Austin sat on the ground at the furthest end of the football field. He had not told anyone else about what had happened this morning. As time passed by, Michael's words kept getting to him more and more with each passing second.
He was doodling figures on the ground using a stick so as to destruct himself from his invasive thoughts. The sun was uncomfortably hot despite last night's rain, making the ground dry enough to sit on.
"Where did you go this morning, you weren't there when I came back home." Austin asked when Nicky came and sat beside him.
"You ruined my sleep schedule when you woke me up."
"Sorry about that." Austin apologized.
"So, what did Noah say?" Nicky asked him.
"About what?"
"You know...when you told him your ridiculous story about how you thought something bad had happened to him. I'm sure he had a good laugh about it."
"I wouldn't know."
"What do you mean?"
"In order to know that, I would first have to know where he ran off to last night." Austin snorted unamusedly.
"Wait, you mean to say Noah wasn't home!?"
"Nope." Austin responded coldly, "And I found out some interesting things about my supposed boyfriend that I wish I never knew."
"Austin, Noah is missing and you are just sitting here!" She said dramatically, "Now, even I am worried!"
"I made a grave mistake." Austin said, unmoving.
"What!?" She asked sharply.
"I mean...what the hell was I thinking, falling for him!"
"You're rumbling, I can't understand what you're saying!"
"Noah is not who we think he is, he totally had everyone fooled." Austin explained.
"He could be in trouble and you're just sitting here looking like you don't even care, what is wrong with you?"
"I had a very enlightening conversation this morning when I went to his house."
"Who did you talk to?" Nicky asked curiously.
"Michael told me some things that helped open my eyes."
"You listened to Michael!" she said it like it was an abomination, "What did he tell you?"
"He told me about what Noah used to do before he came here."
"Oh."Â Nicky sat back down slowly, looking a little calmer. She spaced out for a bit.
"What?" Austin asked her curiously, noticing the change in her mood.
"How much did he tell you?"
"Is there something you wanna tell me?" Austin knew his sister well enough to know when she was hiding something.
"We need to find Noah...and then the two of you need to talk." She told him.
"But I already know."
"Judging from your reaction, you only know a very small part of the story, which happens to be the bad part." She was choosing her words carefully, "Actually, it's all pretty bad but I can assure you, Noah is really not a bad guy."
"But the more I think about it, the harder I find it to believe." He said stubbornly.
"Why would I lie to you?"
"I don't know...maybe he tricked you into being in cahoots with him."
"Come on." Nicky said while rolling her eyes.
"How do you know all this? I mean, Michael, I get but I don't get how you know."
"A hunch."
"I can tell when you're lying!"
"And I can tell when you're being unreasonable and also when you're lying to yourself."
"I'm not lying to myself."
"Yes, you are! You want to believe the story you were told because it's easier to quit than to fight. You are afraid of the whole truth but you don't need to be. Noah loves you. Deep down, you know that."
"Stop trying to make me feel bad, it's over between Noah and me."
"All from a story you heard from Michael, of all people?"
"I don't wanna see him right now."
"There is more to it that you don't know." She said while patting his back, "Trust me."
Austin rested his elbows upon his knees then covered his eyes with his hands. He closed his eyes so tight, tears started coming out.
Nicky scooted closer to him and wrapped an arm around his shoulders gently, pulling him closer in a sloppy side hug, "Hey.."
"I miss him." Austin said with a broken voice, "But I still don't know what to believe."
"Believe Noah, how about you try that first."
"Where is he!" He asked frustratedly.
"Let's go find him, I'll even ask the girls to help us look for him. I'm sure he is just hungover, so much that he can't reach for his phone and call you. It was a pretty crazy party, " she said, trying to make him feel better. "Do you know who is not-so-surprisingly good at finding people?"
"No...who?" He asked, lifting his face from his hands and looking towards her.
"Max."
"Then..lets go find her." Austin suggested, a hint of a smile making its way onto his lips.
*****
One and a half hours later and they had had no success so far in getting any trace of where Noah might have been. Even Jesse was nowhere to be seen.
All their efforts of searching for him were proving to be moot.
They had split up into groups of two and Austin was paired up with Kelly, who was not pleased to be around him.
