I walked, then my walking became faster and faster, until I was running. I ran all the way to the bridge of the hideout. Once I got there and caught my breath, I climbed up to the top of the bridge and watched the clouds slowly move across the sky. So many thoughts were running through my head, I couldn't focus on just one. Who could've done this? Why did they have to take Ansley? Did we know this person, or is it a complete stranger? What if she's already dead? That last thought stopped me in all my tracks.
I sat on the bridge with a blank stare. I couldn't believe I had even thought of anything related to that, "It's too soon to assume something like that." I said aloud to myself. I looked up from the sky and then down to the ocean. I hated the ocean, but the faint sounds of the water and waves crashing made it calming for me. The more I stared at the ocean, the more I began to lose myself. It was like an abyss I couldn't escape from, even though I was never in it.
Different thoughts circled my head, it was about many things, not just Ansley. Thoughts were now overlapping through my head, and the ringing in my ears wouldn't stop. I became so overwhelmed I screamed, as loud as I could. It was so loud I could hear the echo of it from across the water. Shortly after my echoed scream stopped, I heard my phone ringing. It was my mom, "Is she calling to tell me about Ansley?" I thought to myself before answering it. "Hello?" I answered, my voice was hush, and though I barely spoke my throat felt dry. "Cecily Rose Alexander, where on earth are you?!" My mom asked with a shaky panic in her tone, "The school called and said you ran off while the teacher was speaking to you in passing period. Come home now, please. " When she said please I could hear the desperation in her voice, I couldn't talk back or argue, I just said yes. "Okay mom, I'm on my way home now." She said okay and I hung up the phone and headed home, where I was greeted by my mother on the couch and Ansley's mother and father sitting on the couch across from her.
When they heard me shut the door after walking in, they jumped slightly and looked up at me. The immediate emotion was worry. I didn't want to believe the truth but seeing Ansley's parents sitting across from my mother, and their saddened and broken faces, made me grow the same sadness and worry they all felt. I didn't want to worry anyone else more so I kept my face straight and hid my emotions for now.
I made my way to the couch, and as soon as I sat down, Ansley's mom began talking, "How are you Cecily? I know this is a tough time for all of us, but I just need to know how you're feeling right now." "I'm fine." I said with no expression, almost cutting Ansley's mom off from speaking. Thinking straight wasn't the easiest thing for me right now, having what mom said about dad, and now having to think about all the possibilities of what happened to Ansley made things even worse. Losing my best friend in general just made me think of what I would do, of course I had Abby and Lynn but even they would feel a huge hole missing, just like I do.
Once again, I was so deep in thought I didn't feel any of the tears that had fell down my cheeks. When I went back to focus and snap out of my thoughts, I saw my mom and Ansley's parents looking up at me with concern. I couldn't hold it in anymore, as much as I didn't want to now, I knew it would be better if I just let it all go now, so I did. I was holding all types of emotions all week, I figured it was time to just relieve most of them. I cried as my mom quickly reacted and held me in her arms. About an hour went by, during that hour all four of us ended up comforting each other, knowing deep down that it's probably what we needed.
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Once Ansley's parents left I headed straight up the brown wooden stairs, forgetting the fact that my room was a complete disaster from the week before, "Cecily, why can't I get in your room?" My mom asked, trying to not get angry with me but I could easily tell she wasn't too happy. I forgot at first too, but it didn't take me long to remember either. "I don't know." She knew I was hiding something, she always knew. My door was still barricaded from last week too, I had never had time to clean it so I just went out the window. I looked at her, and instantly she looked at me with that stern stare every mother has.
The instant we made eye contact, we both bolted for my room, trying to beat one another to my door. I beat her to my bedroom and stood in front of it so she couldn't go through. "Cecily Rose let me get through the door now! What could you possibly be hiding now that's so bad you won't let me in?! Is it drugs? Alcohol? What is it?!" It was driving her crazy to know, but I wasn't really surprised either that she would stoop that low of me. I didn't want her to see my room, I knew she would probably kill me if she saw the huge mess I made.
