Moving On

Chapter 11 - "Puzzle Pieces"

(Mariah's POV)

"Woooooooo! How's that to kick off the season Walker," Autumn exclaims. We just won the ice breaker tournament, a solid five-setter win against our school rival in the final game.

"May I just say how proud I am of this chick," Carly butts in putting an arm around Erica's neck. Everyone cheers in unison, "MVP, MVP."

"Guys, guys," Erica shouts over our cheers. "It's so good to be playing again but I don't deserve that much credit," her cheeks blushing brightly.

"Right, stop being so humble. It's disgusting." Amy says disgusted.

Erica just rolls her eyes, "seriously though I-"

"Just stop Erica," I interrupt, "if you don't want is I'll take it," I wink. "No seriously, use it as confidence booster. Not everyone comes back after an ACL injury."

"Iah stop making me cry," she jokes. "I love you to death. I swear." She extends her arms and we pull each other into a hug.

In all honesty, I am so proud of this chick. I remember how depressed she was when we visited her at their house. She still had a knee brace on and still needed to use her crutches around. I also remember how much I cried when we lost in the state championships last year. I told her that that game was for her. Like Carly, she's like a sister to me.

"Party at Walker's house!" We chant as we make our way into the parking lot.

"Hey relax," Walker blurts out, "remember this is just a season opener and the results here do not, and should not and will not, affect the rest of the season." Now we are getting into some serious talk, "last year was a heart break and we don't want that to happen again do we?"

We all shake our heads and memories begin replaying in my head as Walker finishes his speech. I glance at Carly, Erica, Amy and Autumn. I bet they're thinking the same thing.

"I have five seniors in this team and just like those people," he eyes each one of us, "I want to win states. I think it would be perfect in your resumes since you all are being highly recruited anyways."

'Where did all the time go....'

"Yeah Mariah...Oregon," Carly whispers while making weird eye gestures. Everyone joins in after a while and here I am getting bullied by my team, as usual. Good thing Carly's phone beeps.

"Oooooh, protective boyfie is checking on her," Autumn nudges her shoulder. Carly smiles stupidly on her phone ignoring Autumn. It has to be Ian.

* * * * *

We head to Autumn's house right after volleyball. Finally some time with the girls since Ian and George are out somewhere doing who knows what.

"Carly," I calmly call over the giggling session we just had. "I think you need to listen to this," I give Autumn a look and she searches for her phone -over, under and around the mess we made on her bed.

"Here," she hands her the phone after a while. The harsh voice repeats the same words that have been in my head since the day I heard it.

'Just quit. Tell everyone to just quit. You won't find someone who doesn't want to be found. Stop!'

I can see her trembling from a few feet away. Amy offers her a glass of water to calm herself down but she rejects.

"We can't stop looking for him," she mumbles very quietly and it was hard to make sense of her whisper. "We can't," she adds a little louder.

I look at our two other companions and they  don't know what to do either. I guess I have to break it to her.

"Carly," I sigh. "he doesn't want us to find him...maybe he needs time. I want to find him, we want to see him, as much as you do but-"