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“Well, hurry up,” Yas to you”

“I know,” I sigh “I’ll be five minutes”

I hang up and rejoin the flow of pedestrians, a prickle aze has once again come to rest on me

It’s been this way for almost a month now

Every few days, a e from the anonymity of the city and trail after me like a wraith Luckily, my life as a waitress and a wannabe writer doesn’t take me anywhere this man would be able to snatch ripping me constantly

The police have toldsuspicious, but thebefore they show up every tiive ry attheir time but too polite and professional to just come out and say it

I sigh and walk down the street, pastout of place even if I’ve lived here for the past four years since I was fifteen years old I walk into the fancy apartuard, and then I head to the private elevator that leads to Yasmin’s penthouse apartment

Yasmin’s apartment, the words bounce around my mind as I ride the elevator up, up toward the sky

She’s always telling me to think of it as my apartment, too, but that’s proved impossible over the past few years Ever since my dad died in that ski accident when I was fifteen years old and my onetime mentor and ain that this is my home too

But it’s hard for e of fifteen, Dad and I lived in a lamorous part of town

Still, as the elevator takes me smoothly upward, I can’t help but let a wave of relief wash overtones into my taut body Yasmin’s apartment is like a fortress, and whoever the black clad man is – or men, if it’s a different et to me here

I find et,myself breathe slowly so that I don’t appear like a complete wreck when the doors finally slide open

I was eleven and she was fifteen

Back then she’d loved writing just asYouTube videos and posting on social lorious fifteen year old dork and I was her protégé As part of a creative writing initiative, she was assigned as my buddy, and ever since then I’ve looked up to her, counted on her, trusted her

Over the years, we’ve grown closer as friends, as our age gap became less important and robes of mentor and mentee fell away