Loving Annabelle

by Priscilla Melinda Visser

  Chapter Eleven

  “How are you doing?” Summer looks up at me and there is no real emotion on her face to read. I sit down on her bed and wait for her to say something. “I don’t really know how to feel about all of this…” She says and I take deep breath knowing that this must be really hard for her to talk about. She looks at me and then she touches her stomach. “I don’t know if I should tell Peter… I’m thinking about having an abortion” She says and my heart starts pounding hard in my chest. I want to scream to her that that is not her only option and that the baby didn’t ask to be here. I wanted to scream to her that she was a murderer and that I hated her for even considering it. I look at her and take her hand. “Why?” I ask and she looks at me shocked. “What?” She asks and I know that this was not what she expected me to say. “Why are you considering having an abortion?” I ask and try to keep my feelings at bay. I know fighting with her about this would only make her feel stronger about the abortion and that was not what I wanted. “I… I don’t know… I don’t think there is any other way… I mean having a baby would just make things complicated and I have so much I want to do and Peter… Oh God he is going to leave me and say that I’m trying to trap him…” She says and gets up from the bed and walks around the room. Fear makes you do crazy things and that was what she was feeling. “How do you know all these things? Did Peter say that he didn’t want children?” I ask and she looks at me hard. “No we have never talk about things like that” She says and sits down at her dresser. “We barely talk about anything really; the future and life after school. We never talk about things like marriage or living together. I guess it’s not because we don’t want to talk about it, we just don’t…” She says and I wait for her to start talking again. “I don’t know how to feel really… This is a big shock to me and having a baby right now… Oh God how am I going to do it all” She says I see something in her eyes that wasn’t there before.

  “You have all of us Summer… You will never be alone” I say and she looks at me and I know what it is. Hope. She looks at me and smiles. “You will always have us. We love you more than anyone in this world will.” I say and get up from the bed and walk over to where she is sitting. I see the tears glisten in her eyes and I know that this is the hardest thing in the world she could ever go through. “Whatever you decide to do babe… Just know that I will always be here for you” I say and pull her and into my arms. She holds me close and lets out a big sigh. “Thank you Belle” She says and we standing holding each other tight. “Something happened to you… I was expecting you to jump down my throat and tell me what shitty person I was, but this… This person you are right now… I like her” Summer says and then quickly covers up her last statement. “Not that I didn’t like you before… But you have to admit that you were kind of a bitch” She says and I pull agree face and we both laugh. “Shit is that the time…” I say and look down at my watch. It’s almost six and I need to get to my date with James. Okay it wasn’t a date but anything that is time bound is a date I guess. “Where are you going?” She asks and wipes her tears away. “I have to meet James at the Neelsie so we can start on our assignment” I say and grab my bag. She looks at me shocked and we hug one last time. “I will chat to you later… Love ya!” I say and Summer smiles at me. I dash out of her room and fly down the stairs. I get into my car and rush to campus.

