It was now Monday morning, and I wanted nothing more than for the school week to be over with already. I would be getting married on Saturday, and that was all I was able to look forward to.

Word had gotten around quickly about how our wedding was that week, and I knew Aveline was not happy. I knew that she wished that we would somehow call off the wedding before it could happen, but now that we were going to get married soon, I knew she was getting worried. I was expecting her to confront me sooner or later, but I just didn’t know when. I was really getting sick and tired of her.

I wasn’t surprised when I saw Aveline waiting for me outside my locker when I got to school that morning. I knew she was going to talk to me sooner or later. “Hello, Aveline,” I greeted flatly, acting as if her presence didn’t bother me in the slightest.

“Hello,” she glared.

I couldn’t remember a time when Aveline had even tried being nice to me, even before everything with Zach had happened. I didn’t know if it was because she was jealous or just because I was the type of person she didn’t like. I didn’t know, and I didn’t care. All that mattered was that she didn’t like me and I didn’t like her.

“So, Aveline, what have I done to get this lovely visit from you?” I asked her now, not about to be nice to her since I knew whatever she was about to say wasn’t going to be nice to me. “If we don’t hurry, we might be late to class.”

“Like I care,” she snapped now, taking a step toward me and slamming my locker shut before I could open it all the way. “You and I have to talk about something right now.”

I knew this was coming.

“What would you like to talk about, dear Aveline?” I questioned her now, knowing I didn’t want to continue this conversation with her.

Her face was turning red, which was something I was hoping would happen. “You need to end your little relationship with Zach.”

I only stared at her, speechless. Did she seriously think that I would do something like that just because she told me to? Even if we were friends, I wouldn’t break up with Zach just because she told me to do so.

“Excuse me?” I couldn’t help but snap at her now, any sort of politeness I tried to show now completely gone. “Did you seriously just tell me to break up with my boyfriend? My fiancé?”

She cringed at the word. “Stop calling him that. That’s disgusting.”

I was the one to take a step closer to her now. “No, I’m not going to stop calling him that, because that’s what he is. Zach is my fiancé, Aveline. He’s not yours, and he never has been. So just leave him alone and mind your own damn business for once, will you?”

“I’m not going to give up on him,” she growled at me now, and I hadn’t ever seen her face this red before, even when I had punched her in the face and her nose had been bleeding. “No matter what you do, I’ll make sure that Zach is mine.”

I couldn’t believe this girl. Even though she knew Zach didn’t like her, she wasn’t about to give up. Even though he was in love and engaged to me, she wasn’t about to stop. I was going to have to do something about this.

“I’m not even going to deal with you right now, Aveline,” I informed her now, my lip curling up into a sneer. “You’re not worth it.”

I turned on my heel now and started off toward my first period. I didn’t hear her scamper off, so I knew that she was still standing right in front of my locker, as if she owned it or something.

“I’ll make you regret this!” she shouted after me, and it made my blood go cold. “I’ll make you regret ever moving here!”

There was something wrong with that girl. But whatever it was, I didn’t want to know what it was. She was trouble, and it was not something I should have gotten myself into.

The rest of the school day went by as normally as every other day had, except Aveline actually ignored me for the rest of the day instead of harass me like she usually did. This surprised me, but it wasn’t like I was complaining.

Zach had now talked me into going to one of his friend’s parties hours after school ended, even though that was the last place I wanted to go to. He knew I didn’t like parties, but he still said he wanted me to come along anyways. I didn’t know if he was being obnoxious on purpose or he really just wanted to spend more time with me.

“I don’t get why I had to come with you,” I told Zach as we opened the apartment door. “It’s a party. I hate parties.”

He smirked. “I can’t bring my own fiancée to a party?”

Damn him. He knew I couldn’t’ stay mad at him when he called me his fiancée. He was going to be able to get away with anything once he started calling me his wife.

Zach chuckled.

I looked around the party, and it was pretty crazy. The first person I saw was Kate, who was drinking in the corner. I tossed Zach my purse without warning and walked over to her.

“Oh, hey!” she greeted with a large smile. “I didn’t know you were invited!”

“Zach brought me along.” I shrugged, peering into her cup. “What are you drinking?”

 “Soda,” she responded, her eyebrows furrowing at me in confusion.

