One Step Behind

Chapter 18~ Dani

We are pulling up to Shay's house, and I feel a nervous feeling in my stomach. I don't know what we are going to see in there...

I hop out of the car, and follow behind Kyle as we walk up to the door. As he knocks, the door creeks open. We walk inside.

"Shay?" Kyle calls for her in a loud voice.

"Shay? You here?" I ask, looking in her bedroom for her. Her bed is still messed up and covers are lying on the floor. Make up is on her desk, and there's an open bottle of nail polish. Clothes are scattered on the floor.

"Hello? Anyone home?" Kyle questions, looking in the kitchen.

"She's gone." I mumble.

"Try calling her, she'll mostly likely pick up if she's just hanging out with someone or with her mom." He states.

"Okay okay." I reply, and I call her.

"Straight to voice mail" I say, right away.

"Hey Shay, just wondering where you are, I wanted to hang out. Just give me a call back. Thanks. Bye." I leave her the voice mail and then hang up.

"So we know she has her phone, but where the heck is she?" Kyle asks.

"Well, her phone could be dead or turned off." I state.

"Who else could we call?" He questions.

"I don't know, um, we could try Kristin?" I suggest.

"Yeah that's a great idea." Kyle replies as he begins pacing around in the living room as I sit on the couch.

I call Kristin, and surprisingly, she answers.

"Helloooooo?" She says.

"Hey Kristin, it's Dani" I reply.

"Oh. Hi." she responds, with an annoyed tone.

"Are you with Shay?" I ask.

"Um no she slept over last night but she left early this morning. She left a note said she had something she had to do. I was supposed to come over later." She explains.

"Why?" She adds.

"Because Kyle and I are at her house right now and she's not here. We tried calling her and she didn't pick up so we thought she might be with you." I reply.

"Oh, she could be with Aiden." Kristin says.

"Aiden?" I question.

"What about Aiden?" Kyle whispers.

"Yeah, they started dating like on Tuesday. They've been inseparable. You didn't know?" She questions.

"Oh yeah yeah I just forgot. Well thanks for the help. If you hear from her let me know." I answer.

"Okay, bye." she replies, and hangs up.

"What about Aiden?" Kyle asks.

"Shay and Aiden started dating." I state.

"What?" He snaps.

"If this is her way of self-destructing then whatever. She knows what kind of douche bag he is. God." Kyle begins to talk in an angry tone, and I'm worried he's going to go nuts.

"Kyle, please calm down, let's go to Aiden's and see if she's even there." I state.

"Fine, I want to bash his face in" he growls, and heads to his car.

"What are we going to do with you?" I mumble to myself.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When we get to Aiden's, we see him playing basketball outside. Even before the car is fully parked, Kyle swings the door open and slams it shut.

"Where is she?" Kyle screams at him, shoving him down to the cracked driveway.

"God man, calm down! And where is who?" Aiden asks, standing back up.

"Your girlfriend, Shay." Kyle answers, and I walk up to them.

"I don't know! She left like an hour ago!" Aiden yells.

"Do you know where she went?" I ask, calmly.

"She said she had an errand to run then she was going to text me when she got home so I could go over." Aiden states.

"Do you know what she went to get?" I question.

"All she told me was it was important and it was "supplies". I was going to spend the night tonight, along with Kristin and her boyfriend." he explains.

"She really is self-destructing." I whisper to Kyle.

"Could we wait here till she texts you? We need to see her and it's kind of important." Kyle asks, finally acting calm.

"Dani, you can, but Kyle, you need to chill out if you expect me to not kill you." Aiden states.

"Sorry man." Kyle mutters.

"I just ordered some Chinese but there should be plenty to go around, I have to go pick it up unless one of you could?" Aiden says.

"I'll go get it. I owe you. Is it at the one that's like two or three minutes from here?" Kyle asks.

"Yeah, thanks." Aiden answers, and then Kyle leaves.

~~~~~~~

Kyle comes back about fifteen minutes later with rice, chow mein, egg rolls, dumplings, and some kind of chicken.

We are all dead silent as we eat. Once we finish, I decide to call Jonah because I want him to be here with us.

"Hello?" Jonah says as he picks up the phone.

"Hey, so I'm at Aiden's, are you busy? Could you come down here?" I ask.

"Why are you there?" He questions.

"So, Shay and him are now dating. Kyle and I are trying to find her and Aiden says that she's suppose to text him when she gets home from running some errands." I answer.

"Yeah, he still lives on Oakley Drive right?" He replies.

"Yeah, thanks, see you soon." I state.

"No problem, be there as soon as I can, bye." he says, and then I hang up.

Twenty minutes later, Jonah shows up.

"Who invited him?" Aiden asks.

"I did." I answer.

"Well, this is awkward, my ex- girlfriend with my ex- best friend." he replies.

"Jonah and I aren't dating." I state, and then run over to Jonah.

"Hey, thanks for coming." I say, and give him a small hug. He's a bit sweaty and is in his basketball uniform. His hair is slightly damp.

"Of course, practice just ended and I didn't get time to change so sorry for the way I look and smell." Jonah explains.

"I don't care, you look good sweaty." I say, and then realize how cheesy that sounded so I begin to blush.

"She said she just got home!" Aiden yells after a moment of silence.

"Okay, I can drive you, Aiden, and Dani can go with Jonah" Kyle states.

"Fine with me" I say.

"Alright, let me clean up, and then let's get going" Aiden replies.

~~~~~~~~~

A couple minutes later, we're off to Shay's. When we get there, we see two cars in the driveway. One is hers, and I'm pretty sure the other one's is Kristin.

"Hello?" I say as we walk in.

And then I hear a scream.

~~~~~~~