Calum’s POV

I pick up Mikey and we go over our plan on the ride there.
“So, I go in, you stand for look out” Mikey says, and I nod.
“You have the vial?” I ask and he shows it to me. The little bugs are walking inside it, and it’s a bit disguisting “Good. Have your phone on silent.”
He turns his phone on silent, and we stop at a traffic light.
“Remember, don’t put all of them-“
“Yes, I know” Mikey says “Some of them in her closet, some of them on the headboard at her bed”
“Good” I say and we finally near her house. I park a couple of houses away, just in case, and we are out of the car.
Both of us are dressed in black, head to toe, and even though what we are doing is kinda childish and stupid, it feels exciting.
We get to her house. The lights are off in her bedroom, which I have been in, so I know which window it is. We sneak around the back, and make sure no one is around. Ashley’s room is on the ground floor, so we try the window and it’s locked.
“Shit” He says “Why didn’t we plan this through?” He says.
“Relax” I say. We then try the back door, which is right next to her room, thankfully, but it’s locked as well. Luckily, I know where she keeps the spare key. It’s always in a little box buried in the bushes, so I take it out and unlock it as slowly and quietly as I can. We wait for a couple of seconds after hearing the click, and Mikey creeps in.
I stand outside, and see him in through the window getting in Ashley’s room. He gives me a thumbs up, and then takes out the vial. I keep watch, make sure there are no sounds around the house, and in a couple of agonising minutes, Mikey comes out, and we hurriedly lock the door, put the key back and start creeping around again. We don’t talk, just in case, until we are in the car.
“We’re fucking ninjas!” Mikey exclaim in the car as I laugh and text Ash.
‘A’s house is done. Is C there yet?’
We wait for a reply and then Ash texts back ‘Not yet’
We sit in the car then, and wait for the go-text.


