Slipping Through My Fingers

Chapter Twenty One

Chapter 21

Nate's POV -

The sound of my phone woke me up from the two hour sleep I had thanked the Lord I managed to get. Groggily, I turned to my side, with the same hope I had every single day that it'd be her, and answered the phone.

"Hello?" My hope died down when I heard Adam's voice.

"Have you heard from her yet?" He asked.

"No, I would call you if I did so you can stop calling me at five in the morning." I grumbled.

"Yeah, right." He scoffed. "If you found where she was the last thing on your mind would be to call me."

I didn't bother denying it because, well, he was exactly right. I didn't give a shit about how badly he wanted her back or wanted to find out where she was because bottom line, I wanted her back even more.

It had been around two weeks since she had completely disappeared from our lives. No note, no nothing. I had called her phone heaps of times for the first day and when she never answered, I just figured that she was really busy. So the next day I decided to go to her apartment and I found other people living in there. I kind of beat up the landlord, asking where she was. He just told me that she barely had enough money to feed her brothers and so she had been evicted.

I had called Adam immediately, praying that she was in Tulsa with him. When he found out what had happened, he came straight back to Brooklyn. It was all sort of like a blur. Every day, we would all follow the same routine. Obviously, I missed school because you know; I don't really care about education and whatnot.

I would visit Cam, who Chris was stuck to, and hang out a bit there. Everyone would be complaining how when they got Rose back, they were going to kill her. Chloe mended her broken heart, although I think it was because she was hanging around with Adam a lot.

All of us would basically think of different ways on how we could track down Rose. I even tried calling that Mr. Ashford guy who sent her money but there was no answer. Since Rose had no family and no friends (outside of our circle), she was basically a dead end. She didn't even have credit cards or anything.

"Do you know what we're going to do?" Adam asked after I didn't answer him.

"No. Giving up isn't an option." I replied dryly.

"Hey, I never said I was giving up either." He defended.

"Whatever. Look Adam, I've barely been able to get enough sleep for the past couple of weeks and you being the asshole you are, woke me up. Now I'm going to rest and when I wake up properly, we'll go back to being detectives. Okay?"

"How can you put this off? Rose is missing!" He argued.

"Rose is a strong girl. She's been taking care of these kids her whole life, I don't doubt her. I'm getting her back, that's for sure. Just let me sleep." I mumbled.

"You're just jealous that she had messaged me and not you." He said, referring to the message Rose had sent him saying 'I'm okay'.

Yes, like any normal human being, I was crazy jealous and angry. I was baffled that she would have the option of texting anyone yet she chose him. I wanted to know why. What had I done to her to want to make her run away? I get that she was evicted and all, but she was surrounded by people who not only could help her but would want to help her.

"F*ck you." I spat before shutting in his face.

I didn't like Adam but I had to work with him if I even had a chance of seeing Rose again. It wasn't fair. I kind of felt sorry for Rose, too. When I get her back, she will never hear the end of it.

**

I woke up three hours later, feeling a little more refreshed and in detective mode. I threw on a shirt and walked downstairs, keeping my phone on me as always in case she called.

"G'morning bitch." My dad grinned at me.

Rolling my eyes, I took a seat at the breakfast table and piled food onto my plate.

"Hey, dad." I replied.

My mum, as usual, scolded my dad for the pet names and they began arguing as usual. I heard footsteps towards me and saw Ashton in his boxers and a shirt, his hair messed up.

"Hey, slut. Can you keep it down next time?" My dad said to Ashton as he took a seat next to me.

Confusedly, I turned towards my brother with a frown.

"What does he mean?" I asked Ashton, who was grinning.

"Emily was here last night." He winked.

Oh, that's right. That meant my brother and almost sister-in-law were getting it on last night.

"Yes," My dad said, "And the both of them couldn't keep it down."

Ashton just shrugged while I muffled a chuckle at the glare my mum was shooting towards my dad.

