Don't Look Behind You (Don't Look Series Book 1) by Emily Kazmierski (summer reads .txt) 📗

Esau catches me under the arm. “Are you okay?” he asks.

All I can manage is to shake my head as I struggle to get my feet under control.

“Don’t worry,” Marisa says. “No one was hurt. Your aunt is fine. Apparently he bought a couple things and left. No one recognized him until one of the employees saw a sketch on the news on their lunch break. Guys, I think those dudes in the suits were from the FBI.” She looks from me to the crowd around her as all of my clubmates start to chatter among themselves.

“Hear that?” Fiona says to me. “Your aunt is fine.”

“I’m kind of freaking out,” Viv says. “My mom stays home alone during the day.”

Marisa shakes her head. “I’m sure she’s fine. Your mom’s single. So far he’s only attacked married couples, right?”

I nearly jump out of my skin when the theater door opens and Mr. Baugh comes in, his face drawn. Miss Crabtree emerges from her office. “All right everyone. We’re ending rehearsal early today. The sheriff’s office has requested that all of you go straight home immediately.”

“Do we have school tomorrow?” someone asks.

“We plan to, yes. For now, everyone just go home. Megan?”

My nose wrinkles at being singled out. What could she possibly have to tell me? I inch over to her, taking my time to avoid stepping on the cables and cords snaking across the theater floor.

“Yes, Miss Crabtree?”

“I got a call from your aunt. She’s been delayed at the store, so she’s asked me to make sure you have a ride home.”

Mr. Baugh puts a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll make sure she gets home safe.” He winks at our advisor. Flushing, she smiles back.

“Okay.... Let me get my stuff.”

“I’ll drive you,” Esau says, stepping closer to the three of us. “I can take her.”

Miss Crabtree starts to shake her head. “Miss Biel was insistent that an adult accompany Megan home.”

“I’m eighteen,” Esau says, squaring his shoulders. His warm fingers enclose mine.

Mr. Baugh looks between Esau’s clenched jaw and the advisor’s worried expression. “How about if I follow them? Will that work?”

Miss Crabtree’s lips pucker, but then she nods.

My legs still feel like putty as I climb into Esau’s truck, dropping my bag at my feet. I stare out the windshield as he closes my door and comes around to the driver side. “Are you okay?” he whispers once the cab is closed. “You’re pretty worried about your aunt, huh?”

Not sure how to answer, I don’t say anything for a long minute. “Aunt Karen. Yes. She’s all I have left. I don’t want to talk about it.”

Esau’s eyes try to meet mine, but I look down at my lap. I’m tired of lying to him, so I don’t elaborate.

Unbidden, my hand rises to run my fingertips over the scar on my cheek.

“Look,” he says, hands gripping the steering wheel. “I wasn’t going to ask what happened before you came to live here. Why you had to move in with your aunt, but Fiona told me—She said you told her your scar was from a car accident. But you told me you were surfing.” He lets the question linger as his eyes flick to my scar.

“I’m sorry I lied.” I don’t elaborate.

“Why did you?”

I shrug, trying to hold myself together, but it feels like I’m fragmenting, like an iceberg drifting out to sea.

“I know what it’s like to miss your parents,” he says quietly, gazing out the window. “I haven’t seen mine—”

“It’s not the same,” I blurt. Anger boils up in me, mixing with the terror, the helplessness I’ve felt since that day. “My parents are dead.”

“Sorry. I’m just. . . wondering why you didn’t tell me. I thought we were becoming something. I thought we understood each other.”

I scoff. He can never understand me, because all I’ve done is lie to him. From day one. Esau has seen only bits and pieces of what remains of me. Somehow, by trying to hide myself, I’ve become a shade of something that draws Esau. But it has to stop. The shadow who has lurked in the corners of my vision for the past six months is looming large, crowding out everything else I thought I had to look forward to. It’s all a blurry mess.

“Let me in, please.”

Hot tears well in my eyes and I swipe at them with my free hand. “Just… take me home, okay?”

With a tense frown, Esau turns the key and pulls out of the parking lot. Mr. Baugh follows us in his car.

Silence hangs between Esau and me the entire drive.

My eyes dart back and forth over the roads. Looking for him. Every second I expect him to jump out in front of the truck, knife in hand. I start at the glimpse of a man with his back turned, but when we pass, it isn’t the one I’m looking for but praying I never again set eyes on.

My mind is spinning. Esau knows I lied about how I got my scar. He knows my parents are dead. How long until he puts all of that together with the fact that I almost fainted when Marisa said the serial killer who haunts me waking or sleeping was spotted in town?

Aunt Karen will be furious if I blow my own cover.

Esau pulls up in front of the old house. Cutting the engine, he turns to me. “Talk to me. Whatever it is, let me help fix it.”

“You can’t. I have to go.” I hop out of his car and jog up the walk without looking back. It’ll be better for Esau if he believes I’m nothing more than a liar. I can’t pretend anymore that what I feel for him is purely physical, so it has to end. It would never have lasted anyway, I argue. A relationship based on lies is doomed to fail.

I’m so absorbed in the darkness of my thoughts that I don’t notice the bouquet of fall flowers on