Page 39 of Psycho

I climbed on the back, and we drove out of there, leaving the whimpering fuckhead behind.

7

LAINEY

I wokeup early in the morning to the sound of Dad snoring out in the living room.

I must have been exhausted because I didn’t even hear him come in last night, and usually, I had my ears open for that.

I quickly got ready for school and opened the door, pulling up short when I caught sight of a small black gift box sitting there.

I eyed it warily.

We didn’t live in the kind of neighborhood where it was normal to just receive gifts.

And I didn’t know anyone who gave me anything, unless this was either from my stalker, or Garrett trying to apologize.

If that was the case, he could fucking shove this gift box up his ass.

I never thought I would ever prefer gifts from my stalker over Garrett.

I closed the front door behind me and sat down on the small steps where the box was placed, trying to check for a card.

There was nothing.

Slowly, I pulled on the ribbon and set it down on the steps before I opened the lid.

I blinked.

It took me a second too long to make sense of what I was seeing, and then I pushed off the stairs and moved to the side of the trailer, clutching my stomach and hurling what was left of the cheeseburger from the night before to the dead brown grass beneath.

Ah, fuck.

Tears stung my eyes, and I found myself dry heaving when I had expelled all the stuff from my stomach.

I closed my eyes and tried to get the image of the…

Of thethumbout of my mind.

What kind of sick fuck would send me that?

I shook my head.

I didn’t want to look back inside the box, but what the hell was I supposed to do with it?

I crouched down and tried to think.

Whywould someone send that to me?

Unless it wasn’t for me but for Dad.

What kind of shit had he gotten himself into?

Slowly, I wiped my mouth and stood up, looking over to the stairs to where the box was still at.

I hadn’t expected it would disappear when I went to throw up or for it to be nothing more than my imagination because of stress and exhaustion, but wouldn’t that have been easier?

It was still there, and I didn’t…

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