Cupcake Kisses

Chapter 20: A Long Night

Chapter 20:  A Long Night

When I finally managed to push open my front door and slam it shut behind me, I was greeted by an eerie emptiness.

I had expected to be greeted by my mom, who was no doubt full of questions, or at least the sound of my brother shouting at his Xbox, but instead all I heard was silence.

"Mom? Dad?" I called, flicking on the lights and taking my coat off.

I made my way into the kitchen, desperately in need of a glass of water.

All previous thoughts about Will and the kiss in his car were now replaced with worried thoughts about the whereabouts of my parents. My day had been bad enough without adding missing parents into the equation.

I was about to get myself a glass of water when I noticed a note that had been stuck on our refrigerator. I quickly grabbed it, relieved when I noticed it was my mom's handwriting.

The note was brief but rather self explanatory, it read:

Ella,

Gone to check up on Grandpa, should be back by tomorrow. Hope you had fun tonight.

Love,

Mom, Dad and Sam

I placed the note on the kitchen counter and sighed.

It wasn't unusual for our family to drop everything to go see my Grandpa. Ever since his health had started going downhill, we had forced him to move into a retirement home. Unfortunately for us, Grandpa was not the kind of guy that liked being stuck in a house full of other old people and he insisted on causing as much of a fuss as he could. This basically meant that we had to regularly drive down to San Diego whenever need be (or whenever the retirement home would call us to complain).

I didn't mind the long trips though, since my Grandpa and I were so close, I just wished my parents had waited for me to get home.

With another sad sigh, I pulled out my phone, ready to call my mom and let her know I was safe.

However, when I glanced at my phone screen I was surprised to find that I had several calls and texts, none of which were from my family.

I'd kept my phone on silent the whole night so I wasn't surprised that they'd gone unnoticed, but I was definitely surprised at who exactly had made the calls and texts.

The name that flashed up on my screen was none other than Luke Turner's.

For a second or two I just stared at the screen, every memory of last night flooding back. Sleeping in the pickup truck. His kiss. Will's kiss.

The conversation we'd had on the way home.

Was that what he was calling me about? Did he want to talk things through?

I read through his texts one more time, but was disappointed to find that they were rather vague and unhelpful. He'd asked what I was doing and then asked me several times to reply or call him back.

Trying not to panic, I pressed the call button and put the phone to my ear.  A small part of me was hoping he wouldn't pick up, so I wouldn't have to hear the sound of his voice and the bitterness that had been there this morning. Another part of me was desperate to hear it. The sound of him laughing or even just insulting me would have brought me some kind of relief.

The phone had rung four times before he decided to answer, the  suddenness catching me off guard.

"Hey," I said, struggling to keep my voice neutral. "Is everything okay?"