The rest of the week passed by like a breeze. I was still with my mom and hadn't seen my dad since the night I left. I drove past the house sometimes, but never stopped. His car was usually there, and occasionally another car beside his. I spent less time with Brooke since I told her I was leaving. She always had an excuse whenever I asked her to hang out or something and I don't know why. I kept playing that moment in the hallway after she ran out of the lunch room and it seemed like she wanted to spend time with me. Like she really liked me and didn't want me to leave. So now I'm just confused.
It was Friday and the last bell after school rang. I gathered my things and met Brooke just as she walked out the front doors.
"Hey." I said and she turned to me.
"Hi." She said back and kept walking.
"What's up?"
"Going home."
"Oh." We walked to her car and she opened the door. I had stopped giving her rides after Monday and she would take her own car. I stopped her from closing the door after she got in. "So do you want to hang out or something tonight?"
"I have plans."
"What's that?" She looked at me after I asked that and gave me a funny look.
"Why does it matter?"
"Because I want to know why we can't hang out." I leaned against the car.
"If you must know, I'm going to a sleepover tonight." She said. That's right. I forgot about that.
"Well what about before you go?"
She sighed. "I'm not really in the mood right now, Luke." She tried to close the door, but I stopped it again.
"Please?" I asked her.
"No. Not today."
"What about tomorrow then? Do you have anything going on tomorrow?" I gave her a hopeful look and I'm pretty sure she noticed because she sighed and looked down.
"No, I don't have anything going on tomorrow."
"Then can we go so somewhere and talk?"
She thought about it and I continued. "Please? We haven't hung out in a while and all I want to do is talk. It's not that hard."
"Fine. Where would we go?"
"How about the park around noon?" I suggested.
"Sure. Now I have to go. Bye." And she slammed the door. I backed away and watched her pull out of the lot and speed away before getting into my own car.
When I pulled into the lot to the apartment building, I parked and ran upstairs. I texted Brooke and told her to bring her guitar tomorrow. She didn't say anything, but I knew she got the message. I wonder why she was in such a bad mood today. All week, for that matter. I'm determined to find out why she's mad at me. Is it because I'm going to California? Because if that's why, then I don't know what to say. I'm leaving here, I'm going somewhere better, and I'm not coming back.
When my mom got home that night, I told her about tomorrow and she said that was fine that I go to the park.
"How was school?" She asked at dinner.
"Fine." I replied.
"And what does fine mean?"
"Same ol' same ol'."
"What did you do?"
"Listen to teachers lecture us about stuff that won't be necessary in life."
"Not all of it is unnecessary. You need to be able to count, right?" She waited for me to reply so I nodded. "You need to know how to read. You need to know how to tell time. You-"
"Okay, okay some things in school are important."
"Do you see what I mean?"
"Yeah. But I don't need to know how the insides of a frog work."
"Scientists do."
"But I'm not going to be a scientist."
"What do you want to be?" She asked. I stopped. I hadn't ever thought about it before.
"I don't know."
"Then what if you want to be a scientist?"
"I know for sure I don't want to do that. I'm thinking..." I thought for a moment. I'm not sure.
"Well what do you like?"
"I like cars."
"Then maybe you'll be a car mechanic. Or a car salesman."
"Maybe I will." We finished eating dinner and my mom went to bed around nine. She said she had to work tomorrow and she didn't want to be up late. I stayed up later watching TV and then fell asleep on the couch because I didn't feel like going to my bedroom.
*****
I woke up the next morning to my phone going off. It was nine-thirty and I'm kind of surprised I slept that long. I looked at the caller ID and saw Brooke's name.
"Hey." I said.
"Hi." She said, a little unsure about her words.
"What's up?" I asked.
"Um," she paused. "I actually don't know. That's why I called." Now I'm confused.
"Okay I don't understand. What's going on?"
"You know how I went to Beth's house last night for a sleep over?"
"Yeah. Why?"
"Well, I'm not there anymore."
"Where are you?" I asked and she stopped.
"I don't know that either."
"How could you not know? Are you in her backyard? Are you somewhere in town?"
"I know I'm not in town because I don't recognize anything around here." I heard a girl talk in the background.
"Who are you with?"
"Beth and Gabriella."
"Were you with anyone else?"
"Last night Tracy and Stephanie were there with us."
"Where is 'there'?"
"Beth's house. Where we originally started."
"Okay, okay. So let me get this straight. You, Beth, Stephanie, Tracy, and Gabriella all started the night at Beth's house and now you aren't there, and you've lost Stephanie and Tracy." I explained. It totally reminds me of the movie 'The Hangover.'
"I guess, yeah."
"Now you guess?"
