mystery story

Dawning University is the most prestigious and exclusive college on the west side of the Mississippi River. Only the most talented, smart, and rich students were allowed to attend. The property is five square miles. The buildings consist of the main building, where the administrative offices were held, where the newspaper students reported the exciting school news, along with the library and record storage rooms; the medical building, where the hospital ward sat, where all the doctors, dentists, nurses, psychiatrists, therapists, and pharmacists lived and studied; the scientific building, where the students who wanted to work for NASA, or become the next Einstein were housed and taught; the athletic building, where the jocks were; the literature building for the English majors; the law building, for the lawyers, judges, police, and detectives; and the arts building, for those studying to become actors, painters, or musicians.

The small town of Dawnington surrounding the campus was dedicated to the interests of the students and faculty of the school. The most common hang-out for the students and teachers alike was a little pub called Dawning Lounge, located on Main Street. There was no need for a hospital, for one was provided at the school.

The professors and over privileged faculty and a few store owners lived in a neighborhood with all mansion-like homes. Every house was big enough to house four families, but of course, the most people living in one house were four, excluding the servants.

I lived in a lovely little apartment building just outside of town. I was lucky enough to be a part of the Dawning University conglomerate, but not as a student or teacher…I was the assistant to an administrative woman, not even a very well known or liked administrative woman. My first priority task was filing the budget records, which was then filed again by the actual budget woman. I didn’t mind my position; in fact it was the best I could do for myself, without actually having to attended class to learn something else.

My family wasn’t rich, or powerful, nor have I any special talent or spectacular IQ. I was happy with the administrative woman, even if I didn’t know her name, and doubted if she even knew mine. If I stayed where I was long enough, and worked without fault, then I’d be able to move up and make a substantial amount of money - as much money as the families of the students who paid for their education, and I knew how much they were paid, for I filed their records every day.

I lived alone in my little apartment building, quite contentedly too. I had no need for friends, and my family had lost contact with me when I started my job at the university. We didn’t hate each other, I just never really had a reason to call them, or they to call me. I am a very plain looking girl, I think. Average height of five-foot-six, I was not overweight, but not pencil-thin skinny either. I had brown hair that was naturally wavy, but I always wore my hair up in a bun or ponytail to keep it out of my eyes and away from any possible distraction it would cause. I have blue eyes, the only feature I’m very fond of, but I wear glasses that seem to take away from the brightness they originally had. My name is Shayna Brown, and I was born January 13, 1988.

Up until my twenty-third birthday, I had no idea how common my name and birth-date really was.
~~
My birthday fell on a Tuesday, and it was like any other day. I dared not bring attention to myself for my birthday - my boss hated celebrations of any kind. I was sitting at her desk, as I started every morning, waiting for her to arrive, for she was late just like every morning. I carefully chewed a piece of gum as I waited for her. I had woken up late that morning, and had forgotten to brush my teeth, hence the mint-flavored gum. The woman I worked for hated gum chewing, she said it made me look like a cow chewing grass.

The office we worked in was a large room of off-white walls, no pictures or certificates, or plants, or anything that would bring happiness, personality, or color to the room. Just a desk, a computer, a phone, two chairs, and a filing cabinet were all that decorated the room.

An hour after school officially started, my boss finally walked in, and I immediately swallowed my gum. I planned on throwing it out before she arrived, but she was earlier than usual, and I didn’t want her to see the gum. All I could think about as she took her seat on the other side of her desk was the unlucky knowledge of the gum sitting in my digestive tract for the next seven years. What would I be doing when the gum was finally digested? Hopefully I would be promoted by then, and doing this miserable woman’s job.

My boss was a short, fat woman who didn’t seem to think she was as fat as she really was. She wore flowery dresses that were two sizes too small, with the same red shoes she’s owned for the passed ten years. Her blonde hair was piled on top of her head without care. She was a very unlikable person, but she seemed to think quite the opposite. In her mind’s eye, everyone loved her, and everyone wanted to marry her, but, to my luck, she accepted that I just wanted to work for her. Our first meeting was quite awkward, and I hadn’t wanted to go through anything so uncomfortable in my life afterward. So far, I had been lucky.

“Anything happen while I was gone?” she asked, like always. As always, nothing happened. “Then you may get to work.” She pulled a large pile of papers out of her purse and handed them to me. I always thought she should use something other than a purse to carry important papers, but, if I learned anything about this woman, it’s that she never took the advice from anyone she found inferior to her. I being her assistant was inferior to her, and thus, she never listened to anything I said.

She took out a cigarette and lit it, continuing our morning routine of complaining about her cat, the economy, and the color blue. I sat in an iron folding chair next to the filing cabinet, and silently filed while she told me how she would rather the sky be green. Green is such a fine color, don’t you think? The color she preferred from blue changed every day. Yesterday it was red, and the day before that it was brown. She was just going into her “Green is the color of life” speech when the door opened and a young man walked in.

I looked at my boss, and saw her cheeks burn red. She hated being interrupted during her early morning ramblings, but the young man looked unfazed. He held a manila folder to her, and smiled, instantly calming her flushed cheeks. He was tall, with short curly black hair that looked as if it could grow into an afro if he allowed it to. And, I hated to admit it, but he was quite handsome.

“What can I help you with, sweetheart?” my boss cooed, putting her cigarette in her ashtray that she brought from home.

“My name is Jack Blue,” he said, “and I’m a reporter. I’m doing a story on the school’s statues, and would ask for permission to go to the storage area.”

My boss’s eyes lit up when he mentioned his name. “Did you hear that Shayna? Blue! What a lovely color! Best color in my opinion.” I nodded, and returned to my filing. “Of course, dear,” she continued, opening a drawer to her desk. “Here’re the keys to the storage wing. Shayna go with him as a chaperone, please.”

She threw the keys at me, but with me turned away from her, they hit my head and fell into the filing cabinet. I suppressed a gasp of anger, and dug into the filing, giving myself a paper cut as I did so, and fished out the keys. I smiled at my boss as she mentioned something about me being such a klutz, and I walked out of the room, the journalist following me.

“I’m Jack,” he said when we were out of earshot of my boss’s office. “Last name really isn’t Blue, but I heard her saying something about how dreadful the color is.”

“Never thought I’d hear her actually compliment the color,” I said. He laughed, but that was all that was said between us until we reached the storage. First door we went through led to the immediate hall of doors, where the storage was then sorted. The doors in question were all the same brown color, same size, and not marked. As we walked down the hall to the door we destined for, I could hear Jack looking around behind me.

“None of them have signs,” he said. I said nothing about his obvious observation, but I smiled. “How do you know where you’re going?”

“I come here often,” I answered, approaching the last door of the hall. “You have to know where you’re going or you got lost in this place.”

“No shit,” he murmured as I opened the door to a pitch dark room. We walked in, and the door closed behind us. I heard him jump and spin around. “What the hell? You’re not going to kill me, are you?”

I stayed close to the wall, moving my hand on the plaster until I hit the light switch, flipping the switch up. It took two seconds, but the room was finally bathed in white light. Statues were lined orderly from the far wall to the wall where the light switch was. Three rows of statues that were either retired, or weren’t likely enough to leave storage area, ever, were spaced out evenly, leaving enough room for someone like Jack to walk in between them each.

I followed closely behind him as he wrote down what each statue represented in his “REJECTED” column. I pointed out that not all the statues in storage were rejected, and he asked if I was going to watch everything he did from over his shoulder. I let him have his space, then. For the next two hours Jack wrote down what he needed, and I followed from a safe distance. I didn’t mind being away from my exciting post by the filing cabinet, but I knew my boss wouldn’t like me to be gone for too long.

“Papers need filing,” she says, “and I need someone to file them.” And that is how I got the lovely job in the first place. Not exactly something I find myself doing for the rest of my life, but I make a fair amount of money, and I hoped to be a full administrative worker within a year or so.

“Hey, check this out,” I heard Jack say. I blinked, coming back from my riveting post in the office, and realized I had let Jack get away from me. For a moment, I thought I’d lost him, but he poked his head from behind the round belly of some fat guy who did something that was worth being made into a copper statue. I followed Jack, and soon we stood in front of a large slab of black marble. Nothing spectacular about it, just a large block, about my height, standing on a little stand with a small plaque screwed onto the wooden platform on which it stood.

“So the sculptor quit before finishing,” I said, shrugging. “You almost done?”

“Did you even read what it says? “ Jack pointed down at the plaque. “Isn’t your name Shayna?”

I knelt down and looked at the plaque, and, sure, enough it was my name. Shayna Brown, Born January 13, 1917.

“Isn’t that funny?” he mused, walking back to the door leading out. I couldn’t move from my spot on the floor, staring at the plaque.

My name, first and last, was on a plaque, with my birthday, but seventy years before I was born. I couldn’t keep my mouth closed, even as I walked back to my boss’s office, my mouth hung open, and I could see my name and birthday on the plaque in my mind. Who was she? And how odd was it that she and I are named the same and shared the same birthday? Jack mentioned it as a coincidence, but I barely heard him. We entered my boss’s office, and he thanked her as I dropped the keys on her desk and took my post next to the filing cabinet.

Later in the day, before it was time for us to go home, I asked my boss for a list of all the statues ever made for the school. She asked why, and I told her it was an afterthought request from Jack. She said she would see what she could do, and we parted. Before heading home, I made a quick stop to the library to see if there was anything about someone named Shayna Brown in the history of the school. There was no immediate information, and the librarian wanted me out so she could close up and go home.

Sitting in front of my television with an overcooked microwave dinner on my lap, I couldn’t get that slab of marble out of my mind. It seemed like such a strange dedication to someone. What was also strange was that there was no ‘died’ date. Was she still alive? Where was she?
~~
The next morning, my boss was actually early, or on time if she ever came in on time. She handed me a large envelope with Jack’s name written on the back, and told me to see she got it back. I took the envelope and headed toward the journalist rooms. About halfway between the office and my destination, I found a bench and sat down, opening the packet.

Inside were papers with the names of the statues, and what and who they were about. One statue was made for a man who became a very famous scientist, though I hadn’t heard of him, so he must not have been famous for long, or famous enough. All the other papers were the same. Someone did something at some point that benefited the school in some way, and had fun while doing that something, but didn‘t forget to donate a large amount of their success money. At least, it seemed that way until I came near the end, where I just got a glimpse of my name on the paper. Triumphantly, I pulled it out of its place, but just as I had done so, someone ripped the papers from my hand, giving me another paper cut. Looking up, I saw my boss, whose chubby face was red as a ripe tomato.

“Curiosity killed the cat,” she said in a low voice. “Or at least the cat’s job.” She turned from me and walked back to the office, and that was how I lost my perfectly okay and unspectacular job.

With nowhere else to go, or nothing else to do, I found myself looking at the big marble slab named after someone who had my name. I found myself talking to the marble block. Who are you? Why are you just a big square? What have you done to deserve a crappy, unfinished statue?

After awhile, my stomach started making noises, and I realized I hadn’t even had breakfast that morning and it was probably well passed lunch time. I stood up from my uncomfortable spot on the concrete floor, and walked awkwardly out of the storage area, out of the school, into the freezing snowy cold, and all the way to Main Street, where I was relieved to see Dawning Lounge was open. As I sat at the bar and ordered a drink, I realized how long I was sitting in front of the statue. I was fired a little after eight that morning, and Dawning Lounge opens at two in the afternoon. Not to mention I walked the three miles to get here, when I should have driven my car.

I groaned at the realization that I left my car and that I had to walk the three miles in the snow to get back to get it. I lay my head on the counter as the bartender brought me my root beer.

“Still going on about that big cube of marble?” I looked up and found Jack smiling down at me with a large glass of beer in his hand.

“That,” I sighed, sitting straight and sipping my watered down root beer. I pushed the small glass away, not knowing how long I had sat there with my head against the bar if the ice cubes were already melted. “That and the fact that my lovely boss fired me.”

“What?” He sat down next to me, and I wasn’t really sure I wanted the company. “Why would she fire you? Because you didn’t catch the keys?”

I groaned and put my forehead on the bar again. He saw that? What a wonderful week of lovely little events that seemed to embarrass me more and more. Maybe I should just go home and sit there until I died.

“No, she fired me for being curious.” I turned my head slightly to see his reaction. He took a sip of his beer and shook his head, chuckling at me. I sat up and glared at him. How dare he laugh at me? I made a move to stand up, but he put a hand on my arm.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I just can’t believe she’d fire you for being curious. I mean, how can you not be curious? The old woman has your name for crying out loud!”

“That’s what I said,” I said as I sat back down. “But it’s happened.”

“Poor thing needs a stronger drink than…what are you drinking?” He grabbed my little glass of root beer and sniffed it.

“Wild Turkey,” I blurted, even though I knew he knew what I was drinking, and he set my glass down, ordering me a shot of what I had just said. When the bartender set two shot glasses in front of us and poured the liquid in them, I felt my face run hot.

I had never really drank anything stronger than a few glasses of wine once at my mom’s wedding a few years ago. I actually had no idea what Wild Turkey was, I had just glanced at the first bottle I saw behind the bar, and it was one with a big turkey on it. Nevertheless, I grabbed my shot glass and toasted with Jack. Besides, how bad could one shot be?
~~
My head felt ready to explode as there was a high pitched ringing noise running through my ears. The sound was so painful; I felt tears running down my cheeks. I pulled my pillow over my head and yelled at the ringing to stop. It did stop, and I was never as thankful for silence as I was then.

I had no idea what happened after that shot I had, but I was glad to be in my own bed, alone, that morning. Sighing, I rolled out of bed, hitting the floor harder than I expected, making my head hurt more than it already was. I didn’t know that was possible, but it happened, and I was soon groaning and rolling around my floor. And then the ringing started again.

Against the protests of my painful headache, I reached up and groped around the nightstand for my phone. I wasn’t aware I had changed the ring tone to a loud, annoying blaring ringing. The only way to stop it quicker was to answer it, and when I found it, I clicked the green button with no intention on talking to whoever was on the other end.

“Shay? Hello?” the little voice called. I groaned at the little voice in the phone. “So glad to hear you up and about,” the voice said again. Oh God, I was going crazy, hearing voices. Not a very smart voice, but a voice nonetheless. “I’ve got some news for you, can I come over? I know you aren’t in any state of mind of leaving your place, so I’ll be there in a few.” There was a click, and the voice stopped. I groaned again and threw my phone, not caring where it landed, as long as it didn’t ring anymore. I tangled myself in my blanket more, and was soon sleeping.