I reached for the doorknob and pushed on the door, I pushed it wide enough for me to get through but mom shoved me aside and went through the small gap I made. I didn't try to fight back with her, there was no point. "Cecily...what did you do to your room?" I walked in the room and looked at my mom, worried, that was the only emotion she was filled with. "After the argument about Haden and dad I got angry." "That's no excuse for you to act childish like this. This is just disgraceful, clean this up, and don't ask me to buy you anything for your room again. Now that I know how you treat it, there's no use in me wasting money." Her mood changed so quickly when I told her why. She went from caring and being worried to hating me and the world again. "Yes mom." I said it blankly, with no attitude. Why should I argue with that, she was right and I was wrong, that's all there was to it. I can be argumentative when I want to be but when I know I'm to blame for something that happened, I can't argue with the truth.
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It took me a while to finish but I cleaned everything up perfectly, I started at 6:15 and finished at 10:24. "It's a good thing there's no school tomorrow." I talked aloud.
Just then I heard a loud thump. I thought nothing of it and was about to go about my night and lay down, but then I heard a loud smash, which sounded like glass breaking, and my mom screaming in terror. I ran as fast as I could downstairs, but nothing was there. "Mom?" I lightly yelled in the living room. No answer, "Mom?!" My yell was a little louder as I slowly walked towards the hallway, right next to the kitchen. "Mom!" I yelled even louder, I saw her head poke from around the corner of the hallway, I jumped what felt like six feet in the air. She laughed at my startled face, "Sorry about the loud noises, I was cooking some dinner and forgot to move the pot when I was getting the pan out of the oven. I burned my hand and tossed the pan on the counter, of course forgetting about the vase, and of course with my luck, it shattered." I laughed lightly, which made her laugh too. "Don't worry about it mom, I'll clean it up." I said and went into the hallway closet to grab the broom. "By the way, Haden is coming over for dinner, so make sure you're ready!" Mom yelled across the kitchen as I swept up the broken glass. I didn't respond, all I did was nod okay and walked up to my room.
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Haden had arrived, "Joy." I said sarcastically as I listened to him knocking on the door. Mom gave me her famous stern look, making me politely welcome him in. When I opened the door, he looked shocked to see me, but fixed his face back to proper normal, "Hello Cecily, how are you?" "Good." I said blankly, opening the door wider and motioning him to come in. "I appreciate you welcoming me in." He smiled as he walked inside the house. "The pleasure is mine." I said back with a cocky attitude. He laughed under his breath, and before anything else could be said mom yelled for us both to meet her in the kitchen to eat.
Mom had the table set and food on the table when we walked in the kitchen. Haden pulled out the chair for mom, which made her all flustered, and pulled out his to sit next to her. I didn't have much to say, so I just gave a disgusted look like I was four years old watching a couple flirt.
Time passed, they both ate, and watched me pick at my food, I had lost my appetite the first few minutes I sat at the table. Haden cleared his throat and began to speak. "How is school going for you Cecily?" "It's fine." I said back blankly again. I didn't like him and I wanted him to know that. "I'm done eating." I said and went upstairs in a hurry. I had an idea, a pretty crazy one at that. In the pure silence at the dinner table earlier, I made the decision to look for Ansley myself. I was tired of having to live my life acting like everything was fine and the police, "had it handled," I was sick of it. I didn't care what I had to do. I was so determined it was almost reckless. I went to bed and decided to start my goal first thing tomorrow when I woke up.
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I lied when I said I went to bed last night. I was actually up all night talking with Abby and Lynn about some new student that moved in. His name is Liam Madden, let me just say that these two are completely obsessed with him. He's apparently the "whole talk of the school." This doesn't surprise me, taking the fact that my school is very small, word goes around rather fast with us teens. Being 16 can be so stressful when it comes to new gossip.
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I woke up to my phone going off, Abby and Lynn are STILL trying to talk to me?! When I answered the phone I was surprised to know it was about Ansley. They sent me messages to call the group chat so I did. " Hey Cecily, can you meet us at the Blue Bridge hideout?" Abby asked quickly, "We wanna talk to you about something that happened, but it has to be in private." "No one can hear about this." Lynn pitched in. "Sure guys, be there in a sec." I said, "Okay good, bring your car and pick us up at my place." Abby insisted. I hung up the phone, got ready, and walked towards the door. I reached for the door handle but stopped myself. I didn't want to face my mom, or Haden, if he was still in the house after last night. I just decided to leave through the window.
