“It doesn’t make any sense.”
Bailey leaned back in her chair. “We’ve got to find out more about this Lauren girl. I bet she knows what all of this is about. Didn’t you say Chase was looking at her picture online?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t see her last name.”
As Bailey’s fingers slid along the edge of my kitchen table, her eyes shadowed the beginning of a plan. “We’ll look online until we find her.”
“Can we use your computer?”
“Pade was playing some game on the Internet when I left, and he hasn’t done that since Dad called. He never said a word, even after I pounded every stair on my way down.”
I fought an image of the night before. “We can’t use the computer here. Right now I don’t need a mob scene over whether or not aliens exist.”
“Uncle Justin would probably freak or think we’re crazy.”
“What are our options?”
She chewed her lip, before her eyes lit up. “Let’s go to the library.”
“Aren’t you forgetting something?”
“Like what?”
“Like transportation.”
Bailey smiled. “My mom will be home from work in an hour. She’ll be happy to take me to the library.”
We laughed together, knowing Bailey would never ask to go to the library for fun.
* * * * *
Since the library was empty, choosing a computer in a lonely corner was a breeze. After sorting through only a small portion of the world of Laurens, however, we still had found zilch. When Bailey went to the bathroom, I typed ‘Lauren’ and ‘New York’ in the search window. Thousands of hits appeared, mostly about clothes.
I leaned back and shook my head. What else? She wasn’t from Chase’s planet but he thought she was. He was wrong. She was the before. Chase must have taken Lauren back to Golvern. It was the only way he’d know for sure. After York, I typed ‘kidnapped by aliens.’ Again, thousands of hits appeared, but this time most of the articles were about Lauren McCall. Bailey retuned just in time to read the headlines.
‘Teenager Disappears Under Incredible Circumstances’, ‘Parents Seek Information on Kidnapped Daughter’, and ‘Girl Returned to Family Unharmed’ were some of the titles. With each story I read about Lauren McCall, the connection between us grew.
The McCalls were a rich family in New York City, and a political force from the sound of the articles. Their only daughter, also adopted, disappeared and then returned home three months later. ‘Friends’ of the family insinuated everything from her running away from an abusive home to her being kidnapped by aliens. The tabloids were like starving lions to those people. After once having a newsworthy name myself, I understood the pain they must have felt. Not only at losing their daughter, but also at seeing their lives made into a reality show before the entire country.
Bailey’s eyes were wide. “Could you imagine being that famous?”
Yes. “No.”
“It would be too weird.”
“Yeah.” And no one could ever pay me enough to be famous again.
“Wow,” Bailey said, as we opened Lauren’s page. “She’s pretty.”
A twinge of jealousy bugged me from imagining how close Lauren must be to Chase, how she left Earth to visit his planet.
“Do you…” Bailey asked, lowering her voice. “Do you think Chase likes her?”
I shook my head, focusing on Lauren’s profile. Her ‘out of this world experience’ grabbed my attention as if shielded by a cobweb. She never actually posted that she visited Chase’s home, but the description of Golvern probably made more sense to me than most of cyberspace. Lauren even gave a shout out to her ‘long lost friend.’
Bailey snatched the mouse. “We should send Lauren a message. She’s online.”
I leaned back. “And say what?”
“Whatever it takes to find out what she knows about Chase.”
“Okay, but don’t forget we’re logged in under my name.”
“You might be Jessica, but this account says you’re twenty-five and live in South Dakota. No one will know who you are.”
I typed ‘i know ur friend—chase.’
“Hey,” Bailey said, grabbing my arm. “Don’t tell her everything yet.”
I backed over ‘chase’ and ‘friend,’ typing ‘long lost friend’ instead. My heart raced when ‘whatz his name?’ appeared on the screen.
“We got her attention,” Bailey cried. “Go ahead and tell her.”
I typed ‘chase.’
The page hovered, long enough for my doubts to grow into fear we’d made a mistake even an escape button couldn’t fix.
