“I was worried you had changed your mind,”
She shakes her head. “No. I had to get finished then rush home to get changed,”
I nod. “Don’t worry about it. Just make sure people see you here. Talk to a few so we have our alibis. Corden and I have been doing it for the past couple of hours, but you need to be seen too,”
“Okay,” She glances around to find someone to speak to.
“Why don’t you go and get a drink from over there,” I point to a group of girls surrounding a bucket of bottles. I think one of them might be in my English class and is usually chatty.
“Okay, be back soon,” She whispers.
“Thank fuck she’s here!” Corden says from my side as he drops his arm over my shoulders. “I thought she had bailed or worse ratted us out,”
I smile. “Same,”
“I’m too pretty for prison Rue,” He smiles back.
I shove him away with a chuckle. “Go do a final mingle. People are getting drunk so let’s give it thirty more minutes and then we will leave,”
“Deal,” Then he turns and makes his way towards the other side of the clearing.
I am about to go chat to a group to my right when three familiar hunched over figures, head into the forest tree line. They scan behind them to make sure people aren’t watching before the blackness covers them completely.
“What are you up to?” I whisper to myself before changing course and following Asher and his friends into what looks like a scene from a horror movie.
I keep my footsteps as light as possible, so I don’t kick up the bramble and give away my position. At my slow pace I can just make out the huddle the boys have stopped in, fully enclosed in a protective bubble of bushes and tree’s. The moonlight shimmering over them through the leaves like ripples on water.
When I get close enough, I crouch down and stay as low to the floor as possible. I have missed the beginning of whatever this meeting was about but with my hand over my mouth and my knees already screaming with the position, I eagerly listen as Daylan continues.
“I’m telling you Ash, no one has seen her,” Asher stands with confused eyes and a furrowed brow. His hands are clenched at his sides as though he is holding himself back from punching something.
“That can’t be. We already took care of this,”
Daylan stands closer to him while Jacob tilts his head back to the sky with a frustrated breath.
“I know man, but we must have gotten it wrong. Bronwyn hasn’t been seen in days, she even missed netball practice, which she would never do,” Daylan shakes his head. “I haven’t spent much time with her but one of the other girls from the team said she still played with broken fingers; she wouldn’t miss anything without letting her coach know,”
“Did someone check she actually came back this year?” Jacob inputs.
My mind immediately flicks to the other evening when a girl asked if I had seen Bronwyn. Is this the same Bronwyn? And if it is, where is she?
“Yeah, Lilia spoke to her on the first day, they made plans for a coffee, but she never showed up two days after,”
“Has someone checked her room?” Asher takes his phone out of his jeans pocket and starts typing. The light off the screen reflecting on his chiselled features, making him look like a vampirish heartthrob.
“That’s where I have just come from,” Daylan waves his hand in front of him. “All her belongings are still there, but some of her drawers were emptied. Everything else was untouched,”
“FUCK!” Asher shouts making me jump, I squeeze my hand tighter to my mouth and try to calm my racing heart.
If this Bronwyn is missing, that is now two girls from the same academy that have vanished. Why is no one talking about this? Why aren’t the teachers involved?
“Jacob,” Asher turns to his friend. “I need you to be glued to Pipers side until we figure this out. If we got it wrong…” He pauses and a sliver of grief crosses his features. “We can’t let anything happen to her again,” He looks at his friend and Jacob nods.
“I won’t let her out of my site,” He promises.
“Thanks. Oh, and call your uncle. Ask him to check in with his guy that’s undercover”.
“Il do that as soon as I get to Piper,” Jacob agrees.