"I don't know I'm just so confused and I have a headache and I think I sprained my wrist or something."
"And you have no memory of anything that happened?"
"No. Not after I took a drink of something Beth's boyfriend handed me." Brooke told me. Beth's boyfriend? I thought that sleepover was just going to be a girl thing?
"Let me talk to Beth." She handed the phone over and Beth's voice filled me ear.
"Luke I need you to come pick us up. Seriously. I have to get home and find Chad." She told me.
"And Chad must be your boyfriend?"
"Yes and he's not answering his phone."
"Where are your cars?"
"My house I hope."
"Where are you? I'll come get you all."
"I think we're in some place called Johnsonville. That's what I'm seeing on the signs of some buildings." I thought for a moment. That's like an hour and a half away.
"How did you end up there? That's over an hour away."
"That's what I'm trying to figure out!" Beth yelled into the phone.
"Okay don't yell. I'll come and get you."
"On the way can you drive by my house and see what it looks like? See if the cars are there and if anything looks off."
"Yeah I can do that."
"Thank you." And she hung up. Alright, something doesn't seem right. And I will get to the bottom of it.
I stood up and began to get ready. I didn't take too long because I didn't want the girls waiting longer than they have to. I showered, got dressed, sprayed some cologne and left a note for my mom that said I'd be out with friends in case she came home and I wasn't there.
I got in my car and drove the distance to Beth's house and slowed down. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. I saw three cars and one was Brooke's and another was Beth's. I dialed Brooke's number.
"When will you be here?" She answered, sounding very distressed.
"I'm on my way. Give the phone to Beth." I heard the phone being passed.
"What?" Now Beth was angry.
"Three cars in the driveway. One's yours and another is Brooke's. I don't know who the other one belongs to."
"Shit."
"What?"
"We're missing a car."
"You've got to be kidding."
"Nope. What color was the other car?"
"Gray."
"That's Gabriella's car. Stephanie and Tracy drove together in Stephanie's car."
"You said Stephanie and Tracy are missing. Did you ever think they're together and they have Stephanie's car?"
"Well we wouldn't know because neither of them are answering their phones." She snapped.
"Jeez I didn't know."
"Sorry I'm just really pissed off. No ones answering their phone and we have no idea what happened."
"It's fine. I'm on my way now. I should get there soon."
"Okay hurry. The three of us are getting restless."
About an hour and half and three phone calls later, I arrived in Johnsonville. Beth had told me they we sitting in front of some restaurant or bakery called Nonie's and I didn't know where that was at. So I stopped and asked multiple people where it was and if they've seen three girls sitting in front of it, and finally a woman said she saw them about a block away. So I drove down a block and spotted them sitting on a bench. I parked right across the street and crossed at the crosswalk. When Brooke saw me she ran up and gave me a hug.
"I'm so glad you're here." She said and smiled at me. It was nice to see her smile.
"Yeah, me too," Beth said. "I don't know what I would've done if Brooke hadn't mentioned you. We'd be stuck here for only God knows how long." I looked back and Brooke and she blushed.
"You were the only person I could think of."
"Well I'm glad I could help. So what do you say we get a move on? We still have a lot of unanswered questions and a long ride home." I said. We all piled into my car and took off. Beth and Gabriella were in the back and Brooke was in the front. I flipped my GPS around so it took me back home and hopped on the interstate.
"So," I started. "First things first. What time did everyone get to your house, Beth?"
"Not exactly sure. Chad got there last because he had the booze, and that was around ten-ish. Brooke, what time did you come?"
"I think like seven-thirty. Stephanie and Tracy arrived right after me, maybe five minutes between and Gabriella, you were already there, right?"
"Yes. I left with Beth after school."
"Alright. So that solves that. Now, another question. Does this remind any of you of The Hangover?" I was curious if it was only me or not.
They paused for a second, then in unison said,
"Yeah, kinda."
"Definitely."
"Woah that's so weird!"
"Good. Because I thought so and I didn't want to be the only one. Now Beth, have you tried calling Chad?" I asked.
"Yes and he won't answer." She replied.
"Give me his number." I dialed him number into my phone and he picked up on the third call.
"What?" He yelled.
"Hey man, no need to yell. My names Luke and I have your girlfriend, Beth, with me. She's a little confused and so am I about what was going on last night. She lost a couple of her friends and she's worried because you weren't answering your phone."
"Well what the hell why won't she just give me some space!?" And Chad hung up the phone.
"Alright then." I said and told Beth what happened.
"What a jerk." She said.
So the rest of the ride home was us four trying to determine what the events of last night might have been. Beth thinks they all just drank too much. Gabriella doesn't have much to say, and Brooke thinks they were drugged.