It's fairly easy to escape through my window, I have plenty of room to climb out. I climbed out my window, then on the roof, after that I went down the porch fence walls covered in vines. There's no telling if it's poison ivy or something, but I never got a rash or anything so I don't bother worrying. I quietly ran to my car, started it and drove off. I drive a black, 2013 Dodge Challenger. I know it sounds sporty, but trust me, it's not.
Within a few minutes, I was at Abby's house. Her and Lynn were waiting in front of her house for me. "Took you long enough." Abby jokes. She's always sarcastic. I can't say much though, me and her have a very similar personality. "How are you feeling Cecily?" Lynn asked in her sweet toned voice, "With all that stuff about your dad, now Ansley. I just wanted to ask." Lynn has always been so sweet and introverted, which is the complete opposite of me, Ansley, and Abby. She fits well though.
We all have our parts in the group, it's what made us all work throughout the years. Ansley was the loyal one, she wouldn't turn her back on anyone. She was our comfort, which is one of the reasons why her being gone hurt us. Abby is very optimistic. She's always down to earth but is a huge goofball. She knows just when to lighten the mood, which is always needed in someone's life. I never have figured out just what part I have in the group. It's not like I'm their side friend or anything but I just never could and still find my purpose in the friend group. It doesn't hurt me though, I'm sure I'll figure it out. I sighed, "I'm good, just getting by, like every normal day." I say with a small chuckle. I didn't sound believable but I always stick to the "fake it 'til you make it" line. I had always struggled with things, but just never showed it. I didn't want others to worry about me, that's just how I am. I tried not to get too much in my head and drove off to the hideout.
On the positive side, we had a blast on the way there. We listened to our childhood music, Beyoncé, Big Time Rush, Usher, NSYNC, and a bunch of others. I took my time getting to the hideout so us three could have some good quality time together. Once we arrived at the bridge, we sat by the fenced railing on the road and let our feet dangle through the openings. Climbing up the bridge was never an option with them two, last time I tried getting Abby and Lynn to climb up the bridge they almost died.
The memory of Ansley came to my head, her holding her laughter, and hearing Abby and Lynn yell at her, telling her how unfunny it was, but honestly it was pretty funny. It made my eyes water a little, but quickly wiped away my tears. I signaled to Lynn and Abby to start talking. "Right, I forgot that's why we're here. We were wanting to tell you about some crazy dream we had dude, it was crazy!" I was intrigued, " Okay? We all have dreams Abby." I sassed back to her, causing Lynn to laugh a little. She playfully rolled her eyes at me, "I know, but this one was different, and it was the same too, we both had a dream about being in some dark room with a bunch of people we didn't recognize." "The lights wouldn't stop flashing, and literally out of nowhere, some guy quickly ran towards me and stabbed me, the same thing happened to Abby," Abby nodded her head in agreement and let Lynn continue, "It was the weirdest thing, then the guy started mumbling words like, give up. No chance, she's already gone." I could tell the last words that escaped her mouth hurt her. Lynn's eyes started tearing up, which eventually led to her crying loudly.
As soon as me and Abby heard her sobs, we quickly hugged her and comforted her through it, "Do you think he was talking about Ansley?" Abby asked, looking up at me. "I don't want to say yes, but it's the only thing that would make sense," I began, "Don't listen to it guys, you're just getting in your head. It's your hippocampus, which is the part of your brain that controls what happens in your dreams. It messes with us from time to time." They both looked up at me, "So it doesn't mean anything, right?" Lynn asked, "Exactly." I assured her and Abby.
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Once Lynn was calm I drove them back to both their houses instead of Abby's. I wasn't finished with my day though. There was still daylight so I decided to use that time to look around the school for any clues that could tell me more about Ansley's kidnapping. Something that maybe the cops didn't notice, I only hoped. I drove to the school and parked my car somewhere in the woods so it wouldn't be seen. I circled around the school and found nothing each time I checked, I wasn't too upset but I had a part of me that really wished I would've found something. I even got the idea to sneak inside the school, but I knew it would be a bad idea. Even though the school is old and small, there's still a good group of security guards, and all the alert systems are always up to speed.
I decided to finish my search since it was now dark. I had nowhere else to check, but then it hit me, the police station would probably have records of Ansley's case. I don't know how much they could have found or how big her case actually was, but I know for a fact that her mom filed a missing persons report. I only assumed they had to be doing some investigation on her.
