Chapter Twenty Eight - Locked

I stifled a yawn as I walked up to my room in exhaustion. The classes today seemed longer than usual and all I wanted was to sink myself in my mattress.

Not to mention that creepy note.

I still wonder who could do that and what it could mean.

Or it was a prank?

That option made sense the most seeing that I was in the college parking lot and anyone could have done that prank.

But hitting my head with a stone was damn cruel. Once I find that bastard, I'm going to throw a stone at his or her head.

Sighing, I twisted the door knob but frowned when the door did not open. Was my room locked?

I tried again and was sure this time. It was locked.

Why was it locked? Was Alec kicking me out? My eyes grew wide as that thought crossed my mind.

Shaking my head, I decided to ask Alec what the hell was going on here instead of assuming things on my own.

Turning around, I quickly went downstairs and knocked on his study door. I knew he was inside from the light coming out from under the door.

I heard his short reply and swung the door open.

"Why is my room locked?" I asked immediately.

He looked up from his laptop and his gaze narrowed for a moment, not in anger but almost like he was scrutinizing my face.

"Is that a bruise on your forehead?"

My fingers went up to my forehead involuntarily and I flinched at the slight pain. "Yeah."

"What happened?" He frowned.

"I-I hit my head somewhere."

"Are you oka-"

"I'm fine and I came here for something else, Alec," I cut him off impatiently, not really wanting myself to believe that he cared about me. He went shopping with Nicole.

Maybe I was just being paranoid about them but I didn't care. He went on a buddy outing with her and I didn't like it one bit, especially when he said that he had no friends and suddenly his girl bestie pops out of nowhere.

"What?" He asked in a composed manner as his gaze fell on the laptop screen for mere seconds before he looked up again.

"Why is my room locked?"

"Is it?" He raised a brow.

I stared at him in confusion. "You didn't lock it?"

"No," He seemed to be thinking. "Maybe Martha did."

"But why would she?"

"She locks the other rooms in the apartment after cleaning them and must have locked yours by mistake."

"Oh. Then give me the key."

"I don't have it," He shrugged.

I raised a brow at him. "What do you mean?"

"Martha takes them with her," He spoke.

I let out a laugh in disbelief. "So you're telling me that Martha takes home some keys that belong to your apartment rooms? I'm not a fool, Alec."

He got up from his chair and slowly rounded the table, leaning against it as his narrowed gaze remained locked with mine.

"Are you calling me a liar, Scarlet?"

He crossed his arms over his chest.

"N-No. I never said that," I blinked at him. "I just meant that it's hard to believe-"

"The keys are with Martha because I'm mostly at work when she does her job."

Another thought crossed my mind. "You do have a master key, right? I mean you could have to go into those rooms sometime when Martha is not around, you wouldn't call her for that."

He inhaled sharply. "No. I don't have a master key."

I frowned, obviously not believing him but I chose to not argue further.

"So what am I supposed to do now?" I asked.

"You can stay in my room," He shrugged.

In his room? With him?

I pressed my lips into a thin line, thinking over it. I knew what was going to happen if I stayed in his room.

As much as I wanted it, I didn't want to be his second pleasure at the same time. If he wanted to be involved with me, he was supposed to be with me and only me.

Not hang out with another woman while treating me like shit and then spending the night with me.

"What are you thinking about? It's not the first time you'll be staying in my room."

I let out a breath and shook my head. "I'll take the living room couch."

His brows furrowed as he took a step in my direction. "What?"

"The living room couch. I said I'll take it."

"No. You won't," He frowned.

I raised a brow at him.

"You don't get to tell me what to do."

His jaw clenched at my words as he spoke through gritted teeth. "Right."

I looked down at my outfit. "Can I borrow some of your clothes if that's okay?"

He kept his gaze fixed on me.

"Clothes," He muttered under his breath and I stared at him in confusion.

He turned around, shut his laptop, took my hand in his and before I knew it, I was being dragged upstairs. He opened the door to his room and quickly took me inside his large closet.

My mouth fell open the moment he turned the lights on.