"Ok, I just need to know..how do you lose your boyfriend!"
"I didn't lose him!" Austin grumbled.
"Yea, sure." She responded while rolling her eyes at him, "And..why the hell would they pair me with you!"
"Bad luck, I suppose." Austin said monotonously.
"You know, I still haven't forgiven you for what you did to me."
Austin stopped in his tracks and turned to face her, "It was a mistake!"
"No, it was not!" She protested, pointing an accusing finger at him, "You knew exactly what you were doing and you know it!"
"Fine, it was on purpose...but it was because I was misled by my dumbass friends -who I came to realize were not really my friends." His tone diminished towards the end of his sentence.
There was a short moment of silence before Kelly spoke on a calmer tone, "You're really going through a lot, aren't you?"
"You think?" Austin snorted.
"Hey, I'm trying to be sympathetic despite what you did to me...so take it, you nimrod!" She said, only half jokingly.
"I'm sorry...I just have this feeling that we are not gonna find him here..I'm also not sure I want to see him."
"We're you two in a fight before he disappeared?"
"No, we were great." Austin smiled, remembering yesterday, "In fact, we spent the whole of yesterday at the beach just fooling around, making out ....we even snuck behind some rocks occasionally and would -"
"T.M.I.!" Kelly cut him short before he could finish his thought.
"Anyway, I had the best time of my life with him. He is the best!"
"So, why don't you wanna see him..you seem pretty ok....which makes me wanna hate you...more!"
"I'm afraid that he might be lying to me."
"Are you insane?" She asked him while looking at him with dead eyes.
"What?!" Austin asked her cluelessly.
"Look, I don't really know him and at the moment, you are my least favorite person. But ...you two are the cutest couple in his school..heck, this town!"
"Sure, if cute qualified as the only requirement for a healthy relationship, we would be the Grace Kelly and Prince Rainier III of the neighborhood." Austin sneered.
"Seriously, how did nobody suspect you were gay for so long!"
"Can we get on to searching!" Austin threw his hands in the air, "And I think we should find the others and ...maybe call the police." He ran his fingers through his hair like he always did when he was thinking too much or frustrated.
"He's not been missing for forty-eight hours and, besides, he was drinking last night. The cops never take that very seriously."
"I know I'm supposed to be freaking out that he is missing like I was this morning, but now it's like...that fear is locked up somewhere and I'm trying to access it. I can't!"
"Why are you mad at him?"
"Because he doesn't exactly have the best history."
"So? You made me eat your armpit hair to get me back for something I did not even do! I threw up for a week!"
"I'm sorry. Also, he might be a criminal!" Austin added.
"What did he do?" Kelly asked, not taking him seriously, "Run a red light...or shoplift a chiclet from a local convenience store?"
Austin glared at her for a few long seconds before he spoke, "Try the mob!"
Kelly tried to hold in a laugh but it came bursting out anyway, "Who the hell told you that cockamamie story! What high school kid gets involved with a mob ...they would chew him up on the first day and stick him under the desk!"
"Desk?" Austin asked just as Gina came running towards them, out of breath.
"Come with me guys, we found him!" Austin jumped at those words.
"That's great! See, Austin.....told you everything was gonna be ok!" Kelly expressed enthusiastically.
His eyes opened wide and his face lit up with shock, "Noah? ...Where is he!" He asked hastily.
"Oh, no...not Noah." Gina told them.
Austin and Kelly shared a puzzled look then turned to Gina, "Who are we talking about!" Kelly asked.
"That pasty, new kid." Gina said and waited for their reaction. They looked down at her, waiting for more information, which never came.
"Why are we looking for other people that aren't Noah!" Austin flared his hands wildly in frustration. He had started to feel anxious, thinking that Noah was near. It was not the good kind of anxiety, though. It was more of a terrifying, gut-wrenching, numbing feeling. He took deep breaths to calm himself from the vestigial heart attack he had almost had.
"Well...Nicky said he might know where Noah is. Max tied him up in homeroom three."
"Tied up?" Austin enquired for clear confirmation.
"What did they call him...Jesse?..or -"
"You guys found Jesse?" Austin asked quickly then ran past Gina, not waiting for a response.
