*Ella’s POV*

 I woke up because of some kind of sound. I couldn’t hear what it was exactly but I didn’t care, I was so comfortable that it was impossible to wake up. But that sound continued and I was forced to open my eyes. I blinked a few times and looked around. I was hugging Jake, both of us asleep on the couch. We were looking for kidnapper whole night and I don’t even remember when I fell asleep. I put my head on his chest once again and tried to fall back asleep but then my mind registered what that sound was.

-         Ella! open the door please.

-         Sis, I’m worried.

 Lilly and Richy were knocking on my door. I looked at my clock and it was 10 am! How did we sleep that much! I jumped up from the couch, waking up Jake in the process. He looked at me confused and opened his mouth to say something. I was quicker and stopped him by putting my palm on his mouth. I pointed at the door and finally he figured out what was happening. He quickly got up from the couch, opened his backpack and put his laptop and our notes in. erasing all the traces that he was here. He then looked around trying to find the way to get out of here. I just stood there and watched him. He looked at me, hugged me quickly, smiled at me and ran upstairs.

 I waited for a few seconds and then opened the door. my friends stood there, looking at me with worried expressions.

-         Are you ok, Ella? Why didn’t you open the door?

-         Sorry guys, last night I was watching a movie till late so I overslept.

-         That’s ok, sis. Thankfully you’re alright.

 Both of them smiled at me. I invited them in and while they were coming inside some loud voice was heard from upstairs. I knew perfectly well who it was but Richy didn’t. He told me and Lilly to stay here while he would check upstairs. I hoped Jake managed to escape in time. 

Slowly Richy approached my bedroom and I followed him behind. He opened the door and looked inside. Thankfully Jake wasn’t there. We saw that my vase was broken thanks to Jake, the window was open and curtains were all over the place because of the wind outside. All of that created a great illusion that the vase was broken because of wind. Richy went to the window and closed it.

-         Everything is fine sis, just wind.

-         Thanks, bro. I probably forgot to close the window.

-         Looks like it.

-         Did you guys had breakfast?

-         No – both of them answered at the same time.

-         What about we go to Rainbow café?

-         Amazing idea, sis!

-         Ok, I’ll change and then we can go.

 Both of them agreed and left my bedroom. I took my phone and looked at it. there was message from unknown number:

 “Sorry for the vase. I’ll buy you new one.: )”

 I know exactly who that was. I just smiled and got ready for the day.

*Jake’s POV*

 I hate this plan. It’s torture. Everyone thinks I'm a cheater, everyone probably wants to kill me for breaking Ella’s heart but most importantly I can’t be with Ella. I can’t be seen next to her. But I can’t stop thinking about her, how she is, if she’s safe, if she needs me to protect her. So I stay close to her. I stay hidden from everyone, including Ella. but I’m always with her. It probably will be better if I work on finding the kidnapper during the day and at night show my findings to Ella, but I just can’t concentrate on anything when I’m not with her.

 So I follow her around. Right now I’m in front of Rainbow café. She went with Richy and Lilly, they’re eating now and she’s laughing. I wish I could listen to her beautiful laugh. She looks over to where I’m standing. I don’t even try to hide. She sees me and her eyes go wide. I just stand there and smile at her. She's probably confused why I’m here and asks me milion questions whenever we meet but I don’t care. I’ll answer all her questions. She tries to ignore me and talk to her friends. She’s really good at keeping our relationship secret and coming up with lies. i can’t wait for the time when we won’t need to hide it anymore.

 Good thing is that she didn’t went to Aurora. I saw how Phil hugged her yesterday. I wanted to go to him and beat him to death, but I somehow stopped myself. I understand that she needs to play heartbroken role but it’s hard for me to watch. Because of that I will find whoever dared to kidnap Ella and threaten her. he surely will pay for that.