The closet was nothing like I had seen it the last time I was here a week or so ago.

All his clothes were on one side and on the other side, were all these designer women clothes and cute pajamas. And not just clothes, there was a variety of shoes and bags on the other racks, much more than I owned back at my home.

I turned to him with wide eyes.

"What...when did you.....why?" I found it hard to form words.

Without a word, he slipped out of the closet and only when I heard the click of the door, could I blink and look around myself.

What was all this supposed to mean?

He got me a new wardrobe. A freaking new wardrobe.

But why was it in his room?

Was he expecting me to stay with him.....all the time?

Is that why he locked my room?

I quickly changed into the first thing I saw. A white tank top and baby pink shorts that barely covered my legs.

I needed to talk to him. What was he thinking? What was his motive behind all this?

I walked out of the closet only to find him on the bed already. Walking up closer, I realized that he was asleep and studied his face for moment, then turned around and left the room.

The living room couch seemed big and comfortable. I switched all the lights off and hopped on it.

It had been a long, tiring day and the moment my back touched the surface, my eyelids started dropping. I yawned and buried my face into the cushions.

I suddenly felt a blanket being draped over me.

Wait-

Blankets do not have hands.

And they certainly can't pull you on top of them.

I opened my eyes to be met by his chest as I breathed in his intoxicated scent. I only realized how cold I earlier was when I snuggled closer to him for warmth. A blanket was on top of us and I brought it up to my chest.

I was suddenly reminded of the night in Barbados when I had snuggled closer to him under the stars and for the first time probably, he hadn't pushed me away.

A smile formed on my lips when his hands started rubbing circles on my arms as my bare legs wrapped around his.

He was practically touching my entire body as I was hardly wearing anything. The tank top was probably a size short as it rode up, exposing my stomach where his warm hand was rubbing circles.

"You're way too dressed," I muttered.

I felt him lean down to my ear as his warm breath fanned my cheek.

"Do you want me to take them off?"

I bit my lip before shutting my eyes. "No."

He heaved a long sigh and buried his nose in my hair.

I didn't know how long we stayed like that but soon, I was drifting off to sleep.

When I woke up in the morning, I was on a bed. My bed. In my room.

Sighing, I stepped out and got ready for the day, suddenly reminded that I had lunch with Nicole. I checked my phone and there was a message from an unknown number.

The lunch is still on?

-Nicole

Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I saved her number in my phone and texted her back that I would see her after my classes.

She texted me the address where we were supposed to meet. Not like I was looking forward to it.

I went downstairs and Martha was setting up dishes at the table.

I debated in my head if I should ask her about locking my door but I didn't. Somehow I knew that it was Alec.

"Morning, Martha," I smiled.

"Morning, Scarlet," She sang happily but then frowned as I headed for the elevators.

"You're not having breakfast?" She asked.

"No. I'm not really hungry right now," I muttered while calling the elevators.

"Okay," She nodded and went back to setting the food on table.

I didn't know how to face Alec.

Wouldn't it be awkward?

He must be expecting me to say something about the wardrobe but I had no words. I wasn't even sure if he meant it for me to move into his room.

But what else could that mean?

As the elevators were shutting infront of me, I saw Alec entering the dining area.

His eyes locked with mine for a brief second and I knew that he wanted to say something when he started walking up to me but the elevators shut close and I released a breath I didn't realize I was holding.

I didn't waste any time and drove out of the parking lot, afraid that he might come here.

I tried hard to not think about him but my mind kept going back to the moment before the elevators closed. The way he increased his pace to get to me.

Shaking my head, I focused on driving and once I reached the college, the boring hours started.

Thankfully, I was done with my classes soon and was now driving to meet Nicole.

I parked the car in the restaurant's parking area and the moment I stepped out of the car, a shiver ran down my spine as the eerie feeling of being watched came back.

A scream escaped my mouth as something hit my neck and I turned around quickly but there was no one.

My eyes fell on the crumpled paper lying on the ground.

Atleast there was no stone this time.

