The Perfect Family

13. Kade knows too much.

Kade gets out of bed quietly not wanting Lainey to run off, getting into the shower then making some breakfast since it is the weekend. Whipping up some homemade waffles, he gets a call from his friend's sister. "Kade? Are you busy right now?" The girl asks in a total mess over the phone. "Why? What's wrong?" Kade licks his thumb while setting the spoon down. "My brother...he hasn't been home and it's already nine in the morning." Kade shoots his friend a text but a green bubble forms to show the phone is off. "Did he have plans? Maybe he's asleep with his phone dead." The girl insists there's something wrong and might file a missing's person report but wants Kade to help. "You want to go down to the station now?" Kade asks then looks up seeing Lainey standing in the hallway with his shirt on. "Who's that?" Lainey mouths. "Can I call you back?" Kade says then hangs up after the girl agrees trying to calm herself down.

Kade head over heels for Lainey shakes his head then thinks about her sudden appearance at his front door last night.

"Why'd you come over last night by the way? Besides...you know."

Lainey shrugs, "Just wanted to see you. Why?"

Kade shrugged more, "Was out of nowhere."

Lainey walks up to him kissing his lips, "You wanted me to not press the reset button but I'm kind of having the urge to with those questions."

Kade turns, holding her waist looking into her eyes.

"My friend's sister called. He hasn't made it home."

Lainey, knowing the reason why, just sighs, "Maybe he's hungover somewhere. No big deal."

Kade doesn't say anything thinking of the accusations his friend made towards Lainey and her family.

"Yeah...maybe."

Lainey scrunches her eyebrows feeling defensive as she says, "Are you suggesting something Kade?"

Kade nods this time, "Actually, yeah. What's going on with you and your family?"

Lainey smiles scoffing, "Nice Kade," Going back into the room, Lainey puts her clothes back on getting ready to leave.

 Kade goes into the room watching her grabbing her things. "Lainey," Kade says dominatingly. 

"No, because we go from being good to this. I don't want to be looked at as some criminal when me and my family aren't." 

Putting her shoes on she goes to the front door ready to walk right out of it but her hand starts to shake with anxiety. 

Kade walks up behind her, seeing, "Just tell me what happened...his sister wants to go file a missing's persons report but if he's not then I need to know." 

Lainey's heart jumps with fear, scared that if she tells him the truth she'll look like a fake, a liar. 

Another part of her wanted the truth to come out, tired of it festering creating this unpredictable anxiousness she was having. 

"Kade, it was an accident." Lainey says low not looking at him but continues speaking. "He was targeting Orson...wanting to record him...get some sort of confession towards his sister's accident." 

Kade makes Lainey face him, "Then what?" Lainey's bottom lip quivers as tears start to come down, "It was self defense...he was hurting Orson. I did what I could think of and hit him with a rock." Kade doesn't show any expression, keeping silent. Lainey wipes her nose with her jacket sleeve. "Where is he Lainey." Lainey shakes her head, "I-I pushed him off me into a running stream. I don't know what happened afterwards." Kade steps aside, opening the front door, "You should go." Lainey opens her mouth to apologize but by doing that she's saying what she did to protect her family was a mistake and it wasn't. Did Lainey tell the whole truth? No. But was it enough to keep Orson out of jail? Yes. Leaving while tears still dripped down, she went inside her car watching Kade's movement.

When he disappeared inside his room Lainey wiped her eyes calling Nero.

Nero, having a drink in his own home, answers by putting his beer down.

"You okay? Haven't heard from you." Nero asks his sister.

"I planted a seed in Kade's head about his friend missing, the sister called frantically wanting to do a missing person report down at the station. He wanted the truth so I gave him the version of it that is believable and kept Orson out of it, well the killing part."

Nero sighs heavily, "I'll let mom and dad know so they can call their buddies down at the station and hospital in case they find his body."

Lainey's anxiousness kicks in again as she puts her hand on the steering wheel.

"Reo?" Lainey says almost stuttering.

Nero hears it in Lainey's voice, the fear of being caught, making him mentally put on his big brother pants.

"Ley, I got you. There's nothing to worry about. You know I won't let anything happen to you...any of you."

Lainey nods, taking big breaths in and out having Nero calm her down.

Meanwhile, Kade calls his friend's sister back about going down to the station.

"Want me to pick you up or meet you there?"

The girl said she'll meet him there as she's already driving to the station as she's on the phone with him.

Hanging up, Kade grabs his keys leaving everything where it is meeting her in front of the police station. 

The girl is already talking to a police officer and gets offensive when they say the same thing Lainey and Kade had said prior to the girls visit.

"My brother isn't like that okay! He's responsible! Smart! Not a damn drunk who would go off the whole day and night without telling me where he is!"

Kade, overhearing, tries to smooth the situation over but just ends up getting on the wrong side of his missing friend's sister.

"Are you agreeing with those dumbasses? You know him. Why would you think or say otherwise?"

Because as much as it bothers him inside, guilty of knowing his friend, her brother, was gone and knowing the person who did it, he still couldn't give their name no matter how unethical it was.

"Let's just call around to see if anyone might know where he went."

An advantage to see if there are any witnesses that might've seen Lainey do what she told him.

"Yeah...okay." The girl says desperate.

Following the girl back to her and her brother's home, they start to make the calls to end up with nothing.

Kade sighs in relief knowing Lainey is in the clear until a classmate of the girl says she saw Orson and him having words outside of the campus.

"Orson? Orson Reed?" The girl asks, confirming the name.

Kade has this pit in his stomach, one that was driving him to call Lainey.

After a few rings she answers by excusing herself from the dinner table back at her family's house.

"What? What's so urgent you had to call me three times?" Lainey barks out agitated.

"Orson. Orson's name came up with a witness."

Lainey whips her head back towards Orson who is zombie-like at the dinner table picking at his food.

"Who? Who is the witness?"

"A classmate of his, she didn't give her name."

Now, this...this is the part where Lainey knows Kade knows too much.