P&P

Chapter Twenty-Six

"I'm sure he'll be here any minute." Darcy said for the third time. We were at that café he told me about, and we had been waiting for Charlie for almost half an hour. I sighed. If being alone with Darcy wasn't awkward before, it definitely was now.

The coffee shop was small and quaint, reminding me of the one I spent so much time in in Oakland, making me feel very uneasy. I wondered if Darcy was thinking the same thing, or worse, if that was why he chose to meet here of all the places in LA. The last thing I wanted to do was relive our last encounter in Oakland together.

"Should we reschedule?" I finally asked Darcy. "I don't leave until next week." I was starting to dread being alone with him for this long. We had run out of things to talk about within the first five minutes of meeting here. If Charlie didn't come soon, I was afraid one of us would mention our last encounter in Oakland.

That was the last and first thing I wanted.

And yes, I know that doesn't make much sense at all.

"No, let's just wait five more minutes." Darcy said quickly. "I'm sure he was just held up..." He trailed off, typing something into his phone. Probably texting Charlie. I tapped my foot impatiently, praying the inevitable would pass.

"I think I'm going to order." I told him, getting out of my seat. I really just wanted something to do, besides sit in awkward silence. "Do you want anything?"

"Whatever you're having is fine." He told me. I nodded and took my place in line, behind two people. For once, the line was too short for my liking. I got to the front and ordered two chai tea lattes. They were done before Charlie showed up.

"You seem to like these." Darcy said as he took his first sip. I nodded grimly. This was his opening, if there ever was one. "Is it awkward?" He asked me suddenly.

"Is what awkward?" I asked cautiously.

"Being friends with me." I exhaled, not realizing I was holding my breath. "I know we didn't exactly get off on the right foot-"

"That's one way of putting it." I smirked.

"But that seems like such a long time ago now, doesn't it?" I nodded. It really did. Even though the Darcy I first met was still clear in my head, I was looking this new Darcy in the face now. A part of me even wondered if he was acting this was for me, if I had affected him in such a way that he knew he needed to change.

"We've come a long way since then." For one split second, I wanted him to mention Oakland. What would I say in reply? What would he even have to say about it? He opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off just as soon as he started.

"I am so sorry I'm late." A voice from behind me said, and when I turned around Charlie was above me, his face red and shiny from running. "I got here as soon as I could, I just had a meeting with one of my professors." He took a seat next to me, and gave a look to Darcy. He looked back at me, feigning innocence.

"Excuse me, Lizzie, I need to go to the bathroom." Darcy got up from his seat and headed to the back of the café. I turned to Charlie, hiding a smile. He was looking at me now, a sense of urgency in his eyes.

"I talked to Caroline, you know." He told me, not missing a beat. "I knew she interfered with my love life sometimes, but I never knew she would go this far to separate me from someone I-" He stopped himself, but I knew where he was going.

"It's not your fault." I told him. He looked up at me disbelievingly, and I added, "Not entirely, anyway."

"I want to make things right." Charlie pleaded. "I'm moving back to Netherfield."

"You are?" I asked, certainly not seeing this coming.

"I know it's going to take time for Jane and I to get back where we left off, but do you think she'd even want to hear me out?" There was such desperation in his eyes that I felt bad for him.

"I'm sure if you explain, she might give you a second chance." I told him, and he smiled. Darcy came back from the restroom, and Charlie smiled up at him.

"So, what should we do now?" Charlie asked Darcy and me. After coffee, we visited some museums and did some other touristy things even though the two lived there, and now we were strutting down the streets with snow cones in our hands.

"Georgiana should be coming up for air from her mounds of books right about now." Darcy told us. "How 'bout we go see her?"

"Yes!" I told them. "I'd love to see what she thought about the John Green books she bought." I didn't get to, though. Just as Charlie called us a cab, my phone rang, barely audible over the hustle and bustle of the LA life around us.

"Lizzie!" Jane's voice cracked on the other line. "Oh my god - Lizzie you have to-" I couldn't hear her over the static, but I knew it was something important. She sounded hysterical.

"Jane?" I shouted, now getting in the cab. "Jane what's wrong?"

"It's Lydia!" She cried. "She's missing..."

"I can call my aunt and uncle from the airport. Or bus station, wherever I have to go, whatever I have to do to get home." I told Darcy and Charlie as I packed up my belongings in my hotel room. My aunt and uncle were riding around town in the rented convertible, and I had decided to leave without them.

"This is crazy. You can't go back alone!" Charlie told me. "Why don't you let Darcy give you a ride home?"

"I'm more than willing to." Darcy told me. I was hardly listening to them as I raced around the room, gathering all of my things as quickly as possible.

"I knew her going would be a bad idea." I said, tears stinging my eyes. "I should've stopped her, done something..."

"Let me help you." Darcy told me. He grabbed me by the shoulders to stop me from packing, and forced me to look him in the face. "I'm going to get you home, and we can sort this out. Okay?"

"You can't help me." I said weakly. "All I can do now is get home, find out everything I can from Jane, and then wait..."

Somehow, someway, I was persuaded to let Darcy take me home. It started to rain as soon as we hit the freeway, the tiny droplets getting bigger and bigger the farther we drove from LA. I sat wordlessly in the passenger seat as Darcy occasionally glanced my way, concern in his eyes.

"You'll find her." Darcy finally said. I believed him, but I knew somehow that when we did, it wouldn't be good. My mind flashed back to my run-in with George. The faceless girl came into my imagination as well, but now I had a face to put on the girl. I imagined Georgiana' screams. Just as quickly as the image came, she was replaced by me. Then Lydia. I shuddered involuntarily. The screams echoed in my mind.

"She was with the soccer league." I told him, my voice cracking from held back tears. "George's soccer league." Darcy's hands turned white as he gripped the steering wheel harder, and my heart sunk in my chest. As much as I hoped George had nothing to do with my sister's disappearance, I knew better than to.

"Maybe it has nothing to do with him." Darcy said, but his words were forced. He didn't believe them. I had practically imbedded it into Lydia's brain to go after George. I was the reason she went looking for him.

I was the reason she was missing.