Temptation

Chapter 22

"Get in the car!"

We scurried away from the scene of Kevin's fall. Angelica screaming and crying all the way back through the woods until we reached the car. "We killed him!" She sobs as she look across at me from the passenger side.

"Shut up and get in!" I growl as I look around to make sure we hadn't been spotted.

She finally gets in, her whole body still shaking with fear. It was almost impossible for me to calm her down. "Angelica, breathe slowly. We'll figure this out but you need to calm down."

"How can I calm down?" She snaps.

"I know but you'll have to, we need to get our story straight. But we need to get away from here now."

I fumble the keys into the ignition, after what seemed like an eternity I finally managed to turn the engine, blindly putting the car into reverse when we both jumped at the sound of banging on the hood of the car.

Angelica screamed which caused me to jump even further from my seat.

"Hey! Stop!"

Against my better judgement I stopped the car and pulled my window down. It was 'small dick' Justin.

"Hey, we have a problem."

You have no idea, kid.

"It's Lyn." He continued. "She's gone missing." He looked in the car and saw Angelica crying.

"Where did you last see her?" I ask trying to take his attention away from Angelica's tears.

"I had to go for a piss and when I came back she had gone and nobody saw her leave. I'm sorry man. I was taking care of her."

Shit!

"Okay, dont panic. We'll find her." I pulled my window back up and turned to Angelica. "Pull yourself together girl, we need to find Lyn."

She nodded and wiped her nose with her forearm before we both got out of the car once more.

"Give me the phone." I whispered as we watched Justin walk back into the woods.

"What?" Angelica sobbed.

"Give me his phone, I've got an idea." I placed my hand out as she slipped Kevin's phone into my hand which I carefully dropped into my pocket.

"What are you doing?" She asked, the sobbing slowly coming to an end.

"Don't worry about that. You go and look for Lyn with him and I'll sort this mess out."

She nodded. Before she ran after Justin I pulled her back, taking her body into my arms, holding her tight. "We'll figure this out, please don't worry." I look around before kissing her lips softly. "Now, go."

                                  ~~~

"Where did you find her?"

I watch as three figures emerge from the trees as I stood waiting at my car.

"Sat down by the edge of the lake. She's out of the game. Can you take her home?" Justin asks as I open the back door of the car.

"Of course. Do you need a ride too?"

He shakes his head. "No, thank you for the offer but the night is still young." He smiled as we both help Lyn on to the backseat.

"You okay?" My attention turns to Angelica who is still pale white and freezing cold. She nods back at me as she hugs her body with her arms to stop the shivering.

"Come on, get in. You look frozen." She looks into my eyes but there is a huge space inside them, her brain muddled but I needed to get her out of here before she said something we would both end up regretting.

"Enjoy the rest of your night, Justin. I think you've earned yourself another few beers." I held out my hand which was met halfway as we shook firmly.

"I think I have too!" He replied. "I'll see you around." With that he tuned and made his way back towards the party.

As we made our way out of the car park, turning the car heating on full blast to try and help Angelica wear off the shock.

We didn't speak for the entire journey to Lyn's house. When we did eventually get to her house, I thought it best for Angelica to take her inside. I couldn't bring anymore unwanted attention. It wouldn't look great, a man my age taking this drunk girl back to her parents.

Once she was safely inside, Angelica and I made our way back home. The journey was icy, not many words were spoken, both of us shocked at what we had just done. Kevin was dead because of us but we needed to figure out a plan on how we were going to keep this a secret.

I explained to Angelica what I did with his phone, I thought it was a fool proof plan. Angelica didn't seem as certain as I was that it would work but it's all I had, it's all I could think of at the time.

"So, you're telling me you threw the phone down into the water, with a suicide note on his notes?"

I nodded. "What else was I meant to do? The police would soon track his phone once they received the missing persons call. So it made sense to throw it into the water in the hope it would either break or sink, never to be found or if they did retrieve it and it still worked the note would be there and make it look like suicide."

Angelica puffed out her cheeks, uncertain of the action I took but I couldn't think of anything better in such a short space of time. I watched as a tear began to roll down her cheek. The realisation that her boyfriend was gone had just hit her.

"He didn't deserve to die. What have we done?" The tears began to fall quicker as she sobbed away. I pulled the car over and hugged her tightly.

"I'm sorry." I replied rubbing her back in an attempt to calm her down.

"I started this! It's not entirely your fault."

I knew that much was true but it wasn't my place to say it. After a while she began to calm herself down. "We'll get away for a few days and regroup. Nobody will suspect us before we're on the plane. Just keep it together for one more day and we're out of here, okay?"

She nodded as I started the car back up once more. "5 minutes and we'll be home. Just pull yourself together, we don't need your Dad seeing you upset. It will just ring alarm bells, we don't need ringing right now."

The rest of the drive was silent. She got out of the car pretty quickly once we arrived. "Angelica, we'll figure this out." I said reassuringly as she made her way to her front door. Turning back at me she smiled once more.

"Keep it together, girl." I whispered to myself as I watched her enter the door.

Can I trust her to keep it together? Or was my life about to be turned upside down once more?

***