April 6, 2010
4:30 p.m.
Westchester County Airport

“I’m gonna miss you,” I murmured into Cole’s as ear as we embraced in a hug.
He sighed and murmured back, “I’m gonna miss you too.” He pulled his face away so that it was only about an inch away from mine, then his lips met mine. The kiss was soft and only lasted for a couple of seconds, but it still put butterflies in my stomach. When it ended, he pressed forehead against mine and looked down at me. We shared a look, both remembering what we had done about six hours ago.
Both of us grinned uncontrollably at our special little secret. I had been petrified the entire time, all the way up until it was over. But I was still glad we’d done it. I had finally slept with Cole. He was my first…and hopefully my last. I could definitely see us being together for the rest of our lives. I didn’t want to be intimate with anyone else. Just Cole. He was my one and only.
Back when Ash was still in the picture, I wasn’t able to see myself with Cole ten years from now. I could only see myself with Ash. Now I was beginning to realize that my love for Ash was blinding me from what could possibly happen between Cole and I.
Of course I still loved Ash, but I couldn’t have him anymore. And just because I loved Ash didn’t mean that I couldn’t love Cole too. It didn’t mean that Cole was the wrong person for me, because he most definitely wasn’t. I loved Cole, and our love was now made official by our own secret encounter of intimacy. The thought of that sent thrilled shivers up and down my spine. It was just so romantic.
“Ok, well I’ve got to go catch my flight before it leaves without me.” Cole told me, pulling away from me.
“Would that really be a bad thing?” I wondered aloud. If it meant keeping him here with me then it would be a great thing.
He smiled and sighed deeply, pecking me on the lips once again. “I have to go, ok?” he said.
“Bye,” I called after him as he turned on the heel of his worn black Converse and began walking away towards his terminal. He turned back quickly to wave one last goodbye before boarding his plane. Then I watched him as he padded off with his suitcase in one hand. I watched until I couldn’t make him out anymore, then sighed deeply and turned around to leave.
That was it. He was gone. For two whole months, he was gone.

About half an hour later, after getting through all the crazy airport traffic, I arrived at home. I wasn’t hungry, so I decided to skip out on dinner tonight. Instead, I trudged upstairs to my room. Mom wasn’t home from work yet, but she would be soon. It was just me and her now. Maybe tomorrow I’d go job-hunting. I desperately needed some money, so getting a job would be probably be pretty beneficial for me.
When I reached my room, I plopped down on my bed, causing my cell phone to bounce up and down. I’d forgotten that I’d left it on my bed earlier this morning. I hadn’t checked it at all that day so I flipped it open, only to see that I had two new texts. I opened up the first one, which was from Kristy.
Hey just wanted to make sure ur doing ok…I gotta work again today but hit me up later tonight if u wanna meet at Sadie’s for dinner or something
It was a nice gesture, but I honestly didn’t feel like meeting up with Kristy at Sadie’s tonight. So I texted her back, letting her down easy.
I’m actually pretty tired. Maybe we can meet up tomorrow instead.
I hit send and flipped to my next text message while I waited for her to reply back. But the moment I read who it was from, I felt sick to my stomach. It was from the person who had been sending creepy texts to Will and I, the same unknown number. I was tempted to just delete the text message without even giving it a single glance, but my curiosity ended up getting the best of me.
Sleeping with Cole? And I thought you were a prude…Will’s going to have to hear about this one.
I felt my insides turn to mush as I read those menacing words over and over again. This person knew what Cole and I had done. The only way he or she could’ve possibly figured it out would be if they were watching us. I shuddered, feeling disgusted, terrified and furious all at the same time.
I wanted to know who this freak was and why the hell he or she was doing this to me! It was beginning to really piss me off…not to mention freak me out. This person was stalking me. I wasn’t sure why, but I had a pretty good hunch that it was a guy. Mostly because I was beginning to believe that it was Michael after all.
Ash wouldn’t do this. Ash wouldn’t hold things over my head like this. He wouldn’t threaten to tell Will about Cole and I. Because if Will found out about what I’d done with Cole, he was sure to snap. He was already angry with me for all the things I said and did to him in those few days we were living together in our cars. If he found out that I’d already moved on and went back to Cole he’d be livid.
But if he found out that I’d also slept with him…well there really wasn’t a word that could properly describe how incredibly outraged he’d be. I knew that he’d never really liked Cole very much. Mostly because Cole had hated him ever since the moment he laid eyes on him. I was now realizing just how right Cole was for hating him though.
