Admire Me (Rough Edges 2)

The naïve part of it thought it was no big deal, just walking me home. “That’s fine. Have you been drinking?”

He gets up and does the sobriety test. “Nope, sober as a clam.”

The red solo cup full of whatever concoction they made me was still sitting on the table, and I had no intention on drinking it. “Alright then, but straight back to my dorm.”

On the walk back to the dorm, he asked me questions about myself. Where are you from? Are you single? Even though I thought that answer was obvious, but I guess not.

“Would you be interested in going out with me? Just like dinner,” he slyly drops that into the conversation.

Keith was cute, but I didn’t have time right now to start dating anyone. My whole future was dependent on passing these finals, and nothing was going to screw that up. “Don’t really have time for that right now, plus we graduate soon.”

“So, it’s just dinner. We could go tomorrow after you get some studying done. You seem like a really sweet girl.”

“Let me think about it,” I said, standing at my door with my hand on the handle.

I thought that was the end of Keith, but it wasn’t.

The next day, my phone rang with an unknown number.

“Hello?” I said, holding it with my ear and shoulder.

“It’s Keith. Give anymore thought on our dinner plans.”

“I just don’t have time. Still so behind.”

“Come on—what if I promise it would only be an hour.”

“Sorry, I can’t,” I replied, and hung up the phone.

Why was Darcy giving out my phone number? I’d talk to her about that when she got home.

That’s when it began, texts started rolling in, and calls begging me to go out with him over the course of the next week. Not once did I reply or answer. He would get the point right? Yet, he was relentless and just kept on contacting me.

Darcy felt horribly for giving him my phone number. She thought Matt knew him, but apparently not.

I started having these dreams that someone was watching me. No longer feeling comfortable at the dorm, I went home to my parents' house.

At first, they questioned why I wanted to stay there instead of the dorm. Besides dreams, I had no proof anyone was watching me. I’d just sound crazy.

“Who keeps calling you? I swear, your phone has gone off seven times in the last couple minutes,” my mom asked, sitting at the table.

“It’s a boy from school. He wants to take me to dinner, but told him no. Been calling and texting me ever since.”

“And you’ve made it clear you’re not interested?” my mom asked, eyebrows raised.

“Of course.”

That’s when a call came in from Darcy. “Sorry, I forgot.”

“What happened to our dorm room?”

“What are you talking about?”

“It’s trashed. Clothes and books everywhere. Beds unmade.”

“I haven’t been there in a couple of days and it wasn’t like that when I left.” It scared me to think about who would do something like that, but it reverted my mind back to Keith.

“I’ll call you back.”