by Kai Juniper
There's a knock on the door. "Can I come in?"
Moving off the bed, I look over and see a police officer at the door.
Dean quickly sits up. "What's going on? Did something happen?"
The officer walks up to Dean's bed. "I have some news."
"About Jake?" Dean asks, sounding as panicked as I feel.
"Yes." He glances at me. "Do you want her here?"
"Yeah, she's my girlfriend. Tell me what's going on."
"A kid showed up at a police station in Indianapolis. He says his name is Jacob Sanders."
"You found him?" Dean's face breaks into a smile.
"We need to make sure it's him. Sometimes when there's been a lot of media coverage like there's been in this case, people pretend to be the missing person as some kind of joke."
"You know what he looks like. You have pictures."
"We're pretty sure it's him but we want to make sure."
"So what do you need?"
"I got a photo to show you." He gets his phone out. "He looks different than the photos you gave us."
"What do you mean by different?"
"His face is thinner. He probably hasn't had much to eat since he left. And his head is shaved, which I'm guessing your father did so people wouldn't recognize him."
"Let me see." Dean takes the cop's phone and stares down at the picture. "Yeah, that's him." Dean blows out a breath. "Thank God you found him."
"Can I see?" I ask.
Dean hands me the phone. From first glance, it doesn't even look like Jake. With the bald head and bony face, I wouldn't even recognize him if I passed him on the street. I hand the phone back to the officer.
"So what happens now?" Dean asks him.
"They'll take him to a hospital, make sure he's in good health, and then we'll transport him back here. When he's back, we'll want to question him about what happened."
"Can it wait? I want to be there when you question him."
"We could probably make that work. Any idea when you'll be out of here?"
"Probably the middle of next week."
"Until then, do you have a relative in the area who could take the boy?"
"He could stay with me," I offer.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Dean says, and he's probably right. My mom wouldn't allow it, especially now, when she's trying to talk me out of dating Dean.
"Danny's family would take him," Dean says to me, then he looks at the cop. "Danny's a close friend of mine. His family's known Jake since we were kids. I'll give you their number but I'd like to see Jake before he goes there. When will he be back?"
"Depending on how his medical evaluation goes, he should be back tonight or tomorrow. I'll let you know when we find out."
"Where has he been staying?" I ask the officer. "Do you know?"
"He said he hid out on a farm outside of Indianapolis. He didn't know we got his father. He was worried his dad was looking for him so he stayed there and hid out. A kid went in the barn and found Jake sleeping in the hay. The kid told his mom and she called the police."
"Do you know if he's okay?" Dean asks. "Did my dad..." his jaw tightens, "do anything to him?"
"As far as we know, your brother is fine. They're taking him to the hospital just as a precaution." The officer's phone rings. "I need to take this." He goes out in the hall.
"They found him," Dean says, breathing a sigh of relief as he lays his head back on the pillows.
"And he's okay," I say, holding Dean's hand.
Dean glances at the officer in the hall. "I'm not sure I believe him."
"About what?"
"About Jake being okay. I need to see him myself before I'll believe he's really okay."
The officer comes back in the room. "That was an update on your brother. The doctors looked him over and they'd like to keep him overnight."
"Why?" Dean sits up. "What's wrong?"
"He's severely dehydrated. They want to pump fluids in him and let him rest overnight before sending him home."
"Can I talk to him?"
"He might be sleeping but I could ask." He calls someone. "Yeah, it's me again. The kid's older brother wants to talk to him. Any way you could you put him on the phone?" He covers the phone and says to Dean, "He's asking one of the nurses." He puts the phone back to his ear. "Yeah, go ahead. I'll give him the phone."
Dean takes it from him. "Jake?" He slowly smiles. "Hey, man, it's good to hear your voice. You doing okay?" He nods, still smiling. "You do what the doctor tells you. Eat what you can, and when you're back I'll take you out for whatever you want." He listens. "No, I'm still in the hospital. I might get out the middle of next week. I'm going to have you stay at Danny's until I'm home." He nods. "Yeah. Okay. Get some rest. I love you."
