March 1, 2010
4:30 p.m.
Evalynne’s House

Ding Dong
The second I heard the ring of the doorbell, my heart skipped a beat and my stomach turned uneasily. He was back. Michael had actually come back like he said he would! Crap, what was I supposed to do now?
“Just wait for him to leave,” Ash’s said, echoing inside my head.
“Ok,” I murmured back. I took a deep breath, trying to focus on the college application I was working on. I knew that I had to go to college next year no matter what since I didn’t go this year, and I wanted to get into a good school.
The doorbell rang a few more times, until finally he gave up. At least I thought he had. But then he began knocking on the door. And soon enough his knocking turned into pounding. “Evalynne! Open up the door!” When I heard this voice call out from my front porch, I realized that it wasn’t Michael’s voice. Shaun was the one who was at my door.
Baffled as to why he was here, I stood up and walked over to answer the door. “Hey, Shaun,” I greeted him.
“Hey,” he replied, his tone urgent. “Can I come in?”
“Yeah, sure,” I stepped aside to let him step inside. “So, what’s up?”
He began to shake his head, pacing back and forth across my living room. “It’s Kristy.” he told me. “I kissed her.”
My eyebrows shot up in surprise, “You kissed her?” I cried.
He came to a halt and turned to face me. “Are you really mad at me now? After all, I did move in with your best friend and then stick my tongue down her throat.”
“Wait, there was tongue involved?” I inquired.
His entire face went red when he realized that he’d accidentally given that information away to me. “I understand if you’re completely disgusted with me and think I’m a perverted player who makes a move on every girl he meets, and—”
“Shaun!” I interrupted him.
“Yeah?” he said, stopping right in the middle of his rambling.
“I’m not mad at you.” I told him.
“Really? Oh. Well that’s good.” He smiled to himself, obviously glad that I didn’t start freaking out on him.
“Honestly, I think it’s good that you like Kristy. She didn’t exactly tell me this, but I’m pretty sure she likes you too.” I assured him with an encouraging grin.
“For real?” he exclaimed, his eyes lighting like a little kid’s on Christmas morning.
I chuckled softly at his animated facial expression. “For real,”
“That’s so great! Now I don’t feel like some pathetic guy with a crush on someone who doesn’t like me back!” And when he said this I felt a pang of hurt inside my chest. Wasn’t I just some pathetic girl with a crush on someone who didn’t like me back? After all, I liked Will, but he loved Val. “Dude, I feel so confident now! So beastly!”
At that I had to laugh. “Beastly?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Yeah, baby!” he replied. “I am beast!”
I grinned and rolled my eyes jokingly. “Oh, you are most definitely beast,” I said sarcastically.
“Don’t be hating on my beastliness,” he remarked teasingly.
I shook my head, still laughing. “Oh, wow,” And as we both stood there laughing, enjoying the moment, the doorbell rang once again, silencing us.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked me.
“It could be Michael. After all, he told me he’d stop by later today.” I reminded him, biting my lip and taking a step away from the door.
“Evalynne, you can’t let him do this to you.” Shaun cried. “Look at this! He’s got you so scared that you don’t even want to answer the door!” He shook his head angrily and marched right up to the front door.
“Shaun, what are you doing?” I demanded, panic coursing through my body.
“I’m going to tell this creeper to stay away from you.” he remarked evenly.
“But Shaun, he’s dangerous!” I exclaimed. The doorbell rang once again and I let out a small, shrill yelp.
“I don’t care. Someone’s got to stand up to him.” Shaun stated. And without another word, he opened up the door.
“Oh, you’re still here.” Michael said when Shaun opened the door. “Are you Evalynne’s boyfriend or something?”
“No, we’re just friends.” I informed him, stepping up beside Shaun.
Michael nodded, “I see.”
“Listen dude,” Shaun began, “is there any particular reason that you keep coming over here?”
“I could ask you the same exact question.” Michael retorted icily.
“I’m Evalynne’s friend.” Shaun told him. “So what’s your excuse?”
“Wait a minute,” Michael snapped. “Are you saying that Evalynne and I aren’t friends? Because that’s what you think, then you couldn’t be more wrong. I am Evalynne’s friend. Right, Evalynne?”
“Um, I’m not so sure we’re friends exactly…I think we’re more of acquaintances.” I replied, trying to choose my words carefully. I didn’t want him going all psycho on me like how he did when I tried lying to him.
He stared at me for a long moment, not saying anything, and I began to wonder if what I’d said had upset him. “Aren’t you going to invite me inside?” he finally said. “It’s rude to make you’re guests stand on your front porch when they come to visit.”
I bit my lip, unsure of what to do. Luckily, Shaun answered for me. “No, she’s not going to invite you inside, because she didn’t invite you to her house. And it’s not rude either. In fact, you’re the one who’s being rude here. You can’t just decide to show up at someone’s house and demand to be let inside their house.”
