“Put some pillows under your comforter. So it looks like you’re there sleeping peacefully if anyone checks on you.”
Okay.I stuffed some pillows and my red panda stuffie underneath my comforter and looked up at the camera in the corner of my bedroom. I adjusted a few of the pillows for the angle and nodded. That would do.
My phone buzzed again and I looked down at the new text: “Go! Now!”
Shit, suddenly I wasn’t ready. My heart started beating faster in my chest as I slowly opened my bedroom door. I looked both ways to make sure no one was watching.
“Stop pussyfooting around, Scar. There’s no time.” Another text came almost immediately: “Go. Go, go, go!”
I’m not pussyfooting. I’m double checking.“Go where?” He still hadn’t told me what the plan was.
“Past your parents’ bedroom and down the stairs.”
I followed his instructions and paused at the bottom of the stairs. I was just about to text him, but he texted me first.
“Go through the living room.”
How did he know I was ready for my next set of instructions? Or that I had actually kind of been pussyfooting around a minute ago? I looked up at the security camera mounted in the corner of the wall. “RJ, are you watching me?”
“I hacked into the security cameras,” he texted. “Go. Now.”
How the hell had he done that? I shook my head. I didn’t even want to know. “Shouldn’t I go to the front door?”
“Stop being basic and listen to me for one second.”
“But…” I started to text.
“Get your ass through the living room right now.”
RJ was so bossy. I ran through the living room.
“Now go right.”
I turned to go into the downstairs powder room.
“Not the bathroom. The hallway. Why would I be sending you into the bathroom?”
I don’t know.How was I supposed to know what he was doing? He hadn’t told me the plan. He just said go right. I turned down the hall that led to both my parents’ home offices and the guest rooms. I don’t know why I was walking down this hall either. I quickly texted him. “Seriously, why am I not going to the front door?” There was no way out down here.
“Are you trying to get caught, baby doll?”
“Stop calling me that.” I walked toward my mom’s office even though none of this made any sense.
“It’s your code name for Operation Trap.”
“Operation Trap? RJ, what are you talking about?”
“Stop, you’ve gone too far. Go into the second guest room on the right,” he texted.
I peered over my shoulder at the door. “Why?”
“Just do it! We don’t have time for your dillydallying!”
“You’re the one dillydallying, RJ. This whole time you could have just told me to go to the second guest bedroom instead of all those other instructions. Or we could have been talking instead of texting. That would have saved loads of time.” I backtracked to the room he’d mentioned.
“Shush your face,” he texted back.
I shook my head and opened the door to the guest bedroom. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d been in here. Probably when I was playing hide-and-go-seek years ago or something.