Chapter 5

The next few days flew by with tests in almost all of my classes and projects due in algebra and language arts. Danny and I hadn’t fought again and only talked much after third hour and after lunch. He still sat with Selina and me at lunch, but I could tell he didn’t like that Adam sat with us. Every now and then I could catch Adam giving Danny a glare when he didn’t think anyone was looking, but I didn’t know why because Adam and I had hardly ever even talked.

Danny had followed all of my rules and we didn’t touch unless I gave him a hug or a kiss on the cheek. I knew he wasn’t really acting like himself, but I wasn’t going to say anything yet and ruin this simple plateau of no fighting or disagreeing. A fight was bound to happen by the end of the week since we had never been in full agreement even before things got complicated, and I was going to be perfectly fine and even better when he admitted that he couldn’t keep going like this. Then I could say ‘I told you so’ to Selina and get on with my life.

Well, that’s what I thought was going to happen, but I guess I didn’t know Danny as well as I thought. But then again we never really talked about relationships with each other because he was always ragging on me about how I never really went out on dates, and I never told him the full story about my dad; just that he died, but practically everyone in my grade knew that much. Really, Selina was the only one who knew everything that had happened.

“What are you doing tonight?” Danny asked as he caught up to me when I was walking home. Selina had to retake some physics test and I didn’t really feel like waiting around for her.

“I don’t know, I’ll have to check my schedule,” I said with a smile, but he didn’t return it and I could tell that another fight was going to start. Was there going to be a fight every time we walked home from school? “What’s wrong now?”

“I don’t like your rules.” I rolled my eyes and slipped my hand into his just to make him happy, but he still didn’t smile.

“Tell me what’s bothering you.”

“I haven’t been able to kiss you all week, it’s killing me,” he said and smiled down at me, but there was something wrong with the smile; it faltered and I saw right through it.

“Liar.” He sighed and swung our arms back. I was almost offended that he thought he could fool me that easily.

“Go to dinner with me tonight.”

“Why?” I said jokingly and his real smile finally came. We started walking up to my front porch, and he startled me by picking me up and setting me down on the railing of my front porch. I didn’t mind because now he had to look up to me instead of it being the other way around.

“Because I said so,” he said with a smile and reached in for a kiss but I pulled back and put my finger to his lips.

“Nope, gotta come up with something other than that,” I said with a laugh.

“Because you’re beautiful and I would love for the chance to go on a date with you?”

I leaned forward like I was going to kiss him and right before our lips touched whispered, “Nope.” and then pulled back again. I saw his eyes lighten in surprise and then a little flash of heat.

“Because I want you to be my girlfriend, and I’ll kidnap you and take you to dinner if you refuse,” he said and picked me back up and I squealed before he put his lips to mine and drew me under in a kiss before I could say “nope” again.

“Pick me up at seven,” I said when he put me back down on the ground and rushed into my house before he could say anything else. The door bell rang and I rolled my eyes, turned back around and opened the door. Before I could say anything his lips were on mine again for a brief kiss.

“Okay, I will. But, next time you shut the door on me, there will be consequences,” he said with a devilish smile, and I just rolled my eyes.

“Am I allowed to close the door now?” I asked and he nodded before walking away. I shut the door and started my round of phone calls.


At seven o’clock exactly, the door bell rang and I silently cursed at his being exactly on time. I still hadn’t quite figured out what I was going to wear, my freshly curled hair was flattening already, and my eye shadow was smudged. Never again was I going to try and look nice for him. I threw on a nice blouse and my best-fitting shorts, and went downstairs to save him from my mother. They were standing at the bottom of the stairs when I walked down. He was just staring at me when I reached the bottom, and I could feel my cheeks reddening.

“Hi, ready to go?” I asked to break the silence.

“Y-yeah. Let’s go,’ he said with a smile and gestured for me to lead the way to the door. He was looking pretty stunning as well, but I never let it show. He was wearing dark pants with a black t-shirt that had a cool skeleton on the front. His dark hair was messy, and the dark colors made his green eyes stick out more than usual.

“Where are we going?” I asked when we were both in his truck.

“It’s a surprise,” he said with a smile.

“I don’t like surprises though,” I said with a serious expression. He leaned over and briefly kissed me on the lips. “What was that for?”

“My way of saying that you look amazing. And that look you gave me made it impossible for me not to kiss you.” I rolled my eyes as he backed out of my drive way.

We drove for awhile on the main roads, but I didn’t really pay attention to where we were going. I trusted him enough to not take me to some back alleyway to murder me. I don’t exactly know why, but I did. After awhile we pulled up to the drive-in movies, and he actually did surprise me.

When we had started to become friends our freshman year in high school, we always played the question game. The one where one person asks a question over text, and then the other person answered and got to ask the next question. Well one of his questions had been about what I thought the perfect first date would be, and I told him dinner and a drive-in movie. I just couldn’t believe that he had even remembered.

“You remembered,” I said with a smile.

“Of course I remember; why wouldn’t I?”