I picked it up with shaky hands and opened the note.

Let go of him.

What The Fuck?

I gasped when a hand fell on my shoulder and I turned around.

"I'm sorry to startle you, Scarlet," Nicole gave me a weird look and I quickly shoved the note into my bag where I had kept the other one from yesterday.

"Oh no. I was just thinking about something," I breathed.

"Are you okay?" She seemed concerned.

"Y-Yeah," I nodded. "Let's go. I'm hungry."

"Sure," She smiled and we started walking towards the restaurant.

Once we were seated and had ordered, she started with excitement.

"So did you like it?"

"Like what?" I asked in confusion.

"Your new wardrobe," She clapped her hands in excitement.

My mouth fell open as I blinked at her. "How did you know?"

"Because I helped him shop. Duh," She rolled her eyes. "What do you think we were doing yesterday morning?"

My mouth fell open once again.

He was shopping for me?

What is wrong with Alec?

He wasn't behaving normal.

Oh God!

He was doing it for me.

And I was so mad at him.

But could I really be blamed? He could have atleast told me.

"You don't know who I am, do you?" She asked.

"Um you're Nicole."

She let out a laugh. "I'm Nicole Jens, a fashion designer at-"

"Karmen's," I completed for her with wide eyes.

Oh God!

I should definitely start paying attention when Lily calls out random names from magazines.

Nicole Jens was a rising fashion designer and people would pay heavy bucks to get their clothes designed by her or atleast that's what Lily told me last week.

"Yep. Karmen's," She laughed.

"I'm really sorry," I muttered.

"Oh come on. Don't be," She shook her head.

"I'm supposed to be taking an autograph, right?" I joked.

She burst out laughing. "We got a lot of time for that. This isn't the last time we're meeting, Scarlet."

"Yeah."

The food arrived and we started savouring it, talking about random stuff. I also told her about Lily who had made her mind up that Nicole was designing her wedding dress whenever she decided to get married.

"I would love to do that," She spoke in excitement.

The conversation drifted to TV shows and I told her about the new series I had started watching.

She wasn't that bad to be honest.

She was actually fun to talk to. We had so many things in common. Like our taste in music, movies and different netflix series.

We were having a pretty interesting conversation about Demogorgon when someone came up to us.

"Mrs. Sinclair?"

I looked up at the guy who had served our order. "Yes?"

"There's someone for you," He pointed somewhere behind him and I looked there in confusion.

"Oh okay," I turned to Nicole. "Excuse me."

She nodded and I got up to walk there.

Who would come to see me here? I didn't tell anyone where I was going.

I turned around to the guy who came to call me. "Where is he?"

"He left this for you," He extended a small packed box in my direction and I quickly opened it in curiosity.

There was another note.

I warned you.

My blood started boiling as I looked up at the guy.

"Who gave this to you?" I gritted my teeth in annoyance.

"I don't know, ma'am," He spoke.

"Maybe you will answer the cops," I snapped as I fished my phone out.

"N-no, Mrs. Sinclair. I don't know who he was. He just told me to give it to you whenever you were alone."

"What did he look like?"

"I-I don't know. He wasn't showing his face. I'm not even sure if it was a man or a woman. He just handed the box and typed your name into his phone. I knew you were here because of the reservation. T-that's it, Mrs. Sinclair. Please don't call the cops. I can't afford to lose this job," He pleaded.

I sighed as I looked down at the note again.

Who the hell was doing this?

Shoving the note into my bag, I turned around and went back to Nicole.

She was talking on the phone, her eyes wide as she watched me approach her. "Alright, Walter."

Walter? How does she know Walter?

"What's wrong?" I asked as she put her phone down.

"Scarlet..," She trailed off.

"What happened?"

"It's Alec," She muttered.

My heart started beating rapidly and for some reason, I didn't want to hear more by the look on her face.

"W-what about Alec?" I muttered inaudibly as I started to panic.

"He's been shot."

What do you think will happen next?

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I know it was short. I'm really sorry but I had no time to write because I had some guests over. Next update will be soon.

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