It's late, I'm on the bus home. The bus finally arrives at the destination, it's about a kilometre walk to our building. I get off, I'm under dressed for the weather as I expected to get home a few hours earlier. The night is cool, I hug my arms around my body.
My mind is flooded with what happened to Lara. I just prey the guy that attacked her was lying when he said he knew where she lived. With all that in my mind, I almost jump out of my skin when a tall man steps in front of me,
"Sofia!" I recognise the voice,
"Hey George" I greet Nina's boyfriend, relieved, "what are you doing all the way here, don't you have school tomorrow?"
"I do but I still came. Nina doesn't know I'm here, I wanted to surprise her"
"But you have to get back to Winder before morning! Isn't it a three-hour trip?"
"What wouldn't I do for Nina, hey?" he laughs,
"Come, we can get her together"
"No, I want to surprise her. Can you come up with a reason for her to come out?"
"What if she's sleeping?"
"She's not, we were texting just before"
"It's almost one in the morning, what possible reason is there for her to come out?"
"Think of one. Please. I want her to come down and I'll surprise her. She's definitely not expecting me"
"I'll try, but no guarantees. I'll send you a text if she refuses to come out"
"I believe in you" he jokes, I shake my head in mock annoyance, I walk to our building,
"Oh, and Sofia?"
"Yes?"
"It's Nina's birthday soon. I'm telling you this because I'll need some help arranging it, but I plan on taking her on a surprise trip"
"To where?"
"That's where you come in. Over the next few days, you need to sus out where she'd really like to go. Ask her about her dream date and stuff, and then tell me what she says"
"I can do that," I smile at his goofy grin, "now stop being cheesy, I'm going up"
I get into our apartment, Nina's the only one home, she's sitting on the sofa, staring at her phone,
"Where have you been?" she asks when I enter,
"I'll tell you all about it later" I say, not wanting to ruin her mood with Lara's story since George is out there waiting for her, "Oh, no!" I say,
"What?"
"I just realised, I must have dropped my... uh, jacket outside" I say, wincing at my own lie,
"Dropped your jacket?" she asks, frowning,
"Yes, just outside our building"
"Well go get it"
"Can you go?" I ask
"Me?"
"I'm cold"
"Take my coat" she nods towards her coat hanging over the chair,
"I'm tired. We had such a long performance today, my legs are killing me" just to prove my point I walk over to the dining chair and sit down,
"Since when do you of all people find it hard to climb down one flight of stairs?"
"Please Nina? Can you get it for me?" she gets up with a big sigh,
"Can't believe I'm doing this! You're like ten times fitter than me and you're making me walk down in the middle of the night"
"Stop complaining" I joke, "also, take your coat"
"I don't need it"
"You do, it's freezing out there" I grab her coat and pull it over her shoulders, she'll need it if she's going out with George,
"So, your legs suddenly don't hurt, huh?"
"Just go" I push her out, she leaves but not without complaining. I hear her protest all the way down the stairs, and then, moments later she squeals loudly,
"George!" I giggle, imagining her joy at seeing him. She's obsessed with the guy, "I'll get you for this Sofia!" she yells, knowing I can hear her.
I close the door with a smile. For a moment George's antics took my mind off Lara. But now that I'm alone, I become restless. I take a shower. I need to sleep so I can wake up for school tomorrow, but my mind is racing.
I brush my hair and pull on a pair of shorts and a loose t-shirt, ready for bed. As I'm walking from the bathroom to my bedroom, the front door opens. Daniel walks inside, he's wearing a black hoodie, gym bag thrown over one shoulder. Though I'm fully dressed, I somehow feel exposed. When he enters, he looks a little angry, but when our eyes meet, he instantly smiles,
"Going to bed?" he asks. I'm about to respond when I see something that makes my blood run cold. Across his face, on the left cheek, is a long, red gash. Like someone has cut him. Immediately my mind goes to Lara. She said she scratched her attacker. She also said he was tall, well-built, dark eyed, wearing a black hoodie. I take a tiny step backwards, my hand encloses around my bedroom's door knob,
"What happened?" I ask,
"What do you mean?" he asks, visibly confused at my reaction,
"To your face?"
"Oh, this" he runs his hand across the gash, "it's nothing, just a small cut"
It can't be him. I know it's absurd to accuse him of attacking Lara based just on this. But then I can't help but think, what if? He is tall, he is strong, his eyes are dark, his hoodie is black... and he has a cut across his cheek.
"What's wrong?" he asks with a frown, he steps towards me, before he gets a chance to come near me, I get into my room,
"Good night" I say quickly, closing my door in his face.
I lean my back against it, shaken up, listening for sounds. Everything is silent for a few minutes; I wonder what he's doing. When I finally hear the shower running, I feel relieved. I have my answer. It's not him that attacked Lara. I overreacted. If it was him, couldn't he attack me too? Couldn't he break into my room right now, hurt me? But he didn't. We slept under the same roof for days, and he never even looked at Nina or I in a bad way. I need to calm down, breathe. It's not him.
