One Step Behind

Chapter 12~ Dani

"Isn't this like illegal?" I question.

"Illegal? No. Detention? Maybe" he replies, and laughs. It almost scares me how he's still holding my hand.

"I'm sorry" I state.

"For what?" Jonah questions.

"F-for everything, I've been a horrible friend to you" I reply, and he finally lets go of my hand.

"I like you" he says.

"I know" I mutter, looking down at my black and white nike sneakers.

"A lot" he replies, and then I look up at his hazel eyes. His cheeks become a bright red, and Jonah turns around in embarassment. He walks over towards the door, and begins to open it, but I close it. He grabs both my hands and holds them. A few seconds after he has grabbed them, I pull them away, and then hug him.

The bell rings, so we hurry back to class. Once we are in there, it seems as if nothing happened.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

After the last class of the day, Shay meets me by my locker. I was in the library at lunch and I didn't see her in the morning, so I didn't get to tell her what had happened with Jonah.

"We talked, and hugged" I say, after explaining to her we went to the teacher's bathroom.

"That's it?" She asks.

"What more would there be?" I question.

"Well, I thought you two might have kissed" she mutters, pulling her hair up into a pony tail.

"Shay! I just broke up with my boyfriend less than a week ago!" I state as I close my locker.

"Okay fine, whatever, are you two dating now?" She asks.

"Shay! Do you even listen to me? I'm not. You need to frickin' pay attention. I'm not some girl who just dates the next guy who likes her. Okay? I'm not you." I yell, and suddenly wish I hadn't said it.

"Fine, be that way" Shay replies, and then runs off. I see her tap Kyle's shoulder, and he hugs her. I think I see her cry. I feel so bad. Since the thing a few days ago, I should have been a lot nicer to her. I hadn't even bothered to ask how she was. All I noticed was she wore a big, black, 'FBI' sweatshirt and dark grey sweatpants with black uggs. It's not even October, and she already has boots on. Did people notice? What if someone had made fun of her and I just made it worse?

I took a deep breath, trying not to cry, as I drove home. Once I got home, I turned on the news. If they didn't have anything about that stupid bartender I was going to cry.

Luckily, five minutes after turning on the tv, they began to talk about it.

"Hi, I'm Nancy Teal, and today, what you've all been waiting for, we have the news of what happened with the bartender. We are very sorry it was delayed" she says. Nancy is a very short, thin women who is probably about thirty with orange-brown, pixie cut hair. She's wearing dark purple dress and a black blazer.

"Can you just get to the point?" I mutter.

"We recorded the interview and now we will play it. Dave, can you start the tape?" Nancy states, and then the video begins to play.

Officer Joe is sitting at a white table. A guy who looks about fifty with an orange goatee and orange hair that went to his shoulders sat across from him. The guy had on a orange and pink hawaiian shirt and grey capris. He had a huge stomach, almost like he was pregnan. I'm guessing this is the bartender.

"Mr. Colton, would you tell me what you remember about the girl you saw?" Officer Joe asks.

"She was hot. She had long, dirty blonde hair. She had dark blue eyes. She had no acne on her very shiny skin. She was a goddess" Mr.Colton replies.

"Okay, I get it, she was pretty, what do you remember seeing her doing?" He snaps, and then itches his eyebrow. Okay, your trying to intimidate a guy so much that he answers your questions. Why is he scratching his eyebrow?!

"Okay, well she came in with this handsome fellow. All I remember about him was he had on black pants and a red sweatshirt, even though it was like 100 degrees in there. She had on a short, gold, one shoulder dress. He whispered something into her ear, and then she walked over to me" he replies.

"What did she say to you?" Officer Joe questions, leaning over the table, and staring right into Mr. Colton's light green eyes.

"She asked for two vodka sodas, and then she showed me her ID. It said her name was Cara Morrison and that she was 24, so I went and made them for her. While I made them, she pointed out the guy she was with. Alexis told me she loved him. I told her I was in love once, and she asked with who, and I told her that I had met the most beautiful gir-"

"Okay, are you going to start talking about your old lover or is this leading somewhere?" He growls.

"Sorry, I'll skip that part. Anyways, I gave her the vodka sodas for free since she listened to me talk, and then I watched her walk over to her guy. She handed him one, and he quickly drank it. A couple minutes later, I looked back, and they seemed to get into an argument about something. He stormed off, and she just went, and began dancing by herself" Mr. Colton replies.

"Okay, and then what happened?" Officer Joe asks.

"I kept looking over at her throughout the next two hours. She never wanted to leave the dance floor. She really loved it. Anyways, all of a sudden, she looked really scared, but I couldn't tell why. She ran, and I was going to chase after her, but then some girl asked me for a martini" he answers.

"Why didn't you call the police?" Officer Joe questions.

"I was guessing she didn't realize the time and had like work or something the next day" Mr. Colton says.

"How come it took you this long to tell us?" He asks.

"Well, I don't really watch the news, but one day I was at my buddy's house who was also bartending that night, and he said he remembered seeing her. He showed me the picture of her missing, and I immediatly recongized her. She's not one to forget" Mr. Colton replies.

"Anything else you can think of?" Officer Joe says.

"The guy had black eyes" he replies.

"What guy?" Officer Joe asks.

"The boyfriend, duh" Mr. Colton rolls his eyes.

"I thought you said you didn't remember anything else about him?" He questions.

"I just remembered. That guy seemed evil. A girl like her doesn't deserve that freak" Mr. Colton replies, and then the video stops.

"Currently, we are trying to find any 'black eye' guys in the area and show them to Mr. Colton to see if he reconginizes him, now back to you, Sally" Nancy states, and then I turn off the tv.

I slowly walk upstairs, processing everything I've just learned. Alexis was definitely at the bar that night, and that guy seemed legit.. so she was probably with that other guy too. Alexis always told us she was with a short haired ginger who's eyes were dark because he had been hurt in the past. She also said he had just graduated college. Could that guy be the one she was with?

Since Alexis told me more description about the older boy than the bartender, I decide to drive to the police station. First, I had to check on Lillian, to make sure she was okay with being home alone.

When I walked into her room, I thought I was hallucinating...

Lillian was with Aiden, and they didn't seem like strangers.