Page 79 of Diem

I look into the trees, but I can’t see a damn thing. Maybe it was an animal?

Behind me, the lights of Penny’s car turn on and with a gasp, I clutch my chest. How did she get around me?

“Penny,” I grumble. “You scared the shit out of me.”

She doesn’t answer and when I step around to the door, I stare into the empty car. Where the hell is she?

Another twig snaps within the trees and I jump into the car before locking all the doors. What was that?

At this point I’m not too proud to beg and with trembling fingers, I bring up Diem’s number. After five rings, I’m about to hang up when he finally answers. “Yo?“

“D-diem,” I stutter, glancing around wildly.

“Mae?”

“Yeah,” I whisper.

“I can barely hear you. What’s going on? Back for more?” He chuckles at his own joke, but it sails right over my head.

“Diem, shut the fuck up,” I breathe. “I need help. I think I’m….oh shit,” I shriek turning to the driver door.

Penny stands on the other side with a weird look on her face. She taps on the window, and I lean over to unlock the door. As she slides inside, Diem shouts, “Mae? What the fuck is going on? Where are you?”

“What did you see?” I ask and Penny looks at me with wide blinking eyes. “Penny?”

“Mae?” Diem says again and I whisper, “I gotta go.”

After hanging up on him, I drop my phone into my lap and say, “Penny?“

She slowly blinks before focusing on me. Without answering, she turns the car on and backs out of the spot. When she fishtails down the road, I grab the handle over my head, my icy fingers stiff as she enters the freeway.

My phone buzzes in my lap and every time I silence it, it rings again.

When we pull up to the house, I turn to her and say, “What happened?”

“Nothing,” she says.

“Pen—“

“I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”

With a sigh, I climb from the car and watch her go. Once she’s gone, I answer my phone, which is buzzing for the four millionth time. “Yeah?”

“Mae,” Diem growls. “Where the fuck are you?”

“Home.”

“Is that so? Well, how come I’m standing in your room and you’re not here?”

Glancing up, I spy his figure in my window. With a sigh, I say, “I’m coming up.”

“Yeah, you better be, because I’m going to spank that pretty ass.”

∞∞∞

Diem’s standing with a forbidding scowl and his arms crossed when I crawl through my window.

Eyeing him cautiously, I say, “What are you doing here?”

---