At first, I was relieved when I saw Max on the caller ID. I was afraid it'd be the man telling me he killed someone else or was outside the Airbnb or something like that.

But then my stomach dropped at the fire in Caleb's eyes.

"Caleb..."

Caleb grabbed my phone and picked up, putting it to his ear.

"Hello?" Caleb said.

"Caleb stop!" I protested, jumping on him. He easily kept me away from the phone.

"Yeah, this is Doe's phone. Who are you, may I ask?"

"Caleb!" I growled. "Get off the phone!"

"Yeah Max, that's Doe. She's trying to get her phone back. She didn't want me picking up." He outstretched his arm, pushing me away from him.

"Caleb, I'm going to punch you!" I shouted.

"Who am I? One sec." Caleb put the phone face down on the bed stand and pounced on me, taking both my hands in one of his and pulling them far above my head. He laid down on me and with his other hand picked up my phone.

"Yeah, everything is all right here. I'm Caleb. I'm Doe's boyfriend. You?"

I heard laughing on the other end of the phone line. And then he spoke.

"No one special? Well, that's a relief for me, right?" Caleb laughed, earning a chuckle from the other line.

"So do answer this: why are you calling her?" He listened.

"Yeah, it's a little weird for you to be calling her."

"Get off the phone, Caleb!" I shouted.

"One more sec." Caleb turned to me and smashed his lips against mine. They moved against mine with hunger and possession. The phone call melted away. I no longer cared about it. I didn't want the kiss to stop.

He pulled away and said, "Yeah, sorry. We're gonna go. Bye." His lips were on my mine immediately after he hung up and his arms were snaking around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

"You're mine," he whispered. "Mine. All mine."

"I never said I wasn't yours," I breathed as he kissed my neck. "You got jealous."

"I can't help it," he mumbled on my neck, causing a chill to spread about my body. "You're a heartthrob. Any guy would want you and try to steal you away from me."

"So have some faith in me," I said, but hardly. "I... Caleb, stop, I can't think." He chuckled against my skin. I was finding my will to speak was diminishing. I wanted to stop thinking.

"Ahem!" my grandfather interrupted. We immediately scrambled away from each other. "So this is what happens when your grandma and I aren't around?"

"Rarely," I said, still a little breathless.

"You two aren't allowed to be alone anymore--"

"Grandpa!--"

"Don't 'Grandpa' me! You're my responsibility now. There's no way this happening under my supervision. And you, young man, can pack your bags if you're gonna try making passes at my granddaughter!"

"Mr. Grandpa, I wasn't, I swear. I'd never try to do anything to hurt Doe," Caleb said, looking embarrassed.

"Oh, yeah? Do you love her?" he asked. That threw Caleb off.

"Yes, of course, I--"

"No, let me rephrase. Are you in love with her?" Caleb went silent and looked away.

"Ah, you're not. So how could you possibly not be doing this for your own self-gain? In my time if a man wasn't madly in love with you, he wouldn't do anything for a girl, only for himself."

"With all due respect sir, this isn't your time anymore. It's not like that now. I care too much about Doe to hurt her. To use her. I may not be in love with her yet but I'm willing to go down that path. In fact, I want to."

My heart started pounding after hearing his words.

"Get downstairs, the both of you."

I was about to follow when he grabbed my forearm.

"He's a keeper."

***

Max sent me another text message:

Srry if I made you 2 fight. I meant no harm. Honestly, u'r beautiful but I don't have an attraction to u. U'r familiar in a way I can't put my finger on.

Excitement spread through my chest as I replied:

No harm done! He kissed his fears away so it worked out. I've been feeling the same way. You're so familiar for some reason. That's why I accepted your number and let you have mine.

About two minutes later he replied:

Yeah it's weird. Idk what it is. I feel like we met before when we were younger...?

I thought for a moment before I responded:

Idk about that. I just know that you're familiar.

He replied:

😂😂 well hmu if u ever need anything.

I replied:

Will do. You as well! 👌🏻

And the convo ended there.

Caleb looked at me with suspicious eyes when seeing the smile on my face.

"Were you talking to Max?" he asked.

"Read!" I said, scooting closer to him on the couch and handing him my phone. He looked to read the messages and said, "Hm."

"Hm?" I questioned. "Really?"

"I don't trust him," he finally said.

"That's because you're jealous," I snapped.

"I'm not."

"Yes, you are."

"Doe," Caleb warned. "Stop."

"You're not putting your trust into me. You're getting jealous over nothing--"

"Doe!" Caleb snapped. "I said stop!"

It was the first time Caleb ever got angry at me. I didn't know how to feel and my stupid lips wouldn't obey me.

"No! You're being a jerk! Don't you trust me?!" I said, my voice raising.

Caleb closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His colors all turned black and they jerked around him wildly.

"Doe, please let it go."

But I was too stubborn to let it go.

"If you want me to let it go then you need to promise me you won't get upset if I talk to him!"

He spun towards me and caught my chin in his hand.

"Riddle me this, sweetheart, would you like it if I was texting some random girl constantly and made up some excuse of 'she's so familiar?'"