It didn’t feel like five minutes before I was being violently shaken until I woke up. I hadn’t remembered falling on the floor, nor did I remember letting anyone in my apartment. I was wide awake within moments, and flailing my arms and legs at whoever was shaking me. When the shaking hands were off me, I took that moment to focus on who was in my apartment, and was slightly confused to see Jack there. I calmed down, but was still on edge as he helped me sit up.

“Have a good rest?” he asked. My brain felt like it was moving around in my skull, and I had to put my head between my knees to get it to stop. He mentioned something about bringing a bucket with him, and he placed my head in it. “Just in case,” he said.

He sat down next to me and I heard paper rustling, and then he swore and said he got a paper cut.

“That’s been happening a lot lately,” I remarked, slowly picking my head up to see what he was shuffling.

“Well, while you were sleeping off your hangover all day,” he started, “I was busy finding out your mystery woman.” He looked through the papers he had with him. “Shayna Lane Brown, born January 13, 1917, was a student at the Dawnington University, majoring in pharmaceuticals. Very rich, no family, she graciously donated half a million to the school every month for two years, but anonymously.”

“Half a million? Who was she? A Kennedy?” I took the paper he had and looked at it. Altogether the total was around twelve billion dollars in two years.

“No one knows. But with all the money she gave to the school they were able to afford a new building, now the literature building, and the old literature building became the new arts building, and newly upgraded equipment for every department.”

“So why is her statue a chunk of marble? Why aren’t the arts building named after her?”

“Apparently, two days before she disappeared, someone who worked in the offices at the time was able to recognize her by her handwriting. She told him her name and birth date, but that was all.” He ruffled through more papers. “Apparently, she used all fake documentation to get into school. After she disappeared, the private investigators made that little discovery. She had no social number, no birth certificate, no ID, no bank account, nothing. They actually found all her money in a room in her small apartment.”

“So, what’s with the hunk of rock?”

“Two years after she disappears, the headmaster decides to dedicate something to her, but no one remembered what she looked like, and the sculptor just made a perfectly rectangular block of marble.”

“How ominous. How do you know all this?” He handed me all the papers he was playing with and I recognized one of them as the paper my ex-boss took from me about the statue.

“Investigative journalism,” he said, pointing to a picture of the donation records from 1935-1937, “and a very talented photographer buddy.”

My headache was forgotten for the moment as I processed all this information Jack just seemed to throw at me with no warning. Poor Shayna. She disappeared in 1937, according to one paper, which would place her age at ninety-four, were she still even alive. I was a little relieved that her middle name and my middle name were different.

Without warning, every little bit of whatever was in my stomach was suddenly spewing from my mouth onto the papers and into the bucket. I vomited into the bucket until I was just dry heaving, and I felt a cool rag on the back of my neck. I took a few shaky breaths, and a glass was pressed against my lips. I grabbed the glass and drank the sweet, refreshing water. My stomach didn’t enjoy it, however, and within seconds I was vomiting the water I had just drank.

That painful and mortifying routine continued for the next few hours, and Jack was always by my side, offering me water whenever I had a break. The night had come, and I finally felt my stomach settling, and I was able to drink water without puking it back up.

“You’re a pretty hard partier, aren’t you?” laughed Jack. “Passed out after the third shot.”

“I’ll be honest,” I said as I took another drink of water, “I’ve never drank any hard alcohol in my life. I don’t know why I told you I was drinking whatever it was that it was.”

“That’s what I thought, until you announced you were drinking Wild Turkey. I was a bit surprised, but we had fun for the twenty minutes you were conscious.” He stood up and began collecting what belongings he had that didn’t have vomit on them.

“I don’t remember a thing last night.” I blushed as he picked up a few ruined papers and threw them in the bucket. “Sorry about all your research.”

“It’s fine. I have copies at home.” He walked to my bedroom door, and stopped, turning back to me. “You’ll be all right now? I have to go, I have to finish my piece for the paper, but if you still need me…”

“No, you go, I’ll be fine.”

He smiled and turned and left. I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling, and I couldn’t help smiling, despite the crazy, sickening churning of my stomach. I had made a friend. A very good friend who would help and come to my aid whenever I called; or would help me figure out who someone was after I was fired over wondering who she was. It was an odd circumstance to come to being friends, but at least we were friends. Even though the passed few hours were embarrassing, I hoped he still wanted to hang out and be friends.
~~
I was awake just a little after dawn the next morning, feeling refreshed and healthier than I’ve ever felt in a long time. I was sitting on my couch, enjoying a nice cup of coffee, writing out my plans for the day, which places I was going to apply for a job, and when I would be able to call Jack again to meet up and hang out later.

I had taken a very successful and fulfilling shower, eaten a hearty breakfast, and was just about to leave my apartment when my phone rang. I was excited when I thought it was Jack, but it wasn’t, and I didn’t recognize the number on the caller-ID. Answering it, I found I was being addressed by a doctor.

“Miss Brown? This is Dr. Catkin, from the hospital ward at the Dawnington University.”

“Of course, how can I help you?”

“I have someone here who claims to be a brother of yours; a Mr. Jack Brown. Does this name mean anything to you?”

Was his last name Brown? More coincidences with people having the same name as me.

“Yes, what’s wrong?”

“Why don’t you come down and I’ll explain it to you.” He hung up, leaving me staring at my phone in bewilderment. Jack was in the hospital, and he said he was my brother, and I had to go down and see what happened. My stomach dropped as I thought of him being dead. My only friend in the world died two days after we became friends.

All I could think about when I walked down to my car was, “What rotten luck.” Then I saw that my car wasn’t in its parking space, and I realized it must still be at the university, and I told myself, “What a load of slimy, rotten luck.”

It took me an hour to walk to the university - luckily it wasn’t snowing like the day before - another twenty minutes to try to explain to the guard at the front gate that I wasn’t there to go to work, found out my car was impounded, and when I finally arrived at the medical building, took me another thirty minutes to find where they were holding Jack. I spoke with the nurse at the front desk, and, after another ten minutes, the doctor walked up, a stern look on his face.

“I’d assume, after hearing your brother is in the hospital, you’d be a little quicker getting here,” he said in a low voice to the nurse. I smiled, pretending not hear him, and shook his outstretched hand. “He’s not dead,” he told me. “No need to worry yourself any more than you, obviously, already are.”

I felt my smile twist into something unpleasant as I was holding back from yelling at how unprofessional and rude he was being. His eyes widened, and he immediately grabbed me into a hug, patting my back comfortingly. Or, at least, I thought he was trying to comfort me. I didn’t think I looked like I needed comforting.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean to upset you. You’re brother is fine, he’s right through here.” He led me through a white door right next to where we stood. The room looked exactly like my ex-boss’s office, except trade out the desk and filing cabinet, and replace them with a bed and a TV stand, but no TV.

Jack waved his hand at me from his place on the bed. He was sitting on the end, cross-legged, and he had an open notebook on his lap. After a few reprimanding commands from the doctor, Jack obeyed and laid back down, but didn’t bother to put the covers back on. He wore a patient’s robe that only reached down to his knees, but was still too big on his upper body.

He looked perfectly fine.

“I don’t understand,” I whispered to the doctor. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Oh, he was attacked in his home last night. We’re keeping him here to make sure he’s okay. The tests should be in tonight, and he can leave tomorrow. We just wanted to call you to let you know.” With that, he left.

“He’s not a real doctor,” Jack said as he sat back up. “He’s actually a first-year dentist major, but they were under staffed today.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed. “What happened?”

“Oh, someone broke into my home last night, but they didn’t take into consideration that I know how to defend myself. Broke his arm, and I had to call the emergency room to make sure he got the proper medical attention.”

“Do you know who he was?”

“Nope. He left before they arrived, and they thought it was me who needed the medical attention, so they took me in.”

I couldn’t understand how calm and optimistic he was about the whole thing. If someone attacked me in my sleep, I’d be a fit of hysterics for weeks afterward.

“Is your last name really Brown?” I asked, looking back at him and watched him write in his notebook.

“Nah, but they wouldn’t let you visit otherwise.” He patted me on my back. “I thought you would have wanted to know that he came into my home and told me to ‘let things lie’. I can only assume he meant your statue.”

“It’s not my statue.”

“Oh right, you weren’t born in 1917.”

Just then, the door opened and another man walked in, looking down at a bunch of papers he held. He was about as tall as Jack, and his hair was straight, black, and cut really short, so it was just hanging over the tips of his ears. If he had curly hair instead of straight, he and Jack would have the same hairstyle. His clothes were all shaggy - his shirt look two sizes too large, and his khakis were a little too baggy - and he had a camera hanging around his neck.

“Jack, I found your man,” he said as he threw the papers on Jack’s lap. The pictures were enlarged on the paper, and an old man wearing a cast was the main subject of each one. “Hullo, hullo. I don’t believe we’ve met.” I looked up at him, a little surprised to hear his British accent, and took his outstretched hand.

“Nick, this is Shayna,” Jack said, still studying the pictures. “She’s the one with the statue. Shay, Nick is my good photographer friend from the arts building.”

“So you’re the reason Jack was attacked last night,” Nick said, still holding onto my hand, a smile wide on his face. His blue eyes seemed to glitter with the laughter he seemed to be holding in with difficulty.

“I didn’t mean for him to get attacked,” I said quickly.

“It’s okay. He’s fine. Nothing could harm our Jack,” he said, ruffling Jack’s hair.

 “I’ve never seen this man before,” Jack said, seeming to ignore the ruffling. I thought the ruffling bothered me more than it did him, though I didn’t know why. I felt compelled to fix his already roused hair, but I fought that compulsion and won. I kept my hands in my lap and stared at an odd, dark little spot on the wall. From the corner of my eye I saw Jack hand the pictures back to Nick.

“Who is he?”

“Professor Limp-Dick,” he said, and I couldn’t help hiding the hilarity I found at the man’s name.

“You’re serious?” Jack said, equally amused.

“Sort of. It’s what the students and some of the faculty call him behind his back.”  He sat down between Jack and myself, pushing his way through. Jack and I were already sitting so close to each other, but Nick obviously wanted to show Jack the pictures bad enough to push me away without asking. “He works in the literature building. I believe he teaches some sort of philosophy.” He looked at me and smiled.

“All right,” Jack said, standing up. “So, we find this statue…” He began pacing in front of us. “Shayna asks about it, and gets fired. Nick and I dig up info on this other Shayna, and then Professor Limp-Dick comes in and tries to get rid of me.”

I wanted to add that Jack and I had become friends, but that would sound pretty desperate and pathetic on my part, so I held my tongue.

“I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for what comes next,” Nick said, nudging me.

“Unfortunately for me, I’m not allowed to leave until tomorrow.” Jack sat on the bed on the other side of me. I felt a little awkward in between them.  I wasn’t entirely positive, but I was pretty certain Nick was hitting on me. It was subtle, but that’s what my mind was telling me. Naturally, I was flattered, but I wasn’t sure being in between them at that moment was the right place for me.

“There’s nothing wrong with you,” Nick said, leaning forward so his elbows rested on his knees so he could see Jack. “On what grounds can they keep you?”

“I guess they sent in tests to see what was wrong, and to see if nothing pops up later. We’re still at the school. They have to do everything by procedure.”

“So, what do we do now?” I asked, looking between the two of them. They smiled at each other, but it just made me feel insignificant. Nick leaned in close to me.

“We could all make love until Jack is free to go,” he whispered to me.

“What?!” I jumped up and was about to leave the room, when I heard them laughing behind me. I turned to them, my eyes wide. Not that I wasn’t flattered that they wanted to make love, but it was too much too soon. Not to mention I’d never thought I’d be involved in a ménage a trois with the first two guys to become my acquaintances; at least not on the first day of knowing one of them.

“I was just joking,” Nick breathed out as he laughed. He fell on the bed laughing at me, and I felt my face go hot. Jack was laughing with him, and I shot him a death glare, and he quieted immediately.

“I might have told him some of the things you said the other night when you were smashed,” he said, a little embarrassed. Along with my wide eyes, my mouth opened. I didn’t know what he was talking about. Sure I couldn’t remember a thing from that night, but I knew I didn’t tell him one of my sexual fantasies. I wasn’t even aware I had any.

“No, no, don’t be mad,” Nick said as he sat up, seeming to sober a bit. “It’s nothing to be ashamed of. A lot of women have those fantasies. I’m just willing to help out in the only way I can. ”

This was getting out of hand. The subject had to change or I was going to turn red and plump up, becoming a permanent tomato. I was not looking forward to being the jolly, fat Mrs. Clause, no offence intended to the real Mrs. Clause.

Jack came to my rescue.

“What you two are going to do now is go follow Mr. Limp-Dick around,” he said, nudging Nick to get him to stop laughing. It worked, but he still hadn’t quit smiling at me. “I can’t go with, considering I’m stuck here until tomorrow. Shay, you and Nick are going to investigate this man. Follow him around, learn about his hobbies and what he does on his free time.”

“How is that going to help us in solving the case of the other Shayna?” I asked. I wasn’t fluent in the arts of a detective, or investigate journalist, and I had no idea what they were doing, and why they were doing it. I just wanted to live happily working behind a desk; I hadn’t trained myself in the arts of wanting to discover the fate of some woman who disappeared long ago. By the look Nick gave Jack, I could tell he was thinking the same thing,

“He was the one who broke into my house last night,” Jack explained. “Or, we think he is.”

“Yesterday the man was perfectly fine. He shows up to work this morning with a broken arm, mysteriously,” Nick added in. “If he didn’t want Jack to know about Shayna, then he might have some clue as to what happened to her.”

I still couldn’t get over his accent. It caught me by surprise every time he talked. If he asked me to sleep with him, I probably wouldn’t object. Then again, that just goes to show how lonely and uneventful my life had been up until very recently.

“Nick is going to take pictures,” Jack said, bringing me out of my thoughts, thankfully. “I need you to take notes. Good notes, that I can read and understand. Make sure they’re informative as well.”

“And we need a car,” the other interjected. Jack looked him, and he shrugged. “I told you mine was only a rental. My father isn’t going to pay for it continuously.” So, he was a well-privileged man who lived off his father’s money. Charming.

“Why doesn’t he just buy you a car?” Jack asked.

“My car is in the impound,” I said before Nick could say anything. They both looked at me and I fought the urge to shrink away and blend into the wall. With the importance of having a car, I was glad I told them about my car now, instead of waiting until we actually needed it. “I left it here when I got fired, and never came back to get it. It’s going to cost me about three hundred to get it back.”

“Damn it,” Jack said as he fell back on the bed. The gown fluttered as he did so, and I was given a glimpse of underneath. I didn’t want one, and I was thoroughly glad he was wearing underwear. “I don’t have a car, because I hardly ever leave campus.”

