Cheers to New Beginnings

Chapter 8:

Tammy:

            I was glad that my sister wasn’t home yet when I got to our apartment around noon. I had slept over at Howard’s house, and I knew Lili would get the wrong impression. I was running on the high of love. He had been a complete gentleman only kissing me goodnight before going to sleep on the couch. He didn’t ask or try to pressure me into anything although I could tell he wanted more. I wanted someone to gush too, and who better than my sister? When eight o’clock rolled around and she still wasn’t home I began to worry a little bit. I didn’t have her friend’s numbers, so I was a sitting duck. By nine I called the police.

            They filed a missing persons report, and said to meet them at the station at nine the next morning. They had the school files and were picking up all Lil’s friends for questioning, hoping they’d seen her leave the dance. If it weren’t for Howard coming over, I’d probably have gone crazy trying to go find her. Something had to have happened. She wouldn’t just leave me. She wouldn’t run away; she was stronger than that. After a night of Howard’s soothing voice and being held by someone who cared so much, I was out of panic mode. I was still worried sick about my baby sister, but I understood panicking would do nothing to help.

            I took a deep breath as Howard held the car door open for me at the police station. I glanced over his buzz cut, faded jeans, and flannel shirt. He could make anything look sexy.

            “Let’s go, Tam,” he said sadly leading me into the station.

            “Miss, we have sent the picture to every police station in this area. Are you sure there is no place that she would go?” Sargent Hall asked looking over the file again.

            “No, I don’t know of any place she would have gone. We moved from Carlton, and she would not have gone back there for anything.” I groaned and pulled my fingers through my hair. Howard kissed my temple in attempt to calm me down. “Where are her friends? You said you were going to ask them questions.”

            “They are on their way with their parents at the moment. We just wanted to check with you again before they arrived.”

            True to his word, her friends and their parents filed slowly into the large interrogation room where Howard, the police, and I were.

            “We brought you all here in hopes of finding one of your classmates. It seems Lilibeth Edwards attended your school homecoming dance but never returned home. Now she said she was spending the night at Amber Rolland’s home for a sleep over. Guests attending included Nesha Allen, Chloe Hale, and Leslie Summers.” I waited as I watched the shock register on all the teenagers’ faces. Then fury lit up on Leslie’s.

            “That little whore used us as an alibi?” she shouted. “Amber did have a sleepover after the dance, but we sure as hell wouldn’t have invited Beth or Nesha and Chloe. I mean seriously? Do we look like we associate with the likes of them?” I glanced over all the girls again and realized she was right. Amber and Leslie along with their families were dressed in fancy, expensive clothes while the others were dressed in a casual manner of the middle classed families. Beside Amber was a boy who had the whole British boy band feel who looked completely disinterested in our crisis.

            “Pardon Miss Summers, but please speak with a respectable manner,” the sergeant asked seeing my narrowed eyes. I wasn’t really mad at Leslie. I knew she was a bitch. I was mad because Lili lied to me.

            “What about you guys?” I asked looking where Cadience, Chloe, Nesha, Tanner, and Logan were. “She was supposed to be going to the dance with Logan,” I said getting annoyed with the entire situation. I watched as one of the guys sighed deeply.

            “I broke the date with her Friday before lunch. We’ve had no contact with her since,” he explained gesturing to all of them when he said ‘we’.

            “She left the dance with Parker, though. I saw that,” said a little gothic girl with a lip ring. I realized she was Chloe. Lil had mentioned the lip ring.

            “Who is Parker?” Howard asked noticing my hesitation. The small girl pointed to the British looking boy. He narrowed his eyes not wanting to be called out. The sergeant asked if it was true. The boy didn’t answer, so he demanded an answer the second time he asked.

            “Yes, she left the dance with me. We went to a party, and she was being a little bitch. She thought she was too good to party with us and called us worthless pieces of shit. She seemed to completely disagree with the way we party. The last time I saw her was around twelve thirty, hauling ass down the road away from the party.”

            Leslie interrupted my reply with, “Gaw, please tell me you didn’t actually have sex with her Thursday night,” she spat out.

            “No, she thinks she’s too good for me.” I was becoming confused, so I lay into Howard’s arms. The sergeant excused himself for a moment leaving us alone with all the different families. My eyes fell on Cadience who looked more confused than I felt.

            “You didn’t sleep with her Thursday?” he asked Parker stepping away from his disappointed father. “Then how did you see her tