I decide that I need to sneak into my room without him seeing me. I have a feeling once Daniel eats his food, he'll make his way to the bathroom. If I stay here, I'll have nowhere to go. As I turn my head, I whack it hard against the towel rail. It makes a loud banging sound. Not the smartest thing to do, but my reaction is to quickly step into the bathroom and close the door.
I hear Daniel walking towards the bathroom. My heart pounds in my chest, before he gets close enough, I lock the bathroom door from the inside. Daniel goes straight for the handle, it turns but the door doesn't open,
"Who's in there?" he asks, the threat in his voice sends shivers down my spine. He probably thinks I'm an intruder or something. But I'm too frazzled to think straight, so I don't respond. The knob turns violently once again, I look around for a weapon, a shampoo bottle is the first thing I grasp.
"Who's in there?" he asks, his voice louder than before. I open my mouth to say something, but no sound comes out. When I don't respond, he speaks again,
"I'm breaking in!"
No, no, no! I can't let him do that! But it's too late, in less than a second, there's a loud crashing noise and the door flies open, with a gasp I take a few steps back, away from the door. I lift the shampoo bottle up defensively. Daniel stops abruptly as soon as he sees me,
"Sofia?" he asks, his eyes roam down my body. And I know what he's thinking. Standing barefoot before him is a fifty-five-kilo girl dressed in nothing but black tights and an aqua crop top, ready to fight off an almost two-meter-tall boxer with a half-deflated shampoo bottle. Honestly, I think I'd laugh if my situation wasn't so dire,
"Go... leave" I say, nodding towards the broken door,
"Why are you hiding in here?" he frowns, and of all the thigs he could look at, his questioning eyes land right on the half-raised shampoo bottle,
"I'm not" I say, slightly lowering it, "I... I was in the bathroom when you came"
"And what? You thought it was better to hide then come out like a normal person?"
"I wasn't hiding"
"Yeah right, I heard you shut the door as soon as I walked towards the bathroom"
"Because I wanted privacy"
"If you wanted privacy you should have told me it was you in the bathroom. I wouldn't have broken the damn door"
"You didn't give me a chance to tell you"
"That's a lie! I asked five times who's in there! I thought you were a thief or something!" as he speaks, he waves his hand in frustration. Impulsively, I move further back and the shampoo bottle goes back up in defence. Daniel pauses, realising his actions are intimidating. He steps back, but doesn't hide the annoyance in his voice,
"If we're going to live under the same roof, this has to change" he says, "you need to stop acting like I'm the devil" when I don't respond, he continues, sounding even more frustrated,
"You're very full of yourself, Sofia. You think because you're a hot girl everyone is out to get you. Guess what? You don't affect me. I don't even find you that attractive. Especially not with that attitude" with those final words he turns and walks off.
It's silly to feel hurt at his words. I mean, if he's innocent in all this, I fully deserve everything he throws at me. But I can't lie, it stings. Mostly because when I first met him, I thought he was the most attractive man I ever laid my eyes on. I place the shampoo bottle back and inspect the broken door.
I stand in the bathroom a while longer, unsure of what to do. I know if he's not at fault, I should talk to him, explain myself, apologise. But I can't. I'm not ready to talk to him yet. Not while we're alone. I also can't just stand in the bathroom forever. I square my shoulders and decide to make my way to my room.
Daniel is sitting by the dining table. I ignore him and he ignores me as I walk right past to my room, shutting the door. A few minutes later I hear Daniel go to the bathroom. I hope he's fixing the door handle. But no, I immediately hear water running. He's showering with a broken door. Obviously, no humility there. I sit on my bed and close my eyes, leaning my head against the back wall. I need to stop behaving like this. I need to speak to him, find out if he is or isn't to blame.
Deciding to get out of the house before he's done showering, I quickly start preparing myself for the performance tonight. I start brushing my hair when the doorbell rings.
Since Daniel is in the shower, I exit my room to open the front door. There's no one on the other side. I look left and right in the hallway. No one. Weird. I close the door. Only then I notice a white envelope on the ground, pushed beneath the front door. An uneasy feeling comes over me. I lean down to pick the envelope up. My name is on it, capital black letters. My mind goes to Lara and the letters she's been getting. My fingers slightly tremble as I open the flap, inside is a single photo. I feel tears forming in my eyes, my trembling fingers grip the photo and pull it out. When I see it, my vision goes black, I catch myself against the door.
"What is it?" Daniel's voice is right behind me, I turn towards him quickly, leaning my back against the door. He's shirtless. Hard muscles cover every inch of his tanned body. My eyes are glued to his chest as he comes closer. I flatten myself against the door.
"What's wrong?" he asks with a frown, but I can't find my voice. The tears that have gathered in my eyes before are now spilling down my face, I drop the empty envelope from my left hand to the ground, and raise my hand up defensively. Warding him off. The other hand is clutching the photo. He takes a step forward nonetheless,
"What are you holding?" his voice is surprisingly gentle. Not at all like the way he spoke to me earlier.
When I remain silent, he pulls the photo I'm gripping from my hand, looks at it. It's a photo of me walking home last night. It's dark in the photo, street lights barely illuminating me. I was followed last night. The stalker knows where I live. Now I have a full understanding of how Lara must have felt. Helpless. Alone.
