The Stranger Inside Read Online Free

reflected. Sawyer must think I was nuts. What was I doing here? I shouldn’t have come. I had the right idea earlier, when I vowed never to see him again. I should avoid him at all costs.
    I turned and started to walk away but then I heard Sawyer’s front door creak open. I winced, and froze, for a moment still considering running. I mean, he already thought I was a freak, what could it hurt if I just kept with that and took off? But finally, I swung around. I tried to look friendly. And sane. Doubt it worked.
    Sawyer leaned against the open threshold and raised an eyebrow, his lips creeping into a smile.
    “I thought that was you.” His eyebrows quirked. “You wanna come in?”
     
    ***
     
    Inside, it was awkward. I explained that I thought I left my iPod in his room, but then when he offered to let me go in and look for it, I couldn’t bring myself to go in. I mean, it just seemed like it would be too weird—looking through his messy bed. And what if we didn’t find it? Maybe he’d think I just invented it as an excuse to get back into his room so we could pick up where we’d left off. Maybe he’d think I’d just run off when I did to go get a sandwich or something and now I was back, full of energy and ready to go at it.
    Okay, he probably wouldn’t think anything like that, but I still didn’t want to go back into his room and see where my nightmare started. Too, too creepy.
    A small bewildered smile played on Sawyer’s lips as he watched me hesitate, but he didn’t say, “You’re the most bizarre girl I ever met, get out of my house.” Instead he said, “You want me to go look for it?”
    I tried to smile. “That would be great.”
    When I grimaced up at him, he said, “Have a seat,” gesturing to his couch and he said it really nice, though slightly amused and I wasn’t sure if that made me feel better or more embarrassed.
    I sat on the edge of his couch, and at first figuratively and then literally, crossed my fingers. He came back only a minute later, holding my iPod up and rotating it side to side, like, “Looky, Looney-Girl. Found it.”
    “Score.” I tried to smile again, act like this was all normal, but inside I screamed relief!
    Sawyer sat beside me on the couch. “Okay, I was going to do something mean,” he said, sitting really, really close. “I was going to keep this until you told me what was going on today—hold it ransom. But here.” He handed me my iPod. “I’m not that kind of guy. Well, I’m trying not to be that kind of guy.” He got even closer and rested the crook of his arm on the back of the couch, looking and acting incredibly relaxed, like he was used to having strange girls over to his house, like it happened all the time. Yet, he also looked intrigued. He chewed on the inside of his lip a moment, studying me. “Was it an acting assignment or something? Is that it? Are you an actress?”
    “An actress?” I let out a nervous laugh. “No. Why would you think that?”
    He raised his eyebrows and tilted his chin, kind of like, duh. “Well, one minute you seemed totally into me, the next it was like you didn’t know me.” His eyes flicked from my face to my body, then back to my eyes. “And you kind of look like an actress.”
    I could feel my face redden. That was kind of sweet. And I wished it was true, with all of my heart, I wished that—that I’d only been acting. That it was all one big happy act and really I had my life totally together and was just doing an assignment. Just ‘cause. For fun.
    I was tempted to go with that. So tempted. Just say, “Yeah, you got me. I was acting.” Then I could leave his house and see him in school and not worry that he was going to tell everyone I’d had a grief-stricken blackout. That I had strange moments when I could fall prey to random pick up lines in the mall. But thinking about that, what actually happened today, made me shudder.
    And Sawyer noticed. He eyed me. “Okay, so then, what happened? Why’d