"It's not an excuse!"

"I want you to see how I see it," he said, calmly. His colors were changing to a calmer tone.

"That's stupid! Why don't you trust me?" I snapped.

"It's not that I don't trust you. I don't trust him." He released his grip (which was surprisingly soft) from my face.

I went silent and just sighed.

"So what do you want?" I asked. "What do you want from me?"

"Don't message him unnecessarily. You don't have to reply to all his messages..."

"Caleb..."

And then my phone started ringing. I looked down and to my utter disappointment saw that it was an unknown caller. Anger was replaced by fear.

Caleb's arm wrapped around my shoulder.

"Don't pick up."

"I feel like if I ignore there'll be consequences."

"So let's go outside to the police and put it on speaker."

***

"Hello?" I mumbled.

"Hello, Doe." The man's voice sent shivers down my spine.

"What do you want?"

"Is that any way to talk to someone who is trying to be nice?"

"Be nice?! You--" One of the officers around me put their hand on my shoulder and mouthed, "Be polite."

"Doe? Is someone there?"

"I wish," I mumbled.

"I'm going to lay off of you for a while. I have business out of town to take care of. I bet you're happy to hear that."

"Ya bet right."

"Watch yourself, Doe. I'll call you back in a week to a month. Then our business will resume." He then hung up.

I turned and looked at Caleb. He looked back at me.

I didn't feel safe. With all these police officers around me out on the porch, I didn't feel safe. I felt like I was already in the grasps of the man.

***

"How about I take the kids out," Mr. Russell suggested. "I mean, she looks miserable!"

I was laying on the couch curled into a ball while Caleb stroked my hair. My grandma looked over to me, sympathetically.

"As long as there are enough police escorts, I think that'd be fine," my grandpa said.

"Come on, Doe," Caleb said, lifting me up.

Mr. Russell took Caleb and me in his car and started tapping the steering wheel. I watched him carefully, expecting him to start speeding to get away from the police that was following behind us.

In fact, I got so nervous that I wrapped my arms around Caleb's neck, causing him to wrap his around my body.

"You okay?" he whispered. I nodded.

"I've got it! You guys want to go to a movie?" Mr. Russell asked.

"No," I mumbled.

"To the mall?" he asked.

"Ooh, that's a good idea!" Caleb interjected, instead of letting me answer.

"But--"

"Let's do that!"

"Excellent! I'll buy you anything and everything you want," Mr. Russell said.

"Mr. Russell, that won't be necessary," I said, horrified at the thought of him spending his money on me.

"It's my treat to you guys," Mr. Russell said.

When we arrived at the mall, we walked around aimlessly at first, while Mr. Russell joked around and told stories. I'd listen, but every once and a while I'd look around, expecting to be followed, or for someone to get cut open in front of me because they got in the way of the man.

The only ones following us were scattered members of the police.

"Doe," Mr. Russell said, catching my attention. I realized I was squeezing Caleb's arm. Caleb looked just as concerned as Mr. Russell did.

I hesitated. "I'm... I'm making sure we aren't being followed."

"Doe, I won't let him hurt you. I promise. You're my responsibility right now. I'll keep you safe," Mr. Russell said. I nodded gratefully and kept my eyes forward.

We stopped at some name-brand store to look for clothes for me. I wasn't interested in anything, so Caleb started picking out some things for me.

"This is nice?" he asked, showing me a flannel shirt.

"I guess."

"Try it, honey."

"Honeybunny."

"Honey bunny yummy," he teased, and kissed me, earning a smile from me. He then handed me the shirt.

"Go," he said, nudging me towards the changing room.

I changed and then came out for him to see. He smiled and gave an approving nod.

"You like?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's nice."

Mr. Russell came walking over.

"You wanna get it?" he asked.

"Sure...?"

"Don't get anything you don't like," he laughed.

"No it's nice, I just feel bad taking a teacher's money."

"As I said before, it's my treat."

"I know," I said, shyly.

"Come on. Go choose more stuff."

***

By the time we went to the food court, I had acquired a new wardrobe. Caleb hardly got anything. I could sense favoritism towards me, but Caleb didn't seem to mind. Caleb wanted me to get way more things than he got.

I felt so guilty and didn't want to even accept Mr. Russell's offer of getting me food.

As we sat and ate, Mr. Russell started asking Caleb and me some questions.

"How are you guys feeling?" he asked.

"I'm fine," Caleb lied.

"Same," I lied as well.

"I know you guys aren't." I shrugged and Caleb just went silent.

"Are you scared, Doe?" Mr. Russell asked. "Because you shouldn't be. We're all here for you."

"This man is crazy. I don't feel safe around anybody except my grandparents and Caleb."

"I hope you know that I won't hurt you. I want to protect you as much as anyone else. Of course, you don't have to believe me. But those are my intentions. I'm ready to stop that guy."

"Thank you," I responded, looking down at my food.

After we ate, we all walked out slowly to the car. I looked around the store and to other people who were living their lives out normally. It made me envious.

We walked to the car, the police in the lead now.

Mr. Russell pressed the button to unlock the car. That's when it exploded.