'Are you expecting someone? It's after dark.'
I shook my head. 'I have no idea who this could be.'
'Maybe you shouldn't get it. You know, just pretend no one's home.'
I nodded, when the doorbell rang again. 'You know, I don't hear the dogs anymore. Maybe I'll just take a peek. I won't open it.'
Ty gave me a face that clearly said I'd gone insane. I agreed with her, yet I found myself cautiously walking to the front door. Every floor board seemed to creep under my feet and my pulse slammed in my ears. Reaching up on my toes, I strained my neck to peer through the small peek hole high up in the large wooden door.
When my vision focused, my entire body went numb. I gasped, dropping my gaze. I couldn't believe it.
'Who is it?' Ty shout whispered from the kitchen. Apparently she was too afraid to move from the protection of her stool.
I couldn't find the breath I needed to say it. I had to be hallucinating. Maybe the milk in the ice cream had gone bad.
'Charlotte?' a voice said through the door.
My nerves went haywire.
'Who is it? What's wrong?' Ty whispered, still unmoving from her safety zone.
I swallowed hard and forced it out. 'It's Liam.'
Ty's features fell, reflecting the horrified shock I felt inside. She scrambled to my side, looking a little pale. 'What?' She pointed to the door. 'Are you sure?'
I nodded. 'What should I do?'
Liam chuckled on the other side of the door. I quickly shook off the thought. No one could have heard us whispering through several inches of thick oak. Could they?
'I don't know,' Ty whispered back. 'Get the door.'
'Have you lost it? How does he even know that I live here? I told you, total stalker.'
'You didn't give him your address?'
'No.'
'Well, you've got to do something. He's at the door.'
'I know!'
It felt like I couldn't breathe. My mind blurred.
'Charlotte,' Liam's said. 'We know you guys are in there. We just want to talk, you know, about today. We feel really bad.'
'How does he know we're in here?' I looked to Ty who appeared just as surprised to hear him calling through the door as I did. She shrugged, her face showing up blank.
'Maybe he saw us come in?'
'That was over an hour ago.' I paused for a moment, realizing something else. 'Did he say we?'
'I think so.'
I stood up on my toes and braved another look through the peek hole, but Liam looked right back at me with that infuriating smile. I shot back down.
'What it is?' Ty asked.
'Nothing.' I placed my head in my hands. 'Do you think I should get the door?'
Ty shrugged with a look of resolve. 'You have to now. He knows we're here.'
I took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, and turned back to the door. With my face a twisted mass of lines, I fastened the chain, and unlocked the main part of door. It opened with a whine and snagged against the metal fastener. I tried not to look at Liam, but I failed miserably.
'Hi Charlotte,' he said with a crooked grin. His green eyes danced down at me from under his ashen hair. My heart quickened and I furiously fought with my body temperature. I prayed he didn't notice, but from the look on his face, he knew exactly what he was doing.
Dark shapes moved behind him on the dimly lit lawn only illuminated by the singular low volt bulb Dad installed on the front porch. I strained to see them. Byron waved. I could guess the others.
Fantastic.
'What are you doing here, Liam?'
I held my arms with a vice-like grip around my chest. Liam chuckled.
'I'm glad you find this so hilarious, Liam. Why are you here? How do you even know where I live?'
This seemed to catch the attention of the other guys, for they stopped goofing around and wrestling in the dark. My poise didn't falter.
Liam leaned in closer to the small gap between the chained lock, blocking out my view of the others in the background. I wanted to move, but I refused. I would not give him the gratification of thinking his proximity affected me.
'You're kidding, right?' he asked, smiling down at me despite my efforts to inflict some sense of warning into him. How could he be so calm?
It was annoying.
'I mean your dad is the new town doctor, Charlotte. It's a small population. Everyone knows where you live.'
I turned to Ty for backup, who failed me by returning an 'it's kind of true' shrug. Groaning, I focused back on Liam. 'It still doesn't explain why you're here and why you snuck into the cafeteria today. You're following me, aren't you?'
Liam's eyebrows pinched into a twisted 'V'. He mumbled, 'Maybe.'
'What?' I took a step back, my temper flickering at the surface. 'You are unbelievable! You can't just go trailing people around like some stray dog, Liam.'
'Why not?' He chuckled. How he found humor in this was beyond me. I clenched my fists.
'Because that's stalking.' I tried to shut the door, but he stuck his arm in the way. 'Move, Liam.'
'But we just got here.'
'I don't care.'
I grabbed his wrist in an attempt to move it from the crack, when a wave of electricity shot up my arm and a brush of musky scent lifted to my nose making me dizzy. A falling sensation surrounded me and it felt like something deep inside me grappled to Liam for life. To my surprise, Liam's face had gone flush. The cocky smugness had vanished and his lips parted as he audibly inhaled. His head flopped back against the door jam.
'Liam?' I whispered.
He tilted his chin down at me and his irises began to dilate. I dropped his arm and stepped back, almost tripping over Ty. 'What are you?'
Had Ty seen it? I needed proof that I wasn't going insane.
'I just want to be near you, Charlotte,' Liam said, voice low. 'I can't explain it. I know you feel it too. Please let me talk to you. I just want to talk to you.'
'And you do this by stalking me?' And how'd we get off the eye thing? I was clearly rattled.
'I'm sorry. I don't know how else to see you. I don't go to school with you. Tell me what to do. I don't want you to be afraid of me. Please, I'd never hurt you. I just want to know you.'
'How do I know this isn't some ploy?' Am I actually contemplating this? 'I don't know anything about you, Liam.'
Understatement of the year.
The gold flecks that had been melting into his irises faded back to normal. A warmth surrounded him, as if the electricity I had felt still burned low under the surface of his skin. Part of me wanted to test it, to touch him. I furiously dissolved the thought.
'Charlotte,' he whispered, still leaning his head against the door. 'I've ran into you twice alone at night, not to mention in the thick of the woods. Don't you think if I was going to do something, I'd have done it then?'
He had a point.
I needed to think rationally. I had seen things I couldn't explain, things that terrified me, yet I couldn't deny a pull to him. The scent of his warm skin felt so comforting and familiar. Part of me wanted to melt into it. It didn't make sense. 'Why are you so interested in me? You don't even know me?'
His head brushed across the doorframe until his breath ignited my cheek on fire. I couldn't move. As angry as