He ran at full speed, headed straight for the homeroom. Kelly and Gina rushed after him, lagging behind as he disappeared at the corner like a man on a mission. He was on a mission.
When he got through the door, he was caught by the sight of Jesse, tightly bound to a chair and gagged. Nicky, Hannah, Claire and Max had him surrounded and they looked just as ready to pounce.
At first, Austin had a very strong urge to punch the intestines out of him but he managed to hold himself back.
"Look, Austin...I got you a gift!" Max said victoriously.
"And we wrapped it for you, too!" Nicky added.
Austin was out of words at that moment. When he looked at Jesse, all he saw was someone he really hated but also very much needed if he was to have any hope of finding his questionable boyfriend.
His stomach rumbled and turned in all directions. It felt like he was in line for his very first colonoscopy in an alley behind a 7/11.
He did not speak for a while, just stared at Jesse -who was busy struggling with the ties around his torso, arms and legs. He had no idea where Max had gotten the rope or how she had learned to tie so skillfully, but he was afraid to ask.
Besides, there were more important matters at hand.
"Aren't you gonna say anything?" Nicky asked him. That question brought him back to reality and found every eye in the room trained on him.
He wanted to open his mouth and ask where Noah was, but his gums only flapped, his vocal chords emitting no sound.
Suddenly, he turned on his heel and walked out of the room. He slid down the wall and crouched there, staring down at the floor. A hand tapped on his shoulder and he looked up just as Kelly crouched in front of him.
"What's the matter?" She asked. He only shook his head, "What are you so scared of!?"
"Nothing."
"Ok, one more question...what's the deal with the poof you guys got tied up in there?" She clearly had not been let in on the whole story behind their vendetta.
"He was with Noah last night and.. he is a sociopath." Austin replied.
"Oh, so..like, he might have killed Noah?" She enquired, with no intention of mocking him but that was the way it came out.
"The last time we were drunk around him, he drugged us, tried to molest me and then took a video, which he sent to everybody in this school." Austin narrated.
"That was all him?!" Kelly exclaimed, remembering the incident.
"Yea, and he is from where Noah is from. Noah always gets really infuriated when he is near him and acts very strange now that I come to think of it."Austin said.
"I got this." Kelly said as she stood up.
"Got what?" Austin asked.
"Somebody's gotta make the glitter queen talk and I'm sure I am that someone." She burst into the room with sassily and Austin followed her. She pulled off the gag around Jesse's mouth roughly, "Alright, where did you take him!" She demanded.
"Who are we talking about guys?" Jesse asked casually, "You know, for a guy who is not into the lady business, I seem to have hoarded all the hotties in one room...wow, I'm good. What are we planning on doing? Piercing our nipples?" He looked towards Austin.
"Listen, power puff girls, incase you haven't noticed, this room is filled with crazy bitches," she had her hands on the armchairs of the chair Jesse was strapped onto, "And you will be feeding through tubes by the end of the day if you don't start talking about where Noah is...right now!"
"Oh, you're looking for Noah?" He asked, faking surprise, "What made you think of me?"
"You're not fooling anyone, you little turd!" Kelly slammed her fist, "Where did you take him last night..you were the last one seen with him!"
"Tell me this, are you all in love with Noah or is Austin the only one doing him?" Jesse asked, not looking the least bit afraid of the situation.
"You know, we are giving you a chance to talk nicely before we decide to go for plan B." Nicky folded her arms and took a few steps forward while saying.
"Plan B?" Jesse snorted, "Honey, you see this whole tied up, intimidation thing you got going ... I normally call it a Thursday. Yea, there is nothing you can do that can scare me."
"Tell me, Jesse...are you into cutting?" Nicky asked.
"Why?"
"Because Max, here, has a pocket knife in her bra...and she likes using it!"
"I like to carry around sharp tools...just because." Max shrugged, "Although I need a new hiding place now that I have a new man in my life and he needs to gain safe access."
"That's not necessary," Austin finally spoke. He did not want to let the girls handle it, they weren't really helping and Austin was losing patience. "Excuse us guys."
"Are you sure?" Kelly asked.
"Yea, I need to talk to him, alone." The girls obliged and left the room, "Jesse, where the fuck is Noah?"
