Chapter Twenty-Three
Ryan
I was sitting on the plane with Blaire, and we were just about to take off. It had been sad saying goodbye to Trinity that morning. She’d cried and begged Reed not to make her go to school that day because she was too sad. But he made her go and told us that it was the best thing that he could do. She’d get to school, see her friends, and forget that she was sad. But it still wasn’t nice to say goodbye. She seemed particularly sad at saying goodbye to Blaire.
“Goodbye, Seattle,” I said as the plane took off.
“Goodbye, hot dogs,” Blaire said mournfully.
I chuckled. “Is that what you’re most sad about?”
“Well, that and Trinity, of course.”
I sighed. “Yeah, the poor thing. She’ll be fine, though. I’m sure if we stayed there another week she would’ve just gotten bored with us. Well, maybe with me. I think she was pretty smitten with you.”
“To be honest,” Blaire said, “I was smitten with her too.”
We landed and made our way to the lot where I had parked my car while we were away. It wasn’t five minutes after we had parked our car that Blaire’s phone rang.
“Must be Katie,” she said as she fished for her phone from her bag. “Hello?” she said into the mouthpiece.
I noticed that she was frowning.
“Hello? Who is this?” she said again.
“Oh no, is it that creep again?” I asked her.
She nodded.
I pulled over and took the phone from her.
“Hello? Who is this? Listen here; I want you to know that we are going to the police. You better not call again, and you better stop harassing Blaire. Get a life!”
I cut the call and handed the call back to Blaire. It took me several minutes to start the car again because I was trembling so much.
“What the hell?” I said to her. “They didn’t call once when you were in Seattle. This is so weird.”
Blaire looked around nervously. “Do you think someone is following us?”
I looked around but didn’t see anything unusual. “I have no idea. But we are definitely going to the police. Let’s go right away. This is ridiculous. This person has called too often now. Surely that counts as harassment.”
She nodded. “I agree with you. This is so horrible. I’ve been feeling good all week. I really thought that this whole thing had just stopped. Now I feel like they were just waiting for me to come back, which sort of creeps me out even more.”
We made our way straight to the police station. That in itself was a mission as nobody seemed to worry too much about the fact that we needed to speak to someone. The police were all busy with someone else. I understood that our situation was not an emergency, but they didn’t know that. Eventually, a man called us up to the counter, and we explained the situation to him.
“So, someone knocked on your door twice, and you’ve received three phone calls. Is that right?” the man asked Blaire.
He was a big man, with a wide girth and sleepy eyes. I wasn’t sure how someone like this would be able to stop a criminal. Trinity would beat him in a footrace.
Blaire nodded. “Yes, that’s right. We just got a call right now, actually. I know I should’ve come earlier, but I wasn’t sure if it was anything serious. But I’m getting really frightened now.”
“Are you sure that the two things are related?” the man asked.
“Well, yes,” Blaire said. “I mean, I think so. They must be.”
“Of course it is,” I interrupted. “All these things have been happening at the same time.”
“And you don’t think it’s just some kids playing pranks? Trust me, the amount of times that it ends up being kids doing this sort of thing is more than you can imagine. I mean, it’s only been a knock on the door and a few calls. It’s not exactly life-threatening.”
“Not life threatening? What? So we’re supposed to just sit around and wait until it does become life threatening? Is that really what you’re telling me?” I asked.
I could feel myself getting angry, but the man in front of me barely blinked. He was either used to people getting upset at him or else he truly didn’t care. I had a strong suspicion that it was more the latter.
“Look, we get a million requests a day. You have to understand where we are coming from. What exactly are we supposed to do with something like this? Especially something that I’m almost certain is not a threatening situation. It’s probably just a prank. They’ll forget about it in no time.”
“Oh yeah? And if it’s not? Aren’t you part of the police force for a reason? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting us? I don’t understand why you are even here then. Surely prevention is better than cure. Can’t you trace the numbers? Can’t you get someone to watch over her?”
“I’m terribly sorry, sir, but that’s not possible. Imagine how short staffed we would be if we used all our resources on things like this. You have to understand where we are coming from.”
I shook my head.
“It’s okay,” Blaire said to me.
“No, it’s not okay. It’s really not okay,” I said. “This is ridiculous. This is absolute bullshit. I came here today because I thought that you could help her, but all you’re doing is sitting behind your desk and doing nothing. We’re nothing to you. You’re not here to save people. You’re just here to get paid. Ridiculous. Come on, Blaire; let’s go. There’s no point in us even being here!”
I took her and stormed out. I thought that perhaps the man would call us back and apologize. But he said nothing.