Michael’s eyes were stone cold as he glared at Shaun. He looked like he wanted to strangle him or something. And I was pretty sure that if they were in a more private area, he would strangle him. After all, this guy had killed a girl before, and was in the process of killing another one. So there wouldn’t be much stopping him from killing other people too, which was really scary to think about.
“Don’t you dare speak to me like that.” Michael spat through clenched teeth. “Got it?” he demanded, narrowing his eyes at Shaun.
“No, Michael, I don’t.” Shaun remarked smugly. “Now please do us all a favor and leave. You aren’t welcome here.”
“I think that’s for Evalynne to decide.” Michael stated, looking over at me, waiting for an answer. But what was I supposed to say? If I told him the truth, he’d get all mad and probably start a plot to murder me. But if I lied, he’d think that he was welcome to come over to my house whenever he felt like it, which I most definitely didn’t want.
I was about to open my mouth and try to come with some kind of explanation as to why I didn’t want him at my house, but Shaun swooped in and saved me just in time. “If Evalynne wanted you at her house, don’t you think she would’ve invited you over?” Shaun shot back matter-of-factly. Michael didn’t respond to this. “Come on, you claim to be a pretty smart guy. Answer the question.” Now Shaun was just taunting him, which wasn’t very smart considering how dangerous Michael was.
“Don’t patronize me.” Michael hissed. “Because the moment you push me overboard, I’ll snap. And once I snap, that’s it. There’s no stopping me once I get angry.”
“What are you going to do?” Shaun scoffed. “Kill me?”
The second I heard those last two words, my heart stopped and a chill ran down my spine. An eerie silence had washed over us, and silently cursed Shaun for being so stupid. Why the hell would he hint at the fact that we knew the truth about Michael? Was he out of his freakin’ mind?
I glanced at Michael, who twitched a bit, his body trembling slightly. Then after a few more moments of silence, he finally spoke up again. “Like I said,” he began, “there’s no stopping me once I get angry.” He might not have said it, but I knew that Michael meant that if Shaun didn’t stop patronizing him, then he would have no problem murdering him.
I could tell that Shaun was trying to act all tough, as if this unspoken threat didn’t faze him one bit, but it was obvious that it did. He swallowed hard and I watched as his Adam’s apple bobbed up and down. Michael must have noticed this too, because ever so slowly, a wicked grin spread across his lips.
“Since I’m not welcome here, I’ll be expecting you to stop by and visit me sometime tomorrow, Evalynne.” Michael said to me. “Any time is fine with me.”
I nodded, barely even moving my head as I did so, but it was a nod nonetheless. I had just agreed to stop by to see Michael tomorrow. What was I thinking? I had to come up with an excuse not to. Hurriedly, I racked my brain for something that sounded at least halfway believable. But before I got a chance to come up with anything, Michael had already turned around on the heel of his Armani loafers and walked away from my house.
“Wow, that guy is a full-out creeper!” Shaun exclaimed once he’d shut the front door. “I knew he was a creeper before, but now it’s like, legit! That guy is freakin’ scary!”
I laughed lightly, loving how Shaun could still be so comical and humorous after being threatened like that. Although, I wasn’t quite sure how he did it. I was shaken up just thinking about Michael, and I hadn’t even been the one that he’d threatened. But apparently it didn’t bother Shaun as much as it bothered me. Unless this was just a cover-up for how terrified he really was.
“Yeah, he definitely is.” I agreed.
“Did you see him twitching? He was tweakin’ hard!”
I couldn’t help but to laugh at that. Shaun was definitely funny—and gutsy. It had to have taken a lot of courage to stand up to Michael like that. I knew I wasn’t nearly as brave as he was. If it were up to me, I never would’ve answered the door for him in the first place. The thought of talking to him was just too petrifying.
When our laughter died down, Shaun grew a bit more serious, “Ok, well I should probably get going now. I have a pretty girl to ask out!”
I grinned widely, “I’ll be expecting and over-excited call from Kristy telling me all about your date sometime tonight.” I told him.
He smiled back at me, “And if it’s ok with you, I’ll stop by tomorrow and help fill you in on what went down too. I’ve heard girls discuss dates with their friends. They usually only talk about how cute the guy looked and how ‘each and every time his eyes met the light, they just seemed to sparkle’.”
“Yeah, that sounds about right.” I replied, chuckling softly.
He nodded, as if to say ‘that’s what I thought’. “I’ll see you tomorrow.” he said.
“See you then,” I replied. Then he left. And as I walked past the dining room, I could’ve sworn I saw a pair of deep, dark, brown eyes peering through the window of Will’s house. Staring right at me.