Dean hands the officer his phone.
"I'm going to head out," the officer says. "I'll let you know tomorrow when to expect him back."
"Okay, thanks."
The officer leaves.
"How did he sound?" I ask Dean.
"Tired. His voice was hoarse."
"What did he say?"
"Not much. He was more worried about me than himself. Someone must've told him what happened. I wasn't sure I wanted him to know."
"Isn't it good that he knows? He needs to know what your dad's really like."
"Yeah, I guess. I just don't want him worrying about me. Thank God my dad didn't do anything to him. I didn't think he would but I wasn't sure." He reaches over to the table to get his phone. "I need to call Danny." He smiles as he calls him. "Hey, man, they found him. He's coming home in the morning." He nods. "Yeah, he's good. He's just getting some rest and fluids before they bring him back. Hey, I was wondering—" He stops. "That was what I was just about to ask. You sure your parents will be okay with it?" He nods. "Tell them thanks. You might need to stop at the house and get some of his things. You still have a key, right?" He pauses. "Thanks, man. I owe ya." He sets his phone down.
"He's okay taking Jake?" I ask.
"Yeah, he offered before I could even ask."
I check the time. It's only eleven but I want to see if Danny can meet me at the house sooner than we planned. There's so much to do and a few hours won't be enough.
I text Eve to see if she can pick me up. She texts right back and says she's on her way.
"I'm going to take off," I tell Dean.
"Already? You haven't even been here an hour."
"I have a lot to get done today. My mom's making me clean the apartment and I have a paper due tomorrow that I haven't even started." I lean down and give him a kiss. "If I have time, I'll come back later. Bye!"
As I'm leaving, I look back at Dean. He looks confused by my abrupt departure. He'll understand in a few days. I hope he likes the surprise. There's a chance he'll be mad I did this but I don't want him going home to a mess. It'll just remind him of what happened there, and he doesn't need that.
Chapter Nineteen
Brook
"You weren't there long," Eve says as I get in her car.
"They found Jake. He's coming home. We have to hurry and get to the house and start cleaning. Danny told the guys to be there from two to five. That's not enough time to get everything done."
"Do you have a key?"
"No, but I texted Danny. He's going to meet us over there."
"We're going there now?"
"Yeah, is that okay?"
"I was going to go home and change into sweats but I guess I can clean in this." She's wearing black leggings and a cropped t-shirt that shows off her belly ring. If Kendrick shows up, he's going to have a hard time keeping his eyes off her.
We get to the house and find Kendrick waiting in the driveway.
I walk up to him. "Is Danny here?"
Kendrick glances at Eve as she gets out of the car. "He went to pick up food. We promised the guys we'd feed them."
"Did Danny give you the key?"
He holds it up. "I haven't gone inside yet."
"Y
ou didn't tell me HE'D be here," Eve says to me, sounding annoyed.
"Good to see you too," he says.
"I told you the whole team was coming," I tell her as we walk to the door.
Kendrick unlocks it and we go inside.
"Holy shit," Eve says, looking around. The place is a disaster, with furniture on its side and couch cushions scattered around the floor. Some of the drawers from the bedroom are in the living room, dumped upside down. "His dad did all this?"
"It's worse than I thought," Kendrick says.
I step over a pile of clothes, past the upside-down couch, to the kitchen. I see the blood on the counter and look away, tears stinging my eyes.
Eve comes up beside me. "Go work on the living room. I'll do the kitchen."
"I'll help," Kendrick says.
I shake my head. "I can do it. I'm here to clean so I might as well clean."
Kendrick glances at Eve, then turns me toward him, away from the blood. "Let Eve and me take the kitchen. There's plenty of other stuff you can do."
I nod. "Okay."