I took the cup from her hand and smelled it. She had just had a baby, so I was really hoping that she hadn’t been drinking alcohol. I then drank the liquid in her cup to see that she was telling me the truth.

“Okay, you’re right.”

I felt kind of bad for not trusting her. I mean, I knew she was responsible and all, but who knew what could happen at these kinds of parties? I just wanted to look out for her and make sure she was being safe.

My blood ran cold when I saw Aveline across the room, and I felt a little nervous when we both made eye contact with each other. I hadn’t ever realized how this girl was bad news, and I only wished that I had known sooner.

She made a beeline right toward me, and I wanted nothing more than to just hightail it right out of there. But Zach had my purse, therefore he had my phone and my wallet, so I was stuck there with no way to get home, unless I walked twenty miles all the way back.

When I saw the fire escape, I knew that that was the only place I could go to be safe from Aveline. I quickly made my way towards it, opening the window and slipping outside and onto the fire escape before Aveline could do or say anything to me.

I thought I was safe. But oh, was I wrong.

The window opened again, and I was surprised to see Aveline crawling out onto the fire escape just like I had. I looked down, knowing that it was too far for me to jump, and I knew I was stuck up there with her.

“Leave Zach alone, alright?” I spat at her, and it was more of a demand than a plea. “Just leave him alone”

She smirked, “Jealous, Maxynn?”

That wasn’t exactly it, but I wasn’t about to say so. I had absolutely no reason to be jealous over her, since Zach didn’t like her in that way at all, but I knew she wouldn’t believe me if I told her that I wasn’t jealous.

“Oh, you are jealous!” she squealed when she saw that I wasn’t going to respond to her. She stopped her foot, making the fire escape rock. “Ooh, cool!”

She then began to hop up and down with nearly every word she spoke. “Zach isn’t going to stay with you for long. It just isn’t the kind of person he is! Sooner or later he’ll get bored and come crawling back to me, since I can actually show him a good time.”

I wasn’t even listening to anything she was saying anymore, because I felt too uncomfortable on top of this high place which shook with every hop.

“Aveline, stop it,” I snapped at her, not knowing what else I was supposed to say.

The window was still open, so I could have shouted for help at any time. But for some reason, I just couldn’t. My throat was dry and I couldn’t believe that she was actually doing something like this when it was obviously dangerous and life threatening.

And the fire escape creaked once again, and now the ladder broke off and the fire escape swung sideways.

“Oh, my gosh!” I screamed, wanting to curse so badly that I was surprised that I didn’t. “Aveline, you’re going to kill us!

But what I didn’t notice when I was hanging there was that she had already climbed up into the window, and she was sitting on the sill as if this was no big deal at all. All I could do was look up at her in shock. “Aveline, help!”

She smiled almost evilly. “I don’t think so. Zach will definitely be mine now.”

This just proved to me that she was even more insane than I thought! She had to have been the one that had been trying to kill me all this time, just because I was closer to Zach than she was!

“Aveline!” I screamed as she shut the window. I hung on as tight as I could, not believing that this was actually happening to me. “This is so cliché, it’s not even funny!”

Did she plan on doing this all night? Did she know that Zach was going to bring me along to this party? I would definitely die if I fell, but could Aveline possibly be that evil? If she had been the one trying to kill me, then she definitely was that evil. I just couldn’t believe that she actually had it in her.

I tried climbing up, but I was almost hanging off. I wanted to cry, but I knew I had to be strong or else I was never going to get through this. I had to climb up and get myself through that window.

I was never particularly good at climbing things. Not the rope in gym, not the pole when I took gymnastics when I was younger, and barely even a ladder. How the hell was I supposed to climb up this?

I climbed and I pulled until my arms felt like they were going to break off, and I was surprised when finally reached the window. I never thought that I would actually make it, but I was so glad that I did.

I reached for it, but I felt my stomach drop when I realized that it was locked.

I was too afraid to knock on it, or even try to break it. I knew I would definitely fall if I made any sudden or big movements, so I had no idea what I was supposed to do. If I didn’t get off this thing soon, it would fall and I would go with it.

When I saw Zach in his big group of people and screamed out his name, I was afraid that he wouldn’t hear me. For all I knew, the apartment was soundproof and the music was way too loud for anyone to hear me.

I really regretted leaving my purse with Zach, which carried my phone and anything else I possibly could have needed in this situation.