‘hey jes’
I almost fell from the chair after Lauren’s response, except for Bailey’s grip on my arm. My breath became shallow, forced, as I scrambled for a reply.
‘still there?’ came across the screen.
‘yeah,’ I typed. ‘how do u know my name?’
‘ur profile silly.’
Okay, fair enough. ‘y did u call me jes?’
She paused. ‘chase callz u jes.’
Bailey sniffed. “He told her about you? I wonder why.”
Then Lauren typed the words that almost made my heart stop. ‘tell him I said hey when he finds you tonight. have fun when u go—i did.’
Bailey’s irritation vanished. “She thinks you’re going to his planet.”
I looked around the room, but no one glanced our way. The sinking feeling churned in my stomach again.
Bailey leaned closer, concern in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
I typed ‘thanx’ before closing the page. I rested my head on my hands, only seconds from tears.
“We should leave,” Bailey said and reached for her phone. “I’ll call my mom.” As she dialed, the phone vibrated in her hand. “Damn it, Chase is texting. He wants to hang out this evening.” She looked up, indecision on her face.
“Your mom won’t let you go to the Fun Connection tonight.”
“No, but there’ll be all kinds of people at the mall on Saturday night. Chase won’t make any moves in a public place and we’ll finally get some answers.” She grinned. “We won’t let him leave without the truth.”
“I think it’s a bad idea.”
“What happened to the girl brave enough to skip fourth block without her best friend? How often does something crazy happen to two normal people like us?”
* * * * *
“Let’s go to the food court,” I said after forty-five minutes of drifting in and out of stores.
“How can you think about food? Chase said he’d be in front of the shoe store by six.” She checked her phone. “Whoa, it’s five after six already. He must have changed his mind.”
“He’ll find us at the food court.”
“Ten more minutes.” Bailey pointed to a pair of red running shoes. “Check out the zebra laces. I could try out for cheerleader in these.”
Moving behind the store’s glass window, I flipped over the tag. “You’d make a serious contender.”
“That’s exactly what I mean. I should throw the shoes away and wear the tag around my ankle. Oh well, while we’re in here…”
I followed Bailey between the rows of shelves. “I don’t think Aunt Charlie would buy any of these.”
“But Dad would. Money is love to him, and his pockets weigh more than his heart. Maybe I’ll start a list so after Christmas I can act like the new rich bitch.”
“Does anybody work here?” shouted a familiar voice.
I eased around the last section of shoes, though I’d pictured the face already.
Sarah Beth was standing at the counter. As the cashier raced for a spot before the register, she shoved a pair of shoes across. “Don’t you have these in size eight anywhere other than on the top shelf?”
“See,” Bailey said. “I told you she’s not as nice as people think.”
The cashier stepped back. “I’ll check the stock.”
Sarah Beth looked away
and smiled. “Forget it. I think my boyfriend found a pair.”
Bailey grumbled. “Unbelievable. I wonder who fell for the act this time.”
We followed Sarah Beth’s dreamy gaze to see…Pade walking in her direction.
“Here you go, size eight,” he said, returning her smile. “No reason to bother anyone.”
“I’m gonna kill him,” Bailey said, pushing me aside.
“Not with me here,” I said.
She fought my grip, but her foot caught on a pair of boots left in the aisle. Instead of balancing the tug of my arm, Bailey fell against me and we both landed with a bone-jarring thud on carpet no thicker than a tablecloth.
“What the hell?” asked another familiar voice. “Pade, you’ve got to see these girls making out.”
Bailey rolled onto the floor, allowing me to breathe again. I opened my eyes to the glare of lights behind a vision of Terrance and Mia upside down.
Pade circled the register. “What are you yelling about?”
“Oh man,” Terrance said, laughing. “You missed the show. Good thing since you’d have nightmares ‘til graduation.”
“Shut up,” Mia hissed and punched his arm.
