Idee Fixe

"I love you." She said.

A sudden rush of ecstasy came through her spine as she caressed his jaw: her beloved man's defined jaw. Her hands trailing from his face to neck down to his bare shoulders. Desire, love, euphoria. That feeling of smooth silky white skin is heaven to her. She bent down to his ear, pressing a chaste kiss.

She placed a pen and a notebook on the bedside table.

"You wouldn't mind making me a song do you?" She said as she carefully places a note on top of the notebook.

Chapter 1

          "Jam night dude. You coming or what?" An overly enthusiastic voice of Ken rang through the phone. I was struggling to find my shirt underneath all the mess in my room while I  pin my phone between my head and shoulders. "Of course dude. When did I ever miss this day?" Aha! Found it. My favorite navy blue shirt was on top of my desk along with my paperworks due on Monday. "Ken, I'll be there in ten. Don't start without me!" I just heard his laugh but I figured he said yes anyway. Funny thinking about it, Ken has been my friend for over ten years. No doubt even if he doesn't say anything I'll know what he's telling. Aside from the long strenuous years of friendship, our hobbies bonded us together. That's why we founded Parallaxis in the first place. Me being the front man, him being the lead guitarist. Ashton, Ian and Thomas were great additions to the band though. Bass, Drummer and Rhythm respectively.

      We held auditions for our band. Ashton at that time was scrawny, nerdy, full on glasses and suspenders. I never thought he'll get in.  As the saying goes, 'Don't judge the book by it's cover'. Well he still has the geek vibe, but man, he fully transforms into a rockstar whenever he has his guitar. It's like he has an alter ego that only comes out when he plays music. I was actually startled about him.

Ian. Ian on the other hand didn't audition. He was on one of the field lounges, drum sticks in hand. He was maniacally tapping, banging the table. Ian made a wonderful beat. We ran to him and immediately asked him to join. But the idiot's a 'conservative' type. Court him first. I refuse to acknowledge all the- embarrassing- things I did to win him over. The dude's a jerk. I'll never tell him this 'cause his head will get bigger, but it was worth the work. He's a great performer and blends well with me, Ken and Ashton.

Lastly, Thomas the goof. He's younger than us, but just a year. He has this strange hero-worship with Ken. I don't know the story why, I never bothered to hear. It was about Ken recommending a guitar or something. A shallow thing really. He just suddenly shows up on practices and then we realized he became a part of Parallaxis.

It was Thomas who invented Jam Nights every Friday at The Hangover bar just few blocks away from my house. Students from our University likes to hangout there. "Good publicity." Quoted from Thom. But hey, we make money, we have fun, Dad's too workaholic to notice I'm not home, all is well.

      As I was leaving the house, double checking myself if I left something important, double checking the locks, I suddenly felt the hairs on my back stand. Like there was someone looking intently at me. I turned and looked around and found no one. It's been like this for a few weeks now. The feeling of being watched. But I don't like dwelling on creepy things like that. I'll just think I'm stressed with school and other stuffs. I just went to the bar immediately.

      "Alex!"

       Lisa. My best friend aside from Ken approaches me with a big smile on her face. Yeah, yeah. I have two best friends. Greedy right? But whatever, they have different aspects. I have known Lisa only when we became classmates in one of our classes. We clicked right off and we never separated.

Lisa seats beside me in Math. She's quiet but not timid. While we were working on an activity because our Prof is bustling with energy sitting on his chair scrolling on his phone. I finished early and decided to sleep while waiting for dismissal. I was about to lay my head down when I noticed Lisa's frustration. She huffs, her eyebrows knitted in concentration, pen stuck between her lips while her seemingly soft brown hair cascades down. She keeps on pushing her hair at the back of her ear but has no success at all. Cute.

"Having problems? Want me to help you?"

Since then she's my Liz.

She's like a delicate flower, fragile and sweet that I have this instinct to protect her from hormonal alpha males in Westford University.

      "Hey Liz. Good to see you're out in a Friday night." I teased her. We are in the middle of a crowded dance floor where people are getting a little crazy with the music being played. I tugged her along to get out of the sweaty mass of bodies. We ended up going to the back, slightly dimmer part of the bar. "Well, I suddenly wanted to see you rockin' out the stage. So here I am. You did great earlier by the way." I grinned at her and ducked my head down slightly feeling the blush creep up my face. She never fails to make me feel girly butterflies in my stomach whenever she throws a sweet smile and well, I'll never gonna admit, it happens all the time when she's around. "Thanks." We changed topic- well, I did but that's beside the point- to avoid awkwardness- mostly on my part. We began chatting about anything and everything under the sun that we haven't talked about yet which is surprising that we still have things that we haven't discoursed about. We talk a lot.

For the second time of the day, I felt another creepy chill run through my spine. Before I know it, I asked Lisa. "Hey Liz, have you ever felt being..." I stopped abruptly  and shook my head. "Never mind. Haha. Forget about that."  I chuckled nervously. Peering at her, I saw that she wasn't convinced. Not even the slightest. "Yeah right. Felt being what? Followed? Stalked?" She laughed at me. "I was just joking. But seriously? It won't be impossible. You are a blockbuster to the female population after all."

I refused to believe her.

I was on my way home from Lisa's place. She isn't use going home alone late at night, I had to drive her back. When I stepped on our porch, I saw a girl's silhouette running away from our house. She seemed frantic and scared. Was she spying on our house? Or maybe she was just passing by? Hey, I'm no idiot. I am one of the top students despite how I look, but at times like this? When there are spooky things around, I turn a blind eye. I may be a man but a man has fears too.

