Page 44 of Texting Dr. Stalker

Me:What? Like you gave me a single letter? X isn’t a name.

X:It’s the only one you’re getting. Come on…I need something to call you by. Choose one. Anything.

My mind went blank as I stared at the sky. My eyes dropped to Alexander’s roofline. No lights in his windows. No sign of him awake or Jim or Josephine or any of the other neighbours on Ember Drive.

I was all alone, yet for the first time in forever, I felt safe.

I also had no idea what name to give him. I didn’t want to use my real name as whatever we were doing wasn’t real. He was a ghost who could use a cell phone, and I was the human he watched from the other side.

I like that idea.

Peering at the flowers around the garden, I tried on names for size. Orchid, Peony, Daisy, or Lavender.

Nope…

Following the patch of pansies, my gaze snagged on the three fence palings that’d always hung loose and offered a passageway from this garden to the Norths’ next door.

A memory exploded. A moment I’d completely forgotten.

Carefully adding purple to the mane of my unicorn in my Mythical Creatures colouring book, I gasped as a teenage boy wriggled through the fence.

“Oi!” I sat up from where I’d been lying on my stomach in the grass. “What are you doing?”

Alexander pushed up his black-framed glasses as his cheeks tinged red. “Oh, it’s you. I didn’t know you were visiting.” His nose wrinkled. “How many years has it been, and you still look like a weed.”

“Who’re you calling a weed?”

“Oh wow, not any smarter too.” He smirked. “You’d get on with my sisters.”

I huffed and crossed my arms, my pencil digging into my side. “What are you doing sneaking about?”

“I smelled cookies.” Shooting me a grin, he marched straight to the back deck as if his grandparents owned this house as well as next doors. “Melody won’t mind if I steal a few.”

“I do. Those are mine. She baked them for me!” I shot to my feet and dashed in front of him. “Go away.”

Rocking backward on his heels so he didn’t crash into me, he scowled and tugged my left pigtail. “Move out of the way, Lori.”

“Lori?” My chin tipped even higher as I swatted his hand off my hair. “My name is Sailor. Not Lori.” I stomped my foot for good measure.

“No, it’s not. I hear Rory calling you Lori all the time.

“He says Little Lor, you dingbat, and he’s the only one allowed to call me that.”

He burst out laughing. “Dingbat?”

I fought a giggle. “Suits you.”

“Yeah, well. Lori suits you more. Now out of my way, Lori, I have cookies to steal.”

The past dissolved as I shook my head. How had I not remembered that? How many other interactions had I had with the boy next door and forgotten? And why did my chest squeeze just a little too tightly because I could no longer even think about Alexander without feeling the thwack of Milton’s fist or the horror of his hands pawing between my legs.

“How many times have you fucked the neighbour while I’ve been gone—”

Swallowing hard, I shoved aside Milton’s hiss and typed:Lori. Call me Lori.

He replied quickly, as if he’d been watching me trip into my thoughts, waiting patiently, keeping me safe from monsters in the dark.

X:I’ve always liked the name Lori.

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