Almost Home

Cliffs

A/N This chapter is dedicated to........ Ellanixon1 , she is one of my very best friends and her selection fanfic is fabulous! She is super awesome and such an amazing person, you should go check out her account!
I started feeling a little uncomfortable when I noticed him staring at me. It was kind of scary at first, I mean, I thought he was staring at me because of the dream, then I saw this look in his eyes. It was almost desire. Like he wanted to be with me, and as a couple. It was that kind of look. It made me squirm a little, I mean yeah he was sort of attractive, but I didn't even really know him then. I brushed it off and set my mind on other things, like finding Kayla. We all stepped onto the sand and looked up at the cliffs that were what made our town above sea level. "I think we should split up, it will let us cover more area faster," I suggested.
"How about groups of two?" Lilith asked.
"Yes!" Brian agreed, very enthusiastically. He looked over at me, smiled, then looked at Henry who was about to say something.
"Yeah," Henry also agreed, of course, less enthusiastically.
"Okay, how should we split it up?" I asked, looking straight at Lilith with a 'don't make we a pair with Brian' look. And I knew she had already noticed that Brian had a crush on me, as she smiled at him, then looked at me and grinned. And let me just say, she had on that grin right now. And nothing good comes from that grin.
"How about, I'll search with Henry, and Sarah, you'll search with Brian," she said it very slowly, with a massive grin on her face. I made an internal groan.
"Ok, well I guess we should head off!" Brian said, very happily indeed.
"Yeah, let's go," Lilith said. She and Henry started walking in the opposite direction of us and I caught a tiny bit of their conversation.
"Why did Sarah look like she wanted to kill you, where Brian was grinning like a child with candy?"
"I have certain thoughts about those two."
"What kind of thoughts?"
"Love thoughts."
After that, I couldn't make out anything else. I sighed and turned to Brian, who was indeed grinning like a child with candy. "I think one of us should climb up and search the upper caves, and one of us should stay down and search the ground caves," I suggested,
"I think that we should stick together, in case one cave is really deep and people can't see them or hear one of us from the outside in case one of us needs help," Brian suggested.
"Well, let's do that," I said. Brian smiled. The next question he asked surprised me. A lot.
"Are Lilith and Henry a couple?" He asked.
"No!" I exclaimed, a little too loudly, "They're just close, we're all close. And also, Henry is Kayla's boyfriend and Lilith and I are her best friends."
"Who's Kayla?" Brian asked. Oh right, I didn't tell him her name.
"She the girl that we're searching for," I explained.
"Oh," he said, now really realizing his mistake, "I was just wondering. But I was wrong. Really wrong."
"Oh, it's fine," I said, "Anybody could make that mistake if they didn't know."
"Okay," he said, "Let's search the ground caves first."
"Sounds good," I replied. We walked over to the first cave. I walked inside first. It smelled damp and like bats. I walked a little further, then realized it dead ended. I turned around and nearly hit Brian in the face. "Sorry," I said.
"About what?" He asked. We were both still really close to each other.
"I nearly smacked you in the face," I answered, "Anyway, the cave dead ends, we need to turn around."
"Okay," Brian replied. We walked out of the cave and continued on to the next one. The next cave was a little bit longer, but not much, the third cave turned out to be just a deep cut in the cliffs, and the fourth cave was about another mile down the beach, so Brian and I started on the climbing ones. Luckily, so many people have climbed these cliffs, that people made footholds and handholds, so it's nearly impossible to fall if you're trying.
"Let's go to that cave," I said, pointing at one that was about fifteen feet up. There were good foot and hand holds, so I thought it would be a good one to look in.
"Okay," he said, "You climb ahead so I can catch you if you fall."
"What if you fall?" I asked, "I've climbed these cliffs a thousand times, I'm not going to fall."
"Well, I've climbed these cliffs a thousand and one times, I'm definitely not going to fall," he said.
"Fine," I muttered. I started climbing up the cliff and Brian was right after me.
