Page 1 of Marked By my Stalker
Chapter One
Kera
The campus at CSU is small in comparison to Harvard or the University of Colorado, but it’s still bigger than I expected, though that might be the small-town girl in me talking. The longer I’m here, the more I know that as truth.
I’m meant for a little town in the middle of the country, where everyone knows your name and the flowers are as wild as the people.Not whatever this is.
Here, there are more cars than flowers, and people love hollering and cussing at each other. Last week I saw a woman scream at an old lady for cutting her off in traffic. That should be against the law. The only reprieve I’ve gotten is the little town of Rugged Mountain, about an hour and a half away from here.
I happened upon it after a car accident last semester, which was no big deal, just a little fender bender, but it has prompted my mother to go into a complete frenzy.
“Mom, call your henchman off. I don’t need a babysitter. I’m almost twenty years old. I can handle this.”
“Not what your car said last semester when you ended up in a ditch for two hours waiting for help.”
“I did get help though, and I’m fine. I’m proving I can handle myself.”
“You’re proving you need someone to look out for you. Do you know what kind of weirdos there are out there? I heard onthe news last night that a man took a girl straight from her dorm room, never to be seen again.”
I roll my eyes as I hold my cell phone away from my ear. “Mom, I saw the same news story. They found her. She was at a party. The guy who‘took’her was her boyfriend. It was clickbait.”
She huffs under her breath. “The point is… a young girl your age isn’t safe out there all alone. If I could drive out there and watch you twenty-four hours a day, I would. Would you rather that?”
I’m not sure what kind of manipulation this is to offer an even worse scenario instead of the already terrible one as a way to make peace, but my mother nails it.
“Mom, come on. This is embarrassing as hell. The dude is the least conspicuous man ever. He’s like seven feet tall, and he looks like an actual monster. People notice him.”
“Good,” she perks, “then people will stay away from you.”
“I don’t want people to stay away from me. I want to have fun. I want to make friends. I want to get to know—”
“You have Brick. Brick is a good boy. Reminds me of your dad, that one.” I don’t know what world my mother is living in, but Brick is nothing like my father.
“Mom, Brick is—”
“Handsome, funny, strong, helpful…” She talks about him like he walks on water, but I’d have broken things off with him months ago if my mom weren’t so adamant I didn’t. I can’t put my finger on what sets me off about him, but it’ssomething.“Plus,” she continues, “random men these days are weird. You could get mixed up with the wrong one and end up murdered. Or worse, they put all your personal information online.”
I squint my eyes and shake my head. “How is that worse?”
“Anyway, the bodyguard is staying.”
“Mom, no. Ya know what… I bet campus security will shut this down when I tell them some old man is hanging around the girls’ dorms.”
“I had him call ahead and make arrangements with security.”
“Arrangements with security? What?”
“He’s ex-military. He has loads of connections with folks, which is pretty convenient, all things considered. Honey,” she sighs as though the conversation is over, “let’s see how this semester goes, okay? If you do well and there are no incidents, I’ll consider pulling back on the bodyguard thing.”
“Where are you even getting the money for this? You’ve been pinching pennies since Dad died. We ate ramen so we could afford the tuition to this place.”
“I picked up extra shifts at the bank. A few extra Saturdays are worth the price of your safety. I love you, Kera. That’s all this is.Love.”
I know deep down my mother’s terrible anxiety is probably some sort of undiagnosed mental health thing that surfaced after Dad died, but I don’t know how I’m supposed to go on this semester knowing every single day I’ve got this seven-foot giant following me everywhere.
People are already talking.
My roommate Penny bursts into the room, slings her backpack onto her bed, and tosses herself onto the mattress face first with a groan.
