by C. M. Boers
“Do you really want to know?” he asked carefully. “Of course I do, think I can’t handle it? I think I have proved worthy,” I boasted with a big cheesy grin.
He laughed. “Yes, yes you have. He is… 65.”
Sixty-five? Man, he wasn’t kidding about not seeming to age. Ren looked younger than I did, but he was a whole 49 years older than me, and he definitely acted the same as the other kids at school.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yep.”
“How is it that he seems so young, I don’t mean his looks but his personality?” I asked.
“Well, I guess even though we gain knowledge from the years we’re on Earth, we still act the age we look. Sure does make it easier for the Protectors that are really old to blend in. Imagine trying to fit into a younger generation when you are like 150!” he exclaimed.
I hadn’t really thought of it like that. Whoever had come up with the lifestyles for the Protectors really had thought of everything; everything except the hurt of leaving loved ones behind. It was a concept I didn’t let myself think about often. It made me sad to think that someday Eli would have to leave me. It hurt even more to think that not only would he someday have to leave, but then he would go on to share a similar relationship with someone else. How could he? But I knew the answer to that too—he wouldn’t have a choice.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
The next day I paid a lot more attention to Ren. I made every effort to make him as close a friend to me as Bailey and Eli. The only problem was Bailey was absent. I wondered if she was sick and decided to call her at lunch to see if she was okay.
As it turned out Ren was in my first hour, as well as my fourth. I was glad to know he would be in two of my classes. Up until then, I had yet to make new friends in my fourth hour and now it seemed I wouldn’t have to.
When I was leaving my third hour, Bailey’s boyfriend Ryan approached me.
“Hey Abby,” he said awkwardly.
He had been to my house and sat with us every day at lunch, but I realized at that moment we hadn’t spoken much. It had always just been the niceties, then going about our business. I felt bad that I hadn’t taken more of an interest in getting to know him, not just because he was a friend, but because he was Bailey’s boyfriend.
“Hey Ryan, what’s up?” I responded cheerfully.
“Have you talked to Bailey today?” he asked.
“No, I haven’t. Why?” I asked with concern.
“She didn’t answer her phone last night. She didn’t call me back, and now she’s not at school today. I’m just worried about her,” he finished.
“I’m sure she’s okay, but I’ll give her a call at lunch to check in.”
He walked with me the rest of the way to lunch.
I mentioned to Eli in his ear what Ryan had told me as we walked in, and I watched him look at Ryan and then to Ren. I wandered out of the lunchroom where it would be quieter to call Bailey.
The cell phone number was already on my speed dial so I pressed her unique number and hit call. It rang for a long time before it finally went to her voicemail. Her perky voice telling me to leave a message at the tone filled my ear and it was over as quickly as it had begun.
Feeling defeated, I went back into the cafeteria and the look on my face spoke volumes. She still hadn’t answered.
“I’ll go over to her house afterschool to check on her. I’m sure she’s fine,” I encouraged.
We were all worried about her. She didn’t usually disappear like this. For the first time that day, I genuinely hoped she was sick. Fearful things raced through my mind like car accidents and hospitals.
Our lunch hour wasn’t the same. It was quieter without the happy, overly energetic Bailey. She wasn’t talking animatedly about the different types of clothes, shoes, and jewelry that she was working with. It was clear now that she was the glue that kept our unique group together. She was the one that kept our conversation not only carefree and happy, but she kept it pouring out of everyone.
After school Eli, Ren and I drove to Bailey’s house first. Nobody answered. It was strange, but then again maybe she was sleeping.
When I got back in the car Eli and Ren stopped talking and were staring at me with looks that told me they didn’t want to tell me something, and if they didn’t want to tell me then it must mean bad news.
“What?” I asked.
Eli held up my phone. The screen displayed a text message. It was from Pete. Pete?
Looking for Bailey? Won’t find her there…
My heart sank. I should have listened to that nagging feeling that something just wasn’t right.
“He has her, doesn’t he?” I asked, already knowing the answer.
“I’d say so,” Eli answered sadly.
“Why?” I asked.
“To get to us, to get to you,” Eli answered again.
“Why don’t you take me home and you guys can talk. I’ll come to Abby’s house after I grab a few things,” Ren said.
After dropping Ren off we got to my house in 10 minutes flat.
After going inside to wait for Ren I couldn’t contain my frustration anymore. “Shouldn’t we be hurrying? He has Bailey. Who knows what he’s going to do! Or what he’s already done!” I blurted out. I knew that I wasn’t frustrated with Eli, but for some reason that was exactly how it sounded.
Eli did the opposite of what I would have expected once again, grabbing my hands to guide me over to the couch. His touch sent shivers through my body starting at his fingertips. It touched me in places that could not be seen. Color flushed my face.
“Abby, Pete wants to get to you. He knows Bailey is your best friend and you would do whatever you could to get her back. She needs you to keep calm. There is only one way to get her back that Ren and I could think of, it’s the one thing we know Pete wants. We’re going to have to use you as bait. Do you know what that means?” he asked.
“I have to go by myself, right?” I said in monotone.
“Yes,” he responded. “Can you call him?”
