I'm sending mixed signals. Maybe I should just stay away from him completely. No, he might feel like I don't want to be around him anymore, he's such a child.
"Riley, I'm sorry."
I look up at him from where I am laying on the couch. "What? Why? What happened?" I ask frantically.
He sighs and kneels down beside the couch.
I sit up a bit and lean back on my elbows while turned to him.
"I know I upset you the other day and I'm sorry. Just- Please. Stop avoiding me. Please," he pleads.
I stare at him, confused. I've been avoiding him?
He suddenly lets out a low chuckle. "You didn't even notice you were avoiding me, did you?"
I feel my face heat in embarrassment and shake my head.
He pulls me into a hug and off of the couch, into his lap on the floor. He mumbles something that causes me to freeze an my chest to tingle.
I sit there, frozen, until he looks at me with a worried expression. "What's wrong?" He asks. "Why are you crying?"
I reach up and find that I am definitely crying. Why? Is it from those words? Does this tingling in my chest mean I feel the same? Is that why I have acted the way I have?
* * * * * *
-Zavier's POV-
"I don't think we're ever going to find him."
"Don't say that Zavey. We'll find him eventually."
I shake my head. "We've been here for over a year. No one has caught sight of him. For all we know, this mission was corrupted by Lui. He most likely did something to Derrick. Maybe even something horrible."
He flicks my forehead then crosses his arms over his chest with a huff of annoyance. "He's your brother. You can't just give up!"
"I need to. He probably dead. If he was locked away, we would've found him by now. We have searched ever city and small town on this planet and the king had every body of water searched," I say. I run my hands through my hair. "It's hopeless."
He ponders for a moment then smiles. "We haven't searched one town."
I was just about to ask him what he was talking about, but then remember. We never searched the town Riley lived. We were only there for a month and we didn't even think to look there. How could we have been so stupid?