But it really didn’t matter why Will hated Cole. What mattered was that this creeper of mine was going to tell Will what Cole and I had done together. I had no idea what Will would do once he found out, but I did know that he, like Michael, was roaming around freely somewhere. The cops hadn’t found either of the McKnight twins yet. So if this anonymous texter actually did tell Will about Cole and I, then Will could very well be on his way over to my house at that exact moment.
Maybe he’d try to force me into getting back together with him. Or maybe he’d try to strangle me again. I swallowed back the lump that was welling up in my throat and sucked in a deep breath. Tears were brimming my eyes; I was so afraid now. I needed some sense of comfort, some sense of protection. I needed Cole. I’d have given anything to have had him there with me. But no, he was on his way back to Michigan.
I sighed deeply as my phone vibrated in my hand, letting me know that I had an incoming text. I scrolled over to my new text, which was a reply from Kristy.
Sounds good to me…meet you there around 7:00?
I sent her a quick confirmation text and then went back to the text message I’d received from my creepy stalker. Then I hit the reply button and typed in the text that I would send back to this freak.
I don’t know who you are or what you want from me, but you’ve got to stop stalking me like this. If you don’t, I’ll call the police. This is your one and only warning.
I hit the send button, feeling confident in myself. That was sure to scare off whoever the hell this person was. I was pretty positive that this person didn’t want to get arrested, but if I told the cops about him, he most definitely would. The police could use the messages he’d been sending me to track him down. This was actually the first time that this occurred to me.
It was a pretty great idea though. Why wouldn’t I tell the cops? I grinned to myself, grateful to finally be ending all this whole creepy-anonymous-texting drama. So it was decided. I no longer cared whether or not this person continued to send me text messages. Either way, I was going to the police about it. In fact, why not go right now?
I rose to my feet and headed for my bedroom door, finally feeling a bit of relief over this whole stalker-texting situation I was in…until my phone buzzed in my hand with a new text message. It was a reply from my creeper. Smirking smugly, I flipped open my phone to read what he had to say now that he was caught.
You tell the cops, Cole dies. You keep your mouth shut, and your little boyfriend gets to keep his life. The choice is yours.
I felt my chest get tight and my breathing grew short and choppy. I felt like I was going to throw up. He had to be bluffing. There was no way he would actually kill Cole. He couldn’t. If he murdered Cole, I’d have nothing left. Ash was already dead. I couldn’t possibly lose Cole too.
I closed my eyes to block the tears from escaping, but they found a way out anyways. I took in a deep, shaky breath as tears streaked my cheeks. I couldn’t believe this was happening. Cole’s life was at stake now, all thanks to me. All I could think about now was that if Cole were to die, I wouldn’t ever be able to forgive myself.
I wouldn’t let that happen though. I couldn’t let it happen. Instead, I needed to find a way to bust my creeper without going to the cops about it. How was I possibly going to do that though? And then an idea popped into my head.
What if I told the cops now? Cole was fifty thousand feet in the air right now. There was no possible way that my stalker could go kill him. As long as I told the police and they tracked him down, everything would be good. Cole would be safe, I would be creeper-free and I’d finally be able to stop wondering who the hell had been stalking me for the past week. So I dialed 9-1-1 into my phone and pressed it up to my ear.
“Westchester Police Department, what’s your emergency?” a deep, husky voice answered on the second ring.
“Hi, my name is Evalynne Mongolia and I’d just like to support some threatening text messages that I’ve been receiving from a blocked number the last couple of days. I’m pretty sure whoever’s been sending them has been stalking me because he seems to know about everything that I do. And in the last text he sent me, he threatened to kill my boyfriend if I went to the police with this.” I explained to the officer.
“Alright, and where is your boyfriend right now?” he asked, sounding more alert now that he knew the situation I was in.
“He’s actually on a plane, flying to Michigan. He goes to college there so he’s just flying back.” I told him. “I figured if I told you about this situation now, then Cole would be safe since he’s currently flying somewhere over Pennsylvania.”
“Ok, you did the right thing.” he replied. “We’re going to do all that we can to help you, miss Mongolia. Right now, we’re entering you’re phone number into our computer so we can get a look at the texts this person has been sending you. We’ll go from there to try and track down the cell phone he’s been using to send them.”
“Thank you very much,” I responded gratefully. This had actually been much simpler than I’d thought it would be.
“No problem,” he said. “We’ll call you as soon as we have any updates.”
“Ok, thanks again. Bye,” I hung up my cell phone and let out a deep sigh of relief. Cole was safe, the police were tracking down my stalker and they would call me back with updates as soon as possible. Now all I had to do was wait for them to call.