Someone Is Watching Me Shower

I was in the middle of a shower when I saw ita face, blurred and distorted, pressed against the bathroom window.

That was the third time.

When I told my mother, she didn't even look up from her phone. She told me I was being dramatic, that my imagination was getting the best of me.

For heaven's sake, Jade, shed said, her voice sharp with annoyance. "Were on the eighth floor. Unless Spider-Man is stalking you, there is nobody out there."

The next night, I was back in the shower. The steam was thick, the air heavy with the scent of my eucalyptus body wash.

I saw it again.

I didn't wait. I didn't scream. I just lunged for my towel, threw on my robe, and bolted for my bedroom, my heart hammering against my ribs like a trapped bird.

Then, my phone buzzed on the nightstand. A message from the neighbor.

Hey Jade, whyd you stop your shower so early?

Every hair on my arms stood on end.

I let out a strangled cry and threw the phone across the room as if it had burned me. How did he know? How could he possibly know Id stopped?

Unless that face against the glass was his.

But it didn't make sense. We lived on the eighth floor of a sleek, modern high-rise. Outside my bathroom window was nothing but a sheer drop and a concrete ledge no wider than a credit card.

Our apartments shared a wall, sure. But what kind of lunatic would risk a ten-story fall just to catch a glimpse of a girl in the shower? It was suicide.

Then, a memory flickered in the back of my mind. A few weeks ago, that neighborGaryhad knocked on our door. Hed asked to borrow a bottle of body wash.

Theres a 24-hour CVS right downstairs. You can get anything delivered via DoorDash in twenty minutes. Why knock on a strangers door for soap?

The logic didn't track. And then there was the way hed looked at mehis eyes lingering just a second too long on my collarbone.

I couldn't breathe. My hands were shaking so hard I could barely pick up the phone, but I forced myself to dial 911.

Ten minutes later, the muffled wail of sirens cut through the night.

I ran to the door and threw it open. A team of officers spilled out of the elevator, but they didn't stop at my unit. They surged past me, their boots thundering on the carpet as they kicked in Garys door.

A man and a woman in uniform stopped in front of me. The woman flashed her badge.

"Are you the one who called?"

I nodded, my voice stuck in my throat.

"Gary Henderson is dead," she said, her eyes searching mine. "Were going to need you to come with us for questioning."

My world tilted. Garythe man who had just texted mewas dead?

"You mentioned a text message in your 911 call. When exactly did you receive it?"

I tried to pull myself together, though the adrenaline was leaving me cold and hollow. I handed my phone to the female officerDetective Miller.

"10:39 PM," she noted, her expression unreadable. "And what were you doing then?"

I squeezed my hands together. My palms were slick with sweat.

"I I was going to shower. Then I saw the face. It was blurry, just a shape against the frosted glass."

I was rambling, the words tumbling out of me in a frantic rush.

"I got scared. I decided to wait for my parents to get home. I went back to my room, and thats when the text came. I knew something was wrong, so I called you guys. You have the record of the call, right?"

Miller didn't answer. She just kept writing in her notebook, occasionally glancing at me with a look that felt like a surgical probe.

"Can you show us where you saw the face?"

"Yeah. Yes."

I led them inside. I had turned on every single light in the apartment; the place was glowing like a sterile operating room.

I stopped at the threshold of the bathroom. I couldn't bring myself to step inside. I was terrified that if I looked at the window, that blurred, featureless face would be there again, watching.

Miller and her partner stepped in, sliding the glass shower door back.

"This window?"

I nodded.

She took a few photos of the glass. "Did you open the window to look out when you saw it?"

"I I didn't dare."

"Did the face stay there, or did it vanish immediately?"

"I don't know."

The male officer, a younger guy with a buzz cut, let out a short, dismissive huff.

"The steam gets thick in these small bathrooms," he said, not even trying to hide his skepticism. "The glass is frosted. It was probably just a shadow, kid. Girls your age you watch too many true crime docs."

"It wasn't a shadow," I whispered. My voice felt small, insignificant.

Was I crazy? No. I knew what I saw. The third timetonightI could have sworn I saw the corner of a mouth twitch.

Miller shot her partner a look. "Knock it off, Ward."

"I'm just saying," Ward muttered. "Remember that call last week? The girl who thought she was being followed, and it turned out they were just going to the same Starbucks?"

"Shut up," Miller snapped.

She reached out and unlatched the window. A draft of cold, night air rushed in. Outside, the world was a black abyss. Empty.

She leaned out, looking down at the sheer drop. Then she shook her head.

"Right here," she muttered.

"Right here." What did that mean?

She walked back toward me and placed a hand on my shoulder. It wasn't exactly comforting.

"I need to see some ID."

Her voice snapped me back to reality. "Right. Okay."

I went to my room and pulled my driver's license from my purse. She looked it over.

"Born in 2008. You just turned eighteen?"

I nodded. "Yesterday. It was my birthday."

Millers gaze flickered to the small, half-eaten chocolate cake sitting on my desk.

I swallowed hard, trying to find my courage. "How how did he die?"

She looked at me again, her eyes sharper now, like she was trying to see through my skin.

"He fell. We haven't ruled out foul play."

I nodded slowly, the room feeling like it was shrinking.

"Where are your parents?"

"They went out after dinner. My dad was meeting some friends for drinks, and my mom went to her weekly poker night."

