Cooperation

I honestly thought my morning was going to be a complete bust when the twins showed up, but they actually made it better. I got out of the house and the twins promised me they'd keep their lips sealed. I had a little white lie lined up for Alice. She wouldn't suspect a thing. I took a look at my phone to check the time. 5:54 a.m. What was I going to do in the meantime?

I wandered around for a while until I got to the park. It was empty so I made my way to a picnic table and sat down. I sighed and lugged my bag onto the table. I wanted to call Chloe, but heaven knows she won't answer her phone at this time and she won't be awake until around 6:30. I was still tired so I decided to put my head down.

Suddenly my eyes opened again. I was on the ground and I felt dizzy. I looked up only to see Jaydan standing over me. He was speaking But all I could hear was the ringing in my ears. I looked down at my hand and was horrified to see it covered in blood. I looked back up at Jayden only to realize that he wasn't yelling at me...he was panicking. He'd done something and he was scared. I was scared. I couldn't move, couldn't speak, couldn't think. What the hell was going on?

My eyes flashed open. I checked my phone for the time. 6:00 a.m. How could I have had such a horrifying nightmare and have only been asleep for six minutes? I began to text Chloe, but then the images from my dream began flashing in my head. I couldn't help but gasp when the pain set in.

"Hey. Look who's out of the hospital." I turned around to see Jayden heading over to me. He had the same sadistic smile that he did that day. I quickly stood up and grabbed my bag.

"I don't want any trouble, Jayden." I pretended as if his sudden appearance didn't faze me and began to walk away. Before i'd gotten too far he was right behind me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me into him.

"I didn't say you could leave...did I?" I could feel his grip slowly tightening around my arm. I shook my head no and tried to stay as still as possible. He yanked my arm pulling me a bit closer. I could feel myself shaking with fear and with how close we are i'm guessing he could too. What the hell was I going to do. "Where ya' heading off to in such a hurry, huh? Trying to go hide behind your little girlfriend?" he was so close that his voice echoed in my ears.

"It's not like that at all. She's just a friend and you say it as if..." I trailed off because I was about to say the most absurd thing i'd ever had the misfortune of thinking.

"As if I what!? Say it!" he seemed angry at me for some reason.

"What did I ever do to you!? Why are you doing this to me!?" I hadn't meant to yell at him. What if that made him even angrier? What if he hits me again? I just got out of the hospital because of him.

"Who said you did something? You're just a stand-in. I couldn't hurt the girl, but I can hurt someone she cares about. You just happened to present yourself as her friend, so you-" my phone began to ring. We both sat in silence as my ringtone played out loud. I looked down at the phone in my hand. It was Chloe calling me. I looked back up at Jayden. He did not look happy. I braced myself thinking he'd hit me, but instead, he let go. I was surprised. He stood there silently. We were still standing close to one another. I wanted to run away, but I didn't want him to come after me, so I just answered the phone.

"Hey, why'd you take so long to answer the phone?" I was so relieved to hear her voice that I let out a heavy sigh.

"It's nothing. My mom was yelling at me, sorry. I was heading over to your place-" I looked up to see Jayden shaking his head no. I guess that means i'm going to die. At least I got to talk to my best friend one last time. "but I can't. Something came up. I'll have to see you a bit later."

"What! How come. What came up? Maybe I can help you with it?" she sounded disappointed.

"I'm sorry, that's not possible. We can walk to school together another time." I was trying to make this short so as not to make Jayden even angrier. If I have to die i'd rather he'd do it quickly instead of dragging it out.

"Can you at least tell me what you're doing?" I was about to make up this entire story about why we were never going to see each other instead of 'Next week you'll hear that they found my body in an ally behind a dumpster" but before I could Jayden snatched my phone out of my hand.

"He can't walk to school with you ever again because he'll be going with me from now on. Goodbye Chloe." and then he hung up. My life is terrible. Does he want to take me to school every morning?

"Why did you say that? As if i'm going anywhere with you. You're crazy." he rolled his eyes, grabbed my arm, and began to pull me away. I tried to break free of his grip, but it was no use. I'm doomed. At this point, I would have rathered him to kill me. He dragged me out of the park and across the street to where his car was parked. I refused to get in so he opened the door and forced me in then went around to the driver's seat. Once we were both in the car he sighed and leaned back in his seat.

"We don't have to be at school until 7:30 so let's go somewhere else." I gripped my bag afraid to combat. We were in a car so there wasn't anywhere for me to run off to. He's stronger and faster than I am so even if I managed to run away he'd just catch me and drag me right back. I had no option but to cooperate with him.

"Where would we go other than the school?