"Who took this?" Daniel asks, and flips the photo over. There are words written there but I haven't had a chance to read them yet, Daniel does it for me, "you were always my first pick" he reads,
"Who took it?" he asks again, flipping the photo back to look at it once more,
"I... I don't know" I say, my voice so dry it hurts,
"You don't know?" he frowns, "you don't know who sent it?" I shake my head; he squats down and picks up the fallen envelope from the ground, straightening up he looks it over. I already know there's no address on it. Just my name,
"Someone is actually stalking you?" he sounds surprised, his eyes search mine questioningly. I swear, he actually looks concerned.
"Phil told me about it, but I thought you were making it up for attention..." Daniel stares at the photo a moment longer, then raises his eyes back at me like something just dawned on him, "wait, you actually think it's me? You think I'm the stalker?"
"N-no" I mutter,
"It's not me" he says,
"And Lara?" I ask,
"Who's Lara?"
"You- you don't know her?"
"No"
"She gets photos like this too"
"She's your friend?" I nod,
"Why do you think I have anything to do with it?" he asks, I don't respond. Not straight away, anyway. He waits, then, getting impatient shakes his head, "did she tell you it's me? I don't even know the girl!"
"The guy following her is tall, and... and well-built" I respond. Since we started talking, I made sure to keep my eyes on his face, and not on his body. But still, I am very aware of his physique, and in his case well-built is an understatement,
"Am I the only tall, well-built guy in the city?" he asks, repeating the words sardonically,
"No, but... but her stalker got close to her. Attacked her. She scratched him"
"Scratched him?"
"Yes"
"How does that make me the stalker?"
"She scratched him across his left cheek" I mutter. There's a long moment of silence. He's thinking my words through, then he laughs humourlessly,
"That's why you asked me where I got the cut from?"
"Yes, it happened that night"
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because... I thought it was you"
"What were you looking for in my room?"
"Photos"
"Of you?"
"No, of Lara. Her stalker said he had more photos of her"
"And you went to my room thinking you'll find them?"
"I wanted to be sure it wasn't you"
"When you didn't find them, you still accused me"
"I found a gun"
"Just because I have a gun doesn't make me some stalker"
"I know... but..."
"But?"
"Guns are illegal"
The way Daniel is looking at me, I can tell he thinks I'm mentally unstable. He wants to say something, but stops himself, shaking his head,
"Come, Sofia, you need to sit down, you're trembling" he says, and I realise he's right. My whole body is trembling, even my legs feel wobbly. He gestures towards the sofa and steps back for me to pass. When I sit down, he brings me a glass of water. Our eyes meet. He's the guy I was accusing of stalking me just moments before. Yet he's acting nice now. What if it's all just an act?
I take the glass and thank him. He must read the question from my mind because when he sits across from me, the first thing he says is,
"I have nothing to do with it"
"I... it all matched up"
"You really think a girl could have cut me that deep, Sofia? What I have on my face is not a scratch, it's a knife cut, from a fight"
"But Phil said you missed your fight that night"
"I missed the boxing match. The knife cut was from a different fight. A street fight with some piece of shit that..." he stops himself there, shaking his head, "look, Sofia, the reason I missed the boxing match is because I got in a fight with some guy. I have nothing to do with your friend"
"Um, I... I believe you" I say, not sure if I really do or not,
"Is this the first time you got the photo?"
"Yes"
"And what does 'you were always my first pick' mean?"
"I don't know"
"Did you see the person?"
"Which-"
"The person stalking you"
"I did, it's a man. He's tall and... and..."
"Well built?" he finishes for me, a little sarcastically, I nod,
"That's all I could see"
"Does he have my build?" he asks, knowing fully well that there really aren't that many people that have his physique. I try to think back to the silhouette I saw. The man was tall, no question, but was he as broad shouldered, as muscular as Daniel? I'm not certain. He was big, but it could have just been a jacket or a coat.
"I'm not sure" I say honestly,
"He follows you but doesn't get close?"
"When I look at him, he stops walking, hides. But then there are usually people around, or cars. I don't know what he'd do if there weren't"
"We need to figure out who's doing this" he says with a frown,
"We?"
"Unless you want to deal with him yourself?" he raises his brows, his eyes cutting into mine. I have a feeling he hates me. My eyes start to tear up again. He notices and shakes his head, standing up with a sigh. He walks towards me and crouches down in front of my chair. He's so big that even when he's crouching our eyes are almost at level.
"Don't cry" he says, "we'll figure it out, we'll get him. Okay?" I nod. The eye contact is intense, his eyes burning dark and probing, I have to look away,
"It's not me Sofia" he says quietly,
"I know... I believe you"
"You don't. But I'll prove it" he stands up, "you need to stay safe. You don't know what he's capable of"
I don't respond, just nod. He walks to the bathroom and comes out with a shirt on a moment later,
"Do you need to go somewhere today?"
"No" I lie,
"I can drop you off if you do?" he offers, I raise my eyes to his once again, shaking my head no. The distrustful part of me is still questioning his honesty. I have a feeling he can see this in my eyes. So, once again, I look away,
"No, I'll be fine" I say. He stands there for a moment, watching me. I wonder what thoughts are running through his head.
"I have to go" he speaks at last, "will you be okay to stay here by yourself?" I nod, "listen, don't go out alone, whoever it is obviously doesn't have good intentions. If you need a lift somewhere, I can drop you off?" he offers again,
"No, I'm good"
"Sure?"
"Yeah"
"Okay..." he hesitates for a moment, then walks to the door and grabs the handle, but then pauses, "wait, you don't have my number, do you?"
He doesn't wait for a response, he walks over to the kitchen counter where I left my phone, picks it up, and without even asking starts typing on it. Once done, he places it back on the table.
"If you need anything just call me, alright?" I nod. He leaves, locking door behind him. I lower my head into my hands.