SEVENTEEN

I went to the kitchen carefully so Mom won't notice my swollen eyes, I grabbed snacks and ran to my room noiselessly and immediately locked the door. I  sat in front of my laptop watching Emily in Paris when I heard a knock on my window. I looked at the window for a while before walking over and moving the curtains a bit to see Beck's face. I unlocked the window and he climbed into the window with two freaking boxes of pizza and a cocky smile. 

" I brought pizza", he announced and I chuckled. I looked at him and then my bed and then I grabbed a box of pizza and plopped into my bed and so did he. 

"So what are we watching?", he asked biting into a slice of a pepperoni pizza. My favorite. 

"It's a South-African series called Ummm Blood and Water", I replied.

"Mmm violence", he cooed.

I turned to him with my mouthful and scrunched my nose at  him. "Nom violence rommunce", I murmured.

"what?".

"I said not violence, romance". His smile vanished. 

"Romance?", he whined. "Can we watch something else?", he whined. I held his chin and squeezed it. 

"We are watching this it's rated really high on Netflix Africa ", I said with finality and he grumbled. I ignored him and clicked on the play icon. We watched the first three episodes before Beck fell asleep on my back, he was such an organised sleeper. The constant rise and fall of his chest were comforting and I had almost totally forgotten that there was someone after my dear life. 

we fell asleep in that position but when I woke up he wasn't there, I don't know how he left because my window was locked. I grabbed my phone blindly to check the time and it was about a little past nine am , a smile graced my lips when I saw that I had a text from Beck.

hey sleepyhead, I had to dib. Prince charming has to go save some lives. (smiley face and a heart)

I texted back.

shut up(rolling eyes emoji)

 I grabbed my towel from where it hung and easily got out of the baggy clothes I had been wearing, I wrap the towel around my body and enter into my bathroom, a warm bath later, I was sitting in front of my mirror trying to tame my hair when my phone rings I grab it and it's an unknown number. As expected. I didn't usually get calls; I just had four phone numbers on my phone; Mom, TB, Beck, and the front desk at the Public library in Hamilton. Nonetheless, I pick up the phone and the caller didn't speak for about ten minutes then the call ended. I looked out of all my windows to make sure I wasn't being watched when the same number started calling again. this time a voice could be heard.

"Hello?", I whispered into the phone. 

"Stay away from Beck, I won't warn you again, OB", the voice said. You know I really wished I could tell you a cliche thing like the voice belonged to Sierra, so we could all move on with life but honey, it was not her. This voice belonged to a guy, a man actually, he sounded about thirty.

"Who is this?", I said and swallowed saliva like it was a rock. The response to my question was the beeping sound of a deadline. Was this the man who sent me the shoebox? I thought it was Sierra. I really thought that it was..... the phone started ringing again by this time I had caved and decided to leave my hair in a messy bun. 

"Hello, I just want you to know that you can not threaten me", I said the second I picked the phone call.

"Who said anything about threatening you,Belle?", this voice belonged to Ajani. Ajani Blade.

"I'm sorry", I scoffed. " I thought you were someone else". 

He chuckled very lightly. It was like music. Just a little heads up, I might describe Ajani in ways that I shouldn't because I am friends with Beck but Ajani is a masterpiece so we must all get to know that in the course of this read. 

Rivers purred lightly as she stretched and walked to me from her little bed across the room, she was the cutest but right now Ajani was on the phone with me. WAIT! AJANI WAS ON THE PHONE WITH ME! WHY?

"Why did you call Ajani?", I asked. "And how did you get my number?".

"I called for a reason you will get to know of and the second question is quite irrelevant don't you think, I mean I called that's just the major point. Now fair warning I am not Mr. Nice guy, I might sound nice but deep inside I am as merciless as my last name but don't get worried about shit, this isn't a threat it's a warning Belle, you might want to be really careful with where you step on these days because Hamiliton can be a really small city", I was beginning to lose air as he spoke. "And since I have found out that Beckham is drawn to you i can use you to draw from him and right now you are all that I need to finally end him.Bam! delete", he chuckled lightly like a maniac. "So Belle, I will be catching up with you okay, sweetheart",he ended the call and then a tear drop on my table. I should have called Beck right? Told him all the maniacal things that Ajani just told me but I didn't. I sat there staring at myself in the mirror and sulked for half and then I snuck out of my room to get a plate of food which I ate silently on the dinning table.

"Honey, you don't look so good?", Mom said. 

"I'm fine mom just going through personal crap right now", that's her cue to sit down at the table with me. 

"Anything we can talk about honey?". 

I hang my head for five seconds before giving in. "If you are in trouble cause of someone and you might well get injured due to this trouble but you and that someone are friends and you can't just abandon that person. What do you do?". 

Mom moved in her seat. "It depends on how much you and how much you value this friendship are you gonna wuit without a fight or are youu gonna go down fight?". She smiled and held my hand."It's up to you". and just as I was about to break into a smile there was a certain noise at the front door like glass breaking. It was a burglar or maybe even worse, Sierra or Ajani or that mysterious man