Dead Pretty - Samantha Towle Page 0,7
safer, not being around me. Not that I would tell him this. He’d just say I was thinking crazy.
“I’m sorry if I upset you,” I say softly.
“You didn’t. I just don’t like talking about … them.”
And that’s why I ask, why I bring them up. Because I don’t think it’s healthy, not to talk about things.
But still, I say, “I know. I’m sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry and tell me what you’ve been up to this week. And don’t give me the same nothing answer that you give me every week.”
“Actually, I—” I’m about to tell him about the cat and then stop. Because that conversation would lead to Jack, and for some reason, I really don’t want to tell him about Jack.
My brother is overprotective of me. He always has been. I think that’s why he finds it hard, not knowing where I am.
I know if I tell him about Jack, he’ll worry.
Not that there is anything to worry about.
I think.
“You what?” he prompts.
I quickly change gears. “I went to the grocery store yesterday. They had those Caramel Apple Pops that we were obsessed with when we were kids. You remember them?”
“Yeah, I do,” he says.
I can hear the smile in his voice, and I’m glad that I put it there even if it was due to a lie.
It is scary to me just how quickly I pulled that lie about Caramel Apple Pops out of the air. I don’t even know if you can still buy them, to be honest. But I won’t overthink it.
“So, yeah, I grabbed a handful of them. They’re gone already.” I laugh. “And I checked out a new book from work, so I’ve been reading that. What else? Oh, I started a new show on Netflix called Stranger Things.”
Okay, so I got curious about it after Jack said how good it was.
It’s not been too scary so far. But I am only two episodes in.
Plenty of time to change my mind on it.
“I’ve never watched it,” Cole tells me.
“Not your kind of thing, to be fair.”
Cole is more of a movie watcher, usually action films rather than TV shows. I love a good binge-watch of a new television show.
“So, have you made any new friends?” he asks me.
That comes out of left field. Cole knows my reason for coming out here was to be alone. That making friends is not part of my plan.
I’m trying to not freak out that he asked the question. But it’s weird that I have only recently just met Jack and then Cole asks me that.
Not that Jack and I are friends.
Far from it.
Either it’s a coincidence or my brother is psychic.
I don’t believe in coincidences, so I’m going with psychic. He always does seem to know my business.
“Nope.” I let the P pop. I’m not fessing up to him, psychic or not. “You know that I’m not here to make friends.”
“I know. I just wondered if that had changed. You can’t stay away from people forever, Audrey.”
“Yes, I can.”
He sighs. “Isn’t there anyone at work who you talk with?”
Not more than a few sentences.
“Nope. That’s the beauty of working in a library. It’s silent. No one talks.”
“Audrey …”
“And anyway, I don’t need anyone, except for my big brother.”
There’s silence, and if I couldn’t hear him breathing, I would think the line had been cut.
“You know I love you, right?”
I smile. “Love you too, Cole. I’m going to head off now. A hot bath is calling my name.”
“Call me in a week.”
It’s not a request.
I roll my eyes, not that he can see, and say, “Yes, Drill Sergeant.”
Cole laughs. We say our good-byes, and I hang up the phone.
I go straight to the bathroom and put the tub plug in. After turning the hot and cold taps on, I pour some bubble bath in.
I wander into my bedroom, tossing my cell onto the bed. I lift my top, ready to take it off, when I hear a noise that stops me dead in my tracks.
Slowly, I lower my top back down and strain my ears to listen over the sound of the running taps.
It’s like … a tapping … no, a scratching noise.
Cold slivers down my spine.
My head swivels, my eyes looking around my bedroom and my ears trying to locate the source of the sound.
But it’s hard when my pulse is pounding loudly along with my heart.
I reach out, grabbing my cell off the bed. Pressing the off button to bring up the emergency call service.
It sounds like it’s