Kendall

Ten students Two professors were killed, and a janitor was severely injured and is in the ICU. I was in the hospital for a total of three hours for too much inhaling smoke. I heard the nurses talking about it. As I was getting ready to grab my stuff My grandma and cousin Crystal came running into my room. "Oh, Kendall, my dear, I am so glad you are ok. I am so sorry I could not get here sooner." My grandma says as she walks up to and hugs me. I flinch a little but calm down and must remind myself it's ok. She is my grandma, and she will not hurt me. "It's fine, Grandma. I was not hurt, so there was no reason to be here to begin with." I say, smiling at her.

As we begin to walk out, I am stopped by a police officer. "Ms. Wyatt, I'm sorry to bug you, but I need to ask you a few questions about the fire that was started at your school." He says to me. I smile at him and tell him it's ok. "Well, here is my card. If you could come to the station around noon tomorrow, I could ask you a few questions." He speaks. "Yes, that's fine, thank you." I say walking away.

I walk out to the parking lot with my grandmother, and we walk to her car. After getting to her car, I climb into the back seat as Crystal gets into the passenger seat and my grandma in the driver seat. "Kendall dear, do you want to go home, or would you like to stay at my place? You don't have school for a week; they canceled classes due to the fire." She says, looking at me through the rearview mirror. I look at her and smile. "Yeah, that sounds good. Let's go to your place.

"Good, there is someone I want you to meet." She says, smiling as she drives to her house. I look at her confused. Who could my grandma have met that she wants me to meet? I look at Crystal, and she smiles at me and shakes her head. We arrive at her house, I get out, and follow them into the house. I pull Crystal aside. "Crystal, what does grandma mean?" I ask her, and this causes her to laugh. "Oh, you just wait. You're going to love this." She says, walking away laughing. I look at her confused. And run after her.

"Crystal, wait, what do you mean? What is going on?" I chase after her, and we end up in the kitchen. As I walk into the kitchen, I stop in my tracks when I see my grandma in the arms of a man who looked to be in his 50s. Damn, my grandma's got game; even she is getting some, and I can't even get a guy to look at me, let alone touch me without wanting to cause harm.

"Carter, this is my other granddaughter, Kendall. Kendall, dear, this is my friend Carter." She says with a big smile on her face as she looks at him. I smile at him and shake his hand. "Nice to meet you," I say and hurry to take my hand back. I step back and watch how they look at each other, and I can see it in their eyes that they really care about each other. My grandma's eyes sparkle as she looks at him and he looks at her like she is the only person in the room, which makes me happy. I look at Crystal, and she seems to like this sight, so I just leave them be. I turn and walk away with a smile on my face. I grab my phone from my pocket to check it. I see I have a missed call from Ash, so I call her back.

"Hey Kendall, how are you feeling?" Ash asks when she answers the phone. I smile at hearing her voice. Ashley has become my lifeline, my best friend.

"I'm doing okay, just tired. I'm going to stay with Gram and Crystal for the night. I'm not going to work today; I already called in." I told her, Ok, and I will see you tomorrow. With that I hung up the phone and went to lie down. I'm not hungry; I'm just tired.

I lay in bed for a while, tossing and turning. Giving up, I sit up and look around, and it's pitch black; I can't see anything around me. Giving up on trying to sleep and rest, I sneak downstairs and go to the sitting room and check the cupboards for something to drink. I find a bottle of vodka. I open it and take a drink straight from the bottle, not bothering to get a glass. I gag and start coughing when the burning feeling flows through my throat. I walk over to the window and stare outside as I take another gulp. Getting bored standing there, I head to the door and walk outside to the back patio. I walk over to the chair and sit down and drink by myself. My phone goes off, so I grab it to see who would be messaging me this late at night. I look and see it's an unknown number. My hands start to shake, and my throat starts to constrict. I open the message and see it's a picture of me at the hospital. With a message under it. (You won't be so lucky next time).

I drop my phone and start to cry. Why can't he leave me alone and let me live in peace? I just want to be happy. I'm sick of this shit; I grab the bottle and tilt it back and guzzle the bottle. I start gagging again, and it causes me to go into a coughing fit. My chest burns, and my head starts to hurt; my eyes burn and probably look like I have been punched due to crying. I stand up and drop the bottle, causing it to shatter, and walk into the house. As I walk inside, I see a shadow by a tree. I turn on my flashlight and walk over to where I saw movement. "Anyone there?" I ask as I keep walking towards the tree. "Hello, I know someone is there. This isn't funny," I shout at them. I walk further over to the tree and feel someone grab my arm. "AHHH," I scream in fright. "Hey, it's just me," my cousin Crystal says. "What the hell are you doing sneaking around at 2 am?" I ask her. "Chill, I wanted to go to a party; that's all." She says, smirking.

"Crystal, do you know how dangerous that is? Don't be going out to parties like this alone. Sneaking out isn't safe either. What if something had happened to you?" I say to her, and she just rolls her eyes at me. "God, you sound like Grandma. Didn't you ever have fun growing up, or was your boyfriend too controlling of you that he turned you into a prude and goody two shoes? She says, walking away. I watch as she walks into the house and scoff at what she said. I turn my flashlight off and call the one person I never planned on calling. I called Arlo.

After the second ring, he answers. "Hello?" He says, "Hey, it's Kendall. I got a message from a strange number, and I think I'm being watched." I say to him. "Where are you at?" He asks after a couple of minutes. I tell him that I am at my grandma's and give him the address. He says he will be here in a few minutes. I walk back inside and let Crystal know I'm leaving and going home and to let Grand know I will see her Sunday for dinner. She tells me OK and heads out the front door and waits for him.

He shows up in his black sports car. I have no idea what kind of car it is besides it being fancy. I climb in and smile at him. "Thank you. I'm sorry for calling so late; I just didn't feel safe." I told him.

"It's fine. What did the messages say?" He asks me, and I hand him my phone; he reads it and swears. "Son of a bitch," he says and puts the car in drive and drives us somewhere. After about twenty minutes we arrive at some strange building that looks like a warehouse. "Where are we?" I ask him, and he looks over at me after parking the car. "Stay with me; you will be safe, but this is my father's building. I need to talk to him before I take you home." He says as he gets out of the car, and I follow behind. I look around and follow him closely. But I jump when I hear someone shout behind us.

"Hey, Arlo, who is the hot piece of ass you got with you? Are you going to share?" the voice says behind me, causing me to push myself up closer to him. But this causes Arlo to stop in his tracks and turn to the person, and he sneers at him. He walks up to him and grabs him by his throat, throwing him into the wall. "If I ever hear you talk about her or any other female like that again, I will rip your fucking throat out. Got it? Also, she is off limits." He says to the guy. The guy shakes his head and looks like he is about to piss himself. "Got it," he says. And with that, Arlo takes my hand in his and pulls me behind him.