REVENGE (Rewriting)

Sleepover

      With the nagging stress of school and the constant pressure to find my parents a night out with my friends was long overdue. We were going to hang out and then go back to Alex's house for a sleepover. I wore a white v-neck, black skinny jeans, a half denim jacket-hoodie, and some converse. We met at Alex's to drop our stuff off and then we headed out to go to a thrift store. There were some really cute clothes there and I was so close to buying this gray sweater and a red skirt, but I opted for a mint skirt instead. We walked to the movie theater and bought tickets to a random movie---big mistake. It was new romance movie, and it so agonizingly cliche and cheesy. But we sat in the back making fun of the movie, plus I stuffed my face with extra buttery popcorn and cookie dough bits.  Afterwards we headed over to some random restaurant to grab some pizza.

"Hi my name is Talia, I'll be your server tonight. What would you guys like to drink?" the waitress asks.

"Lemonade."

"Water is fine."

"Water."

"Coke."

"Sprite."

"Okay, those will be out soon."

      We have these amazing chili fries for an appetizer and then two large pizzas---cheese and pepperoni. Trust me when I say those pizzas disappeared faster than all the bobby pins I've ever owned.

"That was so good, I'm so full," I lean back in my chair.

"Ugh, same," Francis grins and stretches.

     We pay the bill and walk around town. Most of the stores are closed, but the streets are illuminated by the streets lights. Seeing that a convenient store was open, we ducked in. The little bell above the door dinged as we walked in. The store was one rectangular room, slightly bigger than a bedroom. There was a wall of refrigerators followed by narrow isles and overcrowded shelves. A short, pudgy guy sat on a stool behind the counter reading a newspaper. He grunted to acknowledge us and then went back to his paper. We picked a six pack of mountain dew, some ramen, and some weird type of candy. On the way out I grabbed altoids. While my friends waited by the door I threw down a ten. The man never spoke to us aside from telling us the price. He handed me a stack of singles and some change. I thanked him and then joined my friends. As we were walking back and joking around I put the change back when I noticed a piece of green paper with a note written: A man followed you, he's hiding in the bushes.

    I tentatively glance in the direction of the bushes and see slight movement, if I had blinked, I would have missed it. As we continued to walked he slowly began to move. I nudge Alex and she understands not to say anything so as not to cause them to panic.

"Uh guys, my dad was expecting us home fifteen minutes ago," Alex fibs, "He's gonna flip out."

     We run back to Alex's place, and since we took a pretty confusing short cut, in the dark, in a group, sprinting at full speed, I doubt that that guy was able to follow us. Besides Alex's parents and her older brother are home. Once we arrived at the door breathless, we headed down to the basement.

"Sorry guys, my dad didn't want us home. A guy was following us and he seemed sketchy," Alex slips in nonchalantly.

"Oh geez, thanks Alex," Francis responds.

"That's so creepy, I didn't see him," Sydney laughs.

"Yeah thanks Alex," I add and Sam agrees.

     We make the ramen and settle down to watch some random movie. Suddenly Sydney's phone dings and she picks checks to see who it is.

"Guys, Tim just texted me!" (she has had a crush on him since seventh grade).

"What did he say?"

"He asked if I was doing anything during spring break? What should I say?"

"Show that you're really interested, but not too interested."

"How do I do that?"

"Just say...uh...not much, why?"

"Yeah but you don't want to sound like you're not doing anything. You don't want to sound boring."

"So what should I say?"

"Uh, just chillin'"

"Okay...he responded!"

"WHAT DID HE SAY?"

"He asked if I wanted to hang out."

     And that's what we did for the next hour or so. Turns out, they're going on a movie date on Thursday. Somewhere around 4 AM everyone fell asleep, except me. I got up and heated up some of the left over ramen. It was super spicy and in typical Asian fashion, I was the only one who could take the heat. As I was slurping some of the noodles, I heard something outside. With my bowl of ramen in one hand and chop sticks in the other, I tiptoed outside. All the noodles were gone and all that was left was the broth, still steaming hot. I hear someone approaching and on instinct I throw the broth in the face of the masked attacker. He writhes in pain and runs off.

*******

     My brothers didn't come home because of some special training, but they skyped and texted a lot asking about any further developments in the case. I told them what I could, but not everything since they weren't working the case and I didn't want to risk this information leaking. I ran a lot at the track to stay in shape for track season and I saw Jonny a lot. We would run together. On Monday when I returned to school, I noticed that someone had red marks and burn around their eyes. Their eyes were bright red, but only around the eyes like a red, peeling panda...like from the ramen.

And guess who it was?

Charlie.

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A/N: Sorry the chapters have been shorter recently, I've been a little busy. There may or may not be an update next week.