The Code

Chapter Three: I'm On My Own

I gasp but cover my mouth quickly so no one can hear it. I then hear Noah groan and walk over to, I assume, the closet. I hear a door open and then silence. "So where are they?" Charlotte says.

"I don't know. I put them in this closet," Noah says.

"Are you guys stupid? Her motorcycle is still outside. She's here," Liam says.

"Find her!" Emma says.

"You don't tell me what to do, remember?" Liam responds, "You find her!" I then hear footsteps walking around. I keep hearing doors open. Until the footsteps stop in front of the bathroom door. I think to myself, "This is it. It ends here." The door then opens and I see Noah looking at me. He's not saying anything, just looking. Just then I hear Charlotte's voice say,

"Noah! Is she in there?" He looks back at me and says,

"I... uh..." He then mouths "I'm sorry" to me and says, "Yeah she is." I hear footsteps run towards the bathroom and Noah looks at them. I then take that opportunity to push him out of my way and I run out. I see Charlotte running towards me and then for some reason I smirk at her. She then grabs me and I punch her. She falls to the floor and Liam then jumps over her. He tries to grab me as well but I move out of the way and kick him to the floor. I look at Noah again and nod at him. Then I run out of the house. I put the box in my bag and jump on the motorcycle. I then start it up and drive off. As I'm driving away I realize that I have no idea where I'm going. All I know is that I need to find Sophia no matter what. I hadn't remembered what happened when I first met her again after high school but now she's written it out for me. I remember seeing her face and feeling total fear for her life. Now here I am trying to save her with that same fear but this time I have no idea what I'm doing. I reach this campsite in the mountains and decide to stay there for the night. I make my camp and lay down. It's then that I realize that I'm running out of time and if I'm going to find Sophia then I need my memories back. And the only way to do that is to break into HQ and find them. If I could remember where that is.

As I walk out of class I see her and she sees me. She smiles at me and starts walking towards me. I smile back and walk towards her. When she gets over to me, she hugs me and says, "I've missed you." I blush and say,

"I've missed you too." Now it's her turn to blush. She smiles at me and I smile back. As I'm looking at her, I see her look down at my hand and then she smiles. I put my hand out and she grabs it. She looks up at me and smiles, almost like she's proud of something. Then I hear a voice call out her name.

"Sophia," he yells. She drops my hand and her smile. I turn around and see this really tall guy walking towards us. He pushes me out of the way and says, "Keep your hands off my girlfriend!" He then grabs her hand and pulls her away. As he's walking away with her, she turns around and blows me a kiss. It's then I ask myself, "When did Sophia get a boyfriend?" It's then I yell out, "Hey Sophia!" She stops but the guy stands in front of her. He looks down at me and says, "What did I say about my girlfriend?" I laugh and say,

"Nobody asked you for your opinion. If I want to talk to my friend, I will. And you can't stop me." That's when he laughs and says,

"Like she would pick you. You can't give her what she needs. You are a girl." It's then I get angry.

"Don't test me. You may be bigger than me but that doesn't mean I can't break your neck." I say to him, Sophia then jumps in and says,

"Miranda, stop. Everything is okay. Just leave me be." She doesn't look at me when she says that. I didn't say anything after that. I start to walk over to the bandroom. I then hear Noah call out my name.

"Miranda!" I turn around and wait for him to catch up.

"Hey what's up?" I ask him.

"Not much. Charlotte has claimed Liam for this week because he's her boyfriend."

"Why are you fighting with her? He's not worth it."

"I don't know but you know me, I love him." 

"Don't I know about it."

"How's it going with Sophia?"

"I don't know. We were fighting last week about her feelings but then we got all good but now she has a boyfriend so I really don't know."

"Damn that's tough."

"I know and I want to be happy for her but I'm not so sure about this boyfriend of her's. He seems very possessive and controlling."

"Yikes! Sounds like Charlotte." We both laughed at his comment.

Just as I was about to speak, my phone goes off. I pull it out and see that Sophia is calling me. I pick up the phone instantly and I hear her say,

"Miranda, I need your help. Meet me at our spot." She ends the call before I could even say anything but she knows that I'll be there.

"Hey I gotta go Sophia needs me." I say to Noah.

"It's fine go get your girl." He says to me and winks.

I walk around the side of the band room, to where the bench is and wait for her. I then hear footsteps and look towards the side of the band room. I see her but she's holding her sides and looking down. I stand up and walk towards her. I grab her arms gently and ask, "What's wrong? What happened?" She finally looks up at me and I see tears in her eyes. I pull her over to the bench and sit her down. I sit down next to her and hold her close to me. She starts to sob and I hold her even closer. She hides her face in my neck and I kiss the top of her head. We sit there in silence for a while until she pulls away. She looks up at me and says,

"He hit me." I gasp and ask,

"Who? Your boyfriend?" She nods and I instantly feel so much anger. She sees how angry I am and says,

"Please don't. I know you want to protect me but this will only make it worse." I see how scared she is and I say,

"Okay, if that's what you want, that's what I'll do." She smiles at me but only for a second. She then leans on my shoulder. After a while the bell rings, I turn to her and see that she has fallen asleep. I don't want to wake her up but I know that we have to go to class. I then try to wake her up. "Sophia wake up. It's time to go." I say. She starts to wake up and holds my hand. She looks up at me and smiles. I stand up and help her get up. She then hugs me and kisses my cheek. She lets her lips stay on my cheek for a second and then pulls away. She smiles at me again and asks, "Can you walk me to class?" I pretend to think for a moment, even though I'm going to say yes. I know that I'll be late for class but I'm going to do it anyway.

"Yes, of course." I tell her. We start to walk towards her class and she holds my hand. We get to her class and she turns around and hugs me.

"I love you," she says.

"I love you too," I say back. I then walk over to my class, hearing the bell ring and not caring at all. 

I wake up and check my phone for the time. It's 9:30am. I begin to pack up my stuff and head back to my house. I need to see if there are any more clues. I drive back to the house, carefully in case Liam, Noah or Charlotte are still there. I get to the house and see that they aren't there. But then again they could be inside. As I get off my bike I hear my name being called. I turn around and see some man standing at my neighbor's house. "Uhh hi... who are you?" I ask him. He starts walking towards me and says,

"Oh I'm your neighbor's brother. I'm here visiting but I remember you from somewhere." I chuckle and say,

"Sorry I don't remember much these days. What's your name?" He begins walking towards me and says,

"Grayson."