They started talking and eating while I dazed off, barely putting food into my mouth. Ashton was so lucky. He had a girl with no baggage and everything they wanted. She came from a good family and wouldn't necessarily run away from home. And despite my dad frowning upon it, Ashton was crazy about Emily.

I wanted that for myself. Well, I didn't know what I wanted until I had Rose. We had a good run... until she literally ran away. I'm not saying that I would want another girl because; I wouldn't trade anyone for Rose. But, I just wish things were easier with us.

"Nate?" I heard my mum's voice wake me up from my daze.

"Yeah?" I replied, pretending that I was being attentive.

"Is it Rose?" She asked me, a knowing smile elapsing onto her face.

"Yeah." I muttered, not looking my dad's way.

"Where is she? You didn't end up bringing her over."

"I don't know." I said, keeping my gaze on the omelettes in front of me.

"You don't know?"

"She ran away from home, mum. And no, I don't mean that in the whole, she's a rebellious teenager kind of approach. She's been missing for two weeks now. Her parents have been absent for years now. She has no income and three brothers to feed. She's been on her own for a very long time. She was evicted from her home and instead of coming to me for help, she ran away and now I don't know where she is." I told her all in a rush.

I had been in denial for a long time. I knew that, and I never faced it. I never actually faced the fact that my girlfriend was missing. I had been taking it easy and never really faced it until now. I shut out any feelings and dealt with it. But now, I felt like it was all gathering up without me knowing it, as if slowly, every time I was in denial, it would continuously build up more and more until I exploded. And this was it, the defining moment.

Angrily, I stood up, pushing my chair back and ignored the calls from Ashton and my parents. I had so much frustration and anger built in me and needed to get rid of it somehow. Last time I had felt like this was Rose's first day of school when my fist went through my car window. That hadn't been good. So instead, I grabbed my car keys and jumped inside letting it take me to the gym.

As soon as I had arrived, I walked into the boxing arena and without putting gloves on; I began to attack the boxing bag. I could feel pain coursing through my fists and soon, I saw my fists bleeding, just like they had when I punched the window.

Despite the pain and despite the blood, I continued punching the bag. I couldn't stop. I continued until finally, the bag had fallen off of the rope and I sunk to the floor before finally catching up on the sleep that I had missed out on for two weeks.

**

When I woke up, I was on the floor of the gym and I immediately winced at the pain from my fists.

"I'll get some Tylenol for that." I heard Ashton say.

I turned around and saw him lifting weights.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, frowning.

"I followed you, duh." He said childishly.

I rolled my eyes and sat up.

"So, you haven't heard from Rose, ha?"

"Nope." I said, popping the 'p'.

"You really like her, don't you?" He smirked, tilting his head.

"Yup." I replied.

"But she probably doesn't like you seeing as she ran away from you." He shrugged, sighing dramatically.

"Shut up." I said, knowing he was joking anyway.

I stood up and pushed him from where he was lying down and lifting weights. Before he could complain, I quickly laid down and started bench-pressing some weights. Ashton scowled at me and went to the treadmill and accustomed the settings began to run.

"Where do mum and dad think you are?" I asked Ashton after a few moments of silence.

"With you." He replied and changed the settings so he could run even faster. "They're the ones that told me to go after you."

I frowned and put more weights on and continued to bench press them.

"Why would they make you come after me? I'm not twelve." I scoffed.

"But you were pretty upset." Ash shot back.

I chose not to reply and instead focused all my attention on getting the damn weights above me.

The gym was like my sanctuary in some way. Ever since Ash, being the eldest brother, had anger attacks, my parents set up a gym for him to work out. When Brandon began to show signs of anger rants, my dad put him into the gym straight away. When I was eight, I had my first blow up and since then, the gym had been my sanctuary.

"Rose is a bitch." I heard Ashton say after a while.

Immediately, I frowned and looked towards him. When he saw my expression, he shrugged sheepishly and smirked.

