Still hesitant to accept what was staring right back at him, he took a seat stealthy in the back. Maybe she was in the bathroom and would be back soon. He knew that he had to stay until the end of the meet to be certain. He had to have absolute certainty on this in order to determine his next steps.
With each passing minute that Alex didn't appear, a piece of him wondered if she was really good at lying, or if he actually had a blindspot for his little sister. He'd interviewed countless people over the years, and time and time again, family members would say how their loved ones never would have done this or that, but he'd never understood it because it was always so obvious that they had, in fact, done this or that. But maybe it was this blindspot that people had that didn't allow them to see the bad in someone they'd always known as being good.
Sixteen year old Jay gripped the little six year old's hand tightly. His sister was like a loose cannon on the sidewalk if he didn't keep her closeby. He wouldn't put it past her to skip out into traffic because she was so easily distracted. Currently, she was hopping down the sidewalk, which was causing their three block commute from the train to take an eternity. Jay wasn't known for his patience, but it was surprising what he could muster up when it came to this little rugrat.
Ever since she'd started kindergarten this year, it was their daily routine to go to/from school together to save their parents the hassle. Jay had been annoyed about it at first as he saw it as losing some of his own independence because he was suddenly responsible for a mini Halstead, but it eventually grew on him when he saw how much the girls liked seeing him so kind and gentle with his little sister. So it had its perks - he was a teenage boy after all.
Once they got to school, Jay made a point to take the long route to Alexa's room, so he could pass by the high school hallway, just in case there were any curious...female...eyes that spotted him. And as if clockwork, Natalie cooed, "Oh hey Jay."
His cheeks flushed red and he enjoyed it. Turning to meet Natalie's eyes, he innately loosened his grip on Alexa. While her brother was busy flirting with the girl, Alexa took in her surroundings, trying to find her next adventure. She spotted two open doors to her right that piqued her interest. And being six years old, she had to figure out where the doors led. She just had to or she wouldn't be able to move forward with life. It was like an itch that she had to scratch.
She wiggled her hand free from Jay's and took off running through the doors into the auditorium. Unfortunately, Jay wasn't quick to react and the little rugrat got a head start and had already managed to run into the seating and duck down by the time he'd gotten inside the room.
"Alexa!" he called out. He scanned the seating as the panic started to creep up when he didn't readily see her anywhere. "Alexandra, come out now!" Still no movement or reply.
Alexa covered her mouth to keep her giggle from escaping. She was pretty darn good at playing hide and seek. She was totally going to win!
Jay started making his way down the main aisle, sweeping each row to see if he spotted the brown haired girl with her stupid unicorn backpack. How was she this good at hiding?! When he made it halfway down and hadn't spotted her yet, he instinctively knew that he had to switch up his tactics if he were ever going to find her. He softened his voice and whispered in a singsong way, "Aaaallllleexxxxaaaaa....I'm going to find you."
His eyes constantly scanned from side to side. "Oh Alexa...where are you?" he called out playfully, knowing she'd buy right into it.
By that point, Alexa was squirming with excitement like a fish out of water. She could no longer contain her laughter. "JJ!" she called out with a giggle.
Ah, there it was. Jay knew just how to smoke the kid out of her hole. He jogged down a few more rows to where he heard the voice. "Ah-ha!" he exclaimed as he jumped in front of the row where she was, to which Alexa erupted in giggles.
"You found me!"
"Of course I did. I'm the hide 'n seek champion. Now let's go." He held out his hand for her to grab.
"You're really good," she praised as she gripped onto his hand. "What's this place?" she asked with the curiosity of any Kindergartener.
"It's an auditorium," he explained, hoping this incident wasn't going to make him late for class since he still had to drop her off.
"Oh cool. I like it."
"Well you can't come here again until you're in high school. Got it?" He glanced over his shoulder to drive his point home that she can't be running around hiding in here again.
"But that's forever."
"Yup," Jay replied simply as they exited into the hallway.
"Okie dokie, JJ," she replied with an innocent and happy grin that only a young child could produce.
Jay blinked hard a few times, throwing the memory back into his vault. He secretly missed the days when things were so simple with her - she just accepted whatever he said with a smile and moved on. It was a harsh reminder that he wasn't dealing with an innocent Kindergartener anymore. She was now a mysterious and wholeheartedly sarcastic teenager.
The debate was wrapping up and sadly, Alex hadn't made her way back into the auditorium, no matter how hard he had tried to manifest it to happen.
Shortly after, the debate officially concluded and everyone started making their way to leave. Jay's blindspot forced him to get one last confirmation, so he made a beeline to the debate team's coach.
"Hi, Jay Halstead," he held out his hand to shake.
"Mike Spitler." He returned the shake, having no idea what was going on. When he didn't speak, the coach asked, "What can I do for you, Jay?"
He took a deep breath, knowing this was the end of the line - his last hope. "Alex Halstead - is she part of the debate team?"
Mike paused for a second, trying to see if the name was familiar at all. "No, she's not. I don't think I know her."
Jay nodded, clear disappointment on his face. "No chance she'd been part of it earlier and quit?"
"No, sorry. I've been coaching for four years - she's never been part of the team."
Jay nodded in appreciation, seeing no reason to take up more of this poor man's time. "Thanks, Mike. Sorry to bother you." He shook his hand again and then took off toward the exit, his head hanging low. All the facts were staring him right in the face - she clearly wasn't physically present and the coach had confirmed that Alex had never been part of the team. It was all the evidence anyone would need to conclude the obvious. However, there was that one sliver of optimism that Jay's head was hanging onto for dear life. The one sliver that there was an easy explanation that wouldn't turn this into the cluster it was about to become.
So like any rational person, he needed a third confirmation on whether this was true or not. As he headed out to his car, he pulled out his phone and typed out a text message.
What time is debate over tonight?
His finger lingered over the send button for quite some time. His gut already knew what the answer would be, but his heart wouldn't let him believe it without evidence. Finally, he forced himself to send it.
It didn't take her long to reply, and when she did, he felt his stomach drop into an abyss of disbelief.
Over in about an hour or two.
He quickly replied to try and smoke out the truth. That long?
It was a matter of seconds before Alex replied like it was nothing. Yeah, we're up in Highland Park, so it'll take a while for the bus to get back.
Once he was in his truck, he placed his hands on the steering wheel and then rested his forehead on top of them. Damnit. Now there was no question about it - she'd lied to him about joining the debate team, and she'd been lying over and over about it. Knots pained his stomach as he realized that he could no longer refute the evidence that was clearly staring back at him. He would be even more of a fool if he tried to do so.
He started up the engine and peeled off toward Erin's apartment. He needed to relieve some stress before he could figure out what the hell to do about his lying little sister.