Suppressed (Suppressed Saga) (6 page)

Chapter 4

I got up early the next morning and made coffee in our old beat up coffee pot that Ashley brought from home. Our dorm room was one of the newer ones that had recently been built. Luckily upper classmen got the first pick and we were able to move out of the musty, moldy dorm room we had last year. The whole room was covered in dark oak and the beds were wrought iron. The only thing I wished we had was our own bathrooms; we didn’t have that much luck though.

Ashley sat up quickly in the bed. “What time is it?”

“
Seven thirty.” I said slowly.

“
Oh,” She gradually leaned back in the bed and I heard her start to snore again. Yeah, she was definitely off her rocker.

I moved around the room carefully so I wouldn’t wake her up again. I knew she had to be awake at least by quarter after eight. I started to get ready and pack up my lime green school bag I carried my books in. My first class was at eight thirty so before I walked out of the room I threw a pen at Ashley to finally get her up. She sat up quickly and squint her sleepy eyes at me.

“
Time to get up?” she asked.

“
Yeah, I’ll see you later on.”

I left and made my way out of the dorm and into the quad. Image incorporating was my first class and I tried my hardest to seem interested but just wasn’t feeling it today. I caught myself twirling my pen in and out of my hoop earrings and thinking about Seth. It had been eight months since my last relationship so I had forgotten what it was like to be in one.

Several classes later I was still crabby. I had forty five minutes till my last class started so I walked out to the campus café to get another coffee hoping that would lift me up a little.

I was walking around the massive water fountain sipping my hot coffee when I felt a hand grasp tightly around my upper arm.

“
What the –“

I looked over my shoulder and saw Chris staring at me with wild eyes. My stomach dropped and I felt my face start to get red.

“
I saw you last night with that guy. Who was he?”

I ripped my arm from his hand and knew if I talked my voice would come out shaky and inaudible. I was never one to be scared of anybody but I knew when Chris held this look in his eyes that he wasn’t in his right mind.

“
I saw you with him. Don’t you think that’s a little too soon to be moving on from what we had?”

I swallowed harshly, “Chris, we broke up last May. That was eight months ago.”

His hand smacked back on my arm rather hard and he grasped it tighter than before. I suddenly felt nauseous. I used to always see stories on TV about people having stalkers, how crazy they acted and the sick things they did. I never thought it would happen to me. Over the past eight months I had been dealing with this psycho. Every time I thought he had given up he always came back and did something else even creepier.

“
Do you think that guy will ever love you like I did, will ever make you feel like I did?”

I cringed feeling even more nauseous at his words. “Chris –“

I stopped mid sentence when I saw a large hand go to Chris’ shoulder and squeeze hard. My eyes went up the arm to Eric’s face.

“
Is there a problem?” Eric asked. His jaw was clenched tight and his eyes seemed to get brighter like they did the other night at the party.

“
No,” Chris said in almost a whisper; I could tell he was fighting the pain in his shoulder.

“
Then I think you need to leave Cam alone. If you come near her again I’ll make sure you’re never able to grab her or anyone else like that again.”

My mouth dropped open slightly at hearing the venom in his voice. He was being dead serious.

Chris didn’t respond as he let go and threw me an unpleasant glare before sauntering away.

Eric watched Chris walk out of the quad and into the nearest building.

“
If he comes near you again I want you to tell me.” He said bringing his eyes my way.

I turned and looked at him, suddenly remembering what he said to Chris. I smacked his arm lightly, “Why did you threaten him like that?”

“
You’re going to take up for that crazy person?” he said jerking his thumb behind him in disbelief.

“
No, I’m saying what if he tries to get you in trouble for threatening him. You could get arrested all because of him saying something to me.”

“
I’m not just going to sit there and watch him grab you like that. I may be an asshole but I’m not that common.”

I shook my head and looked away from him.

“
You want to head out of here, go back to the house. I’m sure your boy toy will be there.” He said with a grin.

“
I don’t know…” It definitely sounded tempting. After the day I’ve had it might be relaxing. Then again it was the beginning of the semester and I shouldn’t miss class so soon.

Eric lifted his hand jingling the keys, “Come on. You know you want to. I’ll let you drive.”

That was enough for me to hear. I snatched the keys from his hands and stomped off towards the beautiful black Mustang that was calling my name.

I lifted my hair into a pony tail before turning the key in the ignition and hearing the car purr alive. Eric leaned back in the seat and lit up a cigarette as I pealed out of the parking lot. His hands jerked up to the ceiling in surprise, “We aren’t drag racing. You burn up my clutch and you’ll be paying for a new one.”

I cut my eyes over at him and smiled. I don’t know why but I felt a little different, freer. I was never one to skip out on the day but suddenly it didn’t seem as horrible.

The picture that was in the visor the night before came to mind. When I slowed down to a red light I acted as if I was looking at myself in the mirror and flipped down the visor. There was nothing there though, the picture was gone.