I started to walk back to my car, shivering from the coldness. I wore a holy red and black striped sweater, and good long black jeans. I knew the fall weather would try to knock me down, so I thought twice before dressing wrong.
I was now in the woods looking for my car, "Bad idea to park my car here." I said aloud and laughed to myself. I thankfully found my car and ran to open it. As I reached for the door handle I was stopped by another person's hand touching my shoulder. I quickly turned to face them, I punched, then kicked them. Once they were on the ground I quickly opened my car door and got in. "Wait!" The voice yelled as soon as I went to shut my car door, "Cecily Alexander, right?" I searched my car for a flashlight, when I found one I shined it where I thought the person was. It was a boy. How did he know my name? Did I know him? He looked like someone my age but I wasn't sure. "How do you know me, who are you?" "I'm Liam," he quickly said, "Liam Madden." I paused for a second. I knew I heard that name before. I then remembered Lynn and Abby gushing over a guy named Liam Madden. "I saw your car parked out here and was going to ask if everything was alright!" He sounded frightened, "I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to see if you were okay!" He looked terrified, like I was going to hit him again, I smiled proudly, that means I put him in his place. I chuckled lightly.
I got out of my car and walked closer to him. He had black spiky hair, green eyes, and wore a black sweater with black holy jeans. My first thought about him was wondering if he had an obsession with the color black. "Oh, sorry about that, do you need any help?" I asked, putting my arm out to help him up. He accepted my offer and laughed as I helped him up. "How did you know it was me?" I asked. "You've been the talk of the school since Ansley Park went missing. Your friends told me about you, and for some reason, they even showed me your house and what car you drive." I laughed at that, "It makes sense, they're weird like that." He seemed more calm now. "Oh," I said, looking around, "Do you need a ride?" I offered, just assuming he didn't have a car. I also wanted to know more about him. I wanted to know why everyone swooned over him so easily. "Yes please, if you don't mind." "Okay, let's go then, it's pretty chilly out." I said and got in my car, he followed after me.
There was a good silence between us, until Liam broke it to make conversation, "I'm guessing you were looking for something that could help you find your friend, right?" he looked away from me, then stared out the window. "You should've gone to the police station, I remember walking around the neighborhood by the school and seeing the police looking for evidence." "I thought about going there but it got dark too quickly." I took a quick look at him, then back on the road, "Do you know if they found anything there?" "I don't actually." he said. "Why didn't you look?" he asked. "Well," I started, "last time I was in the police station I was there for stealing. They had to enter some type of code to get into my files. If I had a way to figure out Ansley's code, then I could try to sneak in." "I can help with that." He quickly said, "I know some of the codes, and one of them might be hers, if anything they might be similar to hers." I liked the idea, but sighed. "It's okay Liam, I don't want to force my problems on you." He looked at me and lightly laughed with a smile. He seemed so warm, "For the sake of others that could go through the same thing, I will help. If no one does anything then more people will go missing. I assume Ansley was a good person, and I don't want anyone else like her disappearing."
I thought about it for a minute or two. I didn't really know him, but if I wanted to figure out what happened to my friend, or at least try to catch the person that took her, I needed all the help I could get. He looked at me with an almost pouty face. "Okay fine, if you insist." I said, raising my hands in defeat. "Also, next time, knock on my door or something, or actually..." I paused and pulled over. I turned on the lights inside my car and leaned over him. He was giving me a bunch of confused looks. I laughed and opened my glovebox and rummaged through it to find a notepad and pen. "...Just text or call me." I said, handing him a small piece of paper with my number on it.
We eventually arrived at his nice, brick house. I was jealous. There aren't many detailed houses I've seen around here that look like his. It's very well taken care of. There's healthy trees in the front, and a trail with beautiful flowers on both sides. Seeing the front of his house made me curious about the rest. "Nice isn't it?" he asked, interrupting my thoughts. "Yeah, it's just...amazing!" I was highly astonished by it. "Well, I have to get going, I'll invite you over sometime, my parents would love to meet you." he said with a warm smile. I nodded my head and smiled back at him. He got out of the car and we both waved at each other. After I made sure he made it inside his house I quietly drove home and made my way back to my room to go to bed. That's how it started. I met the right odd in the oddest way, meeting him just felt right, but I never would've thought things would change from here.