"Oooh, I thought you were gonna let the vaginas speak for you!" Jesse mocked.
"What the hell is wrong with you? I'm sure you had your fun doing,..whatever you might have done to him, give it up!"
"Hey, why would I do that?" Jesse asked insubordinately, "If he wanted to be with you, he would be here by now."
"Do you get some kind of kick out of being a slowminded dick!" Austin seethed.
"A little." Jesse responded, smiling slightly at him.
"What is your problem with me?!"
"If you have to ask that, then you are dumber than you look."
"Dude, Noah is not into you. Go back to your illegal, disgusting relationship and deal with the fact that Noah just does not like you!" Austin said while pacing around.
"Not true, for five months, I was the love of his life."
"Yea...right!"
"I wish it was about that ...but Noah is actually with other people that are more interested in him than I am."
"What are you talking about?!"
"I don't know where he is, we parted ways after I told him what I was sent to tell him."
"What you were sent?" Austin asked, "Sent by whom?! And you just said that he is with other people and from the look on your face, you know exactly who they are."
"How are you two in love, or so you say, if he can't even trust you with his secrets!"
"Can you stop being a major douche and just get on to telling me what the hell you mean!"
"Can I just mention...you are really bad at this but... it's not personal, it's business."
"Business ?!" Austin asked, understanding less and less of what Jesse was talking about the more words came out of his mouth.
"He really should have known not to mess with a certain group of people when he clearly knew they would come after him."
"Listen, Jesse, I know you are a psychopathic, pasty, little bug that just gets some sick thrill out of making people miserable, but ...what did you do?" Austin asked none threateningly, to see if Jesse would play nice under nicer circumstances.
Thinking that Noah may have been in more immediate danger unlocked the fear that had been buried deep within a few minutes ago. He saw the evil in Jesse's eyes and realized that the situation might be more serious than he had originally thought.
Jesse smirked and shrugged, "I just made a deal in exchange for telling them where Noah was."
"You got paid to deliver Noah to a bunch of ...I don't even know who the people you're talking about are!"
"Oh...your dear boyfriend ratted on some criminals some time back. Now, they're out of jail and looking for payback. And I'm offended that you think I would accept money to betray Noah!" He said jokingly, "I was simply offered the gift of life if I gave him up and you know, I love me too much to not take it."
"What kind of criminals?" Austin asked. He was running his fingers through his hair constantly and his breathing was getting a little short.
"Alright, this might be too big for you but...it's some guys who used to work for the mob. Your boyfriend screwed them over and then disappeared to this stupid little town. I'm pretty sure they are gonna kill him." Jesse seemed unaffected by any of it whereas Austin froze, staring at him like he had grown an extra head.
It was then that he realized how much he loved Noah and how much he did not want to lose him. His world would stop spinning if anything were to happen to Noah.
The door opened and Nicky stuck her head into the room, "hey, we need to go and get signed up for the extracurricular activities before they're closed."
"Nicky, we need to call the cops!" Austin said, emphasizing on the word 'need'. He was hyperventilating and he couldn't stand in one spot.
He paced so much, he was leaving skid marks on the floor.
"Why, where is he?" Nicky opened the door all the way and stepped in, the rest of the girls stepping in after her.
"He is in serious trouble..he-he might be..." Austin started choking up on his words and his eyes began watering up.
"-dead." Jesse finished carelessly from his chair.
Everybody turned in his direction suspiciously for a moment then looked at Austin, who was fumbling with his pockets, "I think I left my phone in the car, can somebody please call the cops!" He screamed at them.
"I got it." Gina said and started dialing.
Austin charged forward and before anybody could see it, he packed a hard fist across Jesse's face.
"What the hell!" Jesse asked, spitting out blood.
"Tell me where he is right now!" Austin bellowed.
"Dude -"
"Do you wanna walk out of here with your teeth?" Austin asked him, his eyes burrowing into him in a fiery glare.
"I don't know where he is."
"Oh yes, you do...and you are about to tell me." He threw another punch that landed squarely in his jaw. Jesse accidentally bit his lip and there blood started gushing out of the deep cut.
