Being in the passenger seat again reminded Christina of the last car she was in, Ryan's. She sighed a little to herself, feeling a little foolish for letting him get to her like this. They had only known each other for a few days. She had to keep reminding herself of this as she thought back to all the moments they had shared: her talking his ear off as he drove the bus, finding him asleep in his car in the blazing hot sun, the one night they were able to spend together. She didn't want to dump all of this on Sam, although she knew eventually the whole truth would come out. For now she was satisfied sending him texts that she was safe and was currently on the last leg of her trip. He replied back with a smily face and said that the living room was just as she left it.
As she read over that last text, she couldn't help but smile. Her face blushed a bit as she hurredly tried to pick up on the conversation in the car to make it seem like she was, in fact, paying attention. She was out of luck when the last thing she heard was Gracie asking her what she thought. "What I thought of what?" She asked, a little stupidly.
Sam turned her attention from the road for a second to assess the situation. Judging from her friend's dazed expression and the flush of crimson on her cheeks she could only assume that there was one reason for that. "Don't mind your aunt, baby. She just had her head up in the clouds. I think she has come back down though... right, Chris?"
Chris looked at her friend and blushed again sheepishly. "Right," she answered. "All I wanted to know was, when we get to the beach house, can you help me find sea shells?" Winter asked with an air of 5 year old frustration at having to repeat herself. "Of course I will! We can even have a place for the really cool ones we find so everyone who comes to visit can see them," Christina replied. She could hear Winter chriping on about all the cool shells they would find as her cell phone vibrated again. She could see that she had a new text and at first her heart jumped, but as she opened her phone her breath paused. She didn't recognize the number, but she definitely recognized the tone of the text. She didn't want to alarm anyone, but she couldn't shake the ever-growing feeling of dread as the words kept repeating themselves over and over again in her mind. How had he found this number? And what made him think his silly threats could scare her off?
Sam noticed a change in her friend right away. It wasn't the same doe-eyed haze she was in a minute ago. This was serious. As quickly as she could, Sam pulled over to the side of the road. "Hand it over," she said to Chris as she held her hand out, waiting. At first Chris was going to fight her, she didn't want her friend to see this, but she knew she'd have to come clean eventually. Reluctantly she handed the phone over to Sam. Winter was still rattling on about sea shells and decorations and the beach as Sam flipped the phone up to see the home screen. Going back to the last text, she looked Chris in the eyes as she pressed the "open" button. Looking at her friend for a moment longer, she finally steeled the strength to look down. The number was strange, she could tell that already. There weren't any words, just a series of pictures. One of a very familiar hotel, one of 2 women walking with a small child in between them, 2 women talking over a table... wait. The pictures were kind of blurry but she could definitely make out... a tiny head of small blond curls. At this point the talking from the back seat of the car had stopped. Both women looked back to see little Winter Grace had exhausted herself and was currently taking up residence in Sleepyland. Still, the women didn't speak above a whisper. "what does this mean?" Sam asked. "Umm... I think it means he was at the hotel," Christina answered back. Sam couldn't say anything for a long time, just stared off into space as tears slowly ran down her cheeks. "Listen to me," Christina whispered. "I am here. I will not let anything happen to you, you know that. Do we want to go to the police?"
"No, not yet," Sam replied. "So far apparently all he's done is take pictures." "Yes, but he broke the restraining order, obviously, and he somehow found MY number. I didn't even know you guys were still in contact," Chris said, trying to remain quiet but not always succeeding. "I'm not... but he is." Sam said as she collapsed into a heap onto the steering wheel of her car.
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