Busted. “Um… yeah.” Thanks, Sof, for keeping my secret. “We’ll just go.”
“You can come in and wait if you want.” She pushes the door open and for some reason, before I step in, I look around the room. Creepy, thriller type music should be playing right now because something is telling me to run. Yet, I don’t. I step in and Kellie follows.
Everything about their living room is odd. The walls are bare. There isn’t a single picture, decoration or book on the mantel or bookcase. Plastic covers their floral couch, making it seem like we stepped back into the sixty’s. Even as I look around, I can feel Ms. Tucker’s eyes on me. She’s watching my every move and it’s starting to freak me out.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asks, stepping in front of me. I jump back slightly and refrain from putting my hand over my heart to calm it down.
“Sure, Ms. Tucker, that’d be great.” My throat’s dry, parched. However, I’m far from thirsty.
“Call me Alicia. Follow me, but please don’t touch anything.”
“What are we supposed to touch?” I mouth to Kellie as soon as Alicia turns her back on us. All Kellie and I can do is look at each other. Alicia Tucker is odd and wasn’t like this when she visited Sofia. When we met her last time, she was funny and the life of the party. Today, she’s acting like she’s a distant relative of Hannibal Lector.
Kellie and I find our footing and walk into the kitchen. Alicia is flittering around, looking through cabinets, opening and closing the refrigerator, and I’m standing here wondering what she did in the few seconds we weren’t right behind her. Did she pull a knife out of the holder and hide it? I look for one on the counter but don’t see one.
“Do you know what time Sofia will be home?” Kellie asks.
Alicia stills, and looks out the kitchen window. “Twelve thirty-seven.”
Not twelve forty or one o’clock. Right now, I have never wished so hard for my phone to ring, for Rhett to call and bug me or for Williemae to call and tell me something adorable that’s happened to my niece. Nope, nothing but pure silence.
Alicia sets two plastic cups on the counter. “I just… you should go outside,” she says, brushing past us to open the sliding glass door. Kellie and I don’t hesitate. We grab our cups and step out onto the patio. I expect Alicia to follow us, but she doesn’t. The door slides shut and the pit in my stomach grows.
“What the hell did we just walk into?”
“I don’t know, but I have a feeling that door is locked,” I say, refusing to look behind me.
I don’t know about Kellie, but I’m scanning the yard for an escape route. The fence surrounding the backyard is at least eight feet high with cacti plants everywhere, making it near impossible to climb over.
Kellie’s the first one to move. She takes a seat on one of the chairs near the pool.
“I’m not going in there,” I tell her. “It’s probably filled with acid or something to kill us.”
“And I’m not drinking this either, but I don’t see a place to dump it and it wouldn’t surprise me if she has video cameras set up everywhere. Seriously, what the hell did we walk into?”
“I don’t know, but I’m texting Rhett.” I pull my phone out of my back pocket and type out my message. “No service.”
“How is that possible?” Kellie asks. She takes her phone out and finds the same issue. “Do you think she has a block on her house?”
I shake my head. “How is Sofia so normal with a mother like that?”
“I don’t know, but she needs to hurry up and get home because every worst-case scenario is going through my mind right now.”
“Mine too,” I mutter back. Despite Sofia posting a picture of her brother the other day, this confirms everything. There is no way the Quinn I know is related to this woman, and he definitely doesn’t come here to visit. Sofia on the other hand, I really don’t understand how my best friend is so normal compared to her mother.
The both of us watch the time on our phones tick by. Second by second, we count down the minutes until Sofia is due home while keeping our minds open to our surroundings. Alicia doesn’t grace us with her odd presence or ask if we need anything else to drink or if we might have to use the bathroom. If she’s planning on killing us, she’s waiting until her daughter is home, so she can help hide our bodies.
A car pulls up and seconds later a door slams. I can hear Sofia’s voice, but Alicia must be whispering. I’m watching the sliding glass door, waiting for my friend to appear. The door opens hastily. Kellie and I stand, my legs shake causing my knees to knock together.
So
fia marches toward us, her face distorted from anger and vengeance. I open my mouth to tell her we’re sorry for showing up unannounced, but something tells me my apology will fall on deaf ears.
“What are you doing here? I don’t remember inviting you to my house. Since when is it okay to show up to someone’s house without their knowledge. You both need to leave and never come back.”
“Sofia, we’re—”
She holds her hand up, stopping me. “Get out. Don’t ever come back. If I wanted you here, I would’ve asked you. You’re not welcome.”