The Casual Watch

By Caidence Hill

Waiting, watching, too eager to stop the urges, slowly getting more and more impatient and anxious by the second, “2:58… 2:59… 3:00!”. A loud screeching bell rings. I am already packing up and leaving to meet up with friends.

“Don’t forget, you all have a test when you come back from Christmas Break,” yells Mr. Howard the chemistry teacher. The halls of the school are loud and cluttered with students.

“Olivia! Over here!” Bella yells over the crowd, squeezing herself through the people to reach a short blonde-haired girl with piercing green eyes.

Olivia grabs her shoulder. “Bella! Hey! Ready for this break?” she says.

“Hell yeah, I am! Want to come over?” Bella replies happily.

“Of course,” Olivia says before she got cut off by a tall 6-foot, curly black-haired boy named Chris.

“Y’all are planning on leaving me here? I don’t think so. I’m coming with you guys, too!” he interrupts.

“Of course, you can!” Bella says, laughing.

Oliva adds, “You are our best friend, no duh you can come with us!”

They laugh as they leave the school and enter the parking lot, walking to Bella’s car,

“You better not kill us, Bella,” Chris says jokingly.

“I haven’t yet, now, have I? Hm?” Bella grins as the others go silent. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Get in the car,” Bella says with a giggle.

As they get in the car, Olivia points out Carlos watching them. “Look! It’s Carlos! What a creep, why is he looking at us?” she says.

“He probably just plans on…” Chris tries to reply.

“Don’t even finish that sentence, he’s a perv or something like that, I wouldn’t pay any mind to him,” Bella says as she drives off. “You know he and I used to be friends; he’s a decent person, you guys.”

“Used to be friends,” Olivia reminds Bella. ”Wasn’t it because he was taking creepy pictures of you and tried to trap you with everything you did?”

“And because…” Chris gets interrupted by Bella again.

“Both of you shut up!” she says, as she drives off to her house.

Chris mumbles under his breath and blasts music to clear the air.

Arriving around 15-20 minutes later, the group goes into Bella’s house as they greet her mother and go off into Bella’s bedroom. Conversations between the three grows loud and laughter fills the room.

“So, umm, what’s in those woods over there?” Olivia says pointing out the bay window.

“A lot of things, like hidden places, such as an abandoned peach farm, a golf course, and some huge mansion, I believe,” says Bella.

“Bella and I go there to, you know, hang out, take a break and talk,” Chris tells Olivia.

She gives them a look. “Just hanging out?” Olivia laughs.

“Shut up Olivia,” Bella and Chris say.

“We should totally go over there tonight,” Olivia says unsurely and excitedly.

An hour later, the sun starts falling and nightfall starts to rise. A big and bright full moon fills the sky, followed by the bright stars. The frost starts to spread along the house and the ground.

“It’s getting cold out and dark. Are you sure we should go tonight?” Olivia nervously asks them.

“Aw, are you scared?” Chris says teasing her.

“Wasn’t this your idea?” says Bella. “Relax. We will just bring flashlights and I know my routes.”

“Shut up. Chris! I just don’t want to be cold, but I guess I’ll just deal with it,” Olivia says rolling her eyes.

“It’s the perfect night to go, it’ll be amazing,” adds Bella. “Chris and I have been doing this since… Well. as long as I can remember to be honest.”

They settle on a time and begin to pack their things. As Bella searches for a backpack, Chris and Olivia get things situated such as blankets, portable chargers, flashlights, snacks, and drinks.

“I found a backpack! Here. Put it all in there,” Bella says as they begin to pack the bag. The group gets into warmer clothing and puts on their shoes.

“Everyone got everything. Phones? I have the backpack,” Bella says surely.

“Let’s do thi,s” Chris says excitedly.

A heavy weight fell on Olivia’s stomach, wanting to throw up; goosebumps along her arms and legs started to rise. “I don’t think this is a good idea for tonight.”

“What is the problem? Scared of the woods and darkness? Well, it’s too late now, girly!” Chris exclaims.

“Don’t be rude to her Chris, she’s probably anxious. It’s fine.”

“Just loosen up a bit, will you? There is no harm in that,” Bella tells Chris and Olivia.

Once again leaving the house, stepping outside the front door, feeling the burst of the freezing wind and frost, just like a freezer. They begin to walk 5-minutes before reaching the wood line path to enter the dark creepy woods.

“Where should we bring you first?” Chris questions aloud.

“We’ll let Olivia choose, left, or right?” Bella turns to ask Olivia.

Olivia looks left and right. “There’s no path on either side, but I think we should go to a destination that’s the closest,” she tells them.

“So, we are going right, then make a left deeper into the woods. We would reach another path and we walk that to the Peach Farm,” Bella explains. They all agree.

Bella and Chris lead the way while Olivia walks behind them, looking around and feeling watched, as they walk and talk. Chris ends up tripping and falling. Bella and Olivia stop and look at him “Are you okay?” Olivia runs over to him concerned.

“Yeah, I’m okay. I think I scraped my knee on this rock though.” Chris explains.

“You’ll be fine, Chris. Come on. Let’s keep going,” Bella tells him as she helps him get up.

“What did you even trip over? I was behind you the whole time” Olivia asks.

