“Our ace isn’t here to carry us, and they have Kaitlyn on their team.”
I’m honestly flattered they think having me on a team makes a difference, but it doesn’t help too much when Thalia can’t draw anything to save her life, and Mom probably won’t get half of the references.
“Are we playing boys vs girls again?” I ask, perching in the armchair I usually claim for game nights.
“Hang on, Henry’s calling me. Wait until I tell him you’re trying to cheat,” Thalia says, smiling as she answers the phone. “Hey, you’ll neve—” She stops talking at the same time all the color drains from her face.
“Lia?” Sebastian asks, resting his hand on her leg, and the look of devastation she gives him causes my heart to plummet.
Instantly, I know it has to be something with Bailey.
I pull my phone out of the pocket of my sweatpants to check if I missed anything, but there aren’t any notifications.
Kaitlyn
Is everything okay?
Did something happen with B?
The dots as Mira types a response are quick to appear, but keep disappearing.
I look up at Thalia again just as Sebastian takes her phone from her to hold it up to his ear. “Henry, what happened?” he asks, and I’ve never seen Thalia rendered speechless.
“Guys, go upstairs,” Dad instructs, leaving no room for argument, but Hunter hesitates while I stand.
“Is it Bailey?” he asks, and I look at my phone again to see if Mirabelle’s responded, but she has yet to send whatever it is she’s typing.
“Écoute, s’il tu plaît,”?1Mom says, eyeing both of us as we all wait for Sebastian to say anything while he listens to whatever Henry’s saying.
Bailey should be here with us. It was a mistake to come without him.
“No,”Sebastian says, and with one word, I know nothing is ever going to be the same.
A strangled sound escapes Thalia as she shakes her head, pressing a hand to her chest. “I-I can’t b-breathe,” she gasps, tears starting to fall.
I feel like I’m trapped in a nightmare, unable to move as Sebastian starts crying, and Dad pulls the phone from him.
“Did you call the police?” he asks after a moment, and my mind is churning with worst-case scenarios. Is Bailey still alive? The way everyone’s reacting right now makes it seem like he’s gone, an?—
“Kaitlyn, take Hunter and go,” Mom says, her voice sharp enough to bounce me back into reality.
“Fuck that. If they won’t do anything, you need to go look for him. Have Mira stay at the house in case he comes back. We’re coming home,” Dad says, tugging his hand through his short grayinghair.
Look for him? What does that mean?
I feel my chest constrict, and I move closer to Hunter to pull him with me, but he’s staring at his dad holding his mom, tears rolling down their cheeks. “We should have brought him,” I hear Sebastian say quietly, and it’s the final straw for Thalia who breaks down entirely.
Hunter looks lost, and I can practically see the gears in his head turning as he puts it together. “He ran away?” he asks, his eyebrows knitting together as he turns my direction. He looks like he’s going to be sick, and maybe I should’ve moved faster to get him out of the room. I didn’t know it was going to be like this.
“Hunt,” I say his name because I don’t know what else to say. It feels like my heart is being ripped in two, and there’s not a single fucking thing any of us can do to fix the situation since we’re on the other side of an ocean.
His hand is stiff when I grab it, but he lets me pull him outside to the hanging porch swing, away from the sounds of his parents breaking down. I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to forget seeing them crumble like they’re made of sand when I’ve always seen them as unshakable mountains.
God, what is Bailey thinking?
Why didn’t he talk to anyone?
If I hadn’t kissed him, maybe he would have talked to me.After all, he promised he’d tell me everything eventually.
