The Corner Store

Chapter 14- He has the attention span of a squirrel on crack..

We took her inside, and locked all the doors and windows. She was out cold, her face filled with healed and healing bruises. I got her an ice pack, and tried my best to not hurt her. She looked pretty bad.

"Dude what the hell? Who did this?" Asked Cooper, as we closed the room door. We did our best to tend to her wounds and we took her to my bed.

"I don't know dude, this is scary. Do you think we should call the police?"

"I don't know man. Whoever did this could come back for her and kill her."

"Then what should we do Cooper? This is serious. What if they come for all of us?"

We just looked at each other, completely dumbfounded, before he spoke again.

"Did you get your phone? Did you manage to find out when she actually sent that message. Maybe that could be our first lead."

Smart.

"Oh, right. I did. Let me see... what the hell." This is scary.

It unlocked without my fingerprint.

"What Soph, don't scare me."

I showed him my phone. Completely wiped clean of anything. Completely brand new. Absolutely not how I left it.

"What's wrong with it? It looks good. Also why don't you have any apps on there? It just solidifies what Landon said about you being a grandma." How can one person laugh for so long at their own joke.

"Cooper this is serious!" I smacked  his shoulders to center back his attention. I swear he has the attention span of a squirrel on crack sometimes. "There were over 25 apps on there and all our conversations and my phone logs. It has all been erased. I sure as hell didn't do that."

"What is she up against? Do you think it's people her dad worked with? Remember how powerful he was? Maybe it had something to do with that."

"Let's just wait for her to wake up, and we'll find out. Do you need to go anywhere? Want me to make you some lunch?"

"Nah, I'll go home and get my study materials and I'll come back with lunch. You need to rest. And let's not tell Landon and Axel about it yet, in case Lara didn't want anyone else to know."

"Okay, sounds like a plan. I'll text you if anything changes."

"Okay, deal."

I went back to my room and sat next to her, just to make sure she was still breathing - which she was, thank God. Flashbacks of seeing my own family on the floor hit me like a ton of bricks. She looked so broken, and vulnerable lying there.

Since I was at the hospital for the past three days, that meant that nobody was supposed to be in the house. I turned on the flashlight on my phone and looked around. My desk was the exact way I left it; laptop out, papers scattered, calendar still with a marker on top of it. So why would someone go through the trouble of erasing my phone, but they wouldn't take anything else? Nothing else seemed out of place, so what was the deal?

It took me a minute, but I got there. They weren't coming for me. For the first time, the danger wasn't for me. I just happened to exist in the same time-space, the minor head injury I sustained was a just an unfortunate accident and I wasn't targeted. My phone was deleted so it wouldn't show us texting at that time. I let out a breath I never even knew I was holding. That frees up a lot of headspace I could use to study and to make sure Lara gets better. I took my books and my laptop with me outside, made sure she was asleep one more time, then I turned around and sat in the living room. Whatever she got going on, she'll tell us when she is up.