The laughter died when Bailey climbed from her knees to her feet in one motion. “I can’t believe you’re here with her,” she screamed and shoved a trembling finger at Sarah Beth. She glared as Pade crossed the floor. “What about yesterday? Before the dance, you said you’d do anything to get Jes back. You said she meant everything and that you wouldn’t leave until she danced with you!”
Pade looked down as Sarah Beth’s face turned a deep shade of red. Terrance cleared his throat, but failed to cut the tension. I held my breath as the revelation hung in the air, begging to be grabbed as I stood.
Only Mia’s calm voice broke the silence. “But they did dance.”
“Jes would’ve told me if they danced.” Bailey turned to me. “Right?” When I hesitated, she snorted. “Right?” she demanded, as if my answer would make or break our friendship.
I struggled for words, any words she might understand. “Pade danced with me, before I found you looking for Chase.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Mia stood solemnly next to Terrance, but I couldn’t bring my eyes to Pade’s. About the time pain rose beyond worry of embarrassment, a light flashed in Bailey’s eyes. She looked back to Pade and the anger became a sigh. “She turned you down, didn’t she?”
Pade didn’t have to answer, and probably couldn’t have after our eyes met. We were one, two souls sharing the same painful bond.
Poor Bailey didn’t know if she should hug her brother or reach for me. I left the store, racing for the food court, which no longer offered calm for my stomach.
“What happened?” called a voice from behind, just as I reached the main artery of the mall.
I froze, staring at the hand that grabbed my arm. “Please don’t make me tell the story. It hurts too much.”
“I thought you really liked him,” Bailey said.
“I did. I mean I do. Oh God, I don’t know what’s happening to me. I want to take every sonnet from our English book and burn the word love. I want to pull my own hair out. Most of all, I want to throw my arms around him, but I can’t.”
“Why not? That should be the easy part.”
“He tears me up inside and I don’t…” I choked on a laugh of pure agony. “I don’t think I can survive one more moment of Pade Sanders.”
“It’s okay,” she said, folding me into her embrace. “I wanted you guys to work out more than me and Chase. I dreamed about us being sisters, but you have to realize we’ll always be friends, no matter what. If my brother makes you this unhappy, we’re all better off knowing now.”
“Can we not talk about Pade?”
We didn’t speak on the way to the food court or while in line. Or while finding a table, which was nearly impossible in the crowded room. I dropped into a chair across from Bailey and inhaled a plate of pizza faster than she could open a box of chicken nuggets. “We should get out of here. I feel like puking, but that’s not an option since I still plan to be in school on Monday morning. Call your mom or I’ll call mine.”
“You want to leave?” she asked, spitting out the chicken. “Now?”
“I don’t want to wait around and find out what Chase is planning for us.”
Bailey leaned over the table, voice lowered to a whisper. “You don’t actually think he’ll hurt us, do you?”
“I don’t know.”
As Bailey looked away, I reached for her phone. Before my fingers connected with the hot pink case, it disappeared.
“You really don’t know?” Chase asked, standing next to our table, hands in his pockets. “How could you think I’d hurt you?” Pain glimmered in his eyes.
Instead of answering, I cleared a spot to my right. The table seated four and there was no reason he couldn’t sit with us, especially with half of Credence enjoying dinner. We were safe, for the moment.
Bailey closed the nuggets and pushed away the box. “We overheard you and your mother talking last night, in case you didn’t know.”
I shook my head at Bailey, but she merely tossed her hair. “That’s right,” she said. “We heard it all.”
Chase straddled the chair and leaned toward my face. “Is that why you contacted Lauren?”
I felt as if the entire crust of pizza had lodged in my throat. I met Chase’s eyes, deep blue and searching. What did he want from me? It couldn’t be just friendship, not when he’d had that for weeks.
“I’ll tell you why,” Bailey said.
Chase’s eyes never left mine. “You tell me.”
“Lauren is your friend,” I choked. “We wanted to find out more about you.”
“You watched me look her up in the library that day.” His eyes narrowed. “You were spying on me. Why?”