“Zach!” I yelled. I got enough courage to move a little and slap the window, thankfully getting Zach’s attention. His eyes went so wide that they nearly bugged right out of his head, and he ran over, unlocking and opening the window without even thinking twice.

He grabbed me and pulled me toward him and the inside of the apartment. But before I could get inside, the fire escape broke even more, falling, flying down the thirteen stories this apartment was up.

And I wasn’t inside yet.

I was now hanging, Zach hanging onto my arms. I tried using my feet to crawl up the wall, but it wouldn’t work because this only caused me to pull Zach out of the apartment even more. I felt my forehead scrape against the side of the wall, and I sucked in a breath at the pain I felt.

“Zach,” I swallowed, trying my best not to cry.

“It’s okay,” Zach told me calmly, and he then easily pulled me up, as if he didn’t even have to try.

And we just stood there for a few moments, his arms wrapped around me tightly as I buried my face into his chest. I wasn’t crying, but I sure felt like I should have been. I nearly died, again, and I had no idea what I was supposed to do anymore.

“This is getting more and more serious, Maxynn,” Zach informed me once he pushed me away, his hands on my shoulders as he stared down at me. “Whoever is doing this to you is not going to stop. You have to go to the police and tell them what’s going on so you can be protected. Obviously I can’t protect you.”

I shook my head, not wanting him to think that he couldn’t help me when I needed it. “No, it’s Aveline,” I croaked, clearing my throat when I felt how scratchy it was. “It was Aveline this time. I don’t know if it’s been her the entire time, but I’m pretty sure it is. She was the one that caused the fire escape to break.”

I was out of breath and I just didn’t know what to do anymore. I just wanted all of this to stop. I just wanted to be safe again, but I didn’t know how I was supposed to be anymore.

Without another word to me, Zach turned around and stalked off in another direction. Not knowing what the hell he was doing, I quickly followed him to see what he was going to do now that I told him Aveline had tried to kill me.

We both saw her at the same time, but Zach got to her before I could. He grabbed onto her arm from behind and yanked her away from whoever she was talking to. She looked frightened at first, but she then smiled flirtatiously when she saw that it was Zach.

“Hey,” she giggled, but her flirty grin then changed to a glare when she saw me.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Zach spat at her now, and I could tell that his forcefulness surprised her. “Do you know how stupid what you just did was? You could have fucking killed her, Aveline! If she fell from that damn fire escape, she would have died and it would have been all your fault!”

She blinked up at him, and I couldn’t tell if she was going to cry or not. Even though Aveline was crazy, I could tell that she really liked Zach. Maybe she even loved him, in her own crazy kind of way.

“But… but she ruined my relationship with you!” Aveline shouted, and I knew the waterworks were coming soon. “Before she came along, I was the girl you always came to! But now you’re getting married to this scarred, murdering freak! What’s wrong with you, Zach? This isn’t like you! This isn’t like you at all!”

“First of all,” Zach started in a low, dangerous voice that even scared me. “Maxynn isn’t the murdering one, it’s you. You left her out on that fire escape to die and you didn’t even give a fuck. And second, she isn’t a freak and I don’t care if she has scars on her arm. And thirdly, you never meant anything to me. You were just like all those others girls I used in the past. You meant nothing, so just stay away from me! And definitely stay away from Maxynn!”

Aveline’s eyes were red and watery, and I couldn’t help but feel a little proud of Zach. He finally stood up to Aveline and didn’t care about hurting her feelings, and I was happy that he was sticking up for me. He knew how much it bothered me that he didn’t push her away, but now that was exactly what he was doing. He was pushing her away for good.

She said nothing as she let out a sob and ran away from both of us. Zach and I both stayed silent at first, because neither of us knew what to say about what had just happened. After a few more moments of silence, I felt a quick stab of pain in my forehead.

I reached up and felt my forehead, surprised for only a moment that I had a scrape. I then remembered how I had scratched it against the wall outside.

“You just got a scratch,” Zach told me, wiping at it a little with his sleeve. “Nothing too major or anything.”

I wanted to thank him for what he had just said to Aveline, but I just couldn’t say anything to him anymore. So I just took a step forward, wrapping my arms around his waist and pressing my face into his chest. I just wanted to hug him and never let go. So when he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and hugged me back, I felt so much safer than I ever had before.

This was all he needed to do to protect me.

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