Love from a Distance

The First Letter

Steven, Axl, Bailey, and Jennifer walked into Steven's apartment wearily. Jennifer and Bailey looked as if one whisper of Carrie's name would send them over again. John and Bryan had been waiting at the door for them.

Bailey walked in and flopped on the couch with Jennifer. Steven sat stiffly in an armchair. Bryan, John, and Axl sat down on the other large couch. Nobody said anything for a second.

"We'll get her back, Steven," Bryan said.

"Where are we going to look?" Steven asked him.

"Everywhere," Axl answered. "Bailey and Jennifer can even take us all of the way to Alabama if we need to."

"Yeah," Bailey agreed. "We will find her, Steven. And besides, it would take a day or two to get out of New York anyways."

"Unless he's flying," John pointed out.

"Henry doesn't have the money," Jennifer shook her head. "He has to either walk out or somehow take a cab somewhere."

"Wait, wouldn't notice that a girl is being dragged against her will into a car or across the city?" John asked.

"He had a gun," Steven told them quietly. "He could make her do ... anything."

Steven suddenly got a horrid idea in his head. He could make her do anything. And that meant that if they were ever alone together -

"No, Steven," Axl said sharply. "Carrie wouldn't allow herself to let him do that to her."

"Yeah, she also tried to not allow herself to be captured by Henry."

"But why does that matter?" Jennifer asked. "Steven, Carrie is one of my best friends. She tells me everything, and if she doesn't tell me something I pretty much figure it out. And I've figured out that Henry won't be her first time, right?"

Axl, Bryan, and John's heads whipped towards Steven. He got a little pink in his face and he smiled for the first time since he had seen Henry at the party.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Bryan said loudly. "Steven, would you like to expand on this? Did you steal somebody's V-card?"

"Yeah, and she has mine," Steven muttered.

"Whoa!" Axl, Bryan, and John all shouted in unison. Jennifer and Bailey giggled.

"You, my friend, have been lying to us since the 8th grade?" Axl asked.

"You actually thought I would sleep with Gretchen Smith?" Steven retorted. The boys shrugged. John turned to Jennifer.

"When did you find out?" he asked her, amazed.

"Well I had my suspicions when they first had a - uh - sleepover," she told them, using air-quotes with her fingers around the word sleepover. "And then I gave her peppermint condoms for Christmas and she didn't give them back."

The boys wolf-whistled and Steven's blush deepened. Axl and Bailey glanced at each other. Jennifer caught the look.

"Oh, and it looks like Bailey and Axl are the same," she added.

Now it was Axl and Bailey's turn to blush. Bryan and John were both envious and grossed out. The laughter died down and there was nothing else to say. Steven suddenly felt a wave of guilt.

Here they were, joking about V-cards and peppermint and where was Carrie? In a dark van? A basement? Being forced to walk god-knows-where?

"So what are we going to do?" asked Bailey after a moment of silence.

"Bryan and I have two cars," John offered. "We can use those."

"Yeah," Axl nodded. "How about Steven, Bailey, Jennifer and I ride in one and Bryan and John ride in the other?"