The Death of Colleen Rivers

Chapter 26: Baylor

"Cherry" and I luckily got in and out of that gas station without any confrontation. We bought a couple bottles of water for each of us, some small bags of chips, a bread loaf and ham for sandwiches, and even a couple of candy bars. We got off pretty good with what money we had.

I led my "blind cousin" back into the woods where we would make our camp for the remainder of the day and the night. It was starting to become even colder than it had been, so we would have to make a shelter, as it was suppose to snow. (I checked my phone, but since I had it turned off so it couldn't be tracked, I had to turn it on then straight off again. And yes I still had battery left. Portable chargers are a thing from Heaven.)

I also researched how to build a shelter with just branches and leaves, which I think I successfully pulled off. After I was done, I called Colleen over who was submerged in a book by the campfire we had built.

"Colleen, babe, look!"

She slowly turned her head as if she didn't want to pull away from the story. Her facial expression didn't change as she glimpsed over to my creation, then quickly returning her gaze to her story.

"Uh, Colleen?"

"Yeah?" she answered, still not looking at me.

"Is something wrong?"

"No."

"Then why—"

She waved me off like she was swatting a fly away, telling me to leave her alone. "Shh, Bay. This is the good part."

I couldn't help but smile. She was still so beautiful even when she told me to go away. "I love you, Colleen," I said.

She turned to face me this time, a huge smile forming on her face. "I love you too, Baylor."

And with that I went on to finish making our shelter look spectacular, adding branches not for the foundation, but to conceal it to not look like a shelter, but a bush.

I got my phone out of my pocket so I could turn it on to check the weather again then turn it straight off. We couldn't risk people tracking us, but I needed to know the weather. While it was turning on, I slid it back in my pocket and starting fiddling with the branches. Suddenly, my phone vibrated violently in my coat pocket. I pulled it out to see who had texted me, only to see Malcolm's name of all people pop up on the screen with a text that said, "hey bro! where were u today? the school was in buzz about u and colleen. txt back asap"

I slid to answer, my thumbs rapidly tapping the keys on the screen, forming the message, "sorry, man. had to leave so gf would be safe. and ik I figured they would be...who told???"

He came back with, "well it wasn't nat or me. already asked her. swore it wasn't her. but that chick Leila was acting prouder than usual..."

Leila? How would she even know? She never saw Colleen alive. Unless she did somehow?

I replied back with, "pls find out bro. gtg. save battery as long as I can. ya know, no chargers in the wilderness lol"

Malcolm said, "yeah man, its cool. txt u when I find anything out."

I turned off my phone and continued building our bush house.

~~~

The sunset came and went, also causing Colleen to have to stop reading her book. She was not happy about that, but I was. I could finally have someone to talk to again. She was eating a ham sandwich when I sat down beside her on the log by the fire.

"Hey, cutie, I — hey, what's wrong?" I could see she had been crying. Even just with the campfire illuminating her face, I could see it was red and wet with tears. "Come here, Colleen," I said holding out my arms. She retreated into my embrace, crying even harder. I just let her cry it out. I know this whole situation had to be rough on her.

She bawled for a good five minutes before collecting herself again and sitting up by herself, wiping her eyes. I put my hand on her face, making her turn towards me. She shouldn't have to wipe her tears away, that was my job. My job was to make her feel better. I reached up to her face with my other hand, and using my thumb, gently wiped away the remaining tears. I got a small smile out of doing that, and that was good enough for me.

"There's that smile," I said, grinning back at her.

Colleen beamed, her happiness returning slowly. "Thank you, Bay. I don't know what came over me."

"It's okay, Colleen, I know this has to be hard for you."

She sighed, relieved. "I just miss my family. And seeing my friends. And getting to be myself. Baylor, I even miss my classes in school. That's pretty bad."

I laughed. "I understand. I do too. I miss getting to play sports too. Lacrosse tryouts are suppose to be coming up soon —"

"Oh, Baylor!" Colleen said. "I'm so sorry, I'm making you miss your senior year of sports."

Colleen sorry? That was rare. She must really be torn up about this...

"Honey, really, it's okay. I'd rather know you are safe and protected than be on a field, playing some sport."

She gave another relieved sigh. "Okay."

"Oh, and Malcolm texted me." I began to explain everything to Colleen, including what Malcolm had told me about his theory of Leila.