"But how would could you?" I asked.
"Since Chad is 21 years old and he brought the drinks, it's quite possible he could've supplied those as well." Gabriella piped in. I looked at the review mirror at Beth.
"He's 21?" And you brought him to a supposedly 'girls night?' What were you thinking?"
"I don't know! I didn't think he would put drugs in our drinks I just thought he would bring the alcohol! I'm sorry!" She exclaimed.
"Okay look," I said, a little more calm this time. "We don't actually know what happened, so we can't go making assumptions. We're almost to the house, then we'll see what's going on." I drove for a few more minutes then pulled in Beth's driveway. We all go out and walked inside. Nothing seemed too much out of the ordinary. There were pillows, beer cans, bottles of God knows what everywhere. We started to pick up some stuff when we heard footsteps coming down the stairs.
"Please don't be my parents, please don't be my parents," Beth was muttering. Luckily, it wasn't. Stephanie and Tracy came into view and a few moments later, Chad.
"There you guys are! We were worried. No one was answering their phones." Beth said and shot a look at Chad who didn't seem to notice because he was looking at me.
"We lost them. We had no way to tell you until he came over a couple minutes ago." Stephanie pointed at Chad, who still didn't notice.
"So, does anyone know what happened?" I asked.
"I do." Chad said. Everyone looked at him.
"Okay, spill." Gabriella said slowly.
"You know how I brought over the drinks, and that's all you thought I brought over?" Everyone nodded. "Well it wasn't. I slipped something in your drinks so we could try and have a little fun. You were all boring." The four girls just gasped and Tracy started crying. Me on the other hand...
"You motherfucking asshole. How could you do that to four seventeen year olds? How could you!?" I yelled and got in his face.
"It was easy," he said calmly. "I simply took the drink and put stuff in it. Its not that hard."
"They, are still, in high school! You don't seem to understand what you could've done to them! How did the end up over an hour drives' away!?"
"I drove them. They wanted to go get ice cream so I took them there."
"And you couldn't have taken them to the one uptown?"
"Nah. The one far away was better."
"Did you leave them there?" I asked a with my teeth clenched.
"Well I sure as hell wasn't gonna stand around and wait for them to order. So I left. I guess I forgot about them and remembered when I answered your call."
"Okay so I have a question." Stephanie said from behind Chad. "Where's my car?"
"Go look out back." Everyone went to the back door and peeked out the window. There was a car, that I'm guessing was Stephanie's, that was up against a tree. The tree was too big, maybe three inches in diameter, but the tree was still in the ground and car was half suspended in the air against the tree.
"How did that happen!?" Stephanie freaked out after a few moments.
"I wanted to see if I could jump it." Chad said from behind all of us. "You all encouraged me to do it."
"That doesn't mean you had to do it! And why did you use my car!? Where was yours?"
"I didn't want to risk the chance ruining my car. And you volunteered." Stephanie just looked at him with disbelief and left the room.
"Seriously, Chad? How could you do this to me?" Beth asked him. "To us, for that matter? You ruined our whole night. You changed it from having a good night to everyone wondering what happened. I never want you here again. Leave and don't come back." At this time Chad changed him smirking expression to one of hurt and tried to beg for forgiveness.
"Beth, honey, please. Don't do this."
"Don't even. Get out of here. I never want to see you again." Beth didn't look at him and he didn't say another word. He just looked down and walked out of the house. Brooke walked over to Beth and tried to comfort her.
"Aww, Beth I'm so sorry you had to do that." She said and gave her a hug.
"It's alright. It was for the best. He wasn't even that good a boyfriend anyways." Beth shrugged.
"But I'm proud of you either way. It was strong of you to do that."
"Thanks." She smiled small.
The five of us helped clean up the house and tried our hardest to get Stephanie's car out of the tree before Beth's parents come back home. They went out of town for the weekend. Finally, we just brought my car around and hooked it up to a rope to pull the car down. It still ran, just not as good as it was supposed to. I followed Brooke to her house to make sure that she made it home well. Since her mom and brothers weren't home, I waited downstairs on the couch while she showered and got dressed. I asked if we could hang out yesterday and she had said yes so I'm hoping she'll still say yes.
"Luke?" I heard her call from upstairs.
"Yeah?" I called back.
"Could you please come here for a minute?" She sounded a little worried. I wonder what's wrong. I walked upstairs and into her room, where she wasn't at.
"Where are you at?" I asked.
"In here." I heard from the bathroom. I walked in there and she had a small towel wrapped around her body showing a lot of skin. I tried not to stare. But that didn't matter when she lifted the towel up to show even more skin underneath the towel and a huge bruise filled her right side and stomach.