"Be careful, you're looking a little shaky," he said to me. I was a little shaky, my foothold wasn't too trustworthy.
"I'm fine," I said, pulling my self up and climbing past that foothold. He quickly followed suit and soon we were up at the cave. This cave looked deep. "Okay, let's head in," I said. I entered the cave and Brian followed me. We walked in for about a minute, and I still couldn't see the end.
"This cave is huge," he said. It was true, we walked had walked in pretty deep, and the ceiling was still a good three or four feet above my head, and I couldn't see the end of the cave.
"Yeah," I replied. As soon as I said that, my phone vibrated. I pulled it out of my pocket and wondered how I got reception down here. I opened up messages and saw a text from Kayla. "Almost home," I read aloud.
"What?" Brian asked. He looked over my shoulder and at the phone.
"Kayla, she texted almost home," I said.
"This is a massive clue!" He exclaimed, "Why aren't you that excited?"
"I am it's just," I started, "This is the second time she's sent that. They said it wouldn't happen again."
"Who's they?" He asked.
"Our parents," I said.
"Oh," he said.
"Let me text Lilith and Henry real quick," I said.
"Okay," he replied. I quickly texted Lilith and Henry in the group chat. "Kayla just texted Almost home." I typed. I pressed send and miraculously it sent. I got an almost immediate reply. "Same here." Lilith. I sighed and then Brian's phone beeped. He pulled it out and saw the words "Almost home" in a message from a number. Kayla's number.
"That's Kayla's number," I said, "How did she get your number?"
"I don't know!" He said, very quickly.
"And also, what is your number, I want to add you in this group chat," I said.
"253-461-2348," he replied. (A/N this is a made up number, do NOT call it. Seriously.) I typed it into my phone and he was added to the group chat. I also made a private chat with him and added him to my contacts.
"Okay, I say our adventure is done for the day, let's go meet up with Lilith and Henry," I said.
"Agreed," he replied. I quickly texted Lilith and Henry that we were going back to the retardant and they could meet us there. Henry replied with an okay. Brian and I climbed out of the cave and we walked back up to the restaurant. And now we were waiting.
"So," I asked, trying to break the awkward silence, "How old are you?"
"17," he replied, "How old are you?"
"17," I answered.
"Cool," he replied. Yep, this was really awkward. He would casually steal a glance over at me and that goofy grin of his would be plastered on his face. I mean, he was sort of attractive, but I didn't know him that well.
"So, have you lived here your whole life or moved here?" I asked.
"I moved her four months ago with my family," he said. My mind clicked. Four months ago he moved here. Four months ago Kayla was kidnapped. That dream I had last night. That gut feeling it was about Kayla. How I was running from him. Something had to be connected between him and Kayla's kidnapping. I knew it.
"You have to do with Kayla's kidnapping," I thought aloud.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"You moved here, four months ago. Kayla was kidnapped four months ago. I had a dream and a gut feeling it was about Kayla. Then I saw you at the restaurant on the day we decided to search for her without our parents," I explained.
"Woah," he replied. We stood there in silence for a little while, then he asked me a question. "Since you've been asking me questions, can I ask you one?"
"Sure," I replied.
"Are you single?"
"Yes," I replied. Then I saw Henry and Lilith running towards us.
"We need to debrief, talk about any clues," Lilith said.
"Should we stay here, or go somewhere?" Brian asked.
"I say go somewhere," Henry said, "Is anybody's house open?"
"Mine is," I replied.
"Good," Henry replied.
"Now, who drives here?" Lilith asked. Lilith, Henry, and I raised our hands.
"I walk to work," Brian explained, "It's better for the environment."
"Okay, you can ride with Sarah," Lilith said, with that evil smirk on her face.
"Okay," I said. Lilith and Henry went to their cars and Brian followed me to mine. I stepped into the driver's seat and he went to the passenger's seat. I started up the car and we headed off to my house.
A/N thanks for reading! -Piper