  I drive and wonder if he was going to be late. Something about him told me that he was a guy who takes punctuality seriously. I drive into the parking lot and look around. I get out and look at my watch it was a couple of minutes before six and I walk inside quickly. I look around the table to see if I can find him but I don’t see him and feel a bit agitated. I look at my watch again and stand looking around. I take out my phone to see if he might have sent me a message but nothing. I go to one of the shops and buy myself a coffee and head to one of the tables. I sit and take out the pages with the stuff I had written down the night before and start reading through it. “You are seriously the most beautiful girl I had ever seen” I feel my entire body freeze as I feel his breath on the back of my neck and the words softly in my ear. I let out a little gasp from the freight and turn my head quickly and look into his beautiful blue eyes. “I’m sorry I’m late…I was just standing there watching you for a second” He says and takes the seat next to me and I’m still dumbstruck. My mind is trying to understand the words he was saying. “Uhm… That is so weird” I says when I can finally get something out and turn back to my coffee. I see him smile and I feel stupid. I look at him and the amusement on his face makes me angry. “You know what I really don’t know what your deal is and what you are trying to do with this sudden interest and remarks, but I really don’t appreciate it. I’m not here looking for attention or to be showered with compliments or whatever it is your thinking you’re going to achieve… So here is my part of the paper why don’t you read through it and then send me an email on what your thoughts are on it. This whole meeting face to face thing is not going to work for me” I say and put the papers down in front of him and gets ready to leave. He grabs my arm and holds me in place. His eyes are serious. “Sit down…” He says and looks at me hard. “Sit down Annabelle” He says and I feel his blue eyes looking right into my soul. “Can you for one second stop acting like everything is about you? Stop acting like everyone is trying to attack you or hurt you. Stop acting like everyone is stupid and stop acting like you know everything and everyone. You don’t know me and right now you’re telling me that you’re not going to take the time get to know me either… Now the real question is why… Why are you running Annabelle?” He speaks through clenched teeth not wanting everyone around us to hear what we are talking about or draw attention us. “If it’s about what I said than please tell me what about what I had said made you think that I have ulterior motive… The fact I said you are the most beautiful girl I had ever seen… Well that to me is the truth and if you agree with me or not doesn’t matter because that is how I feel and there is nothing you can do about it… Is it the fact that I was standing watching you for a second ravelling on your beauty for my own pleasure? That again is nothing you can do about it. I loved the fact that for a second you were out here looking for me waiting for me…And even if it wasn’t romantic I liked the thought” He says and looks at me hard. I can’t fathom what I was hearing. “Now I think you’re afraid of spending time with me because you might end up liking me too…” He says and I hate that only one statement was right and that is the only thing that I can respond on. I look at him trying to find my composer. “Well I think you’re confused and your break up is clouding your judgement and that is why I’m leaving…I’m not going to put myself in a position to get hurt by being your rebound girl. So me running has always been for my own good. I know you’re lonely right now and need someone to give all your attention too, but I’m not that girl…” I say and get up again. “I’m nobody’s second choice.” I say and get ready to leave. “You’re not in a good space right now and I will disregard everything you had said because you are still very much in love with your ex and I’m the only girl in your view right now because of this assignment. Us seeing each other is only going to cloud your judgment more… So I would appreciate it if we can communicate via email as of today” I say and he looks at me hard. I see him swallow hard and then he gets up. “You have always been the most beautiful girl in the world to me… And you always will be… But if this is what you want then I understand and I respect that completely. I know this all looks like I’m crazy and…” I look at him as he searches for the words to completely his sentence. “Like a complete Romeo…” I say and he frown thinking about it for a second. “Yeah you could say that…” I say and I shake my head at him. “I’m going and I will wait for your email” I say and he grabs my hand. Our eyes lock and then he smiles. “It was nice… Thinking about you in that way for a second and you have always been my first choice everyone else is second” He says and I feel my cheeks heating up. “Stay… Let
’s talk a bit” He says and takes my hands and holds it tightly. I can’t breath I feel flustered and my mouth goes dry. His eyes are so beautiful and his touch is so sincere I can’t find the words to protest. “I don’t think it’s a good idea… Really it’s not a good idea” I say and pull my hands free. “Why… We don’t have to talk about anything personal… We can talk about random stuff…” He says and I look at him hard. “I don’t know any random stuff…” I say and he smiles at me softly. “Humour me…” He says and I know he wasn’t going to let this go. I sit back down and sigh hard. “Okay than I would rather talk about our assignment if we are going to spend time talking” I say and take the papers back from him and he presses his lips together into a tight smile. “Sure…I’m all ears” He says and takes out his note book and waits for me to start. I take a deep breath and then we start our discussion about everything I wrote down. Time flies by and before we knew it the Neelsie was closing and I needed to get home. I see my phone flashing it was my mother. “Hey… I’m just finishing up… Will be there in few minutes” I say and then I hang up. I start packing up my things and I see James looking at me smiling. “I have to tell you that I really didn’t expect this. For someone who has never been in love you sure got a different way of seeing things” I hear him say and my stomach twist. If he only knew that a week ago my take of Romeo and Juliet was completely different than last night. “Well my mother is a writer as you know… And she gave me some pointers” I lie and hope that he believes me and he does. He gives me an accepting look and then he laughs. “For a second there I really thought that you were going to walk out on me” He says and I feel guilty for sometimes being so stubborn. “Well… You have caught me at a good time” I say and I take a deep breath. “Caught?” He says and looks at me questioning. “Yeah” I say and grab my bag and start walking toward the exit. He follows quickly on my heels. “What does that mean?” He says and frowns as we walk out of the building. “Well let’s just say I’m reassessing my life and making some much and very overdue changes… And one of them is to