“Well that’s stupid,” Nick said, laughing again. I imagined he was a very cheerful fellow on any given day, with any given circumstance. “You always need a car just in case.” He looked at me then, and winked. I was starting to question my liking of him. I wasn’t sure I enjoyed him looking at me all the time.

“Spoken from the man who uses a rental that his dad pays for him.” Jack threw me a wink this time. I was beginning to feel a little out of place. I winked at the picture of Mr. Limp-Dick.

“Touché.”

“Now then,” Jack said, becoming serious again. “I guess you can get your car first, and then follow the man around.”

“Sounds like a plan, boss.” Nick stood up, his face devoid of all humor suddenly. He walked up to me and put a hand on my shoulder. “Do you need any help in getting your car back? Three hundred is a lot.” I shook my head, pretty certain I’d be able to afford it myself, but gracious he asked. With nothing else to be said, he walked out.

“Sorry about him,” Jack said as soon the door closed.

“Don’t be sorry, he seemed really lively.” Of course that wasn’t what I truly felt, but I had to say something.

“Whatever you do, don’t give in to his charms. He may seem to be a one-woman man, but it’s completely different. Don’t buy into his ‘You’re the only one for me’ nonsense.”

I said I wouldn’t, and I left Jack alone in the hospital room with the promise to visit again to smuggle in some real food so he wouldn’t have to suffer through another bout of their hospital food.
~~
I was sitting in the police station, waiting for them to bring my car from the back where they made their impound lot. With this being such a small town, there really was no need for a separate piece of property just for impounding cars. I think the most cars they have had at one time was five cars, not even enough to fill the parking lot. It was because of the miniscule amount of law-breakers the fine was so high.

I glanced at my watch. I had been sitting there for thirty minutes, and still no one has gone to get my car for me. When I arrived, I was the only one there. I walked up to the counter, explained my situation, paid the fine, and the lady behind the desk told me to take a seat and someone will bring my car around shortly. She had not once left her desk. In the time I had been sitting there, two more people had come in. The mailman, and a man bringing a package. She had not even left her desk to deliver the mail and package. They were still sitting on the same spot where it was delivered.

I went up to the desk, and stood there waiting for the woman to take notice of me. I knew she knew I was there, but she continued to type on the keyboard, rather loudly, and made no move to acknowledge me. I cleared my throat, which was answered by a louder throat clear. I sighed, and she sighed louder, still looking pleasantly at her computer screen, typing away loudly.

“Excuse me?”

“Please stand behind the yellow line,” she scolded, looking at me with her pretending to be fierce eyes. I looked down and backed up until I was behind the yellow line. “I will call you when I’m ready for you.” She turned back to the computer screen and went back to typing very loudly. I was beginning to think she wasn’t typing anything important, or legible. It looked as if she was just hitting keys to make it seem like she was very, very busy.

Another five minutes passed, and she turned me, smiling pleasantly. “Next in line, please?” I took the two steps and was in front of her again. “How may I help you?”

“I have been sitting here for thirty minutes, and I still don’t have my car,” I told her in the most pleasant manner I could possibly muster.

“Have you paid the fee?”

“Yes.”

“Let me look you up then, darling. Name?”

“Shayna Brown.”

“Date of birth?”

“January 13, 1988.”

“Social Security?”

“Look, we’ve been through this same line of questioning half an hour ago. Can’t you just go and see if anyone is going to get my car for me?”

“Please don’t raise your voice at me.”

“I’m not, I just want my car back.”

“Please lower your voice. I’m doing everything I can.”

“But, I’m not yelling.”

“If you don’t calm down, I will have to call security.”

“Maybe I’ll just go sit and wait a bit longer.”

“Please do.”

So I sat again for another thirty minutes. I was staring at the ceiling, and was pretty sure I was drooling, when the woman called my name.

“Shayna Brown? Shayna Brown are you still here?”

I looked at her from my chair.

“Shayna Brown. This is the last time I’m calling you.”

I stood up and walked to the desk, and, after being reprimanded for not waiting by the yellow line, stood by the yellow line. Again she typed loudly on her keyboard for a few minutes, and then she called me to her desk.

“How may I help you?”

“You were just calling me.”

“Oh! Right, Shayna Brown, is it?” she asked after shuffling a few papers around, ending in her placing the papers in the same order as they started in. I wasn’t even sure she looked at the papers, or, if she did, paid attention to what they said.

“It is.”

“Your car has been brought around.” She handed me my keys. I took my keys from her and gave her one last curious glance before walking out. As long as I was sitting there, I did not see her stand from her desk, nor did anyone else come in, neither did her phone ring. How did she know my car was waiting for me? Clearly it was, for when I descended the stairs in front of the building my car sat in front. I suddenly felt really sorry for any criminals who were brought to that place and had to deal with that woman.

That pleasant face she gave me as I walked out will most likely haunt my dreams for life.

My car, a comfortable little Toyota Corolla, had been my companion since I was eighteen. It had originally been black, but my parents thought it a nice little surprise to have the color changed to white. They had actually stolen my car while I was asleep, hoping that I wouldn’t notice. When I woke up, I felt like a nice little drive around town, considering it would have been since I was leaving for Dawnington University the following day. I could have sworn I broke a few windows when I shrieked that someone stole my car. I was yelling at the emergency operator when my mom ran up to me to tell me that my car was in the shop. I profusely apologized for being so rude and excited to the woman on the other end of my phone, and hung up. My parents hadn’t taken into account that the car could not be fully re-colored in one day, but the mechanic tried his best to hide the black with the white, but failed. In the end, it turned out as an ugly gray, and I couldn’t afford to fix it. I thanked my parents for the wonderful gift, and drove across the county in a deathly gray Corolla. At least the interior wasn’t as bad. The mechanic gave my parents a new stereo system for cheap for my car, since he wasn’t able to do the quality of a job that they wanted, so that was a bonus. I was very happy with my little six CD changer, and I-Pod connector, though I didn’t own an I-Pod, I planned on buying one at some point just so I can hear how well the connector worked.

Having sat down behind the wheel, and checking to make sure nothing was stolen - in other words, my stereo, since it was the only thing worth stealing that was in my car - I grabbed my phone intent on calling Nick to let him know I finally had my car back. I instead called Jack, having not been given Nick’s number.

Twenty minutes later, I was picking Nick up at the Dawning Lounge, and I have never seen anyone so excited to see me.

“What happened to you, star shine?” he asked putting on his seatbelt.

“I took an R&R at the sheriff’s office,” I replied. We sat in silence for a few minutes until he looked at me and smiled.

“Well?” He jerked his head toward the front of the car, and I shrugged. I knew he wanted me to start driving, but I usually liked to know where I was driving before I started. That way I wouldn’t miss a turn or go the wrong way when I finally did know where I was going. He sighed, and leaned back in the seat, returning to looking out the windshield.

“Mr. Limp-Dick is at class in the moment,” he stated simply. “I don’t see him leaving until the day is over.” Which was around three. “So, I say we take the food to poor Jacky, and then stake-out the building until our target leaves.”

“But, that’s has to be a four hour wait.” I pulled away from the curb and drove to the school.

“I’m sure we can find something to do with our time,” he whispered. He had actually leaned up off his seat to bring his face close to my ear so I could hear what he whispered. I became nervous, and slammed on the brakes, causing him bump into the headboard. I apologized as he sat back, glaring at me, saying I thought I saw a cat or something, and continued driving off.

After being kept at the guard house by the guard who refused to let me in because I no longer worked there, and Nick finally deciding to show his I.D. so we could go through, I parked and took a white bag of some hot food into the hospital for Jack. Nick had ordered the food from the lounge, so I didn’t know what it was when Jack asked. I left him a little quicker than I had wanted to, for I had left Nick alone in my car, and I didn’t trust him. Honestly, after that fiasco when my parents took my car, I hadn’t trusted anyone with my beloved vehicle. Nick would have gone to give Jack the food, but he wasn’t sure if the doctors would let him in again, and I agreed.

When I returned to my car, Nick had a pair of very small binoculars out, and was looking out at the literature building. I didn’t find that odd, but what I did find odd was that he had moved to the backseat and was laying on his stomach, looking out from the back window at an uncomfortable looking position. I sat in the driver seat and looked to where he was looking. He must have been looking at something interesting with his binoculars, but I couldn’t see anything.

“What are you looking at?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I whispered, but it just seemed like something to do, so I did it.

“Look over by the stairs,” he said, sitting up and handing me the binoculars.

I looked to where he told me to, but I didn’t see anything of interest. I mean, there was a group of students, all of them female, and they were sitting on the steps that led up to the main door to the literature building, but that was about it. I scanned around the girls, hoping that maybe our target was hanging around, but I saw nothing. I put the binoculars in my lap, about to ask Nick what he was looking at again, but it hit me then. He was staring at the girls. I handed him back the binoculars and smiled, though not humored by him at all.

“What’d you think?” he asked, resuming at scoping out the girls.

“Honestly? I’m not into that sort of thing.”

He looked at me. “What do you mean?”

I pointed to the girls, and he looked at them again, but then smiled looking back at me.

“Are you jealous?” His voice was high pitched, and I had the sinking suspicion he was making fun of me.

“No. Why would I be?”

He put the binoculars up and stared at me. “Because I’m not checking you out, darling.” I smacked the binoculars away from him as he laughed. He sat up and placed his elbows on the two front seats, leaning forward slightly.

“Don’t worry, I wasn’t looking at those beautiful women.” He smiled and put the binoculars up to my eyes. I grabbed them, and held them myself. “Look at the engraving on the top step, just between the blonde one’s gorgeously tanned legs.”

I looked to where he indicated, and knew what he meant. I zoomed the binocular vision to the pinkish stone steps closer to the blonde. Ignoring the blonde’s legs, I could just barely make out what the engraving said, as it looked worn and older than the building itself. It also looked poorly written, as if someone who wasn’t a professional did it.

Dedicated in Memory
1938

“Dedicated in memory of what?” I asked.

“Dedicated in memory of who do you think?” I looked back at him, and for once he wasn’t smiling at me.

“But isn’t the building already dedicated to the headmaster? Headmaster What’s-his-name? Maybe the stairs are also dedicated to him.”

“If that were true, then they’d have put that. Not to mention they don’t just dedicate stairs.”

“Shayna donated enough money for them to build the literature building,” I whispered. “But she has a statue with her name on it. If they built the stairs for her, wouldn’t they put her name on it?”

“How many people know about the statue?” he asked, his lips curling up slightly so he wasn’t exactly not smiling, but only just a little bit. “There’s no history of her, except for the deep digging Jack did. No one would know who this Shayna was, and if someone is trying to hide her disappearance, they wouldn’t allow for her name to be publicly known on a building dedication plaque.”

“The headmaster had that statue built for her, so he must have been the one to have that engraving put there.” I looked at the engraving again, but wasn’t able to see it clearly for one of the girls was standing in my way. “Probably felt guilty for being the one honored.”  I sighed at leaned back, handing Nick the binoculars, since the girl wasn’t moving.

Nick continued looking at the writing. “I wonder if they know,” he mumbled. I almost didn’t hear him, but what I made out made it clear what he said.

“Who?”

He looked up at me and smiled again. “The ones who came after Jack.”

I shrugged. “If they want this kept a secret, they would have removed it if they knew. Otherwise, why would it still be there?”

“Here, the girls are leaving. Let’s go have a look, shall we?” He exited the car and walked toward the building, leaving me staring after him. I wasn’t sure if he meant I should go with him, and since he didn’t turn around to see if I was going with or not, I exited the car and ran to catch up with him. He walked without taking his gaze off the step, and I felt nervously about just walking up to the building. I kept looking over my shoulder and around the other buildings to see if anyone was watching. Fortunately for us, no one seemed to even notice we existed.

We came up to the step, and Nick knelt down and took out a little digital camera. He took a picture, cursed, took another picture, and cursed again.

“How am I supposed to take good pictures with this piece of crap?” he whispered, so I didn’t answer in case he wasn’t talking to me. He handed me the camera and told me to wait there. “I have to go to my department to retrieve my camera. If you see him walk out, follow him, but not too obviously. Send me a text if he does leave.”

I told him I would, and sat down on the top step and watched him walk away. I sighed and looked up at the sky. Not a cloud in sight, and yet it smelled like rain. My phone beeped in my pocket, and I retrieved it, flipping it open and reading the text message Nick sent me.

Don’t pretend you didn’t enjoy watching me walk away. There was a smiley face at the end of the message, and I couldn’t help laughing. I had to admit, he was cute, charming, and humorous; everything a girl wanted in a man. Not to mention he was obviously dedicated to his work, evident from the way he complained about the quality of the pictures the digital camera took. I flipped through the pictures he took of the engraving, and understood why he was so irritated.

The pictures really were horrible. On the first one, it was so blurry, it wasn’t even clear on where the picture was taken. In fact, had I not known it was on the stone stair, I would have questioned it myself. The second one looked like a stair, and the engraving was just barely visible, but it was still too blurry for anyone to contented with. I studied this one, and noticed Nick had taken the picture with the Dedicated in Memory part a little to the left. It may have just been me, but if I was to take that picture, I would have taken it with the words in the middle. Then, upon closer inspection, I could just barely make out a smudge, or alteration next to the word “Memory”.

I moved down a step and studied the words. Sure enough, it looked as if something had been written next to Memory, but someone tried to erase it, or smear cement on the word. The spot looked smoother and newer against the rest of the pinkish cement, and I wondered if this was what was upsetting Nick the most. Without a top-notch camera, it would have just looked like part of the cement, but with Nick’s camera, that was probably built to take descriptive pictures like we needed, then the smudge would be clear enough to not doubt that it was a smudge.

A creaking sounded and I looked up to see people filing out of the building. I stood up to get out of their way, and by they way they weren’t paying attention, I would have probably been trampled. Among the crowd, I noticed Mr. Limp-Dick quickly pushing his way through. He was a fairly tall man for his age, probably between seventy and eighty. His head was shiny against the sun, and his long face was set in a permanent scowl, even as he tried to smile at one of his students who told him good-bye.

Pocketing the camera, I set off after him. He hurriedly made his way to the medical building, and I was almost on his heels. Just before we reached the doors, he stopped and turned to face me, his scowl having gotten worse, which probably meant he was scowling at me. He stopped so suddenly, and his face was so horrid, that I jumped and almost ran into him.

“Why are you following me?” he asked in a deep sounding growl. He sounded like an old should sound, but it still gave me the shivers.

