I only waited five minutes for my friends to show up, but it seemed like an eternity. Jake and Aide pulled up in their half-tinted, half plain windowed car, and Mel followed right behind them in her red convertible. When we all got out of our cars, I explained to them what had happened, beginning with my lying in my room. I, of course, left out the fact that I was thinking about Jake.
"So you have no idea who they are or what they want?" Jake asked, then looked down at his vibrating phone. I shook my head. "Hey, your mom just texted me and asked if I was with you." he told me.
"Don't reply." I said. "It's not her. She told me she'd only call."
"But there's no reason why he would be with you, Casey," Aide said, "He never hangs out with us. No offense," she said directly at Jake.
"Hey, I do, sometimes."
"Guys, this isn't the time for a sibling argument," I said. They looked at each other.
"Sorry" they both had said at the same time.
"Aide is right, though" Mel chimed in. "There's no reason why Jake would be with us."
"So, he should text back and tell them he's not with us?" Aide asked.
"Yeah" I said as I nodded my head. Jake hit the reply button and texted the number back.
"So what are we going to do?" Mel asked.
"We? Are you sure you want to go through with this? It may be dangerous. I don't know what these guys are capable of."
"Of course, Case, we're your best friends." Aide said.
"And I’m the only adult here, so I need to look after all of you," said the nineteen year old Jake.
"Hey, I'll be eighteen in like three months," I said. "We all will." I added considering the fact that the friendship triangle all shared the same birthday. "But anyway, thanks, guys, all of you.” I smiled at the three of them.
"Okay," Aide said, "What's your plan?"
"Well, for one, mom told me to not reply to any texts from her number, to not even open them. So that needs to apply to you guys, also. If you get a text from her, don't open it. Just automatically delete it."
"That doesn't include me, though, right?" Jake asked.
"Well, my mom told me to get as far away as possible. If you keep replying to the texts, they'll be able to track the location of where the replies are coming from. And if they are smart enough, the farther away from here we get, they'd realize that you were with me."