Addie’s POV

Lucy and I get to Stephen’s house. Aggie texts me that mom won’t be back until later which makes me ease up a bit.
“Text me if something goes wrong, please!” I say, and she laughs.
“Dude, I got your back” We go around the house, which has the lights on downstairs, but the rooms upstairs are dark. Calum told me which one is Stephen’s room, but there is no way to get up there. We have a plan for that as well.
We walk to the tree on the other side, and I climb on. This one is close to a balcony, which is Stephen’s parent’s room. I hope the balcony door is unlocked. I manage to get myself over the railing and give Lucy the thumbs up. She hides in the shadow of the house.
I try the balcony door, and it’s opened. When I enter it’s suddenly really quiet. Or I’m just noticing this now. I walk slowly, on my toes, towards the door of the room. I open it just a tiny bit to listen for footsteps, but there are none. I can hear the TV downstairs. I slowly, agonisingly slowly, walk towards the other end of the hallway, and enter Stephen’s room. I have a mini flashback to that first night, when Chris and his two other friends tried to…yeah. I freeze up, suddenly the feeling of being trapped and nausea comes back to me. But I shake it off, when I hear someone laugh downstairs. I need to focus!
I take out the vial from my backpack, my phone in my other hand, and i open Stephen’s closet. It’s a mess. So i open up the vial, and let out a couple of bugs before i close it. It’s disgusting. But I have to push through. Then, I go to his bed, and release some more on his headboard. They scatter behind it, and under the mattress and I pray they reproduce fast.
I walk towards the door, having a sense of accomplishment and small victory when I hear steps outside.
“I think it’s in Stephen’s room. I’ll get it” I hear his dad say and I freeze
I quickly text ‘help’ to Lucy and scramble to hide. I get under the bed, which i regret immediately, because there are porn DVDs and dirty underwear and a used condom. This boy really needs to clean his room.
The door opens and i hold my breath. I can hear my heart, slamming against my chest, and i see his dad’s footsteps. Come on, Lucy!
“I can’t find it!” He yells back the person downstairs, which I assume is Stephen’s mom.
“Try under the bed!” She yells back and I almost, feel my heart coming out of my chest. But just that second, the doorbell rings.
“Can you get that? I’m going to the bathroom!” His wife yells, and then the man stops. The doorbell rings again.
“Coming!!!” He moves towards the, door, turns off the lights, and walks downstairs.
I quickly scramble from underneath the bed, run, as quietly as I can to their bedroom, out the balcony and into the tree. I feel as if it’s an out of body experience, I don’t think, I just do. And as I’m climbing down, I hear Lucy’s voice from the front of the house.
“Oh I’m so sorry, I must’ve gotten the wrong address, I’m not from here” She is saying.
“That’s alright sweetie. It’s just a couple of streets over” Stephen dad is saying.
“Thank you. Sorry to bother you” Her voice is so sweet, she doesn’t even sound like Lucy.
“No problem. Have a good night”
“Thank you. You too” And then the door is closed, I am on the ground and am running for our meet up point. Which is two houses from this one. Lucy is there.
“What happened?” She asks, and I explain as best as I can while we’re walking as far as we can. “What could Stephen be hiding under his bed, that his dad would be looking for?!”
“A used condom?” I suggest and she looks at me like ‘be serious’ and then her expression changes to ‘seriously?!’ “Oh yeah. Pretty gross. Cannot unsee it”
“Ewwwww” Lucy laughs. We walk towards Lucy’s house, and she texts Luke
‘Stephen’s house is done. What’s the update?’
Luke texts back in a minute ‘still no sign of Chris and Marissa. Will text when they show up’
She puts her phone away and then Cal calls me.
“Hello” I pick up.
“How’s it going?” He asks.
“Most of it according to plan” I say and laugh.
“Most of it?” He asks.
“I’ll tell you later. How’s it going with you guys?” I ask.
“We’re just waiting for Chris to leave.” He says, and then we fall silent.
“We’re ninjas!” I hear Michael, who’s most likely sitting next to Cal. “We should do this more often, I’m loving it!”
“Oh, wait, I think Chris is getting in his car. I’ll text you guys when we’re done” He says.
“Kay! Try not to get caught” I say, and i hear him laugh before he hangs up.
“Chris is leaving his house, which probably means, he’s picking up Marissa.
“Then let’s get a move on” Lucy answers and we speed up.
It’s almost 11, and we’re hiding on the side of Lucy’s house, in the shadows, waiting for Chris’s car. She walks out, wearing a short dress and heels, and she gets in her car. We still wait for Luke to text us that we’re in the clear, just in case. We wait 10 minutes, then 20, but nothing happens.
‘C is here, but no M’
“Let’s go” I say and we move across the street. Marissa’s room is facing the street, and it’s upstairs. Calum suggested we go through the back door and up the stairs, but we have to be careful, because even though the stairs can’t be seen from the living room, they still creak. Lucy volunteered to go in, and I didn’t object. As she put it she’s ‘stealthier than me’ which isn’t a lie. She did classical ballet at one point.
So we go around the back, crouching by the windows, and we get to the back. She tries the door, just in case, but it’s locked. She then takes out a lock pick kit, which I really don’t want to know where she got, or how she learnt to use it, and picks the lock. We wait a couple of seconds before she goes in. My heart is slamming against my chest, adrenaline pumping through my veins. I wait and wait and wait and there is no sign of her. 5 minutes pass, 10 minutes pass, and I am getting scared.
‘where are you?’ I text her, getting anxious.
‘be there in a minute’ she texts back in a second. So I wait 5 more minutes.
‘please hurry’ I say and she doesn’t text back. When 20 minutes have passed since she got in, and I’ve already gotten a text from Calum that they’re done, I text Lucy again.
‘DUDE! You are making me anxious. Just get out of there’
‘Relax! Her parents are asleep in the living room’ She text back. I don’t understand her.
After 25 minutes, I decide to go and get her, but before i can open the door, i see the handle going down, and I jump to the side, hiding.
“Addie?” I hear her whisper, as she closes the door quietly.
“What took you so long” I ask at the same time she’s saying “Let’s go”
We quickly cross the street and head to her house. I text Cal to pick us up.
“What happened in there?” I ask, whispering.
“I was just looking around her room.” She shrugs “What took the longest, was cracking her laptop password”
“You went through her computer?!” I almost yell.
“Yeah” She grins broadly.
“Why would you do that?! You could’ve been caught!” I say, almost speaking in a normal tone.
“I told you, her parents were sleeping. Besides, there were some interesting things on there. I took photos, look” She says and she shows me photos of Marissa’s conversations on facebook with Ashley.
“I am not reading those, it’s an invasion of privacy” I say, and push her phone away.
“Just read it! It’s about Cal!” When she says that, it peaks my interest.

Marissa: Do you think they’re dating?
Ashley: M, you really need to get over this!
Marissa: it’s bugging be Ashley, I want him back! He’s mine not hers!
Ashley: Look, we’re gonna get him back, okay?
Marissa: HOW!?
Ashley: Well you know how Calum is! He is too nice for his own good! You just show him you have a good side, and he’ll crawl right back
“But he didn’t” I smile. “He told me she apologised, but he didn’t want to be with her”
“I know, keep reading though” She says, and flips to the next photo
Marissa: He is not gonna fall for that
Ashley: Well, if not, then you’re gonna seduce him.
Marissa: When though? He’ll never agree to meeting with me alone
Ashley: You’ll just pull your ‘I need you, you’re the only one who gets me’ card. Say your parents are fighting, or you are feeling depressed or some shit. We’ll make him want to be there for you and you’ll be “vulnerable” and you guys will be caught up in the moment.
Marissa: When though?
Ashley: Well Josh from my AP English is throwing a party next week on Friday, we can do it then.
Marissa: Okay, so what’s the plan
Ashley: Hold on, I’ll call you, we’ll brainstorm
Marissa: Kay

