By the time Matt got home he was panting. He hadn't biked that hard in a long time. He'd made it home in record time, almost as fast as if he'd driven. But that was only because he didn't have to adhere to the traffic the way cars did. He wasn't thinking about that though. His mind was still racing, trying to unscramble something that he didn't understand. He tripped off his bike, putting a decent sized grass stain on his pants. Got up, promptly tripped going up the stairs of his porch and putting his hand through the soft wood. Ouch. Really this porch needed to be redone. He heard laughing and realized those kids from down the street had seen him.
"Oh fuck you," he mumbled as he got up and hurried inside, promptly locking all nine deadbolts and sliding down the door to process exactly what had happened.
The running was some kind of part to his thinking process he had yet to really understand. Somehow the metaphoracle act of physically putting distance between himself and the problem (was it a problem? Was there even a problem?) could help him also mentally distance himself from the problem.
That was the first step. Secondly, the tears had stopped and that was good whatever that had been about. So now he seemed to have some physical control over his body which frankly, in his panicked state, he really had no control over it at all.
Thirdly, well, that was where he was at now. Now what. The number one issue was that he was more than certain that someone had been in his computer system and it was that girl from the shop. Had she bugged the hard drive somehow? He hadn't seen anything out of the ordinary but she also probably knew more about computers than he did. He would be the first to admit that he was an amatuer (though many would probably disagree) as he was so very very self taught.
And that girl had something to do with the cat but he didn't know how they related other than the fact that the cat had such red hair. What had alerted him to the connection to the cat and the red bow in the first place, anyway. The perfume. Not the perfume though, no. The red bow that was connected to that vase being stolen. Which was also on his computer. And the smell from that lady's house on the cat.
Okay. So what did that have to do with him? Why? Why were they in his computers. Nothing was worse than someone touching that.
And then he thought. Why? Why was it so bad.
It wasn't like he was doing anything wrong. Not really. Okay sometimes. But really he only went to such lengths for his guaranteed privacy. But if anyone should know that surely they would think he had something to hide that he would go to those lengths.
"I just want to experience real freedom." He said out loud. That was what it boiled down to, in the end. In the end what he needed to do was talk to this girl and find out exactly why she was watching him. Or what exactly she was or what she was doing. Because he didn't understand. And he needed to understand before he moved foreward at all.
Earlier today this was all just a glitch in the wiring. A concern, yes, but it had a temporary work around and he could continue on as normal. Now it was urgent and it needed immediate attention. Everything else. The checklists. The bank accounts. The space shuttle. The research. Mr. Howard. All of that was on hold until this problem, this confusion, this girl, was understood.
He prided himself on being logical and stood up from his spot against the door. Turned around, unlocked it and stepped back outside. He would go back to the store and talk to her.
Except his bike was gone.