The Unexpected Twist, Marline [e book reader pc .TXT] 📗

Please, do something.”
Liam took a step towards me and scooped the millipede into his hands. He was trying extremely hard not to laugh and this annoyed me.
“It’s not funny.” I told him. He put the animal on a branch and burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry Claire. But I didn’t know you were scared of things. I thought you were fearless.”
“Anything with more than 6 legs scares me.” I told him.
“Good, you’re improving. You wouldn’t have told me that a couple of days ago.”
“No, I wouldn’t have kissed you a couple of days ago either.” I said dryly. This caused another laughing fit from his side and I smiled. How had I been able to withstand his charms before? I wondered. Then I suddenly realized that Cameron was still extremely unhappy and going in a downward spiral. How could I be so happy when my best friend was so miserable? I stopped smiling and looked into the distance. Liam noticed immediately.
“Claire, what’s wrong?” He asked worriedly.
“I shouldn’t be so happy when Cameron is so unhappy.” I said. My voice broke halfway and I forced my tears back. What was wrong with me today? I laughed at the most random things and the next moment I nearly burst out in tears. What kind of influence did Liam have over me?
“Liam, we have to report Stan to the police before he does more of these things.” I was suddenly very determined. Liam nodded.
“But firstly,” he said, “we’re going to get you home so your ankle can rest.”
I smiled up at him and he picked me up again. I leaned my head against his chest and could not stop smiling.

Liam set me down and then opened the door. I was about to limp into my house when he picked me up again and carried me into the living room. My mother was in the kitchen and came out to see who had suddenly walked into the house.
“Oh Claire!” She gasped and ran over to me. “What’s wrong, are you all right?”
“I’m fine. I’ve sprained my ankle, that’s all.” I answered calmly. Liam put me down on the couch and my mother immediately went to get some ice for my ankle. She was dashing back and forth between the kitchen and the living room to get ice, then juice and then food for us.
“Thanks mom.” I smiled reassuringly at her, to prove that nothing terrible had happened.
Finally, after Liam and I had everything we needed, my mother sat down on the couch. Then, she got up again and ran to the phone.
“I have to tell your father that you’re home safe. We were so worried.” She said, more to herself than to us. I looked at Liam and could see that he was amused. After my mother had had a quick conversation with my father she sat down again.
“Tell me everything.” She said to us. Liam and I exchanged glances and at that moment we both knew what we needed to do. We told the story, but we left out certain parts; the part where Liam had formed part of the gang, where we had known what Stan was capable of but had gone to see him anyways and the whole part about Cameron.
“Well,” Liam said, after my mother had been informed of the whole story or at least, part of the story, “I think I better go home. My parents must be worried as well.”
“I’ll bring you home.” My mom offered. Then, with a worried glance in my direction she added: “Claire dear, will you be all right here by yourself?”
“I’ll be fine mom.” Liam stood up and my mom seemed to realize that we wanted a few minutes alone because she went to go find the car keys.
Liam walked over to me, leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. “I love you.” He whispered in my ear.
“And don’t you dare go off on these expeditions again.” He added sternly.
I laughed. “I won’t.” Liam turned to leave.
“Oh, and Liam?” I suddenly said. “Thanks for saving me.” It only took one step to bridge the gap between us and the next thing I knew was that Liam’s lips were on mine. Then, without a word, he turned and walked out the door.


Chapter 5

It was Saturday, ten past six and I was getting worried. There are only two possibilities, I told myself. A. Liam had lied and didn’t like me at all and this was the reason why he wasn’t answering any of my texts or calls. Or B. He was in trouble and this was the reason why he wasn’t answering. I pondered over both options and tried replaying Wednesday’s scene in my head to cancel out at least one of the possibilities.

Suddenly the phone rang. I rushed downstairs, hoping that it was Liam and luckily I got there before my mother did. I picked up.
“Claire?” I heard a voice, but it was certainly not the voice I had expected.
“Yes?” I answered.
“Claire, have you by any chance seen Liam?” It was Liam’s mother and she sounded just as worried as I felt.
“No, I haven’t. He was supposed to pick me up at six today but he’s already fifteen minutes late.”
“I’m getting worried.” Liam’s mother admitted. “I’ve already called all his other friends and he’s not there either.”
“He isn’t answering his phone.” I told her, though she probably already knew this.
“I think I’m going to call the police.”
Was this a good idea? I wondered. But then I decided that it was indeed a good idea. If Liam was in any sort of danger, the police would be able to handle it much better than I could.
“Yes, that seems like a good idea.” I told Liam’s mother.
“All right, goodbye Claire. And please call me if Liam does come over to your house.”