“Because it was like a year ago, and most people don’t remember little details like that.” I turned my face from his and looked out the window. He didn’t say anything back at first because he had to pay for us to get in. He drove in silence until we came up to one of the big screens. He backed into one of the parking spots that was the perfect distance away from the screen and got out of the truck. I watched him walk over to my side of the truck, open my door, grab my hand, and pull me out to stand in front of him. He was so confusing! How was I supposed to know why he was always mad at me? It’s not like I can read his mind! Although things would be way easier if I could.

“Why are you mad now?” I asked looking up into his eyes.

“I’m not mad; I’m trying to find the right words to say this without seeming like a creep.”

“What, do you watch me go to sleep every night?” I said sarcastically, but dropped my smile when I saw how serious he was. I leaned back against the truck, and he took a little step closer to me, but there was still a lot of space in between us.

“I remember that because I’ve wanted to take you on this date ever since you told me that. And I’ve wanted to do this since we first talked.” He closed the space between us and placed his lips on mine. His lips were soft and gentle until he deepened the kiss. I reached my hands up into his hair, and he did the same with my hair. I finally pulled away for breath and put my face in the crook of his neck and breathed in his fresh scent.

“You’ve done that before.” I said after awhile.

“What?”

“You said you’ve wanted to do that since we first talked, but you’ve kissed me before.”

“Not like that, and now I can do it whenever I want.”

“Says who?” I said as I tried to hide my smile.

“Addie, come on. You’re telling me you didn’t feel anything different?” He pulled my face back so he could look at me, and I started laughing.

“Wow, you’re pretty sure of yourself huh? But I still never said you can do that whenever you want.” I said with another laugh.

“You never disagreed,” he said with a big grin and I just shrugged. He leaned down and kissed me lightly on the lips.
He smiled again and put his arm on my shoulders before guiding us to the snack bar. We got pop corn and a milkshake before going back to the truck. He grabbed blankets and pillows from the back seat and laid them out in the truck bed.

“Don’t be getting any ideas because nothing is going to happen,” I said when he offered his hand to pull me up.

“Just shut up and get up here,” he said with a smile, “We can figure what happens later.” I dropped my hand and just looked up at him.

“I’m not getting up there with you until I hear the answer I want to hear.”

“Ok, ok, ok! I’ll try and keep my hands to myself,” he said with the same smile.

“Danny!”

“Oh, come on Addie. How long have you known me?” I sighed and climbed up into the truck bed with him. As soon as I was on my feet again, his lips were on mine once again.

“What happened to keeping your hands to yourself?” I asked between kisses. He held both hands up, and I rolled my eyes.

“I never said anything about my lips,” he said with a laugh and leaned back.

“Can we actually watch the movie? Or were you planning on just making out the whole time?”

“What’s wrong with that?” he asked with a fake shocked expression.

“Because I plan on actually watching the movie.” I turned away from him and made myself comfortable on the blankets and pillows. He sighed and lay down next to me. I was excited when I realized we were watching Thor, and after it started he pulled my upper body closer to him so that my head was on his chest. I didn’t move, just to make him happy, and he started running his hands through my hair.

“Why do you like me?” I asked after awhile, and he was silent for a couple of seconds before replying.

“Because you’re beautiful, and I can always get lost in your eyes. Your laugh is intoxicating and I can never get enough of it, and I love your sense of humor. You’re smart, and I can never guess what you’re going to do next; you keep me on my toes.” He kissed the top of my head, and I tilted my head up so his lips could touch mine again.

“Thank you, I needed to hear that.” I said and he kissed my head again. We watched the rest of the movie with little talk. The night was turning out to be pretty amazing. After the movie was over, we stopped at an In-N-Out Burger to get something to eat, and he drove me home again. He walked me to my door and we kissed again before I stepped inside.

I sighed against the door, but when I walked forward hands came over my mouth and my arms were grabbed tightly. I tried screaming and kicking, but nothing worked and I doubted that anybody would be able to hear my screams. I refused to give up though.

When the hands grabbing my arms tried to move me, I bit into the hand that was over my mouth, and caused the hand to drop from my mouth.

“Mom! Danny! Danny, come back! Help! Somebody help me!” I screamed as loud as I possibly could and kept struggling against whoever held me. “Danny!” I screamed before I blacked out.



I woke up to darkness with my arms and legs tied up so I couldn’t move. I had some kind of gag in my mouth making it hard to breathe, but they luckily didn’t cover up my eyes so once some light was let into the room I would at least be able to see what was going on around me.

I tried to sit up since I was fully on the ground; it was painful and hard to do, but I managed after awhile and tried to think of what exactly to do next. First I tried to think of anyone I had recently made angry or anyone my mom had told me about. I mean I didn’t think that any ordinary high school student would be capable of kidnapping and breaking and entering because that had to be how they got into my house in the first place.

I didn’t remember pissing anybody off, and my mom hadn’t told me about any customers that had yelled at her recently so I crossed that idea off the list. The next option I thought of was some kind of ransom or something having to do with money. Well that really wasn’t smart: my family was pretty much broke because I had two sisters at universities and my dad was dead, so they’d end up killing me before they got any good profit. So, it had to be for some other reason, but I had already thought of all of the reasonable reasons of kidnapping.