I picked up my phone without answering and pressed Pete’s name. He picked up on the third ring.
“Well, if it isn’t Eli’s girlfriend. Does your boyfriend know you are calling me?” he asked snidely.
Eli’s ear was pressed to the back of the phone so he could hear everything. He shook his head signaling me to say no.
“No,” I said quickly.
“Good, at least you have some brains in that pretty little head,” he said in a condescending tone. “So I assume you are calling about Bailey?”
He was enjoying his little tirade of torture. I vowed to not let him see how he was affecting me, the way I knew it would be screaming loud and clear to Eli by now. It unnerved me that he had the upper hand.
“Yeah,” I said nonchalantly. “Where is she?”
“With me and my friends of course,” he laughed.
This was all a game to him and it made me sick. I could hear others talking in hushed voices in the background. I wondered briefly how many ‘friends’ he had helping him.
“What do you want, Pete?” I said plainly.
“Why you of course,” he chimed.
“Me for Bailey?” I asked.
“Yep, it’s that simple,” he answered. “But, you need to come alone. I don’t want to see Eli’s face poking around where it doesn’t belong!”
I forgot that Eli was listening for the moment and I suddenly was wondering what he thought of all this. I hoped that he approved of how I was handling it.
“Fine, when? Where?”
“Papago Park, it seems to be a favorite place of your beau, so let’s say meet there in one hour.”
“I’ll be there,” I said. I had never been more sure of anything.
I hung up as soon as the words were out of my mouth. I didn’t want to listen to Pete’s ramblings any more than I had to. Man, what had I seen in him? Now he just disgusted me. The thought that I ever kissed that frog made my stomach ch
urn. It was embarrassing that everyone knew of our short romance that I regretted whole-heartedly. I guess that’s why they say young high school kids are flippant about dating.
“What’s the plan?” I asked turning to Eli.
“You meet him,” he said simply.
“That’s not what I meant.”
There was a knock at the door.
“I know. I was waiting for Ren,” he said as he went to answer the door.
Eli and Ren started forming the plan only asking for my input occasionally, though I’m not sure how much it really mattered in the scheme of things. It was hard to keep up so I didn’t even try, but when they had finalized every detail they explained everything to me.
Ren was going to drive me to meet Pete. Eli would follow and meet us there incognito. He would find a place to watch at a safe distance so not to be discovered. Pete didn’t know Ren so he wouldn’t suspect if he came with me as my driver to pick up Bailey. The fact that Bailey wouldn’t know Ren was so close to Eli worked in our favor, as she wouldn’t give us away. We would trade positions and Ren would leave with Bailey and I would go with Pete. At that point, Eli would follow Pete in his car to see where he took me. By that time we were hoping to have Bailey home and Ren on his way to us for back up. From there on out it would have to play out as it came. There was no planning for how Pete would react, but we at least hoped to have the element of surprise over him. The plan was to infiltrate the whole team rather than just Pete to hopefully avoid future problems. That would give us an idea how many and who we were up against.
It was the first time I was scared for myself. What would Pete do once I was alone with him? Plans rarely work as they are supposed to. I knew that better than most. There were always a few bumps along the way. I hoped that this would be one time things went smoothly. My nerves were getting the best of me, and I was worrying about all the ways things could go wrong.
“Don’t be scared. I’ll be right there with you. I won’t let anything happen to you.” He was holding my left hand rubbing the top with his thumb. “I don’t like making you do this anymore than you do and even if I disagree with it, Ren and I agree that this is the only way to get Bailey back safely.”
Even though it is crazy having someone always in tune with exactly how you felt all the time, it was comforting too. It made me feel like I wasn’t alone even when I really was. I held onto that going into this. I would always have Eli there with me. I squeezed his hand.
I took a deep breath. “Ready?”
“If you are, we are,” Eli said looking at Ren.
I had never seen Ren’s car before, but it was as amazing as Eli’s. He said it was a 1969 Pontiac Le Mans. It was bright blue with a white pin stripe down the side. It was a hard top convertible, which made me like it even more. The interior was done in cream with accents of black. Everything was fully restored to a new glory that it probably never had to begin with.
Ren was such a gentleman. He walked around the car and opened my door for me. One thing was certain; just because he acted my age didn’t mean he lost his gentlemanly ways of an older man. It was a good thing in my book. I only wished there were more gentlemen out there that were my age.
We had a 20-minute drive to Papago Park. We hoped to get there before Pete so that we could decide on the meeting point. Of course we wanted somewhere in the open for Eli to watch.
I kept my hands folded in my lap to prevent myself from fumbling around with them. It was a nervous habit I was trying to break.
“So how long have you known Eli?” Ren asked when we got on the freeway.
“We met on the first day of school.”
“Of this year?” he asked, seeming surprised.
“Yep,” I answered.
“Wow, I don’t think I have ever seen a bond as strong as yours so quickly!” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“You and Eli, the closeness you share, it’s special. I guess that makes sense though,” he said vaguely.
“It makes sense? How so?”
