Almost Home

The Group

My mom came straight to me after she hung up with Kayla's parents. "The group is meeting at the café," she said to me quickly, "Put on some shoes and at least brush your hair." My mom looked me up and down and frowned. According to her, sweat pants and a t-shirt and a messy ponytail weren't appropriate for going out. I sighed.
"Fine, let me go change," I muttered. I walked off to my room and dressed into some jeans and a nicer shirt. I brushed out my hair and pushed a headband onto my head. I looked into the mirror. Presentable. I pulled on some socks and threw on my converse and walked back out to the living room.
"That's better," mom smiled. I smiled back and we walked out to the car. She started it up and pulled out of the driveway and into the street. "Are you excited to see the group again?" Mom asked.
"I haven't seen most of them since the funeral," I said, "They'll all remind me of the funeral." The group was kind of like our search party for Kayla. When the police weren't any help, we trusted in each other that we would find her. We often set out searches around town, but none of them ever found her. And we all also shared clues. Like the knife that was in her room the day Kayla went missing and how her backpack was stuffed in a corner in the kitchen, and not in her room. And now it was the texts. And you're probably wondering who the group was made up of. It was my mom, me, Kayla's parents, Lilith, her parents, and Kayla's boyfriend of two years. Yep. Let's just say things can get awkward with him around sometimes.
Soon, mom and I got to the café and we stepped out of the car and walked inside. We were the first ones there, so we chose a larger table near the back. We ordered some drinks, a mocha for my mom and a latte for me. We soon got them and was joined by Lilith, her parents, and Kayla's parents. A few minutes after them, Henry, Kayla's boyfriend sort of, joined us as well. "Okay first order of business," I said, after taking a sip of my latte, "Who got the text?"
Only Lilith and Henry raised their hands. "And did it say 'Almost home?" I asked again. Both of them nodded. "Anybody have any clue what it means?" I asked.
"Kayla sometimes said that after we...um...kissed," Henry said, wringing his hands.
"And she would text me that when she was a few blocks away when she was driving home from school," Kayla's mom said.
"So what does it mean now," Lilith's mom blurted out.
"Maybe a mix of those two things," my mom suggested.
"So like, almost literally at home, and almost feeling like you were home," Kayla's dad said.
"Well, I think it was more of a 'We're almost home together and married',but," Henry drifted off.
"Okay, so like a feeling of togetherness?" I asked.
"Yeah," Henry replied.
"So, now we need to find her," Lilith's dad said.
"True," Kayla's mom said.
"So, she's not far away from home," I said.
"But she might not mean her home, she could mean this town, this state, this country," Lilith said.
"It's hopeless," The parents cried at once all together.
"No, it's not," Henry insisted.
"All in favor of giving up on Kayla truly, say I," Kayla's mom said.
"I," all the parents chorused.
"What?!" Lilith, Henry, and I exclaimed. "You're just going to give her up," I asked, shocked.
"We're not just giving her up, Sarah, she's been gone for four months and we've been searching endlessly, and she's nowhere," mom said, putting her hand on my shoulder, "I think she might actually be gone."
"But we just got activity from her, you said it yourself, she's not dead!" I exclaimed.
"Honey, calm down-"
"Calm down!" I exclaimed. Lilith and Henry stood behind me to back me up, "We just got a sign from her telling us she's alive and you're giving it up like its nothing. Nothing."
"She's right, Miss Florence," Henry agreed, "We can't just give her up."
"But we have to," Kayla's mom said, "If we give her up now, it will be less saddening than not finding her years from now."
"But what if we do find her," Lilith persisted, "What if she's still out there, waiting for us to save her? And we don't."
"We don't know, those are just what if's," Lilith's dad insisted.
"Fine, then we'll keep looking for her, and you can't stop us," I said to the parents, "Let's go." I walked out of the café
and Lilith and Henry followed me out.
"I guess we're the new group," Henry said, as we stopped at a wooden bench outside of the café. I sat down and Lilith and Henry joined me.
"Yeah," I replied.
"First order of business, find how we can narrow down our search area," Lilith said.
"Okay, any ideas of where she might be?" I asked.
"Well, she always loved hanging out in forests," Henry said, "It's where we had lots of our date nights."
"Good, so she might be in a forest," Lilith said, "Now why do you think she left?"
"I think she was kidnapped," I suggested, "She had all of us here looking out for her, she couldn't have possibly wanted to leave."
"True," Henry said.
"Where was she last seen again?" I asked.
"In her room, and her parents had said good night to her," Lilith said.
"And was she alone after that?" I asked again. Sometimes I forgot details like that, but Lilith always remembered them.
"Yes," Lilith replied.
"Actually," Henry started.
"What?" I asked, "Is there something you didn't tell the police, our search group?"
"Well, that night I was walking by her house because I wanted to say good night to her," he started, "And I heard some rustling coming from her room. I thought it was just her rustling around, but when you mention kidnapper, it gets me scared."
"Oh geez," I muttered.
"That means," Lilith started, "That she was kidnapped?"
"Probably," he replied.
"And that makes her search so much harder now," I muttered, looking at the two of them. This was going to be harder than we thought. A lot harder.

A/N that is the longest chapter I have ever written....of anything, so yay! Okay, that was a random thought😂 Anyway, thanks for reading!