“Honestly, I don’t know,” Chris says.

“He probably just tripped over himself, knowing him.” Bella says as she laughs a little.

“You’re the one to talk!” Chris rudely replies, as he rolls his eyes at Bella.

About 10 minutes later they start to arrive at the farm, which was blocked off and abandoned. Chris and Bella use flashlights to find the broken entrance opening through the barbed wire fence.

Olivia feels more anxious and says, “Are you guys sure this is safe?”

“Nobody but us is out here right now Olivia, and Bella and I have been doing this for the longest time,” Chris tells her.

Bella finds a broken part of the fence. “Hey, look! I found it. Come on guys!” Chris and Olivia walk over to Bella, as Chris grabs part of the fence and pulls it back so Bella and Olivia can go in. They all enter the farm and look around,.

Olivia is feeling watched and followed as she looks more closely around the group. “This place is huge,” she says to Bella.

“Well, of course it is, it’s a farm. silly. Let’s find our spot we normally sit at” Bella says.

The group starts to head left of the farm closer to the farmhouse, walking through the long fields of grass. Eight minutes later they find a small, little section and begin to settle in. They talk and laugh about normal teenage things such as crushes, school, and the future.

They lay on a blanket talking, laughing, and roughhousing. Careless teenagers, they are unaware of the time and their surroundings. Hours go by. Olivia thinks she hears something in the distance. “Click. Click.” She looks around. “Did you guys hear that?”

Bella and Chris look around then look at Olivia. “Um, no.”

“The clicking! You guys seriously didn’t hear it?” Olivia says louder. Her paranoia is growing.

“I didn’t hear anything either…” Chris is interrupted by more movement from behind them; they all look in that direction.

The friends all start to look around anxiously. “We are paranoid, I don’t think anything is there. We just should not hangout in abandoned places,” Chris says nervously, as he laughs to blow off the noise.

The unsettling feeling Olivia had before they left comes back; she feels as if she is trapped by a huge weight. She feels something, or someone, is there. Watching them. “Can we just go somewhere else? Or go back to your house?” asks Olivia as her voice begins to stutter and shake.

“For your sake of…” Chris once again gets interrupted by the clicking sound,.

“It sounds like a camera,” Bella says quietly as they all try to listen. They grab their flashlights and step closer to the sound, flashing their lights in the direction of the movement. They look closely squinting their eyes and making out a figure–short, dark straight-haired, and deep brown eyes.

“We can see you! Might as well come out now!” Chris yells at the figure. The figure begins to stand up and walks to the group.

“Carlos?” Bella yells. “Carlos! What is wrong with you? Why are you even here?” Bella continues to yell to him.

“What do you mean Bella?” Carolos exclaims. “Everyone comes here! I am simply not doing anything wrong.”

Bella and Carlos end up getting into an intense argument because he scares the group. Olivia notices he is holding a camera. “Were you taking pictures of us, Carlos?” Olivia asks loudly.

Chris snatches Carlos’s camera and the boys try to fight over it, but it’s pointless.

“Back up, Carlos! We are seeing what is on this camera,” Olivia says furiously as Bella and Chris agree with her.

Bella snatches the camera from Chris and Olivia stands next to her to look at the camera too while Chris keeps Carlos away from them. As they go through the camera, they find pictures of the group together. As they click through it, they see pictures of Bella specifically.

“Carlos, what is this?” Bella says to him.

“That’s when you wanted a photo shoot. Remember when we were friends?” Carlos tries, lying.

“What? When? You know what guys, let’s just go. He is weird!” Bella tells Chris and Olivia as they nod and grab their stuff.

“What about my camera? Give it back! It was expensive,” Carlos explains.

“Too bad Carlos,. You want it back so bad, right?” Chris taunts with attitude.

“Yes, I want it back. Give it back now!” Carlos says.

Chris grabs the camera from Bella and Olivia and smashes it on the ground and stomps on it, “Well, now, nobody can have it,” Chris yells. The group starts to walk away as Carlos just stands there, watching them.

They climb back through the barbed wire fence and start to walk back to the house. Olivia’s unsettling feeling does not go away, especially after that whole incident. Bella and Chris have the same exact feeling; they walk back, in silence, processing what had happened.

As they walk through the woods halfway back, they start to feel watched again, so Olivia stops the group. “Guys, I feel we should run back. I do not feel safe or comfortable right now, and I am sure you do not either,” she says with panic in her voice.

“Let’s do it then,” Bella says and Chris nods in agreement. The group of friends take off running back to Bella’s house without stopping, without speaking.

They arrive at the house and go straight into Bella’s bedroom without speaking a word until they felt it was safe; they conspire about Carlos, but they agree they were paranoid and imagined the other pictures on that camera since they were mindless, wild teens.

Even after Christmas Break, they never saw Carlos the same; they always suspected him and thought he was shady and suspicious. They did not confront him; they kept that whole incident a secret since they thought nobody would believe them.

There is evidence, nothing for someone to believe them. The group agrees on never going out at night alone again.

Though, Carlos ends up getting another camera. Every time at nightfall, he continues his watching of the long curly-haired Bella, without being seen by anyone. Carlos is never caught; Bella never knows the danger she is in.

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