"Where is my mother?", I ask Denise as I walk past her into the house.
"Leya, it's half past three in the morning. Your mother isn't here," she says sleepily.
I rang the doorbell for about 3 or even 4 minutes before Denise finally opened the door.
"But where is she then?", I ask her again.
"At home? Asleep in her bed?"
"No she's not, otherwise I wouldn't be standing here in your living room right now asking you where my mother is!", I yell now.
I know she hasn't done anything to me, but I can't help it. I scream anyway.
"What's going on here?" suddenly asks a male voice coming from the direction of the stairs.
I turn around and look not into the sleepy face of Jude, but into that of his father.
Shit, I didn't know they were here.
"Nothing, my darling. Leya is just a bit confused. Come let's go back to sleep," she says and runs over to her husband. "You are welcome to sleep here tonight. You know where the guest room is," she says with a nice smile and runs back up the stairs with Mark.
"No, Denise. Please. You don't understand what I mean," I say again, but my voice is so low that she can no longer hear me.
Shit, what am I going to do now?
I stand there, rooted to the spot. My pulse starts to quicken, first a little and then so much that every person in the room could hear it if someone were here.
My breathing becomes more and more irregular, sometimes faster, sometimes shorter, until finally I can't breathe at all and have to hold on to something to keep from falling over.
I don't know how, but somehow I manage to run to the kitchen to get a glass of water.
I drink the whole glass in one go and then rest my arms on the counter and put my head in it.
I don't know how long I stood there like that, but when the front door opens, I stand up straight again and wait to see who is coming.
I probably should have hidden, but it was too late for that anyway.
The person slowly approaches the kitchen and probably wonders why the light is on.
As he steps around the corner, my heart drops.
We just stand there and look at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us knows what to say. He finally breaks the silence by saying, "What are you doing here?" I get goose bumps when I hear his voice. Not in a good way, though, but because his voice sounds more deprecating and serious than ever.