"What? She's the one who made you whipped. Any girl who could do that is a bitch." He replied nonchalantly.

I sighed heavily and ran a hand through my already messed up hair.

"She isn't a bitch and I'm not whipped. She's just confused. And stupid. And idiotic. But she isn't a bitch. She couldn't hurt a fly." I defended.

"Yet she hurt you." My brother piped in.

His answer caught me off guard and for a few moments I was at loss for words. Finally, I dropped the metal bar and put it in place.

"I'm not hurt. She didn't hurt me." I replied.

"Quit the tough guy act, Nate. I've been there, done that. Em's done it to me before." He replied, for once looking serious.

"I've never seen you upset about a girl." I commented, trying to think back to when he and Emily first met.

"Who the hell has the balls to be upset over a girl in front of dad?" He laughed and got off the treadmill and sat next to me on the wrestling mats.

"She'll come back for you." Ashton murmured.

"I don't think so. I didn't exactly treat her very well. When she was robbed, I yelled at her. And it wasn't even words of encouragement, I was just frustrated. Who the hell would come back for that?" I asked, a feeling of frustration overwhelming me once again.

"She stayed with you after that, didn't she? Rose accepted being your girlfriend even though she knew how you were."

I started to feel uncomfortable and stood up, away from my brother. We never had heartfelt chats. I don't think I've shared a decent, proper conversation with anyone before. I was close to having one with Rose once until I decided to ruin it by saying 'Cat in the Hat'. I wasn't one to share feelings and shit. It just wasn't me. I guess I had too much of my father's genes.

"Bordering awkwardness?" Ashton asked, grinning sheepishly.

"We passed awkwardness a while ago, buddy. I'm surprised I lasted this long." I smirked.

He laughed along with me and stood up as well.

"How'd we get so f*cked up?" He sighed.

"Dad, I guess." I answered with a shrug.

"Emily hates it, you know. She hates that I have never told her about how I feel about her. She calls me heartless all the time. It's kind of funny." He began to chuckle.

"So then how the hell did you propose? Aren't you supposed to give her a long speech and shit?" I asked, knowing that every girl on Earth expected something like that.

"Well, Nate, I looked deep into her brown eyes and slowly, I opened my mouth and the first words that came out were 'Bitch, you better marry me'. She said no straight away and punched me for a while before I kissed her and made it all better." He winked while I chuckled loudly.

"I bet Rose would have cried if I said that to her." I laughed, imagining the way she would frown and press her fingers to the bridge of her nose to stop herself from crying.

"She's sensitive?" He asked with a frown. We never liked sensitive girls.

"No, she's really strong. But she cries about the most random things. It's kind of funny." I smiled, remembering the many times she'd just randomly cry.

We stayed silent for a few moments before Ashton looked up at me, his mouth agape, before shutting it again. He went through the same routine at least five times before I chuckled.

"You look like you have something to tell me." I laughed.

He smiled sheepishly and opened his mouth once again before shutting it again.

"Spit it out, Ash." I sang, growing a little anxious.

"Okay, but the only reason I'm telling you is because I know you really like this girl." He told me.

Frowning, I nodded, urging him to tell me whatever it was that he wanted to say.

"I know where Rose is. Well, I don't know her exact location, but I'm pretty cl-" His confession was interrupted with the sound of my fist connecting to his jaw.

Instead of wincing or growing angry, Ashton laughed.

I felt so riled up. I couldn't believe that Ash knew where she was!

"She's in Vermont. South." He told me, rubbing the spot where I had punched him.

"And you waited so long to tell me because?!" I yelled, wishing that I hadn't knocked down that punching bag already.

"I wanted to make sure that you really liked her!" He replied, still laughing.

"When did you find out?" I asked, my voice still loud.

"That you liked her or her location?" Ashton asked teasingly.

I growled at him and stalked towards him to punch him again before he put his hands up defensively.

"Woah, hold on there! I found out before I came after you today. Dad and I used the computer to track her down." He answered.

