One of Us Is Going Down

He stayed in his room or the kitchen all day, not sure if he should be right with Ashlyn. It wasn’t like they were friends hanging out, but he also didn’t want her to feel like he was breathing down her neck. She had stayed in her room most of the morning on her laptop. She was now out at the pool with a friend named Leslie, they were both floating around in the sun.

“He’s so cute,” Leslie giggled, noticing Brian look out one of the windows, checking on the girls in the pool.

“He’s too handsome, I feel like a total doof around him at all times, and like when I mess up, he’s just going to laugh. You know me, I’ve never been one to be intimidated by the opposite sex, but I am by him.”

“It’s probably because he’s your hot bodyguard who’s about to go LA with you for school, where you will live in an apartment, alone with him, and you could totally have sexy time,” Leslie said, pulling her sunglasses down to wink at her friend.

“Lez, your mind totally revolves around one thing, no I take that back, two things.
Clothes and sex.”

“Puh-lease, like you wouldn’t want that over you, naked and-”

“THAT’S ENOUGH! I don’t want to be hearing this!!” Ashlyn threw her hands up to her ears.

At around five that night, Brian said he wanted to check the house security system by himself, so off he went. They couldn’t find him for dinner, he was off somewhere, checking some monitor. Ashlyn ate in the pool house that night, in front of the television. She cleaned up behind herself, then laid back on the sofa to finish the movie she had started while eating. Brian walked in as she was drifting off to sleep, waking her. He walked into the living room and pointed at the tv.

“Mind if I join?”

Ashlyn just shook her head; Brian sat down in the over-sized armchair and looked at the television.

She awoke in the middle of the night to a low growl from Benedict who laid at the foot of her bed. This wasn’t a normal growl, this was definitely a ‘there’s something bad in the house’ sort of growl, the type that made Ashlyn’s blood run cold. Could she get to Brian’s room in time? Should she just scream? Should she just pretend to be asleep? These thoughts raced through her mind over and over. Then she saw the shape of a man in the living room, moving towards her door. She froze, petrified.

“Are you awake?” Someone whispered, just loud enough so she could hear, but quiet enough that it wouldn’t wake her, had she been asleep.

Benedict wasn’t growling, so it had to be Brian.

“Brian?” She asked, meekly.

“No, Tooth Fairy, this is Santa Clause.”

Touché, baby-sitter – Ashlyn thought.

“Why are you up?”

“Heard a noise,” he said, sitting down in the door way of her room with his back to her, “Go back to sleep.”

She didn’t argue.