“I, uh, wasn’t following you,” I blurted out, and, oddly, it sounded a little like Nick’s voice; not the tone, but the accent. I hoped he wasn’t rubbing off on me, and if I were slowly turning into a Brit, I would have been a little saddened. On the other hand, how cool would it be for me to have an exotic accent like his? “I was just coming to visit my…brother, who is checked in.” I swallowed an annoyingly abundant amount of saliva that had suddenly decide to form in my mouth, and smiled. I was a terrible liar, and, although he nodded and continued on his way inside the building, I knew he knew I was lying.

He held the door open for me, and, though I really had no intention of visiting Jack, I couldn’t have just walked away after telling this man I was here for a visit. I smiled and thanked him for holding the door for me, and made my way to Jack’s room, which was, annoyingly enough, in the same direction the old professor was going. In other words, we were walking together.

He smelled of cinnamon and cigarette smoke, and it was a terrible combination. It took every ounce of control I had not pinch my nose so I didn’t have to smell him. I had had a bad experience with cigarettes when I was younger, and since then, I came close to vomiting every time I smelled the horrid odor.

“Are you student here?” he suddenly asked as we entered the elevator. I was hoping I would hold my breath when we entered, but I couldn’t just not answer him, so I shook my head. He looked down at me and raised an eyebrow, indicating he wanted me to tell him what and who I was. Praying to all that was holy and good, I hoped I didn’t puke on him.

“I used to work in the administrative offices,” I explained quickly. “But my brother is a student here, and he had a bit of an unlucky fall last night and he’s being kept here for the day to make sure he’s really as okay as he claims.”

“Ah, who’s your brother? A student?”

“Journalism.”

His face, that had slowly started to become less unpleasant, quickly became unpleasant again. He turned to the door of the elevator as it slowed and dinged.

“Hate the media. Terrible choice of a career. Philosophy, now there is a subject worth studying and expanding into a career.”

The doors opened, he nodded at me, and exited, leaving a strong smell behind him. I jumped out of the elevator and ran in the opposite direction he had gone. I didn’t care if that wasn’t way to Jack’s room, but I had to get away from that smell. I turned a corner, and glimpsed down the hall where the old man had gone. Before I was able to stop myself, I saw him glaring at me, and he had come to suspect that I wasn’t here for my brother, or he thought I smelled him and couldn’t stand it. The latter was the truth, but either one of the choices as to why he glared at me was bad, and I hoped it was because I thought he was smelly.

My phone rang as I leaned against the wall, deeply breathing in the clean air, willing myself not to vomit. Upon answering it, I noticed it was Nick, and he wasn’t happy with me at all.

“Where the hell are you?!” he said. I could just imagine him returning and me missing. “I told you call me if you saw him. I thought something happened to you.” I was a little honored and giddy that he cared so much about me.

“I forgot to call, and I’m sorry.”

“Where are you?”

“On the second floor of the medical building, breathing in the lovely, unpolluted air.”

“What?”

“Did you know that he smells gross?”

“So, you followed him to the medical building, and you got so close so you could smell him?”

“No, I followed him so close that he knew I was following him, but I came up with an excuse that I was visiting my brother. Since that was the case, he knew where I was going, and he expected me to walk every step to Jack’s room. I was stuck in the elevator with him.”

“Jack isn’t on the second floor.”

“I know, but I had to get out of the elevator. He exited first, so he’s here to see someone on the second floor. Did you know he really isn’t fond of the media?”

“You talked to him?”

“Well, yeah, he wanted to know where I was going.”

“I mean…you actually conversed with him?”

“A little. We didn’t say anything interesting to each other.”

“Get back out here so we can talk in private.” He hung up, and I decided to take the stairs, in the really high chance that the elevator still stunk, and was so happy to be outside that I almost fell down on my knees and sang the Hallelujah.

I looked around and found Nick in my car, looking down at something. I approached the car, and, before I could get in, he got out.

“Did you see where he went?”

“No, he would’ve known I was lying if I got off on the second floor.”

“But, you did get off on the second floor. Good job, gum shoe.”

I followed him back to the medical building, and he was grateful enough to take the stairs. We walked up to the second floor, and, with Nick leading the way, quietly walked around the halls. We found the elevator, and I told him where the professor went, and which corner he turned. After that, though, it was all guesswork.

“Did you turn your phone onto vibrate?” he whispered at me. I said I hadn’t, and took out my phone to do so. Once I was done, the phone vibrated, and I looked at the message, from Nick. I looked up at him, wondering how he was able to send a message so quickly, but nodded toward my phone, so I read it.

You know we could have some fun with that later. Smiley face. I sighed and gently punched him on his shoulder, which was shaking with silent laughter. The phone vibrated again, and this time, the message was serious. Did he still have his cast on?

I whispered to him that I hadn’t noticed, but how would he have taken it off so soon? And why would he do such a thing if his arm was broken? Nick put his finger to his lips and pointed at the phone. I took the hint and typed out: He was wearing his jacket.

Nick looked around the corner to make sure no one was coming, I believe, and typed on his phone at the same time. I was amazed at the speed and expertise he maneuvered his fingers over the buttons. He caught me looking at his hands, and winked. I rolled my eyes and looked away as my phone vibrated again.

He won’t be here. Be good and later I’ll show you how I became so professional at this. I shook my head and walked back to the stairs, Nick trying to hide his laughter as he followed me. As we descended the stairs, I choose to ignore the last part of his message.

“How do you know he’s not here?”

“There’s no point. That floor is full of dentists and optometrists, and none of them very good. If he needed to see one of them, he wouldn’t have come here.”

“Then why would he have gotten off?”

“Maybe you smelled really bad to him.” I hit him again as we reached the bottom floor, but as we left the building, Nick stopped and stared toward the administrative building. I followed his gaze, and there was Mr. Limp-Dick, walking out of the building, looking over his shoulder every now and again as he made his way to the parking lot.

“How the hell did he get there so fast?” I asked. Nick grabbed my arm and quickly pulled me to my car. We each got onto our respective seats, and I started the car, putting it into gear, but he put his hand on my hand which was still on the stick shift.

“Wait a minute. The point of following someone is to let them lead.”

I couldn’t even see the old man from where I was, so I had no idea that he hadn’t left yet.

“What’s he doing out of class right now, anyway?” I asked, looking around, still not able to see him.

“He’s the professor of the class, he can end it three hours if he wants to. Okay, you can go. By the way, you smell very lovely, and if he was offended by it, then he might need a check up on his sense of smell.”

Ignoring him, I pulled out of the parking spot and made my way to the guard house, right behind a shiny black Mercedes that I assumed belong to the man we were following.

We ended up following black luxury car to the mansion area of the town. On the west side of town lay the foothills, giving the perfect privacy for those who wish to own big houses, but don’t wish for people to see them. There’s a road that cuts off the main road and for about a mile runs straight until the first of the mansions appear. The road then winds around the hills, and there were trees planted all around, hiding almost every house that was built.

We distantly followed the car until it disappeared through a tall iron gate. I instinctively slowed as we passed the gate, but Nick told me to keep going until we came to the next mailbox. Unfortunately the mailbox wasn’t for another half mile, so he told me to turn around and we parked about ten feet away from the gate, parking behind some trees. After asking about why I hid my car, Nick said because he didn’t want the rich ones to laugh at the non-luxury status of the car. I took it, mostly because he was right, and partly because I didn’t want anyone to steal my stereo.

We sat in the car for a moment, Nick using the binoculars to try to see the house from through the trees and the gate, and more trees. I sat there, drumming my fingers on the steering wheel, wishing I had an I-Pod, now more than ever.

“Can you please stop doing that?” Nick asked. I stopped wishing for an I-Pod, and kept drumming my fingers on the steering wheel. “I think the coast is clear.” He set the binoculars on the floor and slowly opened the door, like doing that would make it quieter. I managed to open the door, forget that I hadn’t yet taken off my seatbelt, took off my seatbelt, stepped out of the car, forgot my keys, sat back in the car, grabbed my keys, locked the doors, stepped out of the car, tried to close the door, opened the door again, moved the seatbelt that had gotten in the way, and finally closed the door by the time Nick had closed the door. I moved three times as fast, and I was still as quiet as he was, except for when the door slammed on the seatbelt; that was fairly loud, and at that point, I wouldn’t be surprised if someone heard us.

We crossed the street, and scoped the gate. It was ten feet tall, and almost impossible to climb over. Nick tried lifting me up, but there were pikes, and I was suddenly terrified of the ends of pikes. I tried to lift Nick, but he was too heavy for me. We both tried climbing, but the soles of our shoes were too slippery for the iron. We were about to give up when a car pulled up to the gate, which opened automatically to let the car drive through. Nick grabbed my hand and pulled me behind the car, both ducking down so the driver would not have been able to see us. When we had passed the gate, we jumped behind a tree, Nick’s arms around me so he held me close so we both could hide behind the same tree.

I was incredibly uncomfortable, but oddly not, but I pushed away. His camera around his neck was digging into my chest. He smirked at me, but I pretended not to notice. I peered around the large tree, and saw a man get out of the car that had helped us trespass. The driveway was a little less than twenty yards away, but it was curvy, making the trip longer than was necessary. I felt Nick move up behind me, and I was about punch him again, but when I turned to face him, I saw he was looking through his camera at the house. I turned back to the house, not really wanting him away from me. He was warm, and it felt twenty degrees cooler in the shade of the trees.

“He didn’t look familiar,” Nick whispered. He grabbed my arm and pulled me behind him as we silently made our way to the house.

The house was a large one story home, but the roof tilted at a forty-five degree angle, and was five feet above the top of the wall. It was a very odd looking home, but everyone has their own preference, I guess. Nick told me to put my phone back on vibrate, which I didn’t have to do because I hadn’t switched it back in the first place, and he darted away from me, running up to the house and trying to peer inside. I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do, so I stayed where he left me.

My phone vibrated, and, once again, I was amazed by how quickly and expertly he could send texts. Usually it took me a few minutes just to say hi. Go around the back and see if you see anyone. I looked around, wondering how I was supposed to get to the back of the house from where I stood. My tree was five yards away from the front of the house, and the only logical way for me to sneak to the back was to backtrack a few trees, and make a left, dodging behind more trees until I came to the back. Unfortunately the back was a wide open field of brightly green grass, the brightest I’ve ever seen, and there were people moving about. No one was looking in my direction, but there would be no way for me to run the ten yards to the nearest bush, and then proceed to look in all the windows until I saw someone of interest.

Luckily for me, the old professor and his guest made their way to a little white table placed in the middle of the green field. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but if I were to take the run to the bush, I might be able to just barely hear some murmurings. Taking a deep breath, I waited until no one was looking in my direction again, and then skittered across the rocks, keeping my knees bent so I was low to the ground, until I made it to the bush that was barely big enough for me. Just as I had hoped, I could hear them talking. More than I could ever hope for, I could understand what they were saying.

“I’m sorry to hear about your arm, Arthur,” Limp-Dick’s guest was saying. “A broken arm is the worst.”

“I beg to differ, Reginald,” Limp-Dick replied. “I once broke my leg when I was a boy, and was restricted to my bed for four months.”

I really wanted to giggle at the names and the fakeness of their accents. Limp-Dick didn’t sound like an eighteenth century royalty when I talked to him; he sounded like a crotchety old man then. Now he sounded civilized and upper class.

I took out my phone and within five minutes, had managed to say: Found old men talking about old man stuff. In that time, the two men hadn’t changed from talking about breaking bones, and how one had a worse injury than the other. It went from arms, to legs, to backs, to necks, to pelvises, to a crack in the skull and a permanently damaged eye socket. Who knew old men lead such dangerous and accident prone lives?

“I have always enjoyed your company, Reginald,” Limp-Dick was saying. “Ever since we were boys.”

“Yes, remember that woman who watched over us?” Reginald asked, looking off into the distance. “My first love, I dare say.”

“Really? She had to be ten years older than we were. Did you even know what love was back then?”

“My dear Arthur, we were twelve then, almost men! Of course I knew what love was!”

“It’s a shame what happened to her.”

“Should we really be discussing this outdoors, Arthur?”

“It’s my house, I’ll speak of what I want. Besides, no one remembers her, and those who did are all dead themselves, except for us, of course.”

Normally, they could talking about anyone, but after living through recent events, my mind immediately went to Shayna. If they were talking of Shayna, then why would she be a babysitter for two upper class boys if she was rich enough to buy the whole state of present-day California?

“I’m not quite sure if I approve of the new ones, Arthur. They don’t share the same ideas of superiority, and discipline. Why, just the other day, young Nicholas said ‘What’s up, Mr. P?’ How dare he address me as such? How dare he address me at all away from the clubhouse. Barbaric.”

“Aren’t the British supposed to be well-mannered?”

“And his father is head of a very large and well known company.”

“It’s a shame he’s going to throw all that away and become a photographer with the paper.”

It took me a moment, but I finally made the connection that they were talking about Nick. I shouldn’t have been as shocked as I was. They could have been talking about any student, assuming that was what they were talking about. Who else could they be talking about? I was sure there wasn’t another Nicholas who attended Dawnington University that was born in England, and is studying photography.

According to these men, and the connection I made for myself, Nick was a part of some club as well. They were all a part of a club that two of its oldest members were babysat by Shayna, and only they knew about her. What if they killed her? Maybe not these two themselves, since one of them admitted being in love with her, and when she disappeared they were too young to attend college.

If these men and Nick were a part of some club that dabbles in kidnapping and killing people, assuming that they killed her, then what else were they capable of? What if, after they attacked Jack and realized that we haven’t “let it lie”, they come after me or Nick next? I wouldn’t want him to lose his place in what obviously seemed like a very prestigious club if the members ranged from ten to eighty.

My previous fears had been revisited, and I wanted to get away. I knew that if we got caught sneaking around there would be trouble, and quite possibly another death, but I went along with it anyway. If Nick was part of whatever these men were part of, he could very easily know what happened to Shayna, and is just trying to lead us away from it, in order to prevent Jack and I from dying as well.

I turned to run from my bush, but a hand clasped on my mouth, also covering my nose which prevented me from making a noise, not to mention it prevented me from breathing. I pulled at the hand as it pulled me away from my bush and around the corner of the house. I was pulled, quite forcefully, passed the house and back into the trees. I was almost out of air and could see my vision darken when the hand let me go and I was set against a tree so I could catch my breath and clear my vision. I looked up at Nick, and a mixed sense of relief and terror ran through me. Was he aware that the old men were talking of him, and that I had made the connection? Would he kill me? I wasn’t as trained in self-defense as Jack was, and if he were to sneak up on me in my sleep, I would be an easy target. Was his flirting all just an act?

