Page 39 of Driftwood Daffodil 3

Glancing back at her, I hissed, “Shut. The fuck. Up.” then continued to inch closer to the door.

“Fuck you. I will say… Why are you creeping around like you’re in a mission impossible movie?”

I let out a sigh, and chose to ignore her.

“Oh, so now you’re not talking to me. Fine, see if?—”

Nova’s voice drowned out when my eyes dropped down to the porch. There was a cigarette pack laying on the ground. It wasn’t mine, and it wasn’t Nova’s. If she was a secret smoker, I would’ve smelled it on her. Meaning someone had been out there.

“Does your neighbor smoke?”

“What?”

I looked over my shoulder and repeated, “does your neighbor smoke?”

“Are you crazy?” Her lip curled. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Does he or doesn’t he?” It was a simple yes or no answer.

“You can’t just come over here and be all take it Nova, and say you’re mine, then out of the blue start creeping around and ask about smoking.” She lifted her arm and pointed at me. “I do not have enough alcohol in my system to deal with that kind of randomness.”

“Just answer the damn question.”

“No, my neighbor does not smoke.” She sang with a snide head nod. “So you’ll have to get your nicotine fix somewhere else.”

“I don’t smoke.”

“Then why did you ask?”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Oh, of course. Don’t worry about it.” She threw her hands up in the air. “Why didn’t I think of that.”

“Stop being so dramatic.”

She stopped and stared at me.

I stared back at her.

“You know what…” Nova twirled her hand in the air and headed down the hall. “I don’t have the patience to deal with you right now.”

I watched her stomp off and waited until a door slammed before pulling out my phone. There was no need to tell her anything about what I saw – not that I would’ve if there was. Besides, I had a good idea who it was.

Looking down at my phone, I typed out a text.

Me: Are you following me?

Romeo: Should I be?

Me: Cut the shit Romeo, I know you’re watching me.

What was it going to take to convince my father that I didn’t need supervision?

Romeo: Why the fuck would I be watching you? Aren’t you in school?

That made me stop and think. Technically, right now I should be in school. The only person who knew I was coming here was Darry, and he wouldn’t say shit to my brother. But, that didn’t mean he wasn’t spying on me.

Me: You left your cigarettes on the porch.

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