“I wasn’t spying on you. I didn’t even see Lauren’s last name.” As soon as the words were out, I threw my hands over my mouth.
“There must be hundreds of Laurens online,” he said.
“Thousands, actually,” Bailey said.
Chase glanced at Bailey, but turned back to me.
“I searched for Lauren and New York.”
“Smart idea. Now you know everything.” His words caused my skin to prickle like I’d just begun to sweat off a fever. Chase relaxed in his chair and appeared to send a message from his phone.
Bailey shoved the nugget box and empty bag from the table, her voice rising. “Where’s my phone?”
“You won’t need it anymore,” Chase said.
Bailey’s eyes found mine as adrenaline kicked in. She motioned to the nearest exit. “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom.” Snatching her purse from the table, she jumped to her feet.
“Sit back down,” he said.
“Come on, Jes, you know I can’t go alone.”
A man caught my attention, looping through the crowd with a plate of Chinese noodles. As he passed, I closed my eyes in silent prayer, every thought in my head focused on the red tray in his hands.
The tray landed on Chase and I grabbed Bailey’s hand, launching us into motion across the food court. We reached a bathroom near the entrance of the mall, Chase nowhere in sight. I pulled Bailey ahead of several women who shouted but lacked the speed to stop us. We squeezed into a stall and I locked the door, ready to suck in every molecule of oxygen from the surrounding air.
“What happened?” Bailey asked, dazed like people on TV after some big disaster.
I rested a hand on her shoulder. “We’ve got to get out of this mall.”
“Chase…” Bailey said, covering her face with both hands.
I wished the situation could disappear, that we could somehow zap ourselves home, but we had no power to fight Chase. “We’ve got to call Mom and Dad.”
“What if…” Her voice shook like her hands. “What if Chase hurts them?”
Closing my eyes, I fought the horrible thou
ght. “I can’t let that happen.”
The stall door slammed open as she pushed me aside. I followed, the length of floor between us growing. Around a corner and back through the center of the mall, I spotted her near the main entrance about the time I noticed Chase. Two security guards caught Bailey’s arms, keeping her from the doors.
“Help,” I screamed. “Someone is trying to hurt us.”
One guard raised a hand and another guard appeared to my right. Bailey fought her captors with strength akin to sumo wrestling, punching and kicking anything close enough to reach. I lurched forward in time to see Chase signal the guards.
Bailey broke free and ran for the door. I bypassed the captors who scrambled to regain control. A couple of women approached the door, and Bailey crashed past them on the sidewalk. Their bags flailed and landed at their feet. I escaped into the night, dodging the bags, and nearly tripped over a purse. Rain pelted my face as my feet splashed on gaps in the concrete, the cold shock awakening my senses.
She stepped off the sidewalk and slipped between the rows of cars. I glanced at the lights, hanging above on long poles, a halo of moisture making a ring against the dark sky. “No,” I muttered, as Bailey ran toward a vacant section of the parking lot. I followed, desperate to catch her.
Someone yelled from behind and two of the guards were at her side. As a third appeared and reached for my arm, the guard to her right drew a weapon…
“Bailey,” I screamed, but the rain became a blanket between us.
The guard held his weapon at arm’s length and fired. Bailey fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. I threw my hands over my face and dropped to my knees. There was my friend, soaking wet and not moving, the guards reaching down for her. Oh God, I prayed, please let her be okay. “Bailey,” I cried against the rain as a gust of wind howled, carrying my voice away.
“She’s not hurt,” Chase said, from my side.
I shivered and stared into his blue eyes, feeling the connection as strong as the day we met. He cupped my face in his hands, and my arms ached to reach around him, to pull him close.
With another gust of wind came reality, and I recognized the heavy drops of rain, for a moment lost to the darkness. In the end, he’d betrayed me. When Chase asked me to return with him at the fair, I felt a special thrill. Faced with no choice in leaving, terror swallowed every thought.
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