try and let people in” I say and he looks at me wide eyed. “Really?” He says and I see a sparkle in his eyes. “Yeah…” I say as we reach my car. He holds the door open for me and smiles. “I will see you tomorrow” He says and closes the door and I wave to him goodbye. I reverse out of the parking lot and smile at him as I drive away. Oh God… I might just have done the worse thing in the world. I might just have given him hope to whatever it is he has in his mind about me about us. I will have to find a way to set things right. I pull up to our house and open the gate. I drive inside and get out. Something catches my eye from across the street. I look up and over to where the movement is coming from and see someone standing under the street light looking into the direction of our house. I feel chill running down my spine and walk to the back of my car to take out my bag. I look up and see the person had gone. I take out the bag and then I see it standing there again. I see it coming closer walking towards our house. Shit! I didn’t close the gate. I press the button and I see the gate starting to move. The figure starts walking faster and I’m frozen stiff. I watch the gate close slowly and my heart starts pounding hard in my chest. Move Annabelle. Yell Annabelle. My mind starts scolding at me but I’m frozen in place. I see the gate close and then he stands there at the gate looking at me. He starts shaking the gate and I drop my bag with freight. I feel the tears gripping at my heart and my hands start shaking. Then he stops and takes out something out of inside his jacket. I anticipate the worse. But it’s a rose. A long stem red rose. He holds it out to me and I don’t know if I should take it or not. I hear the front door open and then I glance over to see who it was. I see my father coming out and walking towards me. I look over to the gate and see that the figure had gone but the long stem rose was lying on the paving inside the front yard. I feel frozen and I feel my father’s hand on my shoulder. I’m brought back to life but my eyes are still focused on the rose. My father looks over at the rose too and then at me. “He was standing there looking at me. He brought me the rose” I say and point at the rose on the paving. “He was here?” My father says and looks worried. He runs to the gate to try and see if he was still out there, but he sees no-one. “He knows where I live… His watching me” I say as my father returns to me and pulls me into his arms. “We need to inform the police so that they can do something about this” he says and holds me as we walk inside the house. I feel lost and dazed. “Hi…I thought you forgot you had a house” I hear my mother say but soon her face turns to worry. “What’s wrong?” She says as she walks to me and looks at me hard. “He was here outside; looking at me. Watching me” I say and she glances over at my father and I see the worry in her eyes. “What? He was here” She says and my father nods. “He left me a rose” I say and point to the door. “We have to call the police… They need to stop this person before he hurts her” She says and walks over to the phone and dials the number. Moments later the police are at our door. I sit in the lounge and wait. “Miss Spencer… Tell us what happened” The inspector says and waits for me to start. “I got home and started taking my stuff out of my car when I saw someone standing under the street light down the road. When I looked again it was gone. I continued taking out my things when I saw it again.” I say and frown thinking hard, trying not to leave anything out. “Then I saw it moving towards me. That was when I realized that I hadn’t closed the gate and I pressed the button quickly. I saw him coming walking faster and faster” I say and I feel my heart raise again like it did moments earlier. I tried to still my shaking hands on my lap. “The gate closed in time and then he shook the gate trying to get it open but it was shut… Then he took out the rose… He held it out to me and I wasn’t sure what to do” I say and see the inspector shift in his seat. “What did he look like?” He asks and I try to remember. “He wore a mask… A black one” I say and he writes it down. “What else can you remember?” He asks and I try hard to remember something else. “He wore everything black… But his hands were white” I say as I remember him holding out the rose to me. “He didn’t wear any gloves?” The inspector asks. “No he wore gloves but his wrists were showing…” I say and close my eyes again. “Nothing else?” The inspector asks. “He did not say anything to you?” He asks and waits for me to respond “No” I say in return. “Do you have any idea who would want to hurt you and why?” He asks and I feel the tears welling up in my eyes. “No…” I say and allow the tears to roll over my face. “Well this isn’t much to go on but we will try and see what we can find. I’m not going to promise anything since this description fit almost all males in this town. I would suggest that you be careful and alert us as soon as you see anything out of the ordinary” He says and gets up. I see my mother step forward. “Wait that’s it? You’re not going to appoint someone who is going to look after her?” My mother says and the police sigh. “Mrs Spencer… We have nothing on this guy but a rose in your front yard. We are not even sure if his intention were to hurt your daughter. So we can’t appoint body guards just like that” He says and I see my mother smouldering with anger. “Well…” She wants to continue her assault but my father steps in. “We understand inspector. We will get into contact with you if we need any further assistance” He says and I see my mother looking at him like he had just done the worse thing in the world. “Good evening then. We will be in contact if there are any more leads” He says and walks to the front door with my father following. We hear them talking as they leave and I see mother looking over at me angry. “They are all so fucking useless…He had to attack you first before they would do anything. I mean they are supposed to serve and protect but only when you are already dead do they do their jobs” She says and I’m not sure is she was talking to me or just to herself. I get up from the couch and walk to the stairs. I hear my father come back in and walks to the kitchen where my mother was still standing and I hear them getting into a argument over what the police can and cannot do. I walk into my room and look around to see if th
ere was anything out of place. Everything still looks the way I had left it moments before but the paranoia inside me had taken root. I know see the notification light on my phone flashing and I walk over to see what it could be. It was a text. Hey… It was James. I roll my eyes and don’t feel like engaging into any form of conversation with him at all. I walk to my bathroom and turn the shower on. I look at myself in the mirror. My face still puffy from all the crying and the worry and anxiety were forming thin lines on my forehead. Why was this happening to me? I undress and get into the shower. I wash quickly as it feels like someone was watching me and dress with the same haste. I see the notification light on my phone and grab it again.