“
The lights green princess.” Eric said pointing ahead.

“
Don’t call me princess.”

I noticed him shift slightly in his seat and he turned to look at me. “So what was up with Chris?”

I tried focusing more on the road rather than answering his question. He tapped me on the elbow lightly, “Don’t be evasive. Tell me what’s up.”

“
Chris is my ex. I dated him for like four months last year. He got weird and obsessive so I broke up with him, or at least I tried to. At first I didn’t take it as serious but then he got worse, calling me, sending me stuff. He showed up at my dorm the beginning of October acting like nothing had changed, like we were still dating. It freaked me out. My brother finally found out about it and said something to him. He stopped for a while but I guess it’s started again.”

He let out a laugh, “I guess you just have that effect on people, making them crazy.”

I sighed and shook my head. “I broke up with him last May. It’s been almost a year and he’s still at it.”

“
He comes near you again I want you to tell me.” He said, repeating his words from earlier.

I looked over at him; he was looking straight ahead with a murderous glare in his eyes.

“
Don’t worry about it. He’s my problem not yours. I think I can handle it.”

I didn’t want anyone else to deal with my baggage, especially Eric. He’d already helped me out of a jam once before, I’d hate to see what he would ask for in return if he had to help me again.

“
I know you don’t like me, and I still don’t know why exactly, but I just want you to know that if you ever need anything don’t be afraid to ask.”

I didn’t say anything to his comment as I pulled into the driveway and parked next to Seth’s grey truck. Leaving all of my stuff in the car I got out and headed in behind Eric.

“
Bro! Your woman’s here!” Eric called out into the house.

“
His woman? Are you a heathen or something?”

Eric rolled his eyes before going into the kitchen and I followed him in, sitting down at the table. A few second later Seth came up behind me and wrapped his arm around me kissing my temple. “What are you doing here?”

“
Bad day. Eric talked me into leaving and coming here.”

“
What happened?” he asked sitting down.

Eric leaned back against the counter and took a swig of a soda he had cracked open. He nodded for me to tell Seth about Chris but I was afraid to tell him in fear I was going to scare him away.

Seth looked back and forth between us. “Cameron, tell me what happened.” There was a little strictness in his tone, and he had used my full first name, something I had never heard him do.

I started telling him the same thing I told Eric on the way here and then proceeded to tell him about what happened at school. He looked a little pissed by the time I was finished.

“
What’s his name?”

“
Chris”

“
Chris?”

“
Powell”

He nodded looking off in the distance. I didn’t know what he was thinking but I really wanted to know. I moved my glance over to Eric and he was watching Seth intently.

“
You’re not going to do anything stupid are you?” I asked Seth.

“
What?” he looked back at me. “No, No. Just let Eric or me know if he bothers you again.”

I agreed grudgingly before getting up and going into the living room. Seth yelled to me he was going to take a shower and that he’d be right out.

There were four remotes sitting in front of me and I had no idea which one did what. I picked them all up and tried to turn on the TV as Eric came and sat beside me.

“
Are we remote control illiterate?”

“
Shut up” I said chunking one at him. He swatted it away and grabbed the one that was in my left hand. With a push of a button the TV was on.

He held up the one I had just thrown at him, “This one changes the channel.”

I grabbed it and started to flip through the channels as Eric got up and disappeared out the front door. How could someone who looked like he did be so annoying? I stopped flipping when I saw something that caught my eye and turned the volume up a little. It was the news and there was a picture of a girl on TV with her name written underneath:
Lauren Steinman
. I started to listen intently to what the news anchor said.

“
Last night a body was found in the alley between Twenty-fifth and March. The body has been identified as Lauren Steinman, twenty-three, of Boston. There is no word on what the exact cause of death was but investigators are saying that foul play was involved. If you have any information on this case please call the hotline number.”

I looked back at the picture of Lauren Steinman; she had wavy blonde hair framed around her heart shaped faced and dark brown eyes. She was actually very pretty now that I got to see a real photo of her. A noise sounded out beside me and I quickly changed the channel and looked over at Eric who had his head popped in the door.

My nerves were on edge and I was suddenly paranoid that he knew what I was doing.

“
You left your bag in my car so I put it in Seth’s truck.”

At first I had no idea what he was talking about but then everything suddenly came back to me and I nodded nonchalantly. I let out a breath of relief as his head vanished back out the door.

“
You ready?” Seth said from the hall.

“
Yeah” I said absentmindedly. My mind was back on Lauren. I know it was crazy to think but I suddenly thought of Eric and wondered if he had something to do with this. Yeah he was an ass and really aggravated me but I didn’t think he was a murderer. Then again I didn’t think Chris would be a crazy stalker and look where that got me.

“
Where are we going?” I asked as we made our way to the truck. Secretly I prayed we weren’t going out to eat.

“
I’ll tell you on the way.” He got in and reached across the seat to pull me up. This was the first time he hadn’t lifted me in. It really didn’t bother me though.