“That’s tonight” I whisper.
“Yeah” Lucy says and we go quiet.
I quickly call Calum, because suddenly I’m feeling a little paranoid.
“Hey” He answers.
“Where are you guys?” I ask.
“On our way. Um, I got a weird text from Marissa” He says, and I can feel the relief that I can tell him all this.
“Okay, we’re waiting at Lucy’s” I say and then we hang up.
Cal’s car pulls up and we get in.
“Easy peasy!” Mikey says and gives me a high fives.
“Not as easy” I laugh and go into the story of Stephen’s room and his dad, and Lucy getting me out of it.
“Why didn’t anything exciting like that happened to us?!” Mikey says.
“It was terrifying!” I hit him on the arm.
We then drop off Mikey, and text Ash and Luke that we are meeting tomorrow to just go over everything that happened tonight.
I text Aggie asking about mom, and she said that she took care of it, I just need to be really quiet and come through the door in my room. Easy enough.
I sit in the front seat when we leave Mikey at home, and when I do, Calum puts his hand on my knee for the whole ride home.
“So what’s this text from Marissa?” I ask, while we’re going.
“I am not sure” He says, parking the car in his driveway. “She said she is feeling really down and just needs someone to talk to, and none of her friends are answering. Said they are probably at Josh’s party.”
“Lie” I say, and Cal looks at me weird. “Lucy snooped through her computer”
“What?!” Cal says, and he sounds a bit offended.
“I was waiting for her downstairs and she took her sweet ass time, and then when she came back, she showed me photos of conversations between Ashley and Marissa” I quickly say and explain what they were saying.
“Wow” He says after I’m finished. We’re just sitting in his car now.
“Yeah. I mean it is an invasion of privacy and all, but I was just given the information” I say and smile. He doesn’t. “Cal?”
“Fuck” He whispers, and leans back on his seat “Can’t believe she’s playing like this”
“Playing? This isn’t really a game, Cal” I say, a bit taken aback.
“I know, I know” He turns to me. “Thanks for telling me” I shrug “I meant that…I don’t know, she used to be so different when we started dating, and she would text me like ‘hey I’m feeling down’ when she would actually be way worse, and I was there for her, every time”
I feel a pinch of pain in my chest, and I know it isn’t just jealousy. It’s…I don’t know. I’ll figure it out later.
“And now she is doing that, thinking I’ll be there for her again, just to get me back. That’s low” He says, not really looking at me.
“Would you have gone?” I ask, after a minute of silence, and then he looks at me.
“I don’t know” He says honestly, and I really wished he lied. “I mean, I would’ve told you either way, I wouldn’t do it without telling you what’s up.” He adds quickly, which eases up that pinch of a feeling I cannot define.
So I just nod.
“Addie, look at me” He says, when my eyes drift to my hands. I look up and he has this determined look on his face “Even if I did go tonight, I would not have done anything stupid, okay? I would’ve left the moment she tried anything. I don’t want her. I won’t ever want her like that” He says and it eases up the little pinch and I know what it is.
I nod again.
“I want you” he says, and takes my hand in his. “Okay? And she is not going to ruin this”
“Okay” I say and smile. It was dread, the feeling. Dread that sooner or later, he might go back to her, because of the way he was talking about her. As if she is still on his mind, as if he still has feelings for her, and cares so deeply about her that he would go to her any moment she wants him to. But he won’t, he won’t, because that person he started dating is gone, and in her place is this Marissa we have today.
“Come here” He says, and cups my face, bringing it to his. He kisses me, gently at first and then harder. I kiss him back, with equal ferocity, and I want him really close to me. I take off my seatbelt and he takes off his and then in one movement, I push off with my feet, and he guides me by my waist to his lap, so I’m straddling him. The kiss turns into something desperate, like we are desperate to prove to each other that we are really serious about this, about us, even though we only started it a couple of days ago, it feels like we’ve been together a longer time than that.
His hands roam my back and sometimes rest a bit lower than they have been these past few days, and I don’t mind at all. My hands are in his hair and every time i pull on it, he takes a hard breath or makes a sound, which makes me want to pull on it more.
I feel as if my body is on fire, and I cannot get enough of him, I move my arms from his hair to his neck and chest and arms and back up again, and i just want to be close to him. He must feel the same way because I can feel him through his jeans and it makes me want it more.
“Stop, stop, stop” he pulls away suddenly, out of breath.
“What?” I say, breathing heavily.
“We need to stop” He says. I don’t want to say, no, but I also don’t want to agree with him. “We can’t do this here, and now”
I nod and kiss him on the lips.
“We haven’t even had our first date yet” He says, and it makes me laugh.
“You’re right” I finally lean back and look at him. His hair is messy, and even in the dim light, I can see how dark his eyes are, and how big his pupils have gotten.
We stay like that for a couple of minutes, not saying anything, and then I open the door and exit the car. He follows me, and walks me to my door.
“Goodnight, my little ninja” He says, and leans down to kiss me. I kiss him back, and it’s nothing like the kiss we had in his car. This one is more innocent, sweeter.
“Goodnight, babe” I say, and it kinda slips out, the babe part, but he just smiles, liking it, and kisses me one more them before walking to his own house.
I get back inside, and change into non-black non-ninja clothing before going to bed. I feel tired but also so awake at the same time. It doesn’t take long for me to fall asleep.

Notes

HEYAAAAA, I'll disappear for the next couple of weeks, I'm going on vacation woo ^^