I flipped on the television and was just getting into a bit of old Jerry Springer reruns when my doorbell rang. I clicked off the television and froze instantly.
What if it was them? Terror creeped inside of me until I felt it permeating through my stomach and slowly rising into my chest. My heart began to hurt and my breathing came in short, shallow gasps.
The doorbell rang again.
Somehow I gathered the courage to move and stood up off the couch. Slowly, I tiptoed over to the front window and peered through the cracks in the venetian blinds.
Panic lifted from me as I realized it was my teenage neighbor at the door, Tammy Weiss.
I answered the door with a forced smile. Tammy was a sweet, sensitive kid. I didn’t want her to know what a scare she had given me a moment ago.
“How’s it going?” I asked with a bright, bubbly smile. It might have come off as too friendly and possibly a little creepy, but Tammy didn’t seem to notice.
“Hey, Libby,” she said. “It’s going ok. I was hoping you could help me with something.”
“Sure. What do you need?” I was thankful for something interesting to do that might get my mind off other things. A lonely evening listening to my thoughts did not sound enjoyable at all.
“I have a home economics project that is due tomorrow, and I have no idea what I’m doing. I need to bake a cheesecake and take it to class tomorrow.”
“Oooh,” I said. “Cheesecake is my favorite. I just hope I can resist scarfing it all down.”
“Well, I was thinking we’d use enough ingredients for two cakes,” Tammy laughed. She held up a large bag of ingredients from the supermarket.
“Alright, I love the way you think,” I said. “Come on. We will get cracking on that cake.”
“Thank you so much,” Tammy said.
I’d become great friends with Tammy and her mother Andrea when I moved in about two years ago. Andrea was a single mother who worked a lot, and I told her I didn’t mind looking after Tammy. We were neighbors after all. Tammy was old enough to not need a babysitter of course, but I knew it was a load off her mother’s mind to know that a friend lived right next door.
Tammy was a sweet kid, but a bit awkward. But then again, she reminded me a lot of myself when I was her age, except she was much prettier. I was a late bloomer. I was a freshman in college when guys began to find me attractive. I’m not sure why I was surprised. I’d lost the braces, the acne cleared up, and I switched to contact lenses. All of this happened in the summer after graduation.
Plus, my best friend and roommate was a fashion major and she helped me rework my entire wardrobe. I considered myself pretty lucky to have her get me through the first few years of college.
Tammy and I went to work fixing the cheesecakes and soon I found myself asking her about her problems at school, listening to her go on about boys she liked and why guys were so mysterious, and when was she ever going to need Trigonometry in the real world.
I had to agree with her about Trigonometry, but some of the other stuff I had some experience in, at least enough to offer a little advice.
All in all, it was a fun, relaxing evening goofing off with Tammy and baking delectable desserts. One of my favorite past times.
After Tammy left, the house was suddenly still and quiet again. The aroma of cheesecake wafted through the air and it did have a bit of a calming effect on me. After two slices I was full as a tick and ready to allow a nice sugar coma to take over.
I decided it was late enough to turn in. I even drifted off to sleep quickly, which I hadn’t done in a long time.
My last thought before I closed my eyes was about Mason Savage.
What was he trying to tell me?
CHAPTER 3
Mason
“Alright, ready for bed, sport?”
Toby yawned good-naturedly and shook his head “no”. Then he laughed and giggled a little bit.
I picked him up and slung him over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes. He loved it when I did that, his head upside down staring down at the floor, making galloping noises as his belly flopped around with each of my steps. By the time I got him to bed he was just dizzy enough to be amused.
I laid him down and covered him up with his favorite blanket. Then I sat down beside him and read a bedtime story about a boy’s first puppy. It was an old favorite that he never got tired of.
He was asleep before I finished half of it.