The boy next door

Tracking him down

Malia's POV

We walked over to the neighbour across the street from our houses. We asked him a couple of questions, for example if he saw anything suspicious last night.

He began, "Well I was outside in the middle of the night taking photos for my photography booklet and I saw a van with three men in it. They rushed inside Derek's house and then a couple of minutes later they shoved someone in the trunk of the car." Listening to this is making me sick. What if they hurt him? What if he's somewhere dead in a ditch? Oh god I can't go through this, not again. I can't lose someone I love. Not again!

Scott asked the neighbour if he remembers the way the three men looked like, if he remembered what the van looked like, anything. He replied, "No... But, I have something that I think might help." He pulled out a folder and emptied the contents on the counter. A bunch of images came flooding out, he started looking through the photos and then he pulled out one.

"I took this one last night. It has the three men kidnapping Derek. And the license plate of the van." I yanked it out of his hands and read out loud, "H93 65B. Can we keep this picture please?" He nodded quickly, "Yes yes of course! Anything to find him. I never liked the kid cause he would always have house parties and disturb the peace in the neighbourhood, but I don't want anything bad to happen to him."

Scott shook hands with him and said, "Thank you Devon. We really appreciate this." Oh so that's his name, I thought to myself.

I nodded in approval, "Yes thank you so very much! But quick question why didn't you call the cops when you saw all of this?"
"I don't know I was too drunk to do anything. I don't even know how I managed to open the camera."

•••
We went back to Scott's house to gather up all our information. "So how the fuck are we going to find him?" Scott asked abruptly and smashed his fist onto the marble counter. "All we have is this stupid license plate number!"
"Exactly!" I said, "all we need to do is find the location of the van, and then we'll know who kidnaped him."
"Okay.. But how do we find out the location? I suck at tracking things down."

I thought for a little while to think of a way to track down the van. And then it hit me, "Lita's younger brother is a mad computer hacker. He can easily track down anything with a chip. He'll find the location in no time, trust me."
He nodded and clapped his hands together, "Ok great. But who the hell is Lita?"

•••
We drove down to Lita's house to ask her little brother if he can track down the van. I knocked on the door and the cutest 14 year old boy opened the door.

I cleared my throat, "Hey Manny, do you remember me? Uh Lita's friend?"
He made a smirk and slightly lifted his eyebrow, he kind of reminded me of Derek. "How can I forget such a beautiful girl," he stated. I blushed a little and heard Scott chuckle in the background. I ignored him and thought, man is this kid smooth. If he was my age and I never met Derek.. Hello Manny Oliviera.

He greeted us inside and said, "Uh Lita isn't here she went out with my mom. If you want you can wait until she comes back or leave and come back when she returns." I sat him down on the couch and Scott sat on the other couch across from him. He looked up at me a little confused and slightly scared, "Actually Manny, we're not here for Lita. We're here for you." He leaned to the side to look at Scott and then back at me, "Look guys if you're looking for a threesome come back later cause my mom will be home soon with-" I slapped his arm, "Manny! We're not here for a threesome! We came here to talk about something serious.. And you're two young for me!"

He leaned his head back and laughed, "Anything to keep my women happy even if they're 2 years older than me."

Out of nowhere Scott pushed me out of the way and got closer to Manny, "Listen kid, we heard you're a mad hacker and you can track things down super fast. Our friend went missing, kidnaped actually. We got a picture of the van's license palate that he was put into. Think you can help us out?"
Manny studied Scott and scratched his chin, "Alright, hand me the picture and follow me to my room."

We did as we were told and Manny set up his computer and everything, he inserted a USB stick and a disk into his laptop. A whole bunch of columns appeared in green writing and a search bar. He typed in the license plate number and it took a bit of time for the address to appear. As we were waiting Manny studied the picture, "Damn the missing boy is hot!"

Scott and I snapped our heads towards him, "M-Manny are you gay?" I asked.
"No," he answered sure of himself.
"Bi?"
"No."
"Ok then, what exactly are you?"
He cocked his eyebrow up and said with a half smile/smirk, "Experimenting with fluid sexualities."

Scott laughed and I just looked at the fourteen year old confusingly. "Ok whatever you are back off little man," I pointed to the picture, "because Derek is mine." He smiled and put his hands up in surrender.

The update in the laptop was complete and we got an address on where the van was. Manny zoomed in where the little red spot was which located the exact location of the car, "1715 Boulevard Road, White-Hills. Where the hell on earth is that? There's no street called that in ColdwaterHills."
I looked at Scott and he had the same reaction as me, our eyes were wide open, our mouths were open and I'm pretty sure his heart was getting ready to beat out of his chest just like mine. I swallowed hard and said, "That's because he's not in ColdwaterHills. They kidnaped him and drove him out of town to where he used to live. To where I used to live too."

"Fuck!" Scott blurred out.
"What?" Me and manny asked at the same time.
"I know that address. I know exactly where he is, why he's there, and most of all who has him there."
"How do you know all of that? I asked eager to know the answer.
"Because it's the same address as Derek's old gang house."

My heart sank and I can feel a tear starting to develop in my eye. I said with a whisper, "The Rippers." Scott slowly turned his head toward me and said with a low voice, "How do you know that?"
"The night of the party Derek told me everything. About his gang, his father, the truth about my dad, everything."

"I'm not exactly sure what's going on but I'm guessing you guys don't want me to tell anyone," Manny said.

Scott and I nodded.

"I promise I won't tell anyone. Not my sister, not my mom, nor the cops."
I hugged him tightly and whispered in his ear, "Thank you so much. We couldn't have down this without your help." He smiled, and to make his smile even bigger and cuter, I gave him a kiss on the cheek. Then made my way to the door.

Scott fist pumped him and thanked him with a hug too. When we were at the door, Scott looked at me and said, "How do you feel about taking a road trip down to White-Hills?"
"Let's do it." I answered.

As we walked out I said, "The kid is probably the biggest player I know, I can't believe he's bisexual!"
"I heard that! I'm not bi, I'm experimenting with fluid sexualities," Manny called out.

Scott and I laughed and he said, "The boy obviously has higher superior class."