A Journey, A Coincidence, A Memory

Chapter 28: Richard

January 21, 2022, 8:00 pm

We glare at Lara's phone in horror as it continues to ring with no one answering the phone yet. I have no idea why Lara feels regret, but it looks like she is way too excessive with feeling it. I bet I'm going to get in trouble too, so I have to stop Lara.

"Lara, there is absolutely no need to call your parents," I insisted.

"Exactly, there is a flight tomorrow at noon to Los Angeles, so we can just go and everything will be over," Maisie adds.

"I know that, but you all have nothing to worry about. I'm the one who'll be blamed," Lara stammered.

"You don't know my parents, they'll perish me," I try to argue.

"I'll just tell them it's not your fault and that it's mine," she advanced, but I'm pretty sure they'll think she's a cute, innocent girl while I'm a wicked, tyrannical demon.

"It's basically not even your fault, it's David's," I claimed.

Lara puts down her phone for a while and looks straight ahead at me, probably asking for answers. She demands, "How is it David?"

Maisie looks puzzled too. Both of them have no clue that David led them into this. I depicted the whole story, "Well, so when I was back at home, you two were missing, so I decided to make theories. Those theories were that David committed the explosions at the school and at the park as well the destruction of the apartment building. It turns out they were actually true when I found his hideout and demanded answers. If that apartment building wasn't destructed, then you would not get any punishment. And if there wasn't an explosion at the park, then you would've not run away to an airport. You see how all that links to David?"

Lara and Maisie stare at me in aghast. They exchange appalled glances and continue their feeling of shock.

"I never knew it was all David, he did all that just to get revenge on me?" Lara blurts out.

"Yup, not only that. I have something else to show you," I say and dig into my bag to find that piece of paper. I hand it to Lara. "I found this in David's hideout and didn't take a look at it until I was on the plane. I was stunned to see this and this might be the cause of your mom's frustration."

It was some sort of science test we did and it was Lara's. She told me that her mom got exasperated at her because of her science test mark, but it didn't look like she failed. She actually got 96% on the test I gave her.

"He did the most wicked thing ever- That monster!!!" Lara screams and it seems to echo across the hallway. "This is my actual test mark and it looks like he switched my actual test paper with a fake one with a low mark. Ugh ... if it wasn't for him, my mom would've been extremely happy with me and none of this would've happened in the first place!"

She starts crying sadly; I have never seen her like this before. I really feel bad for Lara now after what pain she went through. Her life is twisted because of that malicious David and meanwhile, she was just an innocent, conscientious girl this whole time. Who knew David was extra malice.

I feel miserable for Lara dropping that call. She was right, we need to tell her parents the truth. I can tell Maisie feels empathetic too. We both look down at Lara's phone and exchange glances that we will do what we have to do.

Maisie grabs Lara's phone from her hand and gives it to me. I find Mrs. Jenny's phone number and ring it. Hopefully she'll answer.