"If I tell anyone, they will know that I was the one who told and they will kill me anyway. You think a couple of high school girls scare me more than mob guys whose idea of accessorizing is machine guns strapped to their belts!" Jesse scorned, still spitting out blood.
"Move over Austin," Max stepped forward. "I've got a very sharp knife doing nothing for me at the moment." She said as she pulled out a tiny, very sharp knife out of her bra and flashed it in front of Jesse, "Are you ready to talk or should I just get straight to slicing and dicing?"
"I appreciate your efforts of trying to be intimidating but all you are managing to do is humor me. Noah deserves what he is getting and I hope they do a really good job." He leaned back in the chair and looked ahead at them, challenging them to do their worst.
Max lowered the knife and pressed the tip of it on Jesse's junk. His eyes went wide as he looked down at her, "Now, I'm gonna start increasing the pressure until you scream...and then I'm gonna pierce some more...got it?"
"Richie likes to bite..and he does it every night...I'm used to it." Jesse said and his face went back to calm.
Max pressed anyway, she dug the knife strategically into Jesse's ballsack and held it there, "does he bite that hard?" She asked as Jesse closed his eyes and threw his head back.
"You crazy bitch!" He cursed while gritting his teeth.
"Tell us where he is or we are just gonna let her dig right through." Austin threatened.
"I can't tell you!" Jesse screamed, "Those guys are fucking insane. They don't just kill, they torture in the worst ways possible before they kill you..slowly!"
"They won't know it was you!" Austin shouted, "How the hell would they know that?!"
"Because it's their job to know!"
"So you're just gonna let them kill Noah?!" Austin asked, shivering from fear.
"It's better than them killing me," Jesse replied cockily. "Besides, Noah is a fucking bastard! I was there for him from the beginning...we were in love and then he left me and chose you over me instead. You know nothing about his life but he still wants you -the goody-two-shoes punk with nothing to offer other than this stupid, boring apple pie life. He needed somebody, and at the time, he was more than happy to have me in his life because he needed a partner in crime.
"I was his whole world and I loved him with everything...I still love him, but he has made it more than clear that he is no longer interested in me because his life is now 'perfect'. It's time he learned that if I'm not in his life, nobody can be. Which is why I was happy calling those guys and leading them straight to lover boy! ....figured, it's high time I got my revenge. So, sorry..but Noah is gone. You are never seeing him again."
"You called them?!" Austin grabbed Jesse's collar and shook him violently.
"Yea," Jesse was unshaken. "You better start mourning, Noah is gone from this world."
"You fucking coward!" Austin pushed him and he fell on his back while still strapped to the chair. He swung his leg and drove his foot into Jesse's ribs painfully, then another kick...then another.
"Stop, Aussy, you're gonna kill him!" Nicky grabbed Austin by the shoulders then pulled him back. He pulled himself from her grip and punched the wall next to him hard, "Stop it! Kelly, take him outside...I know how to get him to talk."
"You sure?" Kelly asked.
"Yea, give me five minutes...I promise."
Kelly nodded and pulled a very hesitant Austin outside, "Let me go back, I will beat him into a coma if it means knowing where Noah is."
"Let's give Nicky five minutes, then we can gut him as you wish!"
"I feel like I'm gonna die!" Austin held his stomach and closed his eyes. Tears were flowing down his cheeks profusely and his hands trembled.
"No, you are not...and neither is Noah."
"How would you know...?" Austin retorted.
"Gina called the cops and we are also not giving up."
"The only thing that would make everything else ok is seeing him. I can't believe I was being such a jerk earlier, assuming the worst of Noah when I should have been worried about what might have been happening to him."
"Calm down Austin. I promise you, if anything happens to Noah, I will personally make sure that little creep in there never lives to see another day." She said rather seriously.
Sure enough, exactly five minutes later, Nicky came outside, "Riverside Motel, room E34." She said.
"How did you get him to talk?" Kelly asked as Austin jumped to his feet.
"Doesn't matter," she said with a monotone. "Let's go!"
They all hurried, headed to the exit. Austin jumped in his car together with Nicky and Kelly while the rest took Gina's car.
*********
This book is almost coming to an end and I just wanna thank all my loyal readers...you guys are simply the best!!
Xoxo.