"You want to help me get stuff from the car?" Kendrick asks Eve. "My mom gave me some cleaning supplies."
"I have some too, and gloves."
She follows him back outside.
Looking up at the walls I see more of Dean's blood, and when I look down I see it on the tile floor. I follow the trail of blood to the carpet between the kitchen and the living room. It ends with a really big blood stain on the carpet by the wall. That must be where Dean was lying when he passed out.
There's so much blood. He would've died if his neighbor hadn't called the police.
"What are you still doing there?" Eve says, coming back in the house, her arms loaded up with cleaning products. "Get out of our area."
"Yeah," Kendrick says. "Move it."
I step aside as they put everything down, then watch as they put on the gloves.
"I'll take the walls," Kendrick says to Eve.
"I'll do the counters."
As they get to work I look around the living room, not sure where to start. I decide to clear stuff off the floor. I gather up all the clothes and bring them back in the bedroom, which is a mess. The mattress is off the bed and the nightstand is tipped on its side.
"How's it going?" I hear Danny say from the living room. I go out there and see him with three guys from the team. They're holding stacks of pizzas and one guy's holding a cooler.
"You might want to wait for us to finish before you bring that over," Kendrick says to the guys, looking over at Eve as she scrubs the counters.
"We'll just put it here for now." Danny sets the coffee table back on its legs and the guys set the pizzas on it.
"Hey, Brook," Danny says, noticing me.
"Hey, thanks for coming over early."
"No problem. The other guys will be over soon. Do you have directions for us or do you want us to just figure it out?"
"I made a list of stuff to get done. I was thinking everyone could take something on the list." I bring it up on my phone as I walk over to Danny. "I don't know if we'll have time but I was thinking it'd be nice to do some work on the outside, like clean up the weeds around the house. There's lawn tools in the garage."
"We could do that. Let me see what else what you got." He looks through my list, then says to the guys, "Start by moving all the furniture out. Mark's bringing the carpet cleaner. He'll be here in a few minutes."
I didn't know about the carpet cleaner but it's a good idea. We definitely need it.
"Did you see my text about the couch?" I say to Danny as the guys carry the old one outside.
"Already taken care of."
"What do you mean?"
"We got him a new one. Josh is bringing it over in his dad's truck. He'll haul away the old one for us and take it to the dump."
"You got a couch? How'd you pay for it?"
"Coach did. His sister works at a furniture store so he got a deal. It's a good couch, a lot bigger than the old one."
Within minutes, the furniture's cleared out and Danny and I pick up the other items scattered around the floor.
A couple guys around my dad's age wearing tool belts walk in.
Danny goes up to them. "Thanks for coming over." He turns to me. "This is Josh's dad and uncle. They do construction. They'll be patching the walls. Just tell them where to start."
I go over and introduce myself, then show them what needs to be fixed. I'm amazed so many people are willing to help. The people from my old school would never do this.
By late afternoon, the place is starting to look really good. The walls are fixed and some of the guys are coming back later tonight to paint. Danny will be here to let them in. The carpet's been cleaned and most of the stains are out. Eve and Kendrick did a great job on the kitchen. They worked together all day and Eve only yelled at him a few times. Kendrick kept checking her out but she didn't even notice.
"It's not completely done but it looks a lot better," Danny says, surveying the room.
"It looks great!" I say. "I love the new couch."
It's a black couch that's long enough for Dean to sleep on without his legs hanging off. It's fake leather but it looks real. The couch made the old, beat-up coffee table look even worse so Danny and I went to a used furniture store and got one that looks brand new. We got a couple lamps too, to replace the ones Dean's dad broke.
"You guys heading out?" Danny says to Josh and two other guys standing by the door.
"Yeah, but we'll be back later to help paint," Josh says.
"Door's fixed," Josh's dad says, walking up to me. "And we replaced the outside lights. Most of them were burnt out."