“You okay?” he asked, kneeling down next to me, patting my back. I nodded, but was too afraid to say anything. “Did you find anything about Shayna, Shayna?” He smiled at the double use of my name, but I couldn’t, for the life of me, think about anything funny in that moment.

I shook my head and looked around, devising any possible escape route that I could take. Unfortunately, I only had two choices. I could run as fast as I could, but there was the problem of the fence, and that he was probably faster than me. The second choice was climbing a tree, but there no branches on any of the trees around that were low enough for me to use to climb; and if I was able to climb a tree, chances were that Nick would be able to follow me, and there was no escaping a tree, no matter how good at climbing I was. There was only one way to go when being chased up a tree, and that was up, unless I felt it a good idea to jump, then I could go down, but at an alarming speed, and the impact was probably nothing better than what Nick would do when he caught me.

So I sat there, fearing for my life. I felt Nick put his arms under my arms and helped me stand up. We walked to the ten-foot fence, all the while he apologizing for nearly killing me when he pulled me away. He said there was nothing else he could do to tell me he was there, while not scaring me at the same time and causing me to make a noise to alert the old men that we were there. He had done the hand-over-mouth-and-nose technique before, and the other person didn’t come close to losing his breath and passing out.

Nick pushed me over the fence, and he used a tree trunk that was placed next to the fence to climb over after I was dumped on the other side.

On our way back to town, I sat in the passenger seat, after much protest, since I wasn’t comfortable with him driving my car. Friend or betrayer, I wouldn’t let anyone drive my car. Sighing in defeat, I leaned the seat back a bit so I was laying at an angle, and I was looking out the window. It was nearly five by the time Nick drove up to my apartment building. He placed a hand on my shoulder when I moved to unbuckle my seatbelt.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked, his eyebrows furrowed together in mock concern, or real concern, but after what I heard, probably mock concern.

“I’m fine, really.” I had found my voice when he offered to drive me home. I had to object, but I lost anyway.

“Am I forgiven? I’ll never do that to you again, I promise. I swear I didn’t know you couldn’t handle it.”

“You could have just sent me a text,” I mumbled. He looked away and sighed. “Yes, I forgive you.”

“Just to keep the record straight, I did send you a text. Not my fault you didn’t read it.” He looked back at me. “Besides, I think you might want to be in the privacy of your home before you read that text.” He winked at me, and I couldn’t help a smile. I punched him lightly, but he grabbed my arm and pulled me into him, pressing his lips on mine.

I blinked at him as I felt his tongue try to open my mouth, but I didn’t comply. This was not what I thought my first kiss would be like, with someone else in the driver seat of my car, but it happened. He pulled away and smiled, again, in that charming way. I just stared back, not entirely sure how to react. I was confused by him. At first, he seemed like a nice guy, then Jack told me not to fall for him. I didn’t fall for him, despite his constant invitations to do things to me. Then I overheard that Nick was part of a secret club that could be involved in the disappearance of older Shayna, and the attack on Jack. I wasn’t sure if I could trust him anymore than I could trust my parents to get a good paint job on a car.

“Can I come up?” he asked. I sighed and shook my head. “Then, can I borrow your car? I live across town, and it would take me years to walk there.”

I blinked some more. No one had ever dared ask to borrow my car, my baby. But, unluckily for me, it was a choice between two evils, because I wasn’t going to make him walk. I wasn’t that heartless.

“I guess you can borrow my car. But I want it back first thing tomorrow morning! And don’t steal my stereo.” I got out of the car, and watched as he drove away with my baby. At least when I left it in the parking lot at the college, I knew it was safe, especially after it was towed and had to spend the night at the sheriff’s office.
~~
I trudged up the stairs to my floor, the elevator having been under maintenance that day, and leaned against the wall, my floor five floors up. After catching my breath, I opened my phone to see the text Nick sent me as I pushed myself off the wall and slowly walked to my door at the end of the hall. After reading what he wrote, I blushed and slammed my phone shut, more to hide what was said in case anyone saw. I was partly glad I had sent him away in my car, and partly disappointed. I made a vow to myself then, that if I was going to die from investigating the disappearance of Miss Shayna Brown, born 1917, then I wasn’t going to die a virgin. If I lived until tomorrow night, then, if Nick’s offer still stands, maybe I’ll consider thinking about letting him sleep on my couch.  

He wasn’t a bad guy, just a little too forward for my taste. Not to mention he was extremely handsome, and kudos to me for rejecting him for so long. It actually wasn’t hard, if he just continued to send me racy text messages, then I’ll continue to wimp out and push him away. Of course, if I physically pushed him away he might just grab me and kiss me again, which might lead to other things. On one hand, I couldn’t let that happen. We just met, and I wasn’t the type of girl to jump in bed just because the first guy who was offering had offered. On the other hand, he was probably really experienced and it would be amazing. Though, I had no experience, so it might not be that amazing.

I smiled at the thought, but the smile was quickly swept away when I saw that my door was creaked open. I could have sworn I locked it that morning, not to mention closed it. My mind returned to Jack in the hospital, and I was terrified that someone was in there, waiting for me. I placed my hand on the door, a weird sense of courage running through me, but as the door made a creaking noise, I withdrew my hand as if the wood was on fire. I took a couple steps backward before turning around and quickly making my way back to the stairs. What a perfect day to have the elevator broken, or a perfect day to have someone waiting in my apartment to kill me.

Just as I reached the stairs, I heard my door being thrown open, and, upon taking a quick look behind me, saw a burly man, dressed in all black, wearing a black ski mask, running toward me. I sped up, hurtling down the stairs, but not so fast so I wouldn’t trip and fall. I opened my phone and intended on sending Nick a text, since he was the last one to do so, but after I passed the third floor, and just nearly missed being grabbed by the man, I pressed the call button twice, hoping it was Nick who answered. I would have rather called someone else, but Nick was the one with my car, and he was in the process of driving. He would be able to get to me quicker than the police or Jack, or my mom.

I had called Nick, and yelled at him to turn around and help me as I was running for my life down the stairs, and just as I hit the first floor, I dropped my phone, but was in no state of stopping to grab it as the big man came thundering after me. I ran to the doors leading out of the building, but had momentarily forgotten that the one side was broken. When I finally remembered to push the other glass door, the man had grabbed my purse. I let him have it, gladly, and ran out of the building toward where Nick had driven off to, hoping that was where he was coming from.

I glanced back just in time to see the man running after me, still holding onto my purse, and when I turned back, was relieved to see my ugly-gray car speeding toward me. As Nick and I headed for each other, I slowed, having glanced back again and saw that the man was gone. I slowed to a stop as Nick drove up to me. I had to stop to catch my breath, and if Nick was expecting any sort of explanation, then he wasn’t going to get one any time soon. He jumped out of the car, not bothering to turn it off, and led me to the back seat so I could lay down and catch my breath. He told me to wait while he went to check out my apartment, but I threw up my arm to try to tell him to stop. He nodded and got in the car, pushing my legs to the floor so he could sit next to me. We sat like that for a moment until I was finally able to catch my breath. I had never run so hard for so long before, and I wasn’t even positive I would be able to do it in the first place, but face to face with possible bone breakage, or death, my body was able to push me to safety. I made a vow to start eating healthy and exercising every day for at least an hour, and none of that miniscule cheating exercise either.

When I had finally caught my breath, I was able to sit up.

“Thanks,” I said, wiping my forehead with the back of my hand. When I was finally calm enough, I explained to him what happened, but I left out the part where I swore I wasn’t going to die a virgin.

“So,” he said after I had finished, “your phone is lying on the ground somewhere in the building, and the man has your purse with all your cards, and your I.D. in it. That just sounds great, it really does.” I sighed, knowing the severity of the situation, and he looked back at the building. “You stay here, lock the doors, and I’ll go see if I can’t find your phone and check out your apartment.” He leaned forward to hand me his phone. “When I find your phone, I’ll call, and when I had a chance to check out your apartment, I’ll let you go back up if its safe.”

“No. There is no way I’m staying there. If he was there once, then he’ll probably come back when I’ve gone to bed.”

“Do you have someone to stay with?”

No, I had no friends except Jack, and he was in the hospital. Had I still been employed at the college, I would have been able to stay there, but my options were pretty thin. I sighed and put my head in my hands.

“Okay, then you can stay with me.”

I shot up and looked at him.

“I promise not to hit on you or anything while you’re at my house.” Then, he smiled at me for the first time since he kissed me. “Unless you want me to.”

“No, it’s perfectly fine.” So much for my vow to accept his offers. There just seemed something unappealing about thinking about sex after I had just run for my life. “And, to be honest, if I am to be staying somewhere else, call me crazy but I don’t feel comfortable with you poking around my things. I will need some clothes for tomorrow, not to mention toothbrush and all that.”

“You really want to return to the scene of the crime?” He got out of the car, and held a hand to me to help me out.

“It’s not a scene of a crime unless a crime had been committed.”

“But it has. He walked into your apartment without your approval. Just think, that big man may have run off with a pair of your undies, lucky bastard.”

He had a point, but I took it as karma for having trespassed onto Limp-Dick’s property and overheard a private conversation. I took it as a I-deserved-it, even if stealing my panties was a little over the top.

We found my phone next to the wall on the first floor unharmed. I cheered my cheap phone, for if it had been a new touch screen phone that cost five hundred dollars and my arm, it would have most likely shattered. I graciously handed Nick’s phone back, and pocketed my phone.

When we reached my apartment, my door had been left wide open, and Nick told me to wait in the hall while he checked it out. He returned five minutes later holding my lacy pink bra, that I never wore, and was smirking at me. I walked in, closed the door, grabbed my bra, that I never wore, and hit him in his stomach.

“I don’t even wear this thing,” I grumbled as I walked to my bedroom.

“Then can I have it? It’s so pretty, and it’ll make me think of you every time I look at it.”

“No. That’s even creepier than a stranger, who just tried to kill me, stealing my under things.”

I kicked him out of my room, and told him to wait for me on my couch, and not to touch anything. I grabbed the unused duffle bag from my closet, and threw in my toothbrush and hairbrush, first things. I would have died if I had forgotten those. As I stared at my wardrobe, I suddenly felt compelled to pack things that looked cute, or attractive. I was a little embarrassed to show him my oversized, workout pants as my pajama pants, and an oversized band shirt that my friend had sent me from Japan. I grabbed the only actual pajamas that I had, bought as a present from my sister, more clothing that I never wore. The pants were long, but low cut, and bright pink. My sister had a thing about pink, hence the bra that she sent with the pajamas. The shirt that matched was a low necked, thin white shirt that said “Smile PINK” on the front, and a cute pink smiley face on the back. My biggest issue with the shirt was that it was easily see-through, and the neck was so low my breasts would be hanging out. I grabbed a white tank top and threw it in the bag. For my tomorrow clothes, I threw in a pair of jeans, another pair of hip huggers that I never wore, and a red low necked shirt, again that I usually never wore. Despite my hate of the piece of clothing, I threw in the pink bra that Nick showed so much like for.

I groaned as I realized all that I had just packed. Well, why did I have them if not to wear them? Closet space, mostly. Honestly, I didn’t wear half of the things I owned, but I owned them because they made my closet and my drawers look fuller. There were some things that still had tags on them.

I joined Nick in the living room. Even though he wasn’t sitting on the couch, but looking at a picture I had of myself and two of my friends back home at our senior prom, I didn’t scold him. Technically, he wasn’t touching anything, and I really didn’t have the energy to yell at anyone at the moment.

“Where’s the one with your boyfriend?” he asked, pointing at the picture.

“I didn’t have a boyfriend at the time,” I grumbled, walking to the kitchen to see what I had food-wise that wouldn’t last another couple days. “He broke up with me because I didn’t want to go to prom, and he said he already bought the tickets. I bought myself a ticket, and, when I got there, realized that he and his new girl decided to skip the prom and go right to the after party. It was the stupidest prom in history anyway. So I was actually jealous that he wasn’t there to see the lameness of the party, instead of jealous that he and his new girl were out doing the dirty.”

“ ‘Doing the dirty’?” He laughed. “You couldn’t just up and say that they were -”

“No, I couldn’t.” I had to interrupt him, for I really didn’t like curse words, and I knew that‘s what he was going to say. Waste of sentence space, if you asked me. I felt Nick walk up to me, stand closely behind me, but not touch me, for which I was greatly thankful, for I wasn‘t sure if I would be able to resist him again. I needed a little time and space between each invite to do things to my body.

“Balls to him then,” he said in a low tone that stirred things inside me, and I hated it, but it felt so good. “I don’t think he ended up in such a divine town as this, about to spend the night with a fairly wealthy, and very handsome man.”

“I don’t think he ended up spending the night a man either.” I smiled as I turned to him. “He isn’t gay. And, must I say, you have to be the most egotistical student photographer son of the wealthiest man in the world? Not exactly something to brag about, honey.”

He seemed to brighten when I called him honey, and that was not the direction I wanted to take with him, and his happy face made me think of a little boy who was just invited to play football with his dad. I was hoping to have insulted him, but I just boosted his ego even more. Balls to me, as Nick would say.

I tossed the bread, that had already started to mildew, and drained the milk, which stunk worse than Limp-Dick in the elevator, and let Nick know I was ready.
~~
Nick’s house was a quaint home, not something I’d expect to see him living in for very long, but it was a nice size for just him. It was a two-story, but only looked big enough for the essential rooms. The property was surrounded by a wooden fence, four feet high, and a very attractive burgundy color. The garage was separate from the rest of the house, which made me feel a little uneasy leaving my baby so far away from me after what had happened in the last few hours.

The lawn was well tended, and there was a nice little flower garden along the fence, following the fence all around the square property. The house itself was painted light blue, with a white door. It looked like a house from the sixties, to be honest, though the interior was anything but. The little living room held a big screen TV that covered an entire wall. The couch was white, and the coffee table the same color wood as the fence surrounding the house. There was a wall-sized fish tank on the opposite wall of the TV, and there were so many colorful fish swimming around. The carpet was off-white, and very soft.

Nick had taken my bag and was leading me up the stairs, which was through a small walkway from the living room. The stairs were the same wood as the fence and coffee table, and made a small clicking noise as our shoes hit the wood. The second floor was just a hallway with two doors on each side. On the left side was my room and the spare bathroom, and across the hall was his room and the other spare room, which he turned into a darkroom. Under no circumstance was I to go in there unaccompanied.

