faculty. I would greatly appreciate it if, for the next hour, you would all please turn off your cell phones." As he spoke, a giant screen descended from the ceiling behind him. "This is a short film that describes how the new spy-cam system works. As you are all probably aware by this time, we have already had to expel one student who we caught assaulting another student in the hall."
Oddly enough, Ian's parents had no idea whatsoever that the recipient of that assault was their son. Ian never talked about stuff like that with them. He just figured that they would assume that it must have been something he did.
The seemingly innocuous hour long deactivation of the cell phones would usher in a watershed moment in at least one girl's life.
8:32 pm, Felix's House
The movie was heading towards its climax. On the screen, the two romantic leads were now engaged in a long, romantic kiss. Felix decided that this was his cue. He held Phoebe a little tighter, hoping that she would take the hint. She nervously turned to face him and closed her eyes. Despite all her braggadocio, the fact is, this would be the first time she had ever kissed a guy full on the lips. She basically just imitated what was happening on TV. Although she didn't exactly feel any fireworks, the experience wasn't unpleasant either. She was slightly disappointed that her first kiss proved to be a fairly unmemorable moment. She briefly opened her eyes, gave him a half smile, and then tried again.
This time, however, he decided to be a little more aggressive, and put his tongue in her mouth. Phoebe definitely did not enjoy this, but pretended that she did, simply because she didn't want to let him know that she had never done this before. She felt that it wouldn't look good if word got around that she was a bad kisser.
The two of them turned and watched the screen as the credits rolled. As the film ended, they turned to each other and kissed once more. This time, Felix really decided to press his luck. As they kissed, he reached over and put his hand on her breast.
Phoebe gasped. She wasn't even going to attempt to pretend that this was within the boundaries of her comfort zone. "Uh, Felix..." she grabbed his hand and removed it.
"Sorry," He sounded insincere, but she was glad that she wasn't going to have to put up a fight.
This moment proved to be an epiphany for her. She now realized that she was in danger, and started to question what her own motives were for spending the evening with him in the first place...Did I come here to please my mother? Did I come here to prove that I could get a better looking guy than Rita? Did I come here to try and convince myself that I'm ready for something that I'm actually not ready for? It was probably a little of all three, but mostly the latter. Needless to say, his motives were now obvious.
Nonetheless, knowing that she was stuck there for at least another hour and a half before her mom came for her, she quickly decided to change the subject. "That was good, can I see what else is on?"
Felix sighed. "Sure, I'll be back in a minute or two."
After he left the room, Phoebe started to flip around with the remote. My God, she had never seen so many channels in so many different languages. What was the point of having all these stations that no one is ever going to watch?
Felix re-entered the room, with a couple of beverage filled glasses. "Perhaps some refreshments are in order." He placed one of the glasses down in front of her on the coffee table, while he continued to hold the other.
Phoebe could tell by the color that they were filled with liquor of some sort. "Um, I usually only drink on certain occasions."
"Well, why don't we just pretend it's Christmas...or whatever your preference is."
Once again, she directed his attention towards the big screen. "You know, Rita and I had to do a sociology report that involved this film. It's called The Maltese Falcon. The dialogue is real difficult to..."
All of a sudden she stopped. The movie was at the scene near the end, when Humphrey Bogart was talking to Sidney Greenstreet, "So that's when you slipped me a Mickey..."
Phoebe now gazed down in horror at the glass of wine in front of her. Suddenly, Rita's words kept ringing in her ears about not being able to trust this guy.
"What's wrong?" Asked Felix.
"Huh?" She was clearly distracted.
"You were about to tell me something about this movie?"
"Oh," she composed herself. "Just that it's real hard to understand what's going on. "Listen Felix, I really don't feel like drinking anything with alcohol in it right now. By any chance, do you have a can of soda or something?"
"I believe we've got some Pepsi."
"That'll be fine."