"How did you have Garys number? Were you two close?"

I shook my head vigorously. "No. He told me his niece was starting high school soon and asked if he could have my old SAT prep books when I graduated. He gave me his number for that. Thats it."

"Had he texted you before tonight?"

I shook my head again, my fingers twisting the hem of my robe.

Suddenly, the sharp click-clack of heels echoed from the hallway. The sound grew louder, more frantic.

"You!"

A woman lunged into the room, her hand raised to strike. I flinched, pulling away, but Miller was faster. She caught the womans wrist in a grip of iron.

The woman hissed in pain. "Let go of me! That little brat! That little slut killed my husband! I want her head on a plate!"

I froze. Killed? Me?

My legs turned to jelly. I stumbled back, and Miller caught me before I could hit the floor.

Officer Ward stepped between me and the woman. "Ma'am, you need to calm down. We are still investigating."

The woman collapsed onto the floor, wailing. It was Linda, Garys wife.

Why would she think I did it? I watched her, paralyzed by her raw, hysterical grief.

The commotion had drawn the rest of the neighbors. People were hovering in the hallwayfaces I recognized from the elevator, people who usually just gave me a polite nod.

"Gary was such a good guy," someone whispered. "He helped me fix my laptop last month. Didn't even charge me."

"So tragic," another added. "Poor Linda, left all alone with a kid."

Linda looked up, her eyes bloodshot and filled with venom. "It was her! She did it! I know she did!"

The eyes of the neighbors shifted. They began to look at me differently. Not as the quiet girl from 8B, but as something else.

"Thats the Miller girls daughter, right? Jade?" a woman whispered. "Shes only eighteen."

"Like mother, like daughter," Linda shrieked, her voice cracking. "Her mother is a tramp, and shes no better! They did something to him!"

Miller's voice cut through the noise like a blade. "Ma'am, watch your mouth. Unless you have evidence, you are bordering on defamation."

Linda went quiet, but the damage was done. The neighbors whispers grew into a dull roar.

"Actually, I remember seeing them by the mailboxes," a man said, leaning in. "She was wearing these tiny denim shorts, and Gary was right behind her, looking well, you know. Maybe they had a thing?"

"But she's so young"

"Eighteen isn't that young. Girls these days know exactly what theyre doing."

The weight of their words felt like stones being piled on my chest. I hadn't done anything, but I was being buried alive under their assumptions.

Miller stepped forward, her presence commanding the room. "Until we find a suspect, everyone in this building is a person of interest. Do you all want to come down to the station for a statement?"

The hallway cleared out in seconds.

The elevator doors opened again, and my parents finally appeared. I broke down, sobbing as I threw myself into my mothers arms. I tried to tell her everythingthe face, the text, the police.

But my mother just hissed at me under her breath.

"I told you to stop with this nonsense, Jade! I told you there was no face! If you hadn't called the police, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"But Mom, the text message"

She slapped me.

The sound was like a gunshot in the quiet room. My head snapped to the side, my lip stinging.

"Don't you dare speak of it," she whispered, her voice trembling with a mixture of rage and fear. "You want the whole world thinking youre that kind of girl? Youll never be able to show your face in this town again."

My eyes burned with unshed tears.

"Are you Jades mother?" Miller asked, her voice cold.

My mother straightened up, her face instantly morphing into a mask of polite concern. "Yes, I am. Im so sorry, shes just shes been under a lot of stress with finals."

"She was exercising her rights," Miller said. "She did nothing wrong. And you shouldn't have hit her."

My mother, usually the fiercest woman in any room, suddenly looked small. Cowed.

My father stood behind her, his face flushed red from the whiskey. He hadn't said a single word.

The police took their initial notes and left. But three days later, they were back. They didn't come to check on me. They came with a warrant.

"Jade Miller, were taking you in for questioning regarding the death of Gary Henderson."

I felt the blood drain from my face. My parents stared, their mouths agape.

"Lets go."

The interrogation room was cold. It smelled of stale coffee and industrial cleaner.

I sat there, picking at the skin around my cuticles, unable to stop my legs from shaking.

Two detectives walked in. One was Miller. For a second, I felt a spark of hope. Shed been kind to me before.

But her face was a mask of stone. She sat down, looked me in the eye, and said the words that ruined my life.

"Why did you kill him, Jade?"

My heart stopped. Literally stopped for a beat.

"You're eighteen. You have your whole life ahead of you. Whatever happened, whatever he did to youif youd just gone to college, you could have left this all behind. Why did you throw it away?"

She didn't sound angry. She sounded disappointed. As if I were a child who had broken a vase, rather than a woman accused of murder.

"I didn't" I shook my head, my voice trembling.

"We found hair at the scene. Inside Garys apartment," Miller said, leaning forward. "DNA doesn't lie, Jade. Its a match."

The room started to spin. I had never stepped foot inside Garys apartment. Never.

"And," she continued, "we found something else on his phone. Multiple photos of you."

She paused, as if the next word was too heavy to say.

"Nude photos."

A wave of nausea hit me so hard I thought I might throw up. I felt exposed. Naked. Like I was standing in the middle of a crowded street with no skin to protect me.

"What?" I choked out.

"And why," Miller added, her voice dropping to a whisper, "did you lie to us about the messages?"