My room was actually pretty big for a spare room. It was bigger than my room at my apartment. The same carpet from downstairs was laid out upstairs as well. My bed was big, just two mattresses on a frame, but those mattresses were the most comfortable I had ever lay my body on. I was about to fall asleep, not wanting to ever get out of that bed. However, Nick stood by the door and was smirking at me the whole time. Reluctantly I stood up, and placed my duffle bag on the bed. He led me to the glass double doors, curtained by white lace curtains, and I wasn’t sure I was okay with the lace. When it was dark, and I was changing with the light on, anyone would be able to see. I think I would be safer to change in the bathroom.

He opened the double doors to reveal a private sized deck, made of white wood. There was a little white wicker chair in the corner, facing out toward the mountains and the rich people. The setting sun had brought a small breeze, and I commented how beautifully calming it was to stand there.

Nick put his arm around my waist, but I was too content with the scene and the breeze to care. He leaned close and whispered in my ear again, which put me on a little edge. I was ready to strike if he tried anything.

“Go ahead and get settled in. I’ll order a pizza and we can hang out downstairs for a bit.” He let me go and left me to my room. I was a little surprised that he had done so without trying to kiss me, or grope me, or even say a little something that would cause me to blush.

I was perfectly okay that.

I shut the and locked the door before I started unpacking my one pair of pajamas, and one outfit. I grabbed my toothbrush and hairbrush and left the room, and, two steps away, walked into the bathroom. The shiny, clean chrome of everything had taken me by surprise. The tiled floor was white, but the sink, toilet, and shower was all chrome. The counter surrounding the sink was of black marble, almost like the material used to carve Shayna’s statue. The shower curtain was clear, and that made me a little uneasy, but at least there was no window for anyone to watch me shower and dress, and the door had a lock so no one would be able to sneak in.

After I had placed my things where I was happy for them to be, I walked downstairs, joining Nick in the living room. He sat on his couch, while watching some comedy show, but not really paying attention to it. When he saw me emerge from the stairway, he smiled, like he was as happy to see me as a kid at Christmas. I was flattered, but I was still not going to let him do those things he mentioned in his text that I will not repeat.

“All settled in?” he asked as he stood up as I walked to him. I stopped to stare at the fish.

“All my two outfits are put away,” I said.

“Just two?”

“My pajamas and my clothes for tomorrow. I’m grateful for you to offer me a place to stay, but it’s only going to be for the night.”

He nodded, and tossed me a phone. It was a small hand-held phone, and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“I’m going to call Jack, and we’re going to use the house phone so we can all talk together.”

I nodded, but felt it might be a bit weird to talk to Nick and Jack while I sat two feet away from one of them.

Before I knew it, Nick had dialed Jack’s number, and was motioning to me to sit by him. He muted the comedy show as Jack answered.

“Hey buddy,” Nick greeted. “How’s our favorite sickly?”

“Depressingly normal,” he said. “Or, at least that’s I overheard my doctor say. I almost feel bad for not conjuring up some fatal disease for them, but I do want to walk out of here as soon as possible.”

“When are they going to release you?” I asked.

“Shayna? What are you doing on the line?”

“Someone broke into her apartment as well, but she managed to not be home, and before he could get to her, she called in her hero to rescue her. I wasn‘t able to catch the bastard, and he ran off with her purse and a very attractive lacy pink bra.” I punched him.

Even though he probably didn’t even see the man, I let him boast about being my hero. If it hadn’t been for him driving up, the man would have probably chased me longer.

“Do you really think you both are safe in the same house?” Jack asked, lowering his voice. “I mean, if they know where Shay and I live…”

“I have a very reliable alarm system. Besides, I’m just as good at defending myself as you, and now that I have Shayna with me, I’ll get to be protector for a day.” He winked at me, but I pretended not to notice.

“So, anything happen today?”

“Oh, you mean besides almost being killed or abducted from my apartment?” I threw in.

“We followed Limp-Dick to his house,” Nick said before Jack could apologize, if he was going to apologize. “He was having tea with his friend Reginald.”

“Okay, that sounds odd in itself.”

“I think they may have been talking about old Shayna,” I said. Nick looked at me, looking confused, so I continued. “They mentioned a woman who used to watch over them when they were twelve. Then they mentioned about how it was shame that whatever happened to her had happened to her, and Reginald misses her, for he felt he was in love with her.”

“Really? Anything else?” Jack sounded positively curious, and I was thrilled to know that what I found out might actually be useful information. I had decided to keep out the information about Nick, not knowing whether revealing that he was part of a club was a smart thing.

“After that they started to complain about the world today, and how disrespectful the new generation is,” I said. “You know, old people stuff.”

Nick was staring at me the whole time, and I was wondering if knowing about him and his club was a good thing. Once again, my fears about what he would do to me, if we dug too deep into this Shayna business, arose.

“Listen, guys, I -”

“Hold that thought, Shayna…” Jack took the phone from his ear and was talking with someone, most likely the doctor. While he argued with the doctor, Nick continued to stare at me, and I wanted to shrink away from his piercing gaze, but I held my ground. I wouldn’t let him know that he intimidated me. “Sorry guys, but I have to hang up. Visiting hours are over, and that extends to phone calls, stupidly enough.”

“It’s okay, Jacky,” Nick said, still staring at me. “You get some rest and we’ll pick you up in the morning.”

“Right, sleep well.” Nick and I hung up then, and I handed him the phone, which he took and set on the coffee table. After a few more moments of him staring at me, I finally lost it.

“What are you staring at?” I asked.

“You didn’t tell him…about me.” So he did know that I knew he was in a club.

“It’s not my thing to tell,” I said, shrugging. He seemed to relax, and patted my shoulder.

“If word gets out that I joined that lame ass club,” he said, mixing relief with laughter, “I’d probably get kicked off the journalist-photographer team. Jack is highly against school sororities, and he could kick my ass if he wanted to.”

“A sorority?” Made sense. Most college students joined sororities, but I didn’t think Nick would be one of those sorority types. Come to think of it, I didn’t know that Dawnington University was a sorority school. “But, if you didn’t want to be in the sorority in the first place, then why join?”

“My dad,” he grumbled, putting his feet up on the coffee table. “He was in the sorority, and he will only provide for me while I’m in school if I joined as well. Photography doesn’t pay as well at the beginning, or at all.”

“So…what does your sorority do? What’s the fun initiation? Do you get to dress up as a giant hot dog and go to school, telling people to ask you about your wiener?”

“What? No, they’re much more secretive than that. It’s all about money and position. I was given an invite, and my father accepted for me, so I didn’t even have a choice.”

“What kind of a sorority doesn’t make you do embarrassing things to get in?”

“Obviously not a fun one. That’s why I live here instead of at the sorority house.” He held up his left with his fingers touching his thumb, but he held his pinky out, imitating a pompous rich man. “I say, Reginald, do you remember how gay we used to be as boys?” He sounded annoyingly like Mr. Limp-Dick. “I couldn’t handle listening to them in the short amount of time we were at that house. There is no way I was going to deal with it everyday of my young, college life. Isn’t college supposed to be fun for you Americans?”

“I’ve only seen a few inappropriate college movies, and, if I learned anything from them it’s that college is nothing but wacky adventures and extreme nudity.”

I immediately wished I hadn’t mentioned the nudity, for once I did Nick sat up straight and looked at me with a goofy smile. Within minutes he called the pizza place to change his order to two family sized pizzas, three 2-liter sodas, and a giant cookie. He had called a friend of his to let him borrow his game console, and Nick had ordered all the movies that I was able to remember.

I had gone upstairs to change into my pajamas, instantly regretting not choosing my sweatpants and giant Genesis t-shirt that I stole from my mom. I hesitantly dressed in the pink get-up I brought, brushed my teeth, my hair, and was disappointingly satisfied with how I looked. I took a deep breath and walked out to face whatever crude comment Nick would throw at me. Fortunately, he didn’t say anything, but his eyes said all he needed to. I was embarrassed, but I could live with just him staring.

As soon as the pizza and drinks arrived, we started the night by watching Revenge of the Nerds. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone enjoy that movie as much as Nick had. He spit out his soda when the boys were spying on the “Pies“, but I was uncomfortable. I was never anything but amused by the movie, but all the female nudity reminded me of who I was watching the movie with, and I had to look away for the time being, not wanting my movie companion to glance at me while the boys in the movie zoomed onto the woman anatomy.

The same thing was true with Animal House, American Pie, and Road Trip. By the time Road Trip was over, we had eaten most of the pizza, all of the giant cookie, and drank all the soda. Nick had laid down and looked like he was asleep with a plate of a half-eaten piece of pizza on his lap. I cleaned up the mess, guessing where the trash in the kitchen was. The kitchen was about as chrome and new as any new-age kitchen, and it looked almost exactly like the bathroom. The white tiles looked like they were just put in that day, and the counter was black granite. The refrigerator was huge, big enough to fit three full grown turkeys at Thanksgiving. The trash receptacle was one of those new compost makers. After throwing all the food in, I pushed the button and it rumbled, acting like a garbage disposal, crushing and smashing the food.

The living room was fairly clean before I decided to brave picking up the plate on Nick’s lap. He had been sleeping all the while I was cleaning, so I assumed he was fast asleep, and would be until the morning. I grabbed the plate, but just as I was about to move away, Nick grabbed my wrist, making me jump as high as I could while he held me in place, and I shamefully let out a squeak. He stared up at me, very ominously, making me more nervous than I probably should have been. I stammered something about apologetic, and as I tried to pull away he held on tighter, but he smiled amusingly.

“Am I still dreaming?” he asked me in a low voice. He pushed the plate off his lap and pulled me onto him so I was almost laying fully on top of him. I was just faintly aware of something poking me from his pants as I tried to pull away again, but he still held onto me.

“Actually, you’re wide awake,” I said, trying to sound calm, but the situation both frightened and excited me. Despite the promise I made to myself about not dying a virgin, this isn’t what I had in mind. “Can you let go, please?”

“Are you sure I’m not dreaming?” he whispered against my ear, his lips just barely . “You know, I offered to help you with one of your fantasies.” He was rubbing my arms at this point, and I felt how much he really enjoyed having me there. Literally, I felt it as it poked me in my stomach. “It’s only fair that you offer to help with one of mine.”

I laughed nervously. “You fantasized about having sex on a dirty couch with a girl you just met?”

“I think that’s one of every guy’s fantasies.” He laughed as well, but his was more good natured and humorous.

“Listen, I’m still a little shaken up from earlier,” I said, pushing up off him, relieved that he let me. “I think I’m going to hit the sack.” I stood up and backed from the couch, very self-conscious about the way he watched me make my way to the stairs.
~~
I pulled into the parking lot early the next morning. Nick had class that morning, and Jack wanted out of the hospital as soon as possible. I had to sign release forms, proving I was Jack’s sister. I didn’t know how Jack did it, but he seemed to convince the doctors that his last name was Brown, and he was my twin brother, though we didn’t look anything alike.

“The first thing I want to do is go to a diner and eat some real food,” Jack exclaimed as we stepped out of the hospital. He threw his arm around my shoulder and held me tightly against him for a brief moment, and I had no idea why until he let go.

Looking behind us I noticed Mr. Limp-Dick had passed us. When I looked behind, he, too, turned around, giving me a glare before disappearing into the medical building.

“He came to visit me last night,” Jack whispered as we approached the car. The day was another sunny, yet very cold day. There were no clouds in the sky, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t snow in two hours.

I looked up at Jack and found he was looking back at the medical building as well.

“He is definitely the one who tried to get to me.”

“What did he want?”

He put his arm around my shoulder again and we walked to my car. He waited until we were situated in our respective seats, and I was making my way out of the school’s boundaries before he said anything more.

“He told me he knew I was researching the statues,” he began. “He told me there was nothing out of the ordinary in any of them, and to just let this obsession go. I asked him what obsession he was talking about, and he told me to leave the crimes to the professionals. He said that underachieving students don’t deserve to meddle in the affairs of the university.”

“What did he mean by ‘Underachieving’?” It sounded almost exactly like what my ex-boss had said to me when she fired me, except it was more along the lines of “Stop being so damn curious, you undeserving idiot.”

“He already thinks he’s the cream of the crop. You know, he’s one of the richest men in the world. He doesn’t believe there should be art majors, or journalists. That enough gives him the motive to want to hurt me. You wouldn’t think it, but that old man is strong. Oh! Grandma Dora’s! Stop here. I’m hankering for some waffles.”

Every town in the world has one of those family owned restaurants that have been around since the beginning of time. Grandma Dora’s Diner was one of those restaurants. The original Grandma Dora started the diner in the late 1800’s, and ever since then, there has always been a Dora to own the diner. For years there have been Doras and their families, adding to the menu, changing the food, adding knick-knacks to their widely known collection of odd little things.

The first thing we saw as we walked in the front door is a life-sized portrait of the original Grandma Dora. She was a tall woman, very attractive, ebony black hair, sparkling blue eyes, and a figure any woman would be jealous of. Honestly, I thought whoever painted the picture might have been a little nice about the picture, but without an original picture of her, we would never know. In smaller frames, there were hand painted portraits of every Grandma Dora since the original, bordering the top of the walls in chronological order. It was rumored that every Grandma Dora would pop out children until they gave birth to the first-born girl. I was told that one Grandma Dora had eleven boys until, on the last try, she finally had a daughter at the age of forty-five. I thought that was a little extreme, and I had heard it from ex-boss, so that information couldn’t really be reliable.

We had been seated, and when I took off my jacket, I noticed Jack staring at me, though I didn’t let him know I noticed. I knew I should have just worn my usual clothes, and left the unworn, revealing clothes behind. Earlier that morning, I had tried to pull the shirt higher, but that just caused it to show too much stomach for the winter. I was very self-conscious about how much little cleavage I actually had, and I kept my arms over my chest.

“So,” Jack began as the waitress had taken our orders and left, “you and Nick. Did you have fun?”

I shrugged. “We watched movies, ate some pizza, and then went to bed.”

“Together?”

“No!” I put my hand over my mouth and looked around, hoping my sudden outburst hadn’t attracted any attention. That definitely came out louder than I had expected, but I couldn’t believe he would automatically assume that Nick and I slept together. I cleared my throat and repeated my answer, but much quieter.

“Really?” He had laughed at my outburst, and just shook his head at my quieter repeat. “You didn’t give in to his charms?”

“You told me not to.” I couldn’t look at him, not wanting to see his reaction. I didn’t know what else to say, and I wanted to move on to a different conversation, but I didn’t know what else to talk about with him other than last night or older Shayna.