And mine? It's a stalker.

Chapter 2

      Her blazing eyes.

      Her long red nails.

      That bloody knife.

     Sh!t. Sh!t. Sh!t. Cold sweat runs down my whole body. It has been two years since my last nightmare about her. Two freaking years gone and now she's haunting me again. I shivered once more remembering my nightmare. Just brush it off Alex, ignore it like you used to. Yes, that's right. Forget about it. Forget. I wobbly stood up and padded to the bathroom. Shower would do me good. Right.

Water drips down my body. The cold sensation relaxes my mind a little, the panic that came up to me when I woke up slowly deflates but I know it won't leave. Shower is good. Shower is good.

I exhaled loudly while I dry myself. "It's all in the past Alex. Chill out. She's gone." I muttered, psyching myself up which I gradually believed. "Yup. She's gone." I told myself again. Looking at the mirror in front of me, I can see the small scar on my right brow. That scar made by her. My blue eyes' still full of panic. My blond hair sticking up to different directions. Man, this is seriously messed up.

As I go down the stairs, I could smell the fresh aroma of breakfast. I rarely smell good breakfast, Dad always not around or holed up inside his work room. This is a breath of fresh air. Dad saw me and smiled ruefully. "Good morning. Eat first?" He's still holding a frying pan full of bacons in it. My stomach started to grumble in anticipation. He must've heard that 'cause he chuckled softly. "I'll be done in a minute. Sit tight son." And so I did. I sat down and waited for the food.

      Dad settled down in front of me, coffee in hand. I smiled thinly at him. I don't know how to speak to him normally anymore. He cleared his throat, "Uh, you look like hell Alex. Something wrong?" I snorted at him and rolled my eyes. "A good way to start the morning huh? I'm fine dad. Just woke up on the bad side of the bed." He looked at me warily like he did not believe me. I just continued to eat my BaE (Bacon and Eggs) to avoid answering my Dad. But he still asked me though like a good 'ol Dad who worries about their child. I don't wanna talk about this. "Alex, have you been dreaming about An..." I cut him off by standing and marching out of the kitchen. I heard his footsteps behind me indicating that he followed me. I grabbed my bag and went towards the front door. "Dad, I don't want to talk about it. But it's not the reason, I promise." I heard him sigh in half relief and half resignation.

"Sorry. I was just trying to you know, be a good Dad to you. I've been not around that much, but I think... Yeah. Sorry son." He walked away. I felt the need to tell him it's okay, he had it rough too when Mom left. But i can't and I don't know why. I just turned around the same time he did too. "Thanks for the breakfast. It was good." I smiled blearily at him and I know, he got the message.

      I was almost late to class because of my Dad and I's bonding time. I was running to get inside the room and accidentally bumped a girl on the way in. She toppled down and her books and papers flew out. "Ouch." My classmates began to snicker. Douchebags. I hurried back to help her but she scrambled away from me. She gathered her own things, stood up and went to her seat at the back. She totally ignored me. She. Ignored. Me. How rude! I was trying to help her! I walked back to my seat and looked at her. The shy girl who seemed to like black too much. Her bangs hiding half of her face, the girl who doesn't talk to anyone. What's her name again? Lia? Lea? Ah! Lily! Lily Tomlinson.

      "Okay class, I'm going to return your poems to you. Some of you are good writers who doesn't care about the activity. Some makes effort but not enough. And some are exceptionally good. I gave two of your classmates the highest grade." Said Ms. Halsey. They dub her as the 'hottest teacher'. Well, that's true. Her hips swayed when she walked around to distribute the papers.

"Alex, here's yours. Great job you did there." She smiled at me and winked and handed me my paper. I smiled back warily. Hey! I'm a man so I appreciate, but she's my teacher so it's a no. I've been subtle in saying no but she can't take a hint. What can I say? I'm good looking. Just kidding! Hahaha.

"Alex is great, but then, Lily here is the best. You made an excellent work. I loved it Darling." Then she handed her the paper. She muttered something but I didn't hear. Surely, it was 'thanks'. She fiddled with her hair, twirling it. Man, she's weird, in a cute way. She looked at me and I smiled at her. She just lowered her hear down again. Ms. Halsey went back to the front and started discussing.

Our class was dismissed early. My classmates from this subject hurriedly went out of the room. I remained in my seat working on another poem (and nonsense came out of it).

"What are doing in here again Geoff?" I heard a girl's voice say quietly but laced with irritation. I looked up to see who that was. It was Lily and there is a guy talking to her. "I just wanted to see you. Talk to you." The guy said. Lily huffed in frustration and stomped. "I told you to stop following me."

I stood up, aiming to help the distressed lady. "Is there something wrong?" They turned to me in unison. "No. Go away, you don't have business here." Geoff told ne and glared. But his gaze softened when he returned his attention to Lily. He grabbed her hand and squeezed it. Lily flinched and tried to get away from his grip. I felt the panic radiating off her so I yanked the guy's hand away and stepped between them. "She already said no. When a girl says no, respect that and back off."

Geoff was about to hit me when suddenly Lily shouted "No!"

"Please, stop. Fine, I'll go out with you tonight. Just please, stop. Don't... Hurt him..." The last words were whispered softly, but I heard it. The idiot beamed at her (maybe he didn't hear her last words). "See you Lily!" He ran off and was practically skipping.

Lily turned towards me and fiddled her hair again. She shifted from one foot to foot and looked away. She muttered "Thanks." And ran away.

Eh, she's cute.

TBC :)