One Wild Night

"Sonia must be a very smart lady," Tom observed, and Lucy's lips curved in a smile as she thought of her best friend.

"She actually is very wise," Lucy said with a nod.

"So what happened?" Tom asked, urging her to go on with the story.

"So we started trying to figure out how he could have known about all the guys who had shown any interest in me. It took us a couple of days, and during that time we stayed at my house so that I wouldn't be tempted to confront him if I run into him at their home," Lucy explained.

Tom said nothing as he waited for her to go on with her story. Even though the more she spoke, the more he realized that this wasn't going to look good for him at the end of the day. He knew without a doubt that she was going to freak out when she eventually finds out the truth about how he ended up becoming her next-door neighbor and driver.

Although he hated to admit it, he could imagine that she was going to think that he was no different from Jamie. Like Jamie, he was pretending like he didn't have feelings for her when he knew he had approached her a second time because he was interested in her. And like Jamie who had been observing her from the room next door, he had moved into her neighborhood and had even become her driver just to be closer to her.

Shit! How was he going to fix this mess? He feared that he was going to end up scaring her and pushing her away with the lies, instead of getting her to love him and be with him, and it was all because of that dumb psycho.

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked with a concerned frown when she noticed the scowl on Tom's face, and how his fists were clenched.

"Yeah. Nevermind me. Go on with the story," Tom said with a forced smile.

Lucy looked at him as though she didn't believe him, but let out a sigh before continuing with her story, "So after a couple of days we put two and two together, and concluded that he had likely been eavesdropping on our conversations. Thinking about how that was possible, we figured that since he was tech-savvy he probably had something set up in Sonia's bedroom, so we decided to check his bedroom to find out what he was doing." Lucy paused and drew in a deep breath, and Tom picked up the wineglass and poured some more wine into it before handing it to her, but Lucy shook her head.

"If I keep drinking, I'm going to get drunk before dawn, and we both know I have to be at the office," Lucy said as she stretched out her legs, before reaching out to pick up her glasses from the spot on the table where Tom had dropped it earlier before they started their romance earlier.

"Well, you could call in sick," Tom suggested.

"I have never called in sick," Lucy said with a yawn as she checked the time on her wall clock. She couldn't believe that it was almost six already.

"Then I will call in sick on your behalf. Don't worry. I could just tell Mr. Harry that I came over to pick you up but you were too sick to leave your bed," Tom assured her, making Lucy narrow her eyes at him.

"Why do I feel like you don't want to go to work today?" She asked suspiciously, making Tom grin as he raised both hands in mock surrender.

"You caught me. I just want to remain here with you like this," Tom said with a grin, making Lucy sigh.

"I prefer to go to work. It helps me keep my mind occupied," Lucy said, and Tom felt a tug in his heart.

So this was the reason she was always working?

"Okay, go on with the story. Maybe talking about it will help you clear your head," Tom said, taking a sip from the wineglass instead, and Lucy gave him a nod.

"One day, we waited until we were sure he must have left for school and both their parents must have left for work too, and then we skipped school and went to Sonia's house. We went into his bedroom and at first glance, it looked like the bedroom of a normal college student, until Sonia managed to get access into his computer and then we saw a file containing different pictures and videos of both me and Sonia, but mostly pictures of me," Lucy closed her eyes and shuddered at the awful memory.

"How could he leave such sensitive files where anyone could easily find them?" Tom asked in confusion.

"I guess he wasn't expecting anyone to snoop around his bedroom or his system. Or perhaps he just wasn't scared and didn't care as his parents always let him have his way, so he could get away with anything," Lucy said with a shrug.

"There were several nude pictures of me dressing up in Sonia's bedroom after having my shower, there were some of me sleeping on the bed with Sonia, but with the focus on me. There were even pictures of me going about my normal daily activities outside the house. He had been watching me for God knows how long, and I didn't even know it." Lucy looked at Tom when she felt his hand behind her back, and only then did she realize that her entire body was trembling.

"I can't imagine how you must have felt," Tom said sympathetically.

"We were both stunned. Neither of us could believe what we were seeing. I could barely move from where I was standing. Somehow, Sonia managed to turn off the system and return everything to how it was before dragging me out of the house. I felt so violated," Lucy said, hugging herself with both hands.

"Sonia kept apologizing to me over and over again on our way to my house, and although I was not exactly mad at her, I just couldn't bring myself to look her in the face either. I was in shock for days, and Sonia remained by my side. Neither of us knew what to do about it. I couldn't even bring myself to confront him as I had initially planned because I felt creeped out by all I had seen in his computer. I couldn't stand to look him in the face as I didn't even know the extent of his madness, and I honestly didn't want to find out. I was scared to my bones," Lucy confessed, and somehow Tom could understand what she meant.

At seventeen, something like that would definitely scare her, as it would scare any adult, "So what did you do?"