What about my mom and Danny? Had they taken her too, and had Danny heard me and tried to help? I should’ve invited him inside with me just for a little while. I don’t know what he would’ve done, but at least if it was only one person who had grabbed me then I would’ve had a better chance. Or maybe they wouldn’t have done anything just stayed hidden and then attack both of us when we weren’t expecting it.

Ok, so maybe I was being a little selfish, but at least I wouldn’t be all by myself. I just wished that they had left my mom and my sisters out of this. My family had already gone through so much; I didn’t how much more we all could take.

I wonder where my captors had taken me. Did they have like a black car parked outside of my house? Did Danny know what type of car my mom drove? What would my mom think if they hadn’t taken her? If these people kill me, she’ll be crushed! My dad, and then me. Oh God, I’m sorry for talking rudely to you the other day, but for my mom please keep me alive. If you don’t, then I’m afraid that she’ll be joining us up there very soon after me.

I was pulled out of my thoughts when light flooded my vision and two men in black masks walked in and just stared at me. They were talking in a different language that sounded kind of Chinese and wearing all black. From where I was sitting they looked medium height, and then a really tall one walked in the room and the other two stopped talking. The tall one then said something to the other two, which sounded like a command by the tone of his voice, and one of them came and untied the thing around my mouth.

“Whoever you frikin are, you should better have left my mom out of this and at home. And don’t be expecting to get any ransom money cause my father is dead and I have two sisters in college! Kind of means we’re broke, so you should just kill me now because you won’t be getting any ransom money! And-” I started rambling on before a familiar voice interrupted me.

“Shut up, Adalyn.”

“James? What the hell is wrong with you! You sick b******! I can’t believe you would be capable of frikin kidnapping me! You’re a psycho!” Then I started screaming hoping that if we weren’t in the middle of nowhere then someone would hopefully hear me. One of the men started walking towards me and I leaned back on my hands and kicked him as I hard as I could in his bad spot. He leaned forward in pain and I kicked him again in the face before falling backwards because my hands weren’t very supportive when they were tied together. The next thing I knew somebody was straddling my stomach and then James’ face loomed over mine. I started screaming again and he put duck-tape over my mouth and slapped me across the face.

“First of all, Addie, there is nothing wrong with me,” I started mumbling into the tape at this statement and he only smiled, “You wouldn’t be in this situation if you had only been a bit nicer to me,” I tried to roll over so I didn’t have to look at his face anymore but was unsuccessful since he was sitting on me. I sighed and gave up trying to fight him because he had the advantage and would always have it as long as I was tied up. “We left your mother safe at your home, though now I think we should have brought her just to get you to shut up.” I struggled against him some more, but he didn’t budge. “You ready for me to take off the duck-tape now?” I quickly shook my head and started screaming when I saw his evil smile, but he ripped it off anyway and a tear slipped down my cheek at the sting of it. He rubbed his finger across my lips and I tried to bite him but he pulled his hand back in time. He held his hand up like he was going to slap me again and I flinched and was relieved to know that he held himself back.

“Ok, this is ridiculous. Over a frikin date really? And can you get off of me? It’s kind of hard to breathe with a three hundred pound man is on top of you.” He laughed at me, but didn’t move.
“It’s quite funny how you exaggerate everything way out of proportion.” He leaned forward like he was going to kiss me and I quickly turned my head to the side and he kissed my cheek before getting up off of me. “Bourey, Phirun, Nhean, Munny, Chanthou, ??? ???????? ???? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????.” James said looking at his four men and my eyes just widened.

“What the hell did you tell them to do?” I asked in panic as the five men walked over to me. The way James had said their names was weird too. He said it with an eastern accent that I had never really heard him talk in before. The men all picked me up, including the one I had kicked, and took me out to another room and set me down on a couch. I was actually kind of relieved since my hands were aching from James’ and my weight having been on them. The five men disappeared and I relaxed just a little hoping that was all James had told them. “Who are you?”
“My real name is Jamaaludeen Jayavarman Paramesvara. And I am the King of Cambodia.” I stared at him standing in front of me for a few seconds before breaking out in laughter. It was the funniest thing I had heard in a long time and I almost rolled off of the couch I was laughing so hard. So maybe some hysterics were added into the mix of laughter, but there was no way that he was a frikin King!
“Ok, ok, ok, I have to admit that was a good one. Now really, why did you kidnap me?” I said once I was done laughing. I had to hand it to him, that was a pretty good joke to pull over on someone you had just kidnapped.
“Because I am making you my queen,” I started laughing again before he could go on and I noticed that he was talking with the weird accent again. I saw anger seep into his eyes, and I tried to stop laughing but it was practically impossible. He stepped towards me and slapped me across the face, but I still couldn’t stop laughing. Maybe it was dehydration or hunger or just plain hysterics, but I was still laughing when he stormed away in anger.