I Want to Say Hello

Chapter 4

Jamie hadn't texted. She hadn't emailed. She hadn't contacted Laney at all. Laney thought to herself that maybe Jamie thought she was boring. After hanging out with Norris and his girlfriend, maybe she realized that Laney wasn't very interesting and didn't want to spend her time with her. Laney stood up from her floor and walked into the kitchen. Her mom ran up to hug her, "You didn't tell me when you got home, I was so worried Laney, do you have Jamie with you?" Laney felt a dull pain in her heart.

"No I don't, mom, why do you ask?" Laney asked softly.

Her mother's voice wavered, "Do you know," she took a breath, "where she is?"

"No, why?"

"She hasn't returned home. Her mother is so worried. You know she's like another daughter to me, did you two go home together?"

"No she went off with Norris for a bit," Laney paused, "You know, I bet she just stayed over with him and his girlfriend. She doesn't communicate well with her mom. She'll be home soon," Laney said her voice becoming sad. If only Jamie had been with her. Her mom will ground her for being with Norris. If she was with Laney at least she'd only get lightly scolded for not telling her about it.

Laney grabbed an apple and stuck it in her mouth, holding onto it with her teeth, not quite biting hard enough to go all the way through the fruit. She pulled her phone and lazily texted Jamie a "what's up" before grabbing the apple with her hand and finishing the bite. She walked over to the computer and logged into her user. Laney listened to the calming chime the computer made as it faded from the user screen to her background image. She smiled. It was Jamie and her as children. Jamie was holding up a kitten she had just gotten as a Christmas present, Laney was laughing about something. They were so young. Laney had short light brown hair that hadn't grown out yet. Jamie had her natural white-blond that hadn't been touched by hair dye yet. Both looked so innocent and untouched.

Laney opened up her browser to the homepage. It was the local news, her eyes quickly grazed over the stories before she began typing the address of her email site. Suddenly her focus stopped on a story. "Car found in a ditch near FoodStore- two bodies inside" Laney's eyes widened in absolute shock. It couldn't be she thought to herself. She cautiously clicked the story and read the details. "Two bodies found inside a wrecked car in a ditch near FoodStore. The male has been identified as Norris Checker and the female is yet to be named. If you have any information on this incident people contact the news team immediately as the story is still being developed,"

Laney suddenly felt sick to her stomach. It couldn't be true she thought to herself. She felt as if she would faint, "Mom!" she shouted, "Mom!" even louder, so her mother would hear the urgency in her voice. Her mother quickly ran into the room, looking flustered, hair messily in a bun that is slowly falling apart from running so quickly.

She patted herself down and sighed, "What is it, dear?" Laney just pointed to the story on the screen.

"Mom," she choked out, "that's where Jamie and I were," she felt tears form and her vision became blurred from the water. Her mother leaned down and hugged her, she was shaking.

"Laney, she's okay. She's okay, it's not her. I promise. Laney, I promise," her mother seemed to be more reassuring of herself than of Laney. They stood there together for what seemed like forever. Crying together, hoping together, holding each other to keep the other safe.

"You have to talk to her mom," Laney said quietly, breaking their silent hug. Her mother nodded and wiped a tear from her face. She sniffled quickly and grabbed her cell phone. She dialed the number slowly, each dial tone being drawn out for longer than a second. Laney took deep breaths to calm herself. Suddenly, Laney was startled by her mother's calm voice breaking the silence.