 I watch her as she’s having fun with her friends and out of nowhere a waiter comes to them. He has his eyes fixed on Ella. How dare he? Now they are saying something and he keeps looking at Ella. I can sense how uncomfortable Ella is but she doesn’t do anything. Richy you better do something before me. How long does this guy have to stand there?? Doesn’t he have other customers to serve?

 I couldn’t stop myself. So I took out my phone and called her. I saw how she looked at her phone, said something to her friends and answered it.

-         Hello…. Tyson. How are you?

-         did you seriously just call me Tyson?

-         I’m good too. What are you doing?

-         What am I doing? Nothing much, just stopping myself from killing that waiter.

-         Really? That’s amazing.

-         Yeah, it is.

-         How’s the weather?

-         I miss you Ella.

 I could see how she stopped and looked at me through the window. I smiled at her. she smiled too.

-         I miss you too, ki…kid.

 I laughed. She’s good at coming up with random stuff.

-         Did you just call me kid?

-         Yeah, we used to call each other “kid”. Did you forget that?

-         Of course not. I remember it like yesterday.

-         Good to hear. I’m with friends now Tyson, I’ll call you later.

-         You call me “Tyson” one more time and I will come to you and sit next to you right now, in front of Richy and Lilly.

-         Ok, ok – she smiled nervously.

-         I love you, Ella.

-         Me too – she smiled.

 Before I could cut the call I could hear Lilly asking Ella

-         Who’s Tyson?

 Great, now they’ll talk about him, thanks to me. she literally could come up with any name and she chose “Tyson”. But thankfully that waiter left.

 They stayed at Rainbow café for a few more minutes and then left to park. Of course I followed them.

……

 Finally everyone left and Ella was alone. I went into the apartment from her bedroom window which wasn’t closed and entered her apartment without breaking anything. I went downstairs and she was in the living room, sitting on the couch. She got up and ran to me as soon as she saw me. I of course opened my arms for her. she didn’t waste a second, hugged me tight.

-         I missed you, ki… no wait.

-         If you call me “kid” again…

-         Of course not, I want to come up with a nickname for you. Um…

 She looked me in the eyes.

-         Blue… blue…y. bluey! I missed you so much Bluey!

-         You already called me that once.

-         When?

-         When you were drunk.

-         Really?

-         Mhm.

-         Do you like it?

-         It really is better than “Kitty”.

-         Finally I found a nickname that you like! We need to celebrate that.

-         We will, once everything is back to normal. But now, tell me. Why did you call me “Tyson”?

-         You wanted me to call you Jake? Why did you call anyway?

-         I couldn’t stand and watch that waiter looking at you like that.

-         And why were you standing outside of café?

-         Because I want to know that you’re safe. I can’t just sit in my house and hope you’re alright, especially when we didn’t find that kidnapper.

-         You’re planning on following me everywhere I go?

-         Yes.

-         But what if someone sees you?

-         Ella, my whole life I’ve been hiding. Pretty sure I’m good at that.

-         You aren’t good if I saw you today.

-         Did you see me yesterday?

-         You were following me yesterday?

-         Exactly.

 I smiled at her innocently while she was looking at me with shocked eyes.

-         You stalker!

-         Don’t call me that.

-         Or what?

-         Or I’m going to tickle you.

-         No, you won’t.

-         Yes, I will.

-         Not if you won’t be able to catch me!!

 She ran away from me. Oh, challenge accepted. I put my backpack on the floor and ran after her. We ran around the apartment for a minute, which ended with Ella on the floor laughing so hard that she couldn't even breathe. I stopped tickling her for a second to let her catch her breath, once she was able to talk again she looked at me and said

-         Ok, ok, I’m sorry. You’re not a stalker.

-         That’s better.

-         You're an intruder!

-         What did you just say?

 I continued tickling her, this time without mercy. She was laughing nonstop. I want her to always laugh like this. Seeing sadness on her face kills me inside.

 I’ll make sure that you are always happy, love.