Chapter Six
“So Gary, how’s everything at the forest service?” Bob asked Arlet’s father.
“Pretty good. Everything has calmed down since it’s winter and there hasn’t been any fires running wild. Thank goodness for that.” He answered.
“Yeah! Man, it was so crazy this summer! Is was like, what? The worst ever fire season for the state of Colorado. You could barely go anywhere in the mountains.” Arlet’s brother, ‘Lil Gary responded.
“So I’m guessing that promotion worked out for you.” Said Jane.
“Yeah. It sure did. We got out of a lot of debts and we paid off a lot of things. And we were able to get this house that Lolita had to get.”
“Hey! I was the one that pointed it out! I saw it first. I was the one who wanted the house.” Arlet informed him.
“The only reason why you wanted this house is because Adam Foote lives next door. You wanted it so you could spy on him without having to trespass on his property and have him call the police on you.” ‘Lil Gary responded. Everyone laughed.
Arlet lightly punched him on the arm. “I did not!” She said defensively. “I wanted it cause it was a huge house and I knew Mom wanted it! Besides, the Carpenito’s live near here too and it was cool to be closer to them so for when I would baby-sit them, I could just walk or something.”
“Yeah sure. We believe you.” Her brother teased. She rolled her eyes.
“So, how’s everything in Florida?” Arlet’s mother, Lolita asked.
“Well, pretty good actually. We’ve been really busy with Aaron’s and Leslie’s singing career. Aaron is about to release his third album and Leslie released her debut earlier this year.” Answered Jane.
“Oh that’s right. I remember seeing Leslie’s album in the record store one time.” Lolita told her. “What about you Nick? How’s everything with the Backstreet Boys?”
“Good. We just got back from the Australia tour. That was really great.” Replied Nick.
“Oh good. Arlet was gonna go to your show her last year but couldn’t cause she and her band had a show in California.”
“Really?” Nick asked. He looked at Arlet who he was sitting next to.
She blushed. “Yeah.” Arlet said quite embarrassed. “Yeah, I had good seats too. They were like um, third row I think. I gave them to my friend Kim when I found out I couldn’t make it.”
“Oh well, hopefully next time.”
At that moment, the phone rang. Arlet got up from the table. “I’ll get it.” She walked out of the dining room into the kitchen and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hey! It’s me Sarah.” Came her best friend’s voice from the other end.
“Oh hey! Did you just get in?” Asked Arlet.
“Yeah. It’s great to see everyone again. It’s so beautiful up there.”
“Oh I bet.” She responded. “Oh my God! I have to got to tell you something.” Arlet said excitedly.
“What?”
“Okay, you know that I told you that the family coming to stay with us for Christmas were the Carters, right?”
“Yeah.” Sarah replied slowly.
“Well, take a swing at which Carters I’m talking about.”
“Um, I don’t know. You got me.”
“I want it that way.” Arlet sang.
“Oh my god! Are you serious? Nick Carter? As in blond boy Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys?”
“Yeah. I know. Can you believe it? It was so weird.”
“Hey, your family is wondering who you’re talking too.” Nick came up suddenly behind her.
Arlet jumped. “Oh my God! You scared me.” She said placing her hand on her chest.
Nick smiled bashfully. “Oh I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“No, that’s okay. Hold on sec.” Arlet told him. “Hey Sarah, can I call you back later?”
“Yeah sure. Call me as soon as you can. I want to know everything.”
“You got it. Later.”
“Bye.”
Arlet hung up the phone and turned around to Nick.
“Who was that?” He asked.
“My best friend Sarah.” She answered. They two of them walked back into the dining room. “That was Sarah. She just arrived at their condo.”
“That was Sarah? How’s she doing?” Jennifer asked.
“Pretty good. Been really busy planning her wedding and with the school. Her and Mark have been getting their house ready for after the wedding.”
“Oh that’s right. She’s getting married to that one guy. What’s his name again?” Her dad asked.
“Mark Malinoski. Weird kid, I’ll you.”