Felix put his glass down on the coffee table and left the room. As soon as he was gone, Phoebe suddenly had an idea. She picked up both of the glasses of wine, and switched them around, being very careful to put one glass in the exact place that he had left the other. If he were to pass out next to her after drinking from it, her suspicions would no longer be ambiguous.
Suddenly, the story got a little more complicated. She clearly heard the sound of the top being popped off of a Pepsi can from the direction that he just headed towards. If several red flags had already been hoisted, they were now really flapping in the breeze. At least thirty seconds had elapsed since she heard the can open, and still no sign of him.
"Felix, What's taking you so long?"
"I'll be there in a second" came the voice from the other room. He then walked in, handed her the can, and sat down next to her.
"Y-You didn't have to open it for me." She tried not to stutter. Her hand was also starting to tremble a little.
"I'm just being' a gentleman." He sat down next to her, and put his arm around her once again. "Hey, you're shaking. Are you cold?"
"No, it's not that." Her mind was now going haywire...What do I do now? "Uh, which way is the bathroom?"
Felix pointed to the door that they entered through. "That way. Make a right at the end of the hall."
"Thanks, I'll be right back."
That was a lie. Phoebe knew what she had to do. First she walked down the hall, opened the bathroom door, and without actually going inside, turned the light on. She then shut the door loudly enough for him to hear. It was time to make her escape. She tiptoed through the cavernous entry hall and opened the front door as quietly as possible, exited, and then shut it behind her in equally as quiet a manner. Once she was outside, she ran. She wasn't sure of which direction she was going, but she wanted to get as far away from that house as possible. She whipped her cell phone out, and immediately set it so that any incoming calls from Felix would receive an instruction to just leave a message. Once she was about two blocks away, she managed to compose herself enough to speed-dial her mother's number....nothing. Her mom's cell phone had been turned off. Now she was starting to panic. She didn't want to be wandering around in the dark late at night in some strange neighborhood. What if Felix were to come looking for her? She quickly scanned through the list of all the other numbers she had listed on speed-dial, focusing on the adults. Since all the adults were at the meeting, perhaps she could ask one of her friend's parents to relay a message to her mom. She tried giving Trish's parents a call. No luck. Just her voice mail. Same with Betty's and Rita's. It soon became evident that everyone's phone was turned off.
She tried calling Trish and Betty, but they were both in the theatre at the mall, and had to turn their cells off. Finally, there was Rita. Phoebe just stared at her number for a minute, pondering the amount of crow she was going to have to eat, if she dialled it. Rita did practically order her to give her a call under these exact circumstances. Preparing to humble herself, she pushed the button. It rang twice, and a familiar voice answered.
"Hello?"
Phoebe's voice had a noticable tremble in it. "It's me, Rita."
"Phoebe?"
?
? "You were right. Felix is a creepy guy who lives in a big creepy house."
"Where are you!?" She sounded frantic.
"Right where I shouldn't be."
"Phoebe, get out of that house!"
"I'm already out of the house. I sneaked out when he wasn't looking. I'm a couple of blocks away, hiding in the bushes."
"Have you tried calling your mom?"
"Yes. I've even tried calling your mom. Apparently something is going on at the school that required them to all shut their phones off." Phoebe was now crying profusely.
courage than anything you have ever done in your life. Are you up for it?"
"I'm up for anything that'll get me away from here." she whimpered.
"Alright." Rita pushed a few buttons on her phone. "My boyfriend has an older sister who drives, and has her own car. Give him a call, and inform him of the situation. Perhaps he can persuade her to give you a lift."
"Ian?" Phoebe was ashen-faced.
"If you want him to be receptive to the idea, I strongly suggest that you call him by his real name. You do know what that is, don't you?"
"Wouldn't it make a lot more sense if you were to call him? He'll probably just hang up on me...And frankly, I don't blame him."
"Phoebe, it's the principle of the matter. You've discovered some important things about the boy you love this evening. Now I think it's time you learned a little about the boy