“What’d you watch?” I looked at him then, and saw he was playing with his napkin. I hoped he didn’t feel bad, or even jealous, though I found I wouldn’t mind him being jealous.

“A bunch of hokey college movies. Animal House, American Pie…that sort of thing.”

Again, he laughed at me. “And you still didn’t do it with him? You must have nerves of steel.”

“So, you don’t have class today?” I greatly accepted my iced tea from the waitress, wanting to talk of something else more than ever.

“Nope. I finished my bit, and my partner is making it better, so I’m off for a few days, at least until she calls me to yell at me and set me another story assignment.”

I couldn’t help it, but I suddenly felt jealous of him having a “she” partner. I knew we have only been acquaintances a few days ago, and just two days ago, we actually became friends and if we both had Facebook or Twitter, we would have accepted each other’s friend requests. I didn’t do social networking, but now that I’m actually starting to get some friends, maybe I should start.

“She’s insufferable,” he said, and I looked up at him and noted he saw me playing with my napkin. “She acts like my mother. Let me say that it’s a good thing you didn’t give in to Nick.”

“Why?”

“They had a moment, he and Audra. If she were to find out that you and he spent the night together, even though you didn’t do anything, she’ll probably try to kick your ass.”

“Gee, thanks. I enjoy being told that some woman wants to kick my ass just because Nick was nice to me for a night.”

“She might take that as a threat. Imagine: a man like Nick spends the night with a woman like you, but nothing happens between the two of you.” I narrowed my eyes. A woman like me? What did that mean, exactly? He continued, having not noticed my narrowed eyes. “She might think that you’ve done something to him, and he might have possibly developed feelings for you.”

“Not after a day. And it wasn’t like he didn’t try.”

“She wouldn’t see it that way. You obviously don’t know how other women are, do you?”

“Well, the last three years the only other woman I’ve had contact with was my ex-boss, the anti-blue woman. She was convinced the prince of Wales had the hots for her, so she was naturally crazy like that. I didn’t think sane people were jealous that easily.”

Jack chuckled at that, and the waitress came up with our food. We ate in silence after that, me thinking about this Audra, and how I could possibly avoid meeting her. I knew Jack had other friends, and, obviously he worked with other people. One could not be accepted to this school without being socially superior with one’s peers. I just never expected to be thrown into a jealous woman’s eyesight. If she thought I was emotionally attached to Nick, and becoming very good friends with Jack, then what would stop her from seeking out the lonely girl from Colorado, and beating her to a pulp? Do people still do that at our age? Either way, I was suddenly scared for my life, and when our silence was so suddenly broken by a snazzy, hip-hop, rap song from a phone, I jumped and dropped my fork on the table, creating a loud noise.

Jack answered his phone, and still wouldn’t look at me.

“What’s up?” he asked into his phone. Instinctively I thought it was Audra, calling him back to their office and I would be all by myself, which I didn’t really mind, but I wanted to spend time with Jack. I could go for a day without trying to keep a horny man off me.

“What do you mean he’s gone? Like dead?” He looked at me then, and I hoped it wasn’t something serious. Of course, once someone is talking about someone else being dead, it was more than likely serious. “Mr. Limp-Dick is on vacation,” he told me.

“Gone as in away on a trip,” I said. “Is it Nick?”

He nodded. “How do you know he’s on vacation?”

I almost told him it was because Nick was part of the same sorority that the old man was part of, but I remembered what Nick had said about not wanting Jack to know, so I held my tongue. Of course, I couldn’t think about Nick being in a sorority without laughing about it, and Jack gave me a weird look when I started laughing for no reason, or at least I hoped he thought it was for no reason.

“Oh hey, has Audra called you yet? She did? Can you keep her busy today? I just got out of the hospital, and I don’t think I want to go into work today. I know she’ll freak, but it’s not like there’s anything for me to do there. Great, thanks buddy.” He hung up and smiled at me. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing. Just remembered something from a long time ago…One of those things where you had to be there.”
~~
Jack lived in a house identical to Nick’s, except he wasn’t as technologically advance, nor did he have anything in his house that was chrome. His downstairs was filled with scattered papers, pictures, and empty soda cans. He told me to wait in the living room while he ran upstairs to shower and change. I felt compelled to clean his living room; I was not a fan of unnecessary messes. I grabbed all the empty soda cans I could hold, and threw them in the little kitchen trash. I wouldn’t dare touch any of his papers without knowing if they were important or not, and I was soon done, though, with only the subtraction of the soda cans, it didn’t look like I did much.

I sat on the couch and looked around, impressed by all the family pictures and certificates he had on the walls. There was a picture on the side table that made my stomach turn. Jack was standing with a woman, both of them holding a check dedicated to the Valley High School Newspaper. I wasn’t sure why, but I knew that woman was Audra, and I became more frightened of her than previously.

She was tall, thin, and beautiful. She had strawberry blonde hair that waved down her back, and she had perfectly golden skin. In the picture, she wore a low-cut dress that tightly hugged her curves and ended mid-thigh. And, good God to all that is holy, she had legs, long, slender legs that I knew all men liked. I knew now that it was impossible for her and Nick not to have a history with each other, but I was also starting to think Jack had a history with her as well. She didn’t strike me as the type of woman who would jump from man to man, but if there were two men I pictured her with, it was Jack and Nick.

If she would want to viciously harm me for being with Nick, then she would no doubt want to fatally harm me when she found out that I was with both Jack and Nick. I sighed and slouched on the couch as the realization that I could possibly lose my life from something stupid like being friends with Jack and Nick. If I had a choice, I would have preferred to be killed over this missing woman than from petty jealousy.

My phone rang, and I answered it, not bothering to see who it was. It was Nick, and I probably should have checked, for I would never had answered it had I known.

“Are you still with Jack?” he whispered.

“He’s in the shower.”

“And you’re not with him? What’s wrong with you?” He was a little louder, but he still kept quiet.

“What do you want?”

“Okay, I didn’t want to say anything to Jack. Limp-Dick is going away for a week, but he’s having a party at his house tomorrow night for sorority members.”

“That explains why you’re being so quiet.”

“I’m being quiet because I don’t want Audra to hear me.”

I bit my lower lip. There she was again. A few hours ago I had no idea this woman existed, and now, all of a sudden, she’s threatening my entire life, and we haven’t even met yet.

“I was thinking, since the party is going to be at his house, if you would like to accompany me. It would give us an excuse to legally be in his house and snoop around without getting in too much trouble. What do you say?”

“That sounds logical,” was all I could think to say. I didn’t want to fully agree to it, not wanting him to think I wanted to go to a party with him that I suspected was a date in disguise, and I, definitely, was not going to say no.

“It’s formal, so you’ll need to dress pretty.” I could hear him wearing a big smile as he said this. “And I’ll see you at five-thirty. He’ll be serving dinner, after which we mingle and then accidentally get lost to see if we can’t find anything. And if we can’t, we can just find a room and finish what you wouldn’t let get started.”

“Definitely about the dinner and snooping, but not so much about finding a room.”

“I have to go, I’ll talk to you more about it later.” And he hung up just as Jack walked down.

He was wearing jeans that looked like they fit comfortably, not like skinny jeans or too baggy jeans. They look perfect on him. His shirt was big, black, and there was a skull on fire on the front. It looked artistic, not like a skull on fire would normally look. I had a secret liking for skulls, and I realized I wanted his shirt. I wouldn’t have minded just taking it off him at that moment - for the purpose of stealing his shirt, nothing else. His hair was still damp, and hung around his eyes.

I had never been so attracted to anyone that wasn’t famous as I was to him at that moment. He didn’t look academic at all. I had usually seen him in his school clothes: khakis and a collared shirt; or a hospital gown.

“Who was on the phone?” he asked as he sat next to me. I couldn’t stop staring at him, and was minimally aware that I had my mouth open. I was glad he wasn’t looking at me, but at the papers on the table in front of us. Dear God, since when did he have muscular arms? They weren’t really huge, but just big enough to be noticed.

It took me a few tries, but I was finally able to mutter Nick’s name and look away from Jack.

“What’d he want?”

“Uh, he thinks he might be able to get us into Mr. Limp-Dick’s house before he leaves.” I was becoming increasingly calmer as I talked about Nick. “There’s a party tomorrow night, and he…was invited.” I almost told Jack about Nick and the sorority, and I wouldn’t be able to face Nick if I had.

“Oh yeah? Then what? Did he ask you to be his date?” He looked up at me and smiled in a knowing way. He looked like he knew a secret, but I knew one too, and from the way he smiled made me want to let him know that I knew something that I wasn’t going to tell. I smiled back, copying the sly look he had.

“In a way, yes.” I looked away, victorious in making his smile falter for a second, though I immediately regretted making him falter like that. “But I’m sure it’s just so he can get me in the house so I can snoop.”

“Yeah.”

We sat in uncomfortable silence then. I wasn’t sure if it was uncomfortable for him, but it definitely was for me. I had never been alone with a man I was attracted to. Sure I was with Nick last night, but at least the movies were on. Right now there was nothing but the sound of my heart beating in my ears. I was nervous, and we needed to do something to take our minds off of thinking about we looked like naked. Okay, so I was thinking what he looked like without his clothes on, and my mind told me he was thinking the same about me.

“Do you want to go to your apartment?”

It was so suddenly asked that I jumped and looked at him, positive I was blushing from the thoughts I was just thinking. Was he asking to go to my apartment to do what I was thinking about? It wouldn’t make much sense to take the time to drive to my apartment. Why couldn’t we just do it now?

“I think we should go check it out, see if anything was taken or left behind.” He looked at me oddly, and I was embarrassed for thinking such thoughts. He was probably gay anyway. I didn’t have much experience with men, and spending all that time with Nick made me come to expect an offer every few minutes.

“That’s a good idea,” I breathed.
~~
As Jack was driving - for the reason that I had no driver’s license anymore and he wouldn’t let me drive - I had a moment to think about the dinner party I was invited to, and wondered how I was going to afford a pretty dress that was fancy enough to be accepted to such a gig. Considering the social status of nearly everyone who would be invited to the party, I knew there were stores in town that would sell fancy dresses, but, once again, my problem was more about money.

I sighed, not wanting to have to resort to calling my mom and asking for another loan just so I can buy an expensive dress to be appropriately dressed for the fancy party I will be attending. It will only be used once, and I thought of buying the dress, wearing it, but keeping the tag on so I could return it within the next few days. I would be dressed fancy, but I wouldn’t be wasting money, strictly speaking.

I wondered why Nick was so quiet and secretive about the party. I told Jack about the party, so trying to keep it a secret hadn’t worked. Then I remembered Jack telling him to keep Audra busy, and so she must have been with him when he called me, knowing full well that she wouldn’t approve of him wanting to take some random non-wealthy girl, who wasn’t even a student, to the party. Knowing this made me feel proud of myself. If that was Audra in the picture, then he had chosen me over such a beauty as she, and I almost wanted to buy a beautifully expensive dress for keeps. Maybe so I could possibly wear it again at another fancy party, but that was getting ahead of myself.

And then I came back to Earth, and realized that he was only inviting me so I could try to find any clue as to what happened with older Shayna. Of course, if the three of us continued to be harassed and attacked in our own homes, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know what happened to her. After all, the detectives hired to find her couldn’t do so. What made me think that three inexperienced people could?

When we reached my apartment, Jack ordered me to stay in the hall while he checked everything out, like Nick had done. We had been silent for the whole drive there, in fact him telling me to stay in the hall was the first thing he said to me since he suggested going there.

I wondered what he thought about me, as I leaned against the wall next to my door. When describing Audra’s dilemma, for that’s what I called it for lack of a better word, he had said, “a girl like you.” What had he meant by that? Would it be an intelligent question to ask him? Whether it was or not, I wanted to know. Did he mean that I was attractive? Did he mean that I looked like I was easily led into the bedroom? I wasn’t aware that I gave the impression that I was like that, but if I was giving that impression, I would like to know.

Jack popped his head out of my apartment and allowed me inside.

“Something still doesn’t feel right,” he whispered. “So I want you to pack for an extended period. I don’t want you here by yourself until all this dies down.”

“I can’t stay with Nick again.” I had meant it as a joke, but he held his finger to his lips.

“Just get packing and we’ll discuss it later. Do you need help?”

I thought about him handling my underwear, and, though I would rather it be him than Nick, for I didn’t think Jack would make comments about them, I shook my head. I left my duffle bag at Nick’s house, but I didn’t think I would be able to pack for an extended period using just the little duffle bag. I searched my closet for the only suitcase I owned. It was a small, rolling suitcase, fit for carry-on onto a plane. Small, but useful for what I needed to pack.

I was smarter about what I packed this time, throwing in clothes that I would be more comfortable in, but I couldn’t forget Jack’s expression when he first saw my shirt, and was even flattered when Nick had whistled when he first saw me this morning. I threw in some of the clothes that I never wear, just in case I felt the strange need to dress up.

I stepped into the living room after fully packing for an extended trip, and, as I saw Jack looking at some of my pictures, I realized that if I wasn’t going to live here for awhile, should I be worrying about paying my rent for the month? I had lost my job and, though I was confident that I had saved enough to see me through a few more months of rent and bills, I still had to buy a dress. Who knew how long I was supposed to stay away from my apartment?

I voiced my thoughts about rent to Jack.

“Don’t worry about that now,” he said, picking up my suitcase. “Nick and I will take care of it.” He winked at me and motioned for me to lead the way out of the apartment.

Just as I was walking out the door, a man stepped in front of me. I hadn’t registered that there was someone standing in my way until I nearly walked into him. He grabbed my shoulders and held me away from him. Looking up at the tall man, I felt my stomach grow cold when I realized that he was a policeman. His uniform was dark blue, as was the standard uniform. He was taller than any man I had ever seen. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he was a basketball player. He wasn’t an unattractive man, but the way he stared down at me almost made him look sinister. His steely blue eyes shot frozen daggers into my body, making my stomach grow even colder.

Jack walked up to me and pulled me out of the man’s grasp.

“Is there a problem, officer?” he asked.

“I have been instructed to escort you two from the premises immediately.” His voice was a low growl. If angry dogs could talk, that is what they would sound like. “The landlord has filed a complaint against you. If you do not come quietly, I will arrest you.”

“A complaint?” I couldn’t help but say. “But we haven’t made a noise or anything.”

“Not just today,” the officer said as he pulled out a notepad from his Batman utility belt. So it wasn’t a real Batman belt, but it seemed like it. There were guns, a Taser, a bottle of pepper spray, a notepad, pens, and a ring of keys. He flipped through the notepad, coming to a page and reading off what was written on it. “She says that the disruptions are on-going. Parties going on all hours of the night. Fights were reported, late on rent, aggressive behavior. She called us and asked us to take you off the premises and forbid you from stepping foot in the building.”

