Chapter 29 - not proofread so please ignore any grammar mistakes.
‘”Finn!” I shouted, jogging out to the middle of the football pitch to meet him during his break. He smiled and rubbed his sweaty neck with his towel.
“Hey, you alright?” he asked, putting it down and picking up his water bottle instead.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” I said, pausing when I saw that the other football players were watching us talk. Finn turned his back on them, raising one eyebrow expectantly. “Do you have a spare house key?” I asked. He chewed his lip and glanced over his shoulder at his teammates.
“It’s in my bag, you can go and get it if you like,” he replied, shrugging. I nodded, thanking him as I walked over to his backpack, which was sitting on the bench.
Having just moved up into the secondary school, walking over to a bunch of older kids was just about the scariest thing I could’ve done at the time. When I reached his bag and unzipped the front pocket for the key, I cringed. A small box of condoms was sitting at the bottom of the pocket. With a grimace, I zipped it back up, taking the key.
Finn swung his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug against his muddy chest.
“See you at home,” he said with a wink, making my stomach churn with dread as I turned and started to walk in the direction of our house.’
I screwed up yet another bit of paper and lobbed it towards the wall. Harley’s ears pricked and he raised his head from the grass to watch the paper fly. It was the fifth bit that was sitting in a ball next to his stable.
Grumbling, I got to my feet and brushed the mud from the backs of my jeans.
After putting my rubbish in the bin and grabbing some food, I retook my position by the fence and plonked down on the floor again, picking up my notepad.
I’d been sitting outside with Harley for the good amount of an hour attempting to write out a statement and some practise for court. Ally’s old therapist had been really nice and taught me a few tricks to controlling the panic that the old therapist hadn’t told me.
“Want some company?” I looked up at the sound of Eli’s voice, waving my arm around the space next to me.
“Help yourself,” I said. He hoisted himself over the fence and dropped onto the floor next to me, not saying a word, obviously letting me get used to him being there. My heart was racing, but for once, not for panic. Rather nerves and embarrassment.
“I shouldn’t have shouted the other day,” I admitted at last, trying to break the heavy silence. Eli sighed, shaking his head. He pulled one of his legs to his chest and rested his forearm on it.
“You should’ve, I deserved it. But like I said, I don’t regret it,” he whispered, looking ahead at Tempest.
“You did deserve it a little,” I muttered and he grinned, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.
“Now we’ve got that covered,” he said, pointing to my empty, remaining sheet of paper. “What are you doing?” I let out a deep breath and patted the paper with my pencil.
“Statement.” He chewed the inside of his cheek and shrugged.
“Can’t help you there, I’m afraid.” I nodded, knowing that already. Eli sat in silence, just listening to the sound of my pencil stain the paper. In the end, I put the paper down and let out a groan, flopping my limbs around me. He let out a chuckle when my head hit his shoulder, resting here. I couldn’t deny that even through the betrayal, I’d missed him a lot throughout the past week and having him there again gave a little bit of comfort for the case ahead.
“Comfortable?” he asked. I nodded, leaning against him further. He brought his arm up and let it drape over my side.
“I wasn’t trying to be...” he trailed off, unable to find his words. I closed my eyes and breathed in through my nose, taking in his boyish smell.
“I have a proposition,” I interrupted. Eli ‘mmmed’ letting me continue. “I’m forgiving but not forgetting so let’s forget it. Miss Holdana hated on her sister for years and look at them now.” Eli was silent for a moment and then he let out a deep breath.
“Sounds pretty good to me,” he replied.
I pushed back away from him and moved one of my knees under my backside.
“How are things with Tempest going?” I asked. He looked over at his horse, her beautiful bay coat glistening as she walked.
“Alright, I guess.” His voice seemed hard done by and he glanced down at my lips, seeming as though he was taking in the contours of my face. I reached up and gently cupped the side of his face. His stubble scratched my palm and the deep tan on his face was contrasting the pale of my hand.
“Hold still,” I whispered. Eli did as he was asked as I leaned in and gently pressed my lips against his cheek, the stubble that was once tickling my hand moved to my lips until I pulled away. He watched me for a moment until he grinned, his dimple surfacing, the one that I’d subconsciously missed so much.
“Hopefully, as soon as this is all over, you can do more than that,” he mumbled. I offered a small smile in return, nodding.
“As long as this all goes well, I should be able to,” I said. He was about to say something when I heard a shout from behind us.
Looking over my shoulder, I saw a figure walking towards us, waving. The person, who was clearly male, was too tall to be Carter but too short to be Cooper. Eli rolled his eyes and got to his feet.
“Dean, go home!” he called, moving over the fence with such speed and elegance that it shocked me.
I watched as Eli approached his brother and stopped, looking back at me. Even a blind man would be able to tell that something was wrong so I pushed myself up and jogged over to hear what they were talking about. Eli’s mouth was set in a grim line whereas Dean just looked annoyed.
“What’s happened?” I asked. Eli ran his hand through his hair with a nervous glint in his eye.
“Mum’s run off,” he explained. Dean shuffled awkwardly until I shot him a small smile, which he returned before turning back to his brother.
“What are we gonna do?” Eli shrugged at the question and took a deep breath.
“The usual. Check the hospitals, train stations, cafes and doctors first. Then the homeless hostile and go from there. She can’t have gone too far and even if she did, it isn’t too dangerous here,” Eli mumbled, almost to himself than to either Dean or I.
“What can I do to help?” I inquired. Dean was about to say that I stayed put, but Eli smiled gratefully.
“If you take the doctors, hospital and chemist, Dean and I can split the cafes and shops between us,” he said. I nodded, listening to the instructions carefully as he explained what she was like when she disappeared.
Normally, she’d go somewhere that she found familiar or safe, which was anywhere medical apart from dentists. If she wasn’t there, she’d be getting food and if it wasn’t that, she’d be taking a break out at the hostiles. It didn’t happen often, only when she came off her medication, which she hadn’t appeared to be doing since they moved back to the UK.
Eli’s worried face stuck in my head the whole time that I walked around to the local medical stations, I even checked the police station but there were no signs of her there.
After scouring the entire village, I took a turn for the road to the town. The hospital was half way between them and wouldn’t be too much of a walk. On the way, I rang Eli to let him know where I was going and where I had checked. Dean had taken the cafes and he was checking the hostile and houses, nobody had seen her.
I hung up and carried on walking, shielding my eyes from the glare of the sun with my sleeve. As I turned down the main road, something blocked the sun from up ahead. They were hitch hiking, holding their thumb out and stomping on the floor whenever they were ignored.
“Ana?” I asked, recognising the bright red hair as I got closer. The woman looked at me, her eyes wide with fear and confusion. I offered her a small smile, attempting to comfort her as I sent Eli a text with my location.
She was trembling when I sat her down on a rock and offered her the water and mints that I had in my bag. After taking them gratefully, she couldn’t stop fidgeting, looking around her nervously. All I could think of was that I had it easy when it came to Ana. Anything that I went through was nothing compared to how much fear she must’ve been feeling. She looked absolutely terrified, an emotion that I’d become very familiar with over the past few months. An emotion that I was determined to abolish before I reached 18.
A/N: Please vote, maybe even comment if you're feeling up for it :'P