Page 116 of Obsession

Was I really? Was he going to do the same thing to me? I had just been given another reason to stay as far away from him as possible, but part of me blamed myself for that becoming impossible. I knew it was bad, and yet I couldn’t help it.

I still had his photo in my pocket, which I had folded and hidden before I went to get the girls.

Not only had I not stayed away, but I had also just risked my freedom to protect him.

And yet I didn’t regret it. I thought Harris was capable of a lot of things, but something told me he had nothing to do with the boy’s death. There was no reason. It was stupid, because Zac should have been dead by now if Harris had been crazy enough to throw guys off buildings just for daring to help to me.

Zac hadn’t gotten away unscathed, but a beating didn’t compare to murder.

The rest of the day was a girl’s day of trying to forget about Harris and everything to do with him, and although it wasn’t exactly my style to laugh and joke while eating ice cream and watching a stupid comedy, it felt good.

The hardest part was not thinking about Tristan Reece’s case, about the risks I’d taken with my words. After all, Ihadn’t given a written, signed statement, so he couldn’t hold me responsible for what I’d said in my house.

I was glad that my doll was quiet, while Candice’s girl hadn’t cried a bit, which was annoying as hell. At that moment, Kristen’s electronic heir had gone nuts. And it was really amusing to watch her curse Jay’s entire spiky ancestry, because he had left her alone with changing diaper. That thing really stank. Stupidest project I’ve ever participated in, as if I was planning on having a baby anytime soon and didn’t have enough time to figure out how to change a diaper.

But if the plan was to scare us into thinking twice about having unprotected sex, it worked. Kristen was already thinking about finding a permanent birth control method.

I felt like I was in an episode of “16 and Pregnant”,” except I was eighteen and the baby’s daddy couldn’t resist redheads.

I imagined a tall girl with a flawless silhouette and fiery red hair, that S painted onto her neck, her lips begging to be kissed by Harris.

I gritted my teeth and shook my head.Stop thinking about him.

For fuck’s sake, STOP THINKING ABOUT HIM.

“Okay, Max Woltson or Richard Benner?” Kristen asked with a mischievous smile as she showed us the catalog with the football team photos.

Boys’ talk was a must at a girls’ party.

“Max,” Candice replied as she bit her lip.

“I don’t like his face, he seems diabolical,” I argued, getting into the game.

Kristen looked at me with narrowed eyes and I quickly understood why and stuck my tongue out at her. I had the audacity to talk about diabolical guys.

We were interrupted in our debate by my doll, that started screaming again.

I could hardly stop myself from screaming.

“I won’t last two days with this thing,” I said, taking the bottle and shoving it in its mouth, but it wouldn’t shut up.

I checked the diaper…. it was dry.

“Why won’t it shut up?” I yelled, shaking the doll a few times.

“Stop that,” Candice quickly jumped up, took the doll out of my hands, and started to cradle it.

The minutes passed and the plastic baby just wouldn’t shut up and I was on the verge of throwing it out the window. Luckily my dad wasn’t home, otherwise he would have panicked if he had heard a baby crying in my room.

“I think you need to scan your fingerprint again,” Kristen suggested, and I did as she said, praying it would work.

I pressed my finger on it more than once, but this time it was useless. It kept crying, and I was already imagining my grade, considering my baby cried eight minutes out of ten.

“Maybe it needs the father’s fingerprint,” Candice suggested, and it hit me like a hammer.

“No way. You’re not bringing Stone here,” Kristen took the doll from my hand and put her finger on the button.

“That’s it, I’m calling him,” I gave in after the thing had been screaming for minutes.

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