"What the hell is that from?" I asked her. This thing was at least the size of my hand, if not bigger.
"I have no idea! I just saw it when I got out of the shower." She replied. I walked closer to her and bent down a little. I was closer to her now and could feel her body heat radiating off of her. I placed my hand gently on her bruise and she shivered a little. I looked up at her.
"Did that hurt?" I asked.
"Kind of. But your hands are also really cold."
"Oh, sorry."
"It's alright." I looked back at it and noticed all the colors of the bruise. It was reddish and blue and purple. I stood up and kept my eyes on her hips and trailed along her legs and back up before she dropped her towel again. I looked at her eyes and she looked back.
"Well I guess we'll just have to see how it looks after a few days. It'll probably hurt, so try not to touch it much." I explained and leaned against the door frame.
"Okay thanks." She said. "I just really wish I knew how it got there."
"Did you ever fall?" I asked and she thought for a minute. Then she must've remembered.
"Yes I did! When I went to get in the car last night to, I'm guessing to go to Johnsonville, I tripped over something and fell against the open door. This must've been the result." She turned back towards the mirror and lifted the towel once more. I stared again while she felt around her bruise and the edge of the towel was getting dangerously close to revealing some pretty private parts. Every time she would move the towel would move as well and I was having a hard time controlling the feeling inside me. I looked back at the bruise and thought for a moment. She never seemed to notice until I shifted my position and she looked in the mirror at me. I looked up after she dropped her towel again and saw her face.
"Were you staring at me?" She asked.
"Yeah, at your bruise." I said.
"Well, it looked to me like your eyes were further down than my bruise." She stood hands on hips and looked at me. Her towel slid further down her body, but I definitely didn't let her see how I saw that.
"They weren't, I was just thinking how big it is and how much force you must've had to hit the car that hard to get that big of a bruise." Wow, didn't think I could make up a lie like that on the spot.
"I don't believe you." She said and crinkled her eyebrows.
"I wasn't looking anywhere but there, I promise. Now can you please get ready so we can go out? I have something planned." I walked out of her bathroom and she followed.
"What if I don't want to go anywhere? What if I just want to stay here?" She asked in a snotty tone.
"Then we'll stay here. Why are you getting so upset about this?"
"Because I don't like when guys practically undress me in their minds."
"I wasn't undressing you! How did that even get brought up?"
"Because you were staring at me! I don't like that!"
"I wasn't staring! Well I was, but it was at your bruise! Can we please just drop this? I want to go and enjoy the day we have. Please?"
"No! I can't just let this go, Luke. When I called you in there, I didn't expect you to do that. I thought that you would be a guy who didn't want to rush me into things like that. To pressure me to do something I don't want to do. I've already dealt with that once, I don't want to do it again." She turned and started to walk back into the bathroom. Before she could barely take two steps, my arms and legs overtook my mind and I pulled her back and into my chest. Without stopping my movements, I leaned down and pressed my lips to hers. What made me do this, I have no idea. I tried to stop, but I couldn't. The last time I kissed her, it was nothing compared to this time. Sparks exploded everywhere and I could just feel the passion between our touch, the love and the lust and I don't know where this came from. I just wanted to continue, but it had to stop eventually. I pulled away and we were both breathing deeply.
"Wow." She said.
"Wow is right. That was just..." I was lost for words.
"Yeah." She said back.
"Okay Brooke, listen. I'm not that kind of guy, I can promise you that. I care about you and I would never do that unless you were okay with it. I won't pressure you to do anything you don't want to do." I told her.
She sighed. "I know you aren't. I was just being over dramatic and I shouldn't have freaked out on you like that. I'm sorry."
"You don't need to apologize. It's alright." I brought her in for a hug and heard her make a funny noise. "What's wrong?" I asked.
"Don't pull back!" She yelled and I was confused. "My towel fell on the floor and I need to pick it up."
"Oh. Well here, I'll just turn around." I wheeled myself around and avoided making eye contact with her. She picked up her towel and ran into the bathroom.
"I'll be out in a minute and then we can go!" She yelled through the door.
"Alright! I'll be waiting out here!" I yelled back. Who knew that would happen. But now I just wonder how she really, truly felt about it.
**********
Okay so please don't be mad! I was having a hard time with this chapter and this is what I came up with. I know it's been a while and I promise I will try to work harder on uploading the chapters faster!
Once again I'm really sorry and also I'm sorry for how long it is *o*
I tried to shorten it but it didn't work out as well as I hoped.
Also, sorry if the grammar is wrong or there are spelling errors!
Sorry for it all,
Thanks though,
Karli
**********