"Thanks." I look around the room at Dean's teammates. "Before everyone leaves, I just want to say thank you for doing all this. I know Dean and Jake will appreciate all you've done." I smile. "Well, Dean will probably be mad at me but he'll get over it."
"If he gives you any trouble, we'll kick his ass," Josh says, smiling. "It was good you did this. None of us were even thinking about it. Dean's lucky to have you."
"Okay, that's enough," Eve says, pushing her way past two huge guys. "We need to stop before someone starts crying."
The guys laugh.
"I need a couple people to pack up trash," Danny says. "Everyone else can head home."
"I'll get the trash," Kendrick says.
"I'll help," Eve says.
Kendrick looks at her, surprised.
"What?" she says. "It's not like I have a choice. I can't trust you do it right."
"It's trash. How could I screw it up?"
"You really have to ask?" she says with a sigh as she goes past him.
Kendrick follows her as the other guys leave.
"Did you see the outside?" Danny asks me.
"No, I didn't go out there."
"Come check it out."
We go out to the front of the house. The weeds have been cut down and the lawn's been mowed.
"It looks so much better," I say.
"They also cleaned the windows. They were really bad. Probably hadn't been cleaned since Dean's grandma died."
I turn to Danny. "I can't thank you enough for doing this. There's no way I could've done all this on my own."
He shrugs. "Dean's my best friend. I'd do anything for him, but what Josh said is true. I wouldn't have thought to do this. It's good you suggested it."
"You think Dean will be mad at me? You know how he is about letting people see his house."
"He might be mad at first but he'll get over it. He's not good at accepting help but this time he needed it. Now he can focus on getting better instead of worrying about the house."
"Did you talk to your parents about taking Jake?"
He smiles. "They've already got his bed made up. He'll be staying with my little brother. My brother will have to sleep on the floor but half the time he does that anyway. He builds a fort and puts a sleeping bag in it and sleeps there."
"I didn't know you had
a younger brother."
"Darren. He's eight. I have a younger sister too, and an older brother."
"You sure you guys have room for Jake?"
"It's only for a few days. We'll make it work."
Eve walks out of the house with Kendrick trailing behind.
"We got all the trash," Eve says. "It's piled up out back."
"Josh will get it tonight when he brings the truck," Danny says.
"Ready to go?" I ask Eve.
She glances at Kendrick. "This idiot offered to buy me dinner for putting up with him all day. Could you get a ride with Danny?"
"I can take her," Danny says.
"Meet you there?" Kendrick says to Eve.
"Yeah. Wait—I forgot my keys." She races back inside.
I follow her in there. "You're going to dinner with Kendrick?"
"It's not a date," she snaps, grabbing her keys from the counter. "I only agreed to it because he said I could pick the place. And because he's paying."
"Yeah, okay," I say, smiling at her.
She storms up to me. "Don't give me crap about this. It is NOT a date." She points to her shirt, which is dirty from cleaning. "Would I wear this on a date?"
"I don't think Kendrick would care. He just wants to take you out."
"He's a football player," she says, giving me a deadpan stare.
"Yeah? So?"
"I don't date football players. And they don't date me."
"C'mon, Eve. You don't like him even a little?"
"He's hot, but that doesn't mean I'd date him."
"Maybe you could just be friends with him. You seemed to get along okay working together."
"I guess, but that doesn't make us friends. Tomorrow at school we'll be back to hating each other."
"You guys don't hate each other. You just pretend to, like Dean and I did when we first met. And look how that turned out."
"Goodbye, Brook," she says, rolling her eyes as she leaves.
I laugh. She likes him. She just won't admit it.
Going back outside, I wait for Danny to lock up. He drives me home, and when I walk in the apartment, I find my mom waiting for me.
"Where have you been?" she asks, following me to my room.
"I was at Dean's house. I told you we were cleaning it today."
"I didn't think you'd be gone all day. I had the afternoon off. I thought we were going to do something together."