His cryptic words were really confusing me. Why would it make sense that our bond was special or even any different from the next? Really? Had I just thought that? Comparing our bond with others really struck a chord with me. What were the others like? Were they going though what we were? Were these situations always so complicated? I had to imagine that they weren’t. It seemed anything to do with me had a way of making itself more complicated.
“He hasn’t told you?”
I shrugged, not sure exactly what he was referring to.
“Oh, well I shouldn’t say anything, I’m sorry, it’s just not my place. I shouldn’t have said anything.”
Was Eli keeping something from me? Or was I just missing something? He told me himself he wouldn’t keep things from me unless he had to. So I must not have understood something that was crucial. It was just like me to misunderstand things here and there.
“How long have you known Eli?” I asked.
“I’ve known him since he was born, his dad and I go way back.”
“Wow, you must know a lot about Eli,” I said.
“You could say that. I’ve sort of been a mentor to him through his Protector journey, at least before you came along. There was a lot he needed to learn before you were here. After his dad left, I was here for a while. His dad would be so proud if he saw him now.”
It wasn’t my place to be proud of him for what Ren was referring to, but I was certainly proud to have him in my life.
“He is pretty awesome,” I said.
“From what I hear so are you,” he said, a tinge of jealousy in his tone.
I blushed. Maybe I was imagining the jealousy. I couldn’t imagine what he had to be jealous of. He hardly knew me. Before I could say anything else we were pulling left into the parking lot. I could see Eli making a right turn behind us instead. I didn’t see Pete’s car yet in the parking lot, so it appeared that we had beat him. We parked closest to the picnic area and sat in the car while we waited. Ren said it was better that way, because if Pete decided to try anything underhanded we could make a quick getaway.
From the start I knew that there was a chance Bailey may not be with Pete when he came to meet us. I almost expected him to pull such a deceitful trick now that I knew who he really was. I figured it was a known possibility to all three of us, but we hadn’t discussed how to proceed in that event. I think it had to be because Eli and Ren didn’t want me to worry more than I already was, but I had my own plans. I knew in my heart I couldn’t just desert Bailey. I would be going with Pete either way. I had to get to the bottom of it, and the only way to do that was to go with him. I didn’t give Eli the chance to tell me otherwise and kept it to myself.
It was no surprise to me when Pete pulled up next to our car and he was alone. Pete and I stepped out of our separate cars at the very same time, and I was instantly less than two feet from him. Our cars were parked much closer together than I thought and it made me extremely uncomfortable. But I couldn’t let Pete see it.
My heart was thumping in my chest. I took a moment to collect myself and gain courage before I could say a word to Pete.
“Who’s that?” Pete spat, pointing at Ren who stood inconspicuously on his side of the car.
“A friend. How did you expect me to get here? I don’t have a car,” I stated rudely. “Plus, Bailey was going to need a ride home, but apparently you seem to have forgotten your end of the deal,” I added for good measure.
“Well, I couldn’t lose my leverage when your boyfriend tries to interfere. So you will just have to come along to get her.” He pointed at Ren who was silently watching on his side of the car. “He will have to go on his way without you and Bailey. I will be sure Bailey gets home.”
It was then that Ren broke his silence. “Abby will not be going with you unless Bailey is here to stay in her place,” he said firmly.
“Is that so?” he paused and then challenged Ren. “Well, I think it is up to Abby and i
f she does decide to come with me, what are you going to do about it?”
That was my cue to speak up before things got ugly. “If I go with you now, what happens to Bailey?” I asked.
“I call my friend and he brings her home. Just like that,” he said, smiling at me.
“Abby, you can’t…” Ren started pleading.
I noticed him take a step towards the front of the car, so I took my chance before it was no longer available. I barreled around Pete’s car and swung open the door.
“Abby! No!” Ren shouted.
I didn’t look in his direction, but I knew Ren was almost all the way around his car before I made it to the inside of Pete’s. When I jumped into the car, he turned back to get in his own to chase us down.
Pete was right on cue and our doors slammed at the same time. His engine roared to life. The tires squealed as they spun, trying to get traction on the asphalt. I saw Eli in my rear view mirror, his arms waving wildly as he ran towards us. At that moment, I felt awful. What had I done? He would never forgive me. I hadn’t thought about how it would affect Eli before I did it, other than that I knew he wouldn’t let me do it. I hadn’t considered why. All I could think of was how to get Bailey back. My mind only had one track at the moment. I didn’t want to hurt Eli, but I saw at that moment it was exactly what I had done.
Ren was right on our bumper as we sped out of the parking lot. Pete didn’t wait for the stop light to turn green before he sped out.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“A friend’s house,” he stated. “Of course, not until we lose your friend and prince charming behind us. You sure do come with a lot of baggage,” he chuckled.
He started weaving intricately through the city, whipping down streets at the drop of a hat. He created a very difficult, but not impossible, path to follow until suddenly he glided around a corner into a dark parking garage. It was so dark I could hardly see anything else around us. When Ren caught up, I saw him continue driving in the direction he must have thought we had gone. A few cars back I saw Eli continue to follow Ren. He was so far back he probably had no clue which way we had gone. I wished that Pete wasn’t as good at losing people as he was that day.