The next morning, I wake up with a headache. Right now, as I'm getting dressed for university, I feel extremely silly for the way I acted in front of Daniel. As I sit in class, I'm thinking of ways to explain my behaviour. Maybe apologise to him? Tell him I was just tired? Once my morning class finishes, I check my phone. I have a message from Lara,
Lara: Meet at cafeteria. Urgent
The word urgent makes me worry. I almost run to the café, she sees me before I see her and walks over to me. She's pale. She grabs my arm and pulls me after her,
"Look" she says and pushes something into my hand, I look down. It's a photo of her in her flat. It's taken from the outside, through the window.
"What's this?" I frown,
"Turn it over" she says, I do as instructed. On the back of the photo, there's a note written with a black texter in large capital letters: THIS PHOTO IS ONE OF MANY
"I found it under my door, this morning" she says, her body is trembling, "it was in an envelope"
"Did you show Elias?" Elias is her brother, he lives with her
"No. He already left by the time I woke up and saw it"
"We have to show the police!"
"I did. I spent the whole morning there. They took the photo off me, scanned it, added it to the report we made yesterday"
"But what will they do?"
"They told me to stay calm. They said it's most likely someone I know playing tricks on me"
"But how could they say that? Who knows who he could be!" I exclaim, shocked,
"They'll be sending patrol cars around my building throughout the night. They told me to stay in public places, avoid walking alone... but apart from that, nothing"
"But this is serious!"
"I don't know what to do," her eyes tear up again, "I'm so scared"
I hug her, shaking my head in anger. I thought the police would do more.
"He knows where I live, Sofia!"
"I know! Maybe you should stay with me?"
"No, it's okay... I'll tell Elias, I'll see what he says"
I entirely miss my next class because we spend the next couple of hours sitting on a bench, talking. Every guy that looks our way is suspicious to me, I try to look for her attacker in everyone. And then Daniel's face pops up in my mind. I know my suspicions are unfounded, but I have to ask,
"Hey, Lara, you know how you scratched his face yesterday?"
"Yes"
"On which cheek? Left or right?"
"Uh... left" she answers. I bite down on my lip. Daniel's cut was on his left too,
"Are you sure?"
"Hundred percent"
"Can you describe his appearance again?"
"I couldn't see his face, but he was very tall"
"Like, how tall? How much taller than me and you for example?"
"A lot taller. Not like most guys, this guy was actually tall, like almost two meters or something"
"And you said you saw his eyes?"
"They were really dark, and mean"
"And he wore a hoodie?"
"Yes"
"It was just dark, or definitely black?"
"Black"
"And his build?"
"I told you, he was really well built. He was really strong too" she shivers, "what do I do Sofia?"
I wish I had an answer for her.
That night as I approach our building, I see the lights are on. I wonder if Nina's home or if it's one of the guys. I climb the set of stairs, and pause, I can hear voices coming from our apartment. It's Phil's voice, he sounds angry. I then hear Daniel's voice too. They're both home and arguing about something. I can't make out their words, and I know I shouldn't, but I move closer to the door, listening,
"So then where were you last night?" Phil asks in anger,
"None of your business!" Daniel responds, also angry,
"None of my business, is it? It was a big tournament! We worked towards it for so long! Tell me, Daniel, at least explain! Why didn't you come? Where were you last night?"
"If I wanted someone to nag at me, I'd get a wife!" Daniel responds, "get out of my way, Phil!"
I hear sharp steps coming towards the door, I step back, just as I do the door opens, Daniel steps out. Our eyes meet. He pauses for the briefest moment, like he'd like to say something to me, but then changes his mind and only nods in greeting, steps around me and walks off, down the stairs.
I enter our apartment, Phil is pacing the living room, when he sees me, he pauses,
"Hey Sofia," he greets, "you must have heard us arguing?"
"A little as I was coming in" I say,
"Sorry! It's not an impression I want to give you and Nina!"
"Don't worry, we all have bad days sometime" I say, "sorry if I'm nosy, but I couldn't help but overhear, did you say Daniel missed something last night?"
"Yes, a boxing match. A big one." Phil shakes his head, "He was training for it for months, and then he doesn't turn up! I have no idea where he was or what he did that was more important than the match!" his phone rings, he looks down at the screen, "sorry Sofia, got to go. I'll see you soon!" he says, picks up his phone and leaves the apartment.
My head is pounding. What I heard just then is feeding my previously formed doubts. Daniel wasn't at his match the night Lara was attacked. It could all be a coincidence, yes, but what if it's one coincidence too many? What if he's the attacker? What if I'm sharing a house with a psychopath?
When Nina comes home, I sit her down and tell her everything. Including my fear that the attacker may be Daniel. She agrees that there are a lot of coincidences, but also points out that they're most likely just that. Coincidences. Regardless, she promises to be on alert.