Not A Small Town Girl (dance moms and magcon)

Chapter 12

"I'm in the middle of watching Pretty Little Liars, an old episode that just happened to be playing at 11 am," I answer Kalani's little brother as I slouch comfortably on mine and Kendall's crisp light blue bedsheet. I'm still in my pjs with a messy bun and a half eaten bowl of cereal rests between my stomach and the bed.

"Oh, yo what's happening. Lowkey I've been watching it," Jax walks out from the doorway and into the room, taking a seat on the low wooden drawer at the footside of the bed.

"Well currently, Hanna is in the shower as you can see and this guy, this guy right here," I say pointing at the screen, "is with her in it. But it's not like that, no, no, no. Caleb, the guy, had to go in the shower because Hanna's mom doesn't know he's secretly living in the basement."

Jax shoots me a strange look.

"And this is just sounding creepier and creepier as I go on" I laugh, then shove a handful of rice crispies in my mouth.

"That does sound weird," Jax chuckles, his eyes fixated on the screen. Maybe the kid really does like the show...or maybe he's just a pervy little 14 year old who knows.

Anyhow, our intense viewing of Pretty Little Liars is abruptly interrupted...by Kendall, of course.

"Mad-"

"Hey, Kendall," Jax cuts off Kendall as she starts to say my name. There's a moment of slightly awkward silence as Kendall smiles at Jax quickly then looks back at me. I can sense she has something she needs to tell me but I'm not sure how urgent it really is. Kendall tends to exaggerate and blow things out of proportion. I'm more than certain though that whatever she has to say to me happened at the party last night.

"Hey Jax can you just leave me and Maddie alone for a sec," Kendall speaks to Jax and her tone of voice changes so that she almost sounds like a mother telling her son to do his chores.

Jax gets up from the block of wood rather slowly, dragging out his time in the room like that will somehow allow him to be in on the conversation. I assume now that whatever it is, it's pretty urgent.

When Jax finally leaves the room, Kendall shuts the door carefully. An action that is probably unnecessary considering Kira is still asleep and Jax is still recovering from his concussion and is basically deaf.

She motions for me to move over on the bed so she can sit down next to me. She sits, legs crossed, and dramatically, as always, pushes her hair back behind her ears.

"What is it?" I ask, growing impatient.

"Look. It's nothing to worry about, okay..."

Instantly, I think of Hayes. Last night at the coffee shop, after we had talked about our first kisses and Kalani and Gino and everything, he had told me about something terrible that had happened to him last year. He had been jumped by a bunch of guys from the East Dillon football team on his way home. He didn't tell me where he had been coming from but he said he had walked pretty far out of town to go somewhere and they saw him there alone and beat the crap out of him. He said it was because their teams were rivals and that's how it had always been but I can't understand why anyone would hurt someone else that badly just because of a game. I mean sure there's been times where I've been really pissed that I lost but I've never ever even had a thought of getting physical with an opponent. I guess it's different with guys and in this setting and everything. Football may be just a sport to me, but to them it's their livelihood. That's what Hayes had said to me. So these players, 5 on 1, they beat him until he was unconscious. They took him to the hospital, at least they had the decency to do that. And Hayes, he had pictures of himself in his white linen hospital gown, his face bloodied and bruised with probably the fattest and worst black eye I had ever seen. He looked so terrible I honestly felt bad even just looking at the pictures. And I felt even worse now since I knew he had walked home alone last night for some of the way. I had begged him to just go home since on the way back we passed by his street first but he insisted on walking me to the door step of the Hilliker house. So he would have to walk back from Kalani's house to his house alone in the dark. Entirely in the open, vulnerable to attacks by rival teams, and with a huge game in just a week. My mind began racing, my palms sweaty as I looked at Kendall waiting for her to tell me the news that Hayes was hurt, in the hospital, brutally attacked, broken bones, broken arm, broken.

"...it's about Kalani."

Instantly my shoulders relax, I let out my breath quietly that I was holding in. But then, I remember that Kalani is my friend too, one of my best friends actually, and I'm living in her house right now and I should care just as much about her if not more.

"What happened? Is she okay?" I ask suddenly worried again.

"I don't know. I think she is," Kendall has a panicked look on her face and I don't like the tone of her voice, the uneasiness, the doubt.

"Well, where is she? Is she here? Is she home?" I ask, realizing that I have yet to see her today. But I try to reassure myself, telling myself that it isn't out of the ordinary for Kalani not to be seen even if she is home. Especially if it's morning, she sleeps in til at least noon on the weekends.

"No," Kendall hushes her voice, "Look I came home last night wasted and went straight to bed. I don't even remember how I got home or how I even opened the door but I know for sure that I was alone. I texted Kalani a thousand times this morning but she hasn't replied and...and I don't know what to do. D-Did-I leave her? Was I not supposed to leave? I don't even know what I did. But, now she's not answering her phone and she's not home and I'm just really scared now, I don't know Maddie. I don't know what to do," she looks at me and I can see that she genuinely is scared. I'm not sure if it's because she doesn't want Kira to find out and send her back maybe. Or if it's because she really thinks something bad could've happened to our friend.

I think a second before I reply, "I don't know either. I mean, I remember hearing the front door open last night and steps coming upstairs but I just assumed it was the both of you."

"Maddie, I don't know what else to do. I think we need to tell Kira," she looks at me dead serious.

"I think so, too."

"Okay then, let's go," she says, getting up from the bed. I follow her, my tight white tank top slips up slightly as I get up off the bed, I readjust it quickly as we pass the door into the hallway. We have to go over a sort of bridge to get to the other side of the house where the master bedroom is. I call it a sort of bridge because one side, the left side is attached to only the wall, the other side, the right side however is raised on the second floor but open to the kitchen below which leads to the sliding doors that open up on to the porch. As we move over the sort of bridge I hear a light but concentrated tapping on the clear glass sliding doors. Without hesitating, I look over. Within a second I grab Kendall's arm and yank her to the right so she can see who it is.

"Kalani!" she whisper screams and the both of us tip-toe sprint down the stairs and into the kitchen.

As silently as possible we unlock the sliding doors and Kalani slips in. She is unharmed, uninjured, and what looks to me to be fully intact. In my head I quickly thank God that my life isn't gonna be turned into a Pretty Little Liars episode, at least not today.

She sits down at the kitchen table nonchalantly and grabs an apple from the fruit basket. Kendall looks at me like she's a little shocked but then walks to the table and takes a seat as well. I go to shut the sliding door and I see something. I see something that Kendall hadn't been observant enough to notice. Or maybe she had been and that's why she had that face on. But what I saw wasn't so shocking. Well, maybe a little. I mean what I saw didn't necessarily mean anything. Who was I kidding though. Of course it meant something. She had been out the entire night. She had had to sneak back into the house through the back. She had gotten out of his car. It had to mean something. But, in that moment I was too scared, too shocked, too baffled to ask...

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Comment below who you think he is? ;)

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