“This is so crazy,” I mumbled to myself as the two of us walked out.
“Oh, hey, you’re the married couple,” a police officer said as Blaire and I walked out. I had no idea what he was talking about, and at that moment the only thing I wanted to do was to get out of the station. I ignored him and kept on walking.
We got into the car and I turned toward Blaire.
“I’m so sorry about all of that. I was really hoping that they would be able to help you. I honestly thought that they would care. Stupid me.”
“Not stupid you!” Blaire said. “Stupid them. Anyway, thanks for trying, Ryan. I appreciate it.”
I shook my head. I wanted to do more than try. I wanted to help. “Well, it looks like you’re going to have to stay with me then. I’m not letting you stay here with some maniac around.”
“Oh, well . . .”
“Blaire, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. But I’d rather know that you are safe while we figure this out.”
“Are you sure you don’t mind?” she asked.
“Are you kidding me? Of course, I don’t mind. I just spent a full week with you and I’m looking forward to spending more time with you. And you’ll really make me feel a whole lot better if you’re with me then if you’re in that big house all alone.”
She nodded and smiled. “Thanks, Ryan. I’d actually really appreciate that. Hey, what did they police guy mean when he called us a married couple?”
I shook my head. “Honestly? I have no idea. I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it’s because we look so good together?”
Blaire chuckled. “That must be it.”
“Good to see you smile, Blaire. Don’t worry. We’ll get to the bottom of this. I promise you.”
She nodded. “Thanks, Ryan.”
I started the car, showed my middle finger to the police building, and we made our way back to Blaire’s house. I parked the car and got out the car with trepidation. A part of me was worried that somebody was waiting to pounce on us, even though so far the person had proven to be cowardly in their dealings with Blaire. Still, just in case, I proceeded with caution. I took her bag out the car, and we made our way toward the front door.
“Oh wow, you’re popular,” I said as I saw a bunch of letters, magazines, and newspapers lying on the front of her door.
Blaire shook her head. “I wouldn’t be surprised if half of this is absolute garbage. I don’t know why they insist on putting it at my front door rather than in my mailbox.”
She gathered everything up, and we made our way into her house.
“Wait right here,” I said to her as she locked the door. “I’m going to just do a quick run through to make sure all the windows are still locked, and nothing is out of the ordinary.”
“Thanks, Ryan,” she said.
I walked around the house, checking to see if there was anything usual, but thankfully everything seemed fine. There was still a big possibility that the person behind the phone calls and the door knockings was just a silly kid playing a prank. But still, I wanted to make sure. I walked back downstairs.
“Everything seems fine,” I called out. But when Blaire didn’t answer, I knew something was up. I saw her standing there, a magazine in her hand, just staring at the front cover.
“What’s wrong?” I asked her and quickly rushed toward her. “Did something happen? Don’t tell me someone knocked again while I was upstairs?”
She shook her head and handed the magazine straight to me. I frowned as I took it from her. There, right on the front page, was a picture of myself and Blaire. I couldn’t quite figure out where the picture was from.
“What’s this?” I asked.
“Look at the headline.”
“RYAN FIGHTS FOR BLAIRE. HOT NEW COUPLE AND THEIR SECRET MARRIAGE,” I read. Then I looked at Blaire in confusion. “Marriage? Well, that’s new.”
“And look at the picture. It’s from that time we watched the fight together. When Nick was there. I remember wearing that outfit. I see that they conveniently cut Nick out of the picture altogether.”
“The first time I saw you after Wyoming?” I said. “Oh, you’re right. Hey, wait a second. Look at your hand. They’ve put a ring on your wedding finger. You weren’t wearing that on the night, were you?”
Blaire shook her head. “Definitely not. They put that on me. That’s the problem with the media these days. It’s so easy to create something false and have the whole world believe it to be true. And there’s a whole article inside about this secret marriage that you and I apparently have. I cannot believe someone sat down and wrote an entire article that they made up about us.”
I groaned. “What’s wrong with people? Do they not care at all about the truth anymore? Wow, there must be very little news out there in the world if this is what they are focusing on. I swear, people have nothing better to do with their time.”
“Tell me about it,” she said and sighed. “This is the last thing I need right now.”
“Do you think that the person that’s been harassing you and the person that wrote this article is the same person?” I asked suddenly as the idea came into my head. Maybe all it had been was the media trying to get into her head. I wouldn’t put it past them. They had, after all, just made up the entire thing.
Blaire shrugged. “I have no idea. Well, they’re certainly going to have a field day when they find out that I’m living with you for a few days.”
I chuckled. “Oh well, let them wonder. I actually don’t care right now.”
“Neither do I.”