good night.” He says as you give him a small wave as he walks away.

“Oh my God.. he likes you!” Scarlett squeals once Damian is out of earshot.

“No, Scar. He's just nice.” You mutter.

“Shut up.. Did you see the way he was looking at you? He has a thing for you!” She smirks and all you can muster up is a scoff. The last thing you wanted to think about was guys right now.

“I’m gonna leave before you get any more crazy ideas.”

“I love you Baby girl! And so does Damian.” She whisper yells the last part for your sake and hers (Because she doesn't want anything thrown at her head).

The drive back into town was calm. You missed rush hour traffic so the streets weren’t so congested and the sun was still visible on the horizon.

After two whole months of silence from your stalker, having them resurface again this week made you uneasy. It’s like they knew when to find you at your most vulnerable, just when you started to relax again.

You were the only people at the lake today and somehow they still managed to hide in plain sight taking photos. You wondered how they managed to get those angles..

When you parked the car you swore you saw something moving in the bushes, you waited a moment  to see if anyone would come out but there was nothing. You carefully step out of the car, pulling your things behind you, across the middle console, keys already in your hands.

You cut across the lawn to get to the front door making sure to lock it behind you afterwards. Once you’re inside you turn on all the lights dropping your stuff off in the kitchen.

You know your parents won’t be home for a few hours so you double check both the back and side door are locked and put the keys in. 

You're greeted by your cats Abbott and Costello sitting on your bed purring softly obviously wanting your attention after a long day at home alone.

“Hi, babies. Are you guys hungry?” You say petting Costello's head as he stretches across the bed, while Abbott lays still unmoving from his spot on your stuffed elephant. “Let's go down!”

Abbott only makes his way down the stairs when he hears his bowl being filled in the living room and by then Costello has already eaten half of his own food.

When you finally sit down on your bed you look at your phone only to be greeted by the last thing you wanted to see after the day you had there were pictures of your house with your car sitting in the driveway, these couldn’t have been taken more than a few minutes ago and they felt like a threat.

Anonymous: *Image*                       *Image*                       *Image*                       I’m happy we can finally be alone.

Tears formed in your eyes as soon as you took in the familiar scene. That was your home, your mailbox and your car. Each picture was closer and closer until they were close enough to see Abbott in the window resting after his meal. You put your phone down for a minute to process what you saw and the biggest mind fuck came when you looked back at the text and photos they all disappeared right before your eye.

Anonymous: I hate it when you cry.

That last message has your blood running cold and you throw your phone to the end of your bed laying face down. You grab a pillow to cover the back camera and sobbed yourself to sleep curled in on yourself watching the door

[The Kent farm]

Damian was getting ready for bed in the bathroom when Jon came to the door leaning against the frame with a big toothy grin on his face which Damian tried this best o ignore.

“So Damian, what's with you and Y/N?” Jon asks.

Damian scoffs at the assertion. “What are you talking about?”

“I mean, you seemed pretty cozy today at the lake.” He shrugs.

“That was nothing. I was just being friendly.”

“Ha! Sure..” Jon laughs. As if Damian Wayne could be friendly for the sake of it.

He gives Jon that iconic Wayne glare, folding his arms over his chest. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“You’re not friendly. You’re moody and avoidant and even if you were trying to be friendly why Y/N? You’ve been avoiding all my friends and Y/N shows up today and you’re friendly? I don’t believe it, there's gotta be something else.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” He says, shaking his head. Fully in denial about what Jon was trying to suggest was going on between you two. It was absurd he just met you today.

“Sure, lover boy.” Jon says leaving him in the bathroom to finish getting ready.

You spent the night curled up on the bed in the same clothes that you were dunked in the lake with and a stuffed animal gripped in your arms. Your mom and dad got home after the sun went down around twelve, probably assuming you were asleep since the only light off in the house was in your bedroom.

It wasn't until the sun came back up that you moved.

You never got the chance to change into your PJs or eat dinner, you never called Scarlett like you promised, you just laid there fearing that your phone would buzz from beneath the pillow at the foot of your bed.