“Liam, where are you?” I said out loud. Every conversation that Liam and I had had was replaying in my mind. And then one sentence struck me. I had told him that we had to bring Stan to the police. Was this what Liam was doing? Finding Stan so that they could bring him to the police? Or finding proof? Why had he not told me anything? Of course, there was still my A option, that Liam didn’t care about me at all and had therefore not told me anything. But somehow I doubted that. He had seemed so sincere. But if Liam had not contacted his parents or anybody else then it was possible that he was in some kind of trouble. And if he was then I was going to get him out of it. I was the one who had gotten him involved in this whole situation in the first place. I had to go back to the forest.
I knelt down on the floor and found a small backpack underneath my bed. It was dusty because it had been untouched for so long and I blew the dust off. Then I roamed around my room, wondering what I could use to protect myself from possible attackers. I decided on taking a mini bottle of deodorant (alcohol based liquids were always useful), a knife (I immediately felt like a serial killer) a flashlight (I felt like a spy), and my phone. Would I need to take some food? I decided that if I got caught up somewhere then eating would be a good use of my time. Now all that was left was to wait until it got dark and my parents went to bed. Time crawled. I decided to watch a movie but I couldn’t concentrate and at 7:00 I went downstairs to eat dinner. I ate slowly, just to waste time and after dinner I sat in front of the TV in the living room and zapped through all the TV channels. I finally settled on a good program and when it was finished I was excited to see that it was already 8:30. Good, I just had around 3 hours left to get through.
Finally the clock struck eleven. I had heard my parents go to bed and decided that it was safe enough to go outside. I pulled on a sweater, a jacket, a scarf, some mittens and then tiptoed down the stairs. It was dark outside and I was already scared at the thought of having to go outside in the dark, with the knowledge that people like Stan, and Stan himself, were roaming around free. In the kitchen I filled my bag with peanuts, chocolate bars and some granola bars and then I filled a bottle with water. Then I opened the kitchen window. Going through the door was too much of a hassle because I would have to close it again behind me and then I had to carry around a key and worry about it getting lost. I managed to escape from my house without any problems and was happy when I reached the road. I had to walk down the road for some time before I reached the forest and I was happy that there were streetlights. At least if a serial killer or rapist walked down the street now then I could prepare myself. Just when I thought I would reach the forest safely, a dark figure appeared down the street. My heart started beating faster and I told myself to calm down. Why was I so paranoid? Keep calm. Walk at a normal pace. Don’t do anything suspicious. Be confident. What else had I read in that magazine about self-defense? The figure came towards me and I could now see that the person wasn’t as tall as I had thought at first. This calmed me down, with my relatively tall body it would be easier to take on a short person. But when the person came even closer, I saw that it was a girl. What was a girl doing alone on the street at night? And then I recognized her.
“Cameron!” I called out, and started running. I certainly hoped that I had not mistaken her for somebody else, that would have been very embarrassing. But the girl looked up and I saw that she had recognized me too.
“Claire, what are you doing here?” She asked, when I had reached her.
“I could ask you the same question! Why are you all alone on the street?”
“I asked you first.” Cam said.
I looked around nervously and didn’t know what to tell her. I hate lying to my best friend so I decided to tell her the truth.
“I’m looking for Liam.” I said.
“For Liam? Why?” She asked, puzzled. Should I tell Cameron the whole story? What would she think of me? Would she get angry? I tried to judge what I could and couldn’t tell Cameron and then decided that I would tell her everything, just because I so desperately needed somebody to share my worries with. I pulled her by her sleeve towards the sidewalk and then pulled her down. We sat on the sidewalk and I explained the whole story to her. I saw her facial expressions change and knew that at the point where I told her that I had told Liam about the incident, she was about to get mad. But she remained silent and let me finish the story and at the end she just gaped at me.
“You did what?” Was all she said and I immediately knew what she was referring to.
“I followed Liam into the