Homesick

4

It's been two weeks now and Billie has pretty much contacted the whole inner circle. Wilhemina and Audrey, the blonde being on a short break from filming due to the press tour starting soon; along with Tammy, are all sitting in the living room. Some of the girls either couldn't come as they had obligations, others just haven't arrived yet.

"Have you tried checking her location maybe?" Tammy asks and the distressed blonde quickly grabs her phone, having just remembered the life 360 her and Alicia share. Her fingers tap and slide aggressively on the screen until she gets to the app. Her hope deflates, however, when she sees both dots together at the house. She's obviously not here; so it must be acting up or maybe her phone got cut off.

"It's not loading right" she mumbles sadly and the girls comfort her, all trying to think of the best next steps to take. Cordelia excuses herself to the bathroom, telling the girls she needs a moment alone. Once she leaves, they all look at each other worriedly, hating the entire situation. "I've looked everywhere. I can't find a single trace of her... whoever did this is a fucking genius" Wilhemina sighs frustratedly.

"Or maybe we're just thinking too hard. Anyone that could do something like this to Alicia of all people—there's no way they could've been thinking straight" Audrey counters and the others can't help but to agree. But who would do such a thing, they think. "We can figured his out—we have to. Delia's a wreck and lord only know what Alicia's going through right now" Tammy sighs sadly.

Delia's pov
I enter my bedroom, going into the closet and closing the door behind me. I cover my mouth to prevent a sob from escaping my throat, trying desperately to calm myself down. I have to pull it together. There's no way I can think properly if I'm such a mess but also how can I not be? I have no idea where my own girlfriend is and no spell I've used has been able to locate her either.

I see one of her sweaters out the corner of my eye and tears well in my eyes again. I walk over to it, pulling it closer to me. It still smells like her and I'm not sure whether that comforts me or makes me feel worse. It's like my heart has been ripped out my chest and dangled in front of me. For some reason she just feels so close but so far.

Something clatters to the floor but I don't pay much mind to it as I'm picturing the times she's worn this. In fact, she wore it a few days before because she was going to be at the academy all day and she always gets cold there. Typically I keep the house warmer for her but being that there's so many girls over there, it would get hot at the temperature we keep it here.

I pull myself together, stepping back and feeling something under my foot. I remember that something fell and when I go to pick it up, I freeze. I know that case; she rarely ever changes her phone case. Tears come to my eyes and my worry skyrockets once more. Alicia would never leave her phone.

Any last shrivel of hope I had simply evaporates into the thick air as I realize she really was taken. This wasn't some freak accident either, this had to have been planned. She was targeted; but the worst part is I have no idea why. I mean she's gorgeous and it could be just a random person but I would've been alerted by someone following us long enough to learn our routine.

I stare at it for a while, zoning out before finally picking it up. I squeeze it in my hands and press the power button, noticing it's been turned off. I walk back to the living room in a haze as it powers up and I just fall back into the couch. "They left her phone... and turned it off" I whisper, "she would never leave her phone" I add and they all agree.

"Maybe see if she's texted anyone" Lana, who must've arrived when I was away, tells me. Ally, who came with her, moves to sit beside me and pulls me into her arms as her phone screen lights up. It's a picture of us that she took when we were at the park. There's a little family of ducks on the lake behind us and I smile sadly, recalling how excited she was about it.

"Oh my gosh! Oh my god, Delia, look!" she yells and I smile widely before I even see what she's pointing out. She pulls on my arm to turn me around and her joy is just contagious. I finally look and I feel my heart soften even more at the sight. It's a big duck with two little ducklings following her. Alicia bounces a bit as she stares at them and holds me tightly to her.

"They're so cuteeee" she pouts adorably and the ducks are beautiful but I can't help but focus my gaze on her. Her eyes seem to shine with wonder, as if it's the first time she's ever seen such a thing. She realizes I'm not watching and she turns to me, a cute little frown forming on her face. "I love you" I whisper and her features instantly soften, "I love you too" she giggles.

I shake my head, swiping up and waiting for the Face ID to kick in. Then I read the message and it reminds me that I have to put in the password because it had been shut off. I quickly type it in, both of us having exchanged passwords a long time ago. That's what I love the most about her, she never tried to hide anything from me.

We don't have secrets and both trust each other with everything. I go to her messages but don't see anything out of the ordinary. I check her dms as a suggestion from Audrey but there's nothing there either. "There has to be something" Lana states with a frown as she thinks and I brainstorm too. There's something I'm missing, I can just feel it.

I mindlessly scroll through the apps until I end back up on iMessages. "When's the last time she texted you?" I ask Lana, knowing that they frequently communicate but I notice hers is at the bottom of the present screen. I smile a bit as I see her name, Lana with a banana emoji and a silly one with the tongue poking out. "Umm let me check" the brunette says as she swiftly pulls out her phone.

"A little over two weeks ago... 15 days" she replies, "so the day before" I think aloud. I'm pinned at the top and there's also three friends of hers, her mom, a group chat with the girls, and her grandma. All of them having dates around the same time. I start scrolling, some of them being spam texts she hadn't deleted. Then, something catches my eye and I click on it.

All the non-spam texts have names, some with emojis and some not—but they're all labeled. This one simply has 'D' with a green heart. I look at the chats and I can't really tell who it is as they only had short conversations and didn't discuss much. She talked about me a lot to this person, telling them how she moved in with me and things like that.

There's not much detail as if the person already knew me. I furrow my eyebrows as the gears turn in my head and the girls catch on quickly. "What is it?" Wilhemina is the first to speak up and I slowly raise my head as I think. "There's some named D. All the others have names or obvious nicknames but I have no clue who this is and... it seems like they know me" I recite to them.

The room falls silent and I can tell they're all thinking about it really hard too. "You don't think..." Ally says, looking around the room, and I'm utterly confused. They share looks and I'm getting increasingly worried as their eyes are telling me something is really wrong here and they have important information that I don't. "What? What is it??" I ask frantically.

"Diane" they all say in unison and my eyes widen...