As he read off all the complaints, I could feel my cheeks flush and my body temperature rise. I clenched my fists, and Jack put a hand on my shoulder. How dare she? I was the quietest tenant, never had any guests or even a social life at all. I’ve never even seen the lady since I moved in. I always had to drop my rent off in her mailbox.

“Now, if you please…” I looked up at the officer as he held his hand down the hall, signaling for me to lead.

“What about my stuff?”

“You can have someone come by and pick it up, as long as you’re not here when they do.”

“This isn’t fair,” I found myself saying. “I haven’t done anything to her. I don’t even have any friends to invite over for a party, or enemies that I can fight with. I always pay my rent on time.”

“Shayna,” Jack whispered. I hadn’t realized he leaned so close to me until I heard his voice in my ear. I flinched. “Just go. Nick and I will take care of it later.”

I looked back at him, but he was glaring at the officer. Looking back at the officer, I found him glaring at Jack. I felt a little push on my back, and let my feet take me out of my apartment. I wondered what was going on between handsome policeman and Jack. There had to be someone going on between them, or else they wouldn’t be glaring at each other like they were.
~~
“What the hell is going on?” I finally shouted. Jack was driving my car to Nick’s house, which I had just realized was around the corner from Jack’s house. That would explain why their houses were so alike. We had been in the car, silent since we left the parking lot, but couldn’t hold in my frustration anymore. Jack wasn’t expecting my outburst, and he jumped and swerved the car a little.

I sighed when he calmed down and drove steady again. He glared at me for a split second before turning back to the road.

“You know, if you care so much about your car,” he said, “then don’t scare the driver who might accidentally crash your beloved baby.”

“I’m sorry. I just can’t believe that old moose would do this to me.”

“Officer Stone?” He laughed. “Yeah, I’d call him an old moose, too.”

“Not him, my landlord. Do I come off like that sort of person? Even as a child I’ve never had wild parties. For my birthdays I only ever had two friends, who weren’t even enough friends to call best friends. I’ve never been aggressive in my life. My mom told me that I was the calmest baby ever. I hardly ever cried.”

“How have you lived?” I looked over at him and found him smiling, near laughing, while he drove.

“Is there something going on between you and Officer Stone?”

“Ever since we were kids. It’s one of those arch rival things. Let me apologize in advance if he pops up again.”

“Why?”

“He saw me with you, and he must have thought you were my girlfriend or something, since I’m with you and not with Audra. He’s going to try to steal you from me.”

“But I’m not your girlfriend.” Just the thought of being Jack’s girlfriend made me blush. I had never had a boyfriend before, and now, with the addition of Nick, I suddenly have three men in my life. It was all too much too soon.

Of course, considering our circumstance, having an officer friend might not be such a bad idea. Should one of us get attacked again I could use my womanly powers to convince him to arrest our attacker, assuming we could ever find out who attacked me. He wasn’t old, so it wasn’t Mr. Limp-Dick, like it was with Jack.

We pulled in front of Nick’s house. Before turning off the car, Jack turned to me.

“You should get settled. I’ll call Nick and tell him what happened, and we’ll decide what to do from there.”

I nodded, and he turned off the car and pulled the trunk opener to pop the trunk.
~~
I was in the same room as the night before. It was exactly the way I left it earlier, which wouldn’t surprise me since I was only there a few hours ago. I took the time to unpack and put my things in the empty dresser, in places where I thought I’d be comfortable with for however long I was to be staying there. I was unpacking, but I still wanted to make sure, that should I need to pack again in a hurry, everything was easily grabbed and in places that weren’t so complicated. I wanted to be able to make a quick getaway just in case someone decided to come and attack us in Nick’s house.

When I had finished, I brought my shampoo and conditioner and other bathroom things to the bathroom. I wasn’t as careful with the bathroom things, thinking I wouldn’t be able to take the time to pack these things if we really had to leave in a hurry.

As I was making my way down the stairs, I heard Jack near to yelling. There wasn’t anyone in the house with us, so I figured he must still be on the phone with Nick. Not wanting to interrupt, I halted halfway down the stairs. He wouldn’t have been able to see me unless he actually walked up to the stairs, so I was safe for the time being.

“The bastard broke up with her, because I was with Shayna when he appeared at her door,” Jack was saying. I knew he was talking about the officer. But who was he referring to as the one who the officer broke up? “And now she’ll be up both our asses with pointless jobs. I’m tired of her bossing us around and treating us like we’re her puppy dogs.” He was talking about Audra. Great, another reason for her to hate me. I was the reason her boyfriend broke up with her, not to mention I had the attention of both Nick and Jack. What must this woman be thinking?

Jack hung up, and I heard him fall on the couch with a loud sigh. I finished walking down the stairs, but he didn’t see me. His face was covered with his hands, and, for a moment, I thought he had fallen asleep. He was so still, that, even when I walked up to him, he didn’t budge.

“Jack, you okay?” I put out my hand to nudge him, but he dropped his hands, and gave me a weary smile. He must have been tired, and probably would have fallen asleep if I hadn’t bothered him. Though, I did enjoy the smile, and I smiled back.

“I’m fine,” he said, sitting up. “I’m just dreading going back to work tomorrow. Nick says Audra is piling up the stories for us to report, and it doesn’t look like fun. We could be busy for awhile.”

“But what about Shayna?” I sat next to him, and he shrugged. “It’s okay, though. Honestly, if it’s as bad as sending guys to murder us in our sleep, maybe it’s a good thing we stop being so curious.”

“Maybe. I’m a reporter, though, I’m naturally curious about mysteries that could bring in a big story.”

“Do you think it’s that big?”

He smirked, and was near laughing, but he turned away, putting his arms on his knees and leaning forward a bit. I was confused. What was so funny about what I said? I bit my bottom lip and looked away.

“I’m really worried,” I finally said. Jack stopped laughing and turned to me. “I’m not good with being on someone’s shit list.” He smiled again and pat my back.

“Audra isn’t as bad as Nick and I make her to be. She’s our boss, so she’s forced to be terrible to us. Besides, I can’t see any scenario that would bring the two of you together. You don’t work at the school anymore, so there’s no danger there. Not to mention she hardly ever leaves campus, so you’re not likely to run into her out on the streets. You don’t have to worry about getting in to a cat fight any time soon.”

“How about ever?”

“Maybe not ever. I’m sure you’ll run into each other at some point. But I don’t think she’ll know who you are unless someone points you out, or she sees us together.” He glanced down for a split second, and I wondered what he had looked at. There were so many possibilities of what that glance meant, and each one brought a blush to my cheeks. I looked away, suddenly feeling uncomfortable sitting next to him.

Of course! It was so clear to me. When he turned away and laughed, I had asked if something was big. I had meant the story, but he must have thought of something else. Otherwise, why would he laugh about what I said? God, men sometimes.

And to prove my theory, he grabbed my chin slightly, and turned my head so I was looking at him. He had scooted closer and was now a few inches away from me. Any sudden movements, and we’d be kissing.

“Nick was right,” he whispered. “You’re adorable when you blush.”

My stomach started tingling, and I turned away from him again, trying to think of an excuse for me to go back upstairs and hide in my bedroom. My mind was running a blank, however, and all I could really think of was what Jack could possibly thinking about in that moment.

He grabbed my chin again, but with more force this time, obviously not wanting me to turn away from him again, though it didn’t hurt. My heart began beating faster as he leaned in close, and gently brushed his lips against mine. I thought my stomach would burst into a million butterflies. I leaned onto him, pushing my body onto his, but he held us up. This kiss was different than Nick’s, much more like I thought my first kiss was going to be like. Though Nick’s was spontaneous and exciting, this one was gentle and seemed to be a promise of what was going to happen next. Nick didn’t need to kiss me a certain way to promise happy things, he was upfront about it.

Jack shifted so he was fully on the couch, and gently pushed me down, all without breaking our kiss. I became terrified, suddenly, just like I had been when Nick had pulled me on him the previous night, except Jack was actually kissing me. It felt like, when in this type of situation, Nick and Jack switched personalities. Nick was the timid one, and Jack was the forceful one.

Jack positioned himself between my legs to make us more comfortable, but I couldn’t stop thinking. I didn’t want to do this on Nick’s couch. I didn’t know what I’d be doing, not to mention what he thought I’d be able to do, which would be such a disappointment for him. He held me on the couch with one hand, and the other was slowly making its way under my shirt, slowly moving upwards.

I broke from the kiss to tell him to stop, for my nerves and fears had finally won over and told me to stop, but his phone rang at the same time. He stopped moving his hand and picked up his head, looking towards the ceiling, likely beyond the ceiling.

“Shit,” he whispered as he grabbed his phone and answered it. “Yeah?” His voice was breathy and ragged, a reminder of how far he intended to go. He sat up and let me crawl out from beneath him, and I walked into the kitchen to both give him privacy and give me something to distract myself.

A cold glass of water, perhaps, would calm down my burning insides. Part of me was glad for the interruption, for I really didn’t want to have to tell him to stop. The other part of me was disappointed, for it knew that I wasn’t going to really tell him to stop, and that part of me was looking forward to what was to come.

I grabbed a water bottle from the fridge, and as I opened it, Jack walked in, his face red as a tomato.

“Audra just called. She’s on a rampage and she needs me in the office to help her with a few things. I told her I’d go in, but I don’t want to leave you alone.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“You sure?”

No. Tell the truth, I was terrified of being left on my own. But, if Jack going in to his office would calm down Audra, then maybe her anger toward me would dim down a bit and the beating wouldn’t be as fierce. I promised myself to lock myself in the bathroom until he and Nick returned.

“Can I use your car? Mine is still at my place.”

“Yes, go, take it.” I must have been really desperate to calm down Audra for just letting Jack take my baby without so much as a fussy thought.

Jack walked up to me and gave me a quick kiss. “I’m sorry we had to cut things short.”

I could only nod, not quite sure what else to do. He kissed me again and left me standing alone in the kitchen. I waited five minutes after he left before I even let my body go. I had been standing so still and tense that I was starting to shake. Quickly, without thinking about it, I ran up to my bedroom.
~~
I was in the shower when the boys returned that night. I had been alone all day, and I was just getting ready for bed. I hadn’t heard them or anything, but when I walked into my bedroom to put my dirty clothes in the hamper that Nick let me use, there was dress on the bed with a note and a pair of shoes.

The dress was long, white, and sleeveless. There were brown leaves decorating the fabric, giving the impression they were blowing in the wind. Upon closer inspection, I found there were shiny things scattered throughout. They couldn’t be diamonds, but I somehow knew they were. Before touching anything, I grabbed the note, fear spreading through me, for I thought it was left by someone other than the two men in the house.

I took the liberty of buying you a dress.
Jack told me what almost happened, so you kind of owe me now.
Make sure it fits.

I put the note back on the bed and figured it was safe to touch the dress, but I was still overwhelmed by the possible expense of the dress. I decided to go downstairs to see if Nick was there. I had been smarter in my dress, and had chosen a long shirt with sweat pants. I didn’t think I could handle going through another close call with either of them, so hopefully my choice pajamas turned them off a bit.

When I reached the bottom of the stairs I was grabbed and hoisted into the air over my attacker’s shoulder. I screamed and kicked, and was put down on the couch. I looked up to the face of Nick, and had to grab the nearest object I could find and throw it at him. He laughed at me and tackled me, pinning me under him so we were in the same position Jack and I were in earlier.

“Did you get my present?” he asked.

“Yes, I did, but I don’t need it. It’s too much.”

He sat up, but still had me pinned. “I won’t take ‘No’ for an answer, young lady. I need you to look presentable at the party. Did you think I’d let you walk around in sweatpants?” He smirked as I looked down at my pants. He leaned down and put his face close to mine. “Did you think you looked any less attractive just because you’re wearing sweatpants, my dear?”

“I had hoped.” My voice was shaky and squeaky. I hated it, and I was soon becoming a little tired of always being underneath Nick or Jack.

“That’s okay. I had the pleasure of seeing you in that lovely outfit last night, one of which Jack, apparently, won’t ever get to see. I forgive you.”

“Where is Jack?”

Nick sat up again, frowning. He was obviously a little peeved that I mentioned Jack, and that was okay.

“He’s taking Audra home.”

“In my car?” I sat up as far as he would let me. I was suddenly angry at the thought of Jack letting that woman who wants to kill me ride in my beloved car.

“No, in his own car. I drove your car here, and it’s safely tucked away in the garage.” He put his arms around me and held me up. “Aren’t you impressed with how much loving care I gave to your car? Don’t you want to reward me with a little something?”

“I already owe you for the dress, so put it on my tab.”

“Will do.” He let me go and I pushed away from him. “Are you hungry?”

“Why?”

“Jack’s bringing home some food, so I just thought you might want something to eat before he arrived.” He smirked at me, and I forced myself not to laugh with him. He was cute, but his advances were getting too much. I was suddenly thankful for Jack’s subtleness, but how much could I possibly enjoy Nick’s company if he was as subtle?

“I think that’s actually the wrong question,” I said. “You wouldn’t want me eating anything before Jack brought home dinner, now would you? I might lose my appetite.”

“Maybe just a little nibble then.”

I pushed off him and stood from the couch. He stayed sitting on his knees, smiling up at me. I wasn’t sure I would be able to handle living in a house with two men who wanted the same thing from me. What if they were to get in a fight? I’m sure they wouldn’t like having to share me, one man at a time. I was just getting used to the idea of one man, there would be no way I could handle two at a time. Besides, they didn’t strike me as the kind of man who would willingly be naked in the same bed at the same time, despite there being a woman between them.

I cleared my throat as thoughts rushed through my head. I had to look away from Nick’s fiery gaze, but wasn’t quite sure what else to do. I settled with a safe change of the subject.

“Did you have fun today?” I asked. I was prepared for a long list of complaints about how fierce a taskmaster Audra could be, from what I heard from Jack. Instead, Nick shifted so he was sitting on the couch like a regular person, leaning back with his arms over the back of the couch, his legs spread in that male way that showed they were comfortable.

“I actually had a lot of fun, if you can believe it.”

I chanced sitting next to him, but he didn’t move when I did so, and I figured I was safe for the time being and was able to relax a bit.

“She had sent me to do some research in the computer lab, which was totally bogus since I’m not a researcher. Give me a target and I take pictures, that’s my job. However, when I was in there, I took the liberty to see what I could find on that picture I took of the step.”