Page 48 of Love at a 7-Eleven

"Are you ready?" he said.

"I guess we do need to go," I agreed, sitting up and settling back into the passenger's seat. I straightened up and put on my seatbelt, and before I knew it we were on the road.

We drove for ten or fifteen minutes, heading to Drakes.

"Are you okay?" I asked, seeing him stare into the rearview mirror with a concerned expression. My first thought was that we were getting pulled over, but we were on a quiet neighborhood street and I didn't see any lights or sign of a cop. He crept to the side of the road and parked in front of a random house.

"There's a car that was following me. It stopped back there on the other side of that house. I turned into this neighborhood, and… I think it's Bailey behind us."

I looked back to see if I could see anything.

"The car stopped around that corner, but it's been behind us since we left golf. I thought I saw it earlier, too. That's why I drove back in this neighborhood, to see if it would follow me."

"And it did?" I asked, still looking.

"Yes," he agreed.

He grabbed my hand and stared at me, his dark eyes searching my own. "I'm pretty sure it's Bailey. And honestly, Lila, I hate it. This is too much. I have to deal with it."

"What are you going to do?" I asked him since I could tell he was taking some kind of action.

"I'm going to talk to her. Can you do me a favor and wait here in this car, even if it takes a little while?"

"Yes. I'll wait."

"Thank you. I might be fast. I'm gonna go see if it's her. If so, I'm going to take a minute and talk to her."

"What if she hurts you?" I said, feeling like it was a reasonable fear.

"She won't," he said, nodding like he felt sure of himself. He seemed serious, like he was in a hurry to go take care of it, so I just let him go.

I turned in my seat and watched as he walked away. He walked to the end of the block, and then he disappeared around a corner where I could no longer see him. I locked the car doors and stared at my phone in an effort to distract myself and try not to feel stressed as I waited for him. I told myself to forget about how long it had been, but it was impossible. I watched the clock. I also watched the rearview mirror, looking for his form to appear. Between all that watching, I checked his YouTube and could see that he had posted a video earlier today. I clicked on it and watched the first five minutes.

Finally, I saw Caleb approaching when I glanced in the mirror, and I paused the video. He was visible in the passenger's side rearview mirror as he was walking up the sidewalk toward me. He wasn't moving as quickly now. Even in his walk, he seemed less anxious. I watched as he crossed in front of me to the driver's side and I pressed the button to unlock the door and let him in.

He opened the door and sat inside, staring straight ahead at the steering wheel and taking a deep breath.

He seemed stunned.

"She's gone," he said.

It was weird how he said it.

"Like gone-gone?"

"Yes. We left it at us not working together anymore. She left, and she's not going to bother us again."

"Really? How? What happened?"

"I can't even tell you. I can mostly tell you, but I don't remember exactly what I said. Someone once told me that if you want a person to leave you alone, just tell them how much you love Jesus."

"So that's what happened?"

"Yes."

"Really? I thought she knew that already."

"Me too. But I guess I was…" He hesitated, shaking his head thoughtfully as if remembering how it all happened. "We were talking, and at first, I was trying to reason with her. It was the same stuff we've been going over for the last two days. She couldn’t or wouldn't comprehend that I had feelings for you." He paused and shook his head. "She was so locked-in on what she wanted and uncomprehending of what I was saying that I thought there was honestly no chance of getting through to her. Obviously, it was not okay that she followed us for hours tonight."

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