After a long dreamless night of tossing and turning you got yourself ready for work peeling your body away from your bed and into the bathroom to refresh yourself, hopefully enough to open up the store. Before leaving home though you made sure to move y

It was a slow draining morning that consisted of your usual running around keeping yourself distracted from what happened and without your phone it was almost unbearable. Usually you played music; whatever new playlist you were listening to at the time. But today you were stuck with the local radio station playing the chart top hits.

You were bussing a table when the door flew open making you jump out of your skin. “I have been calling you all night!” Scarlett says as she comes marching through the store, making a b-line straight for you. “Are you okay?” She asks when she notices your slightly disheveled appearance. “You look like you haven't slept in days..”

“Scar.. What are you doing here?” Your words are dry and bored as you look at her, you have no patience for her easy going nature today.

She persists despite your unusual attitude. “Is it.. Ya know? Did they text you again?”

“..They were at my house.” You shiver at the thought, he was so close and you were alone and vulnerable.

Her eyes widened in fear. “..Inside your house?”

“No but they took pictures of the house and my car. They were right across the street..” You pause. “Scarlett.. They could see me crying in my room last night. I-I don’t know how but they could see me.”

“Where's your phone?”

“In my closet.. With my laptop.” You bite down on your lip, looking at your friend from across the counter with teary eyes. “This is really bad isn’t it?”

Scarlett nods slowly, looking uncomfortable as she searches for her next words carefully.

“Here's what we're gonna do. I’ll stay here with you until your shift ends and then we're going to your house to get your phone and computer, you’re gonna stay at my place and in the morning we’re gonna take it all to the cops.” Scarlet had this look of determination on her face that said she wouldn't back down.

“Scar, I can’t do this right now.”

“Then what do we do?” She sighs. “Because I think him taking pics of your house is a threat and that's just the first step.”

You didn’t wanna hear it, you wanted the last two months of peace back. At first you thought they would come back, spent days looking over your shoulder waiting for your stalker to contact you again because for the last year he hadn’t left you alone for more than a couple days in the beginning.

“Just please let me do things at my own pace?”

“Why? So you can get killed?!” She said it. It was the harsh truth that you didn't want to hear, or ever even think about.

You're about to storm into the kitchen when the door opens again.

Your hopes for something to do other than talk with Scarlet die when you look up and see Dylan, Alia, Bailey, Jack and Danny, at this point all that was missing was Jon and maybe Damian. Lucky for you they were probably at the farm since that's where they would be working on the farm all summer.

“Can we just drop this? Right now!” You whisper low enough that no one else hears but stern enough that she’ll listen.

“Hey, sis.” Dylan says, patting Scarlett on the back harshly enough to elicit an elbow to the gut. “Ow!”

“Not in the mood Dweeb.” She said as she walked away grabbing herself a booth to sit in.

“What's her problem?”

You shrug. “I don’t know. Use your twin telepathy.”

“Y/N, are you good? You look like you haven’t slept.” Bailey says and when her soft voice reaches you, you tense up.

“Lovers spat?” Danny adds as he watches Scarlett sulk in the booth.

“We’ll go with that..” You say.

“My dads working the night shift, we were gonna have a little pre party before our birthday. You coming?” Dylan asks.

“Yeah. Don’t think I have a choice.” You look over a Scarlet who is serving you a cold glare from across the room. “Look, I have to go back to work. Can you guys like, order something or sit down?”

“Oh, yeah? I’ll get a club sandwich.”

“You have to pay this time Dan.” You warn.

"What? why?!"

You glare. "You threw me in the lake.."

He throws his hands up in defence. “Damn, you're still not over that?”

“It was yesterday.”

“You know you’re nicer when you’re in a good mood?” Danny grumbles.

“Which is always.” Alia adds. “What's up? You haven’t gotten in a fight with Scar since ninth grade. What’s going on?”

“We decided to change it up today.” You snark. God you really could be bitter when you lost sleep but it took a lot of energy to keep up the happy go lucky act, particularly right now. “Can we drop it? Scar and I are fine.”

“If you say so.”

Part 2