I wanted to get more answers because I had a hell of questions to ask but I knew that the more time I was screaming at Ash was wasting time with me going to find Rose.

"You're a bastard!" I yelled before running out of the gym and hopping into my car.

As soon as I was in my car, I started it up quickly and guilt swarmed into me.

Despite my angry conversation with Adam this morning, I knew that I would be extremely angry if he knew Rose's whereabouts and never approached me. So, instead of going straight to Vermont, I found myself driving to Adam's apartment and opening the door without knocking.

When I walked inside his apartment, I could hear him in one of the spare rooms and just as I was about to walk into the room and share the news, light on the screen of his phone flashed and I read a name that said 'Jace'.

I listened to Rose enough to know that that was the same name as her brother. I didn't know if it was mere coincidence or not, but I wasn't taking any chances. Especially when the message read 'I hate her'.

I quietly unlocked Adam's phone, hoping he hadn't heard me enter and opened up his message before I felt an overwhelming rage of hatred towards the man in the other room. It turned out that Adam had been speaking with Jace the whole time they've been missing.

I frowned and quickly scanned through their messages and read the latest one again. Apparently Jace had a fight with Rose.

Adam: You don't mean that. Where are you guys now?

I quickly sent the message and hoped to God that he would reply quickly. A message was sent to me straight away, making an adrenaline rush coarse through me.

Jace: Vermont. Sunny Hill Motel.

I couldn't be happier to learn I had their exact location.

Adam: I'm on my way. I wrote back.

Before I could run out of the apartment and drive up to Vermont, I shoved Adam's phone into my pocket and stalked into the room I heard him in.

I opened the door quickly and froze in my place when I found him and Chloe lying down on the pool table making out. I thought Chloe just had a crush on that dirt bag! I never thought that he'd actually like her too! She was four years younger than him!

They both stopped what they were doing once they saw me and before I knew what happened, I stalked up to Adam and used all my strength into one cool, hard punch.

"That," I spat, glaring at him, "Is for not telling me where the hell they were."

I ignored Chloe's protests or Adam's calls as I ran out of their apartment and hopped into my car, hoping that this would be the last time Rose ever pulled a stunt like this.

**

Luckily, the worker at the front desk to Sunny Hill Motel was a lady and I was able to use my charm on her into breaking the whole 'customer confidentiality' and she told me which room Rose was in.

As soon as she had told me, I ran up the steps and found myself a few mere meters away from Rose. I had pictured this moment many times in my head. Sometimes, in those moments, I would be furious, bursting into wherever she was and demanding her to grovel at me feet, explaining why she had left.

Other moments, I was soft, kind and understanding. I would kiss her, hug her and explain how much I had missed her and begged her to come back home.

But I knew, just as she did, that all those scenarios were not me. Yeah, I was angry at her but I wouldn't necessarily yell angrily at her. I wouldn't also be everything I wasn't and beg her to come back to me. That wasn't me either.

So instead, I thought that when my reactions came, then I would be myself. I had pictured this moment so many times, but I never expected to be standing at the door, staring at it, wondering what to do with myself. You'd think with a seven hour drive, I would have been able to come up with some speech or something. Nope, instead, I stood frozen, staring at the 103 number on the door.

Finally, after what had seemed like forever, I knocked on the door.

"Rose?" I called, trying to make my voice seem normal.

And I swear, I heard something bang on the floor and her breath hitch. Yep, it was definetly her.

-----------------------------------

Authors Note:

Hiya :D so I didn't upload yesterday because... Oh yeah I was at my grandparents house and then I came home and other stuff ...

Umm, so I decided to write this chapter in Nate's POV to show how he found out where she was. Adam is still good, don't worry. He had his reasons for not telling Nate, you'll figure that out soon.

Umm, this isn't the ending or anything. It's not even a big problem compared to what's ahead... DUN DUN DUUUUNNN !!!

Vote, comment and fan.

Farewell xx