“Sarah Malinoski. I like that.” Her sister responded.
After dinner, Arlet ran up to her room and grabbed her phone she had since she was a teenager. She took out the note Sarah left her earlier that day and dialed the phone number of the condo.
“Hello?” Came a deep, male voice.
“Hey Matt? It’s me, Arlet.”
“Arlet! Hey what’s up?” Replied Sarah’s brother.
“Pretty good. You?”
“Not too bad myself.”
“That’s good. Hey, is Sarah there?”
“Yeah, let me get her.”
Arlet heard him yell for Sarah. A few seconds later, she came on. “Arlet?”
“Yeah.”
“Hey! Okay, tell me everything.” She rushed.
Arlet laughed at her anxiousness. “Well, so far, nothing has happened. I just picked them up and took them over here.”
“I thought they weren’t coming till later on tonight?”
“I know. I did too. My mom woke me up at five in the morning to make sure I was awake. Thank God their flight came in late.”
“What did you do when you found out it was Nick Carter and his family?”
“I just stood there and I was all ‘Oh my God.’ I couldn’t believe it. It was the biggest surprise ever.”
“That’s cool.”
“Oh yeah. This is going to be one hell of a Christmas I can tell you that much.”
“I bet.” She heard her friend say. “Oh, I got to tell you something. You might not want to hear this but you have got to know.” Sarah told her. Her tone serious.
Arlet stiffened a little. “What?”
“Well, as I drove up here, I had to stop and fill up my gas tank. And I noticed the person next to me.”
“Yeah.”
“And...it was him.”
Arlet’s jaw tightened. “Did he see you?”
“No thank God. I just filled up my tank, paid and just flew off.” Sarah heard Arlet take in a deep breath. “You better watch out. You know what he’s capable of doing.”
“I know. I wonder what he’s doing back here.”
“I have no clue. But you better keep a look out. He may be coming back for more.”
Arlet closed her eyes. Anger and fear poured down on her. She didn’t want to remember anything about him. Not now. Not when she finally moved on and put it behind her. Not after she fully recovered from the physical and emotional scars. Not now.
“You may be right.”
“I still don’t see why you didn’t tell anyone.”
She breathed in again. “I don’t know. I knew that if I told the police or something, he would come after me. I didn’t want that to happened. I also didn’t want my family and friends to get all worried.”
“Yeah but he could of done worse stuff to you.”
“No. He knew he couldn’t do anything worse to me. Cause if he did, the police and everyone would know that it was him and they would track him down. If he did this, no one could prove it was him or if it ever happened. Just my words would be the only evidence and that wouldn’t be enough to do anything.”
“True. You should of told Derek though.”
“I couldn’t do that. He would of seriously gone after him and killed him. I didn’t want him to do that.”
“Well, like I said, be careful. If you go out, make sure there is someone there with you at all times. Make sure you’re surrounded by a group of people. Don’t go to places that he would know you go to and hang out. Promise me that, okay?”
“Yeah. Of course.”
“And if he manages to get to you, don’t talk to him, don’t let him touch you and don’t listen to anything he says. If he comes near you, scream at the top of your lungs.”
“I know. Thanks Sarah.”
“No problem. I’m just looking after you. If you need something, you know where to call me.”
Arlet smiled. She heard a knock at the door. “Hey, hold on a sec. There’s someone at the door.” She got up, opened the door and found Nick, smiling down at her. Her spirits lifted. “Oh hey. What’s up?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if we could, you know talk and hang out or something.” He asked sheepishly.
“Yeah sure. I was just talking to Sarah. Hold on.” She let Nick in and closed the door. She walked over to her phone and picked it up. “Sarah, you still there?”
“Yeah, I’m still here.”
“Oh okay. Hey look, I got to go. Nick wants to hang out. I’ll talk to you soon.”
“Ooh. Nick, huh? No making out, okay?” Sarah joked.
Arlet rolled her eyes. “Whatever. Later.”
“Bye.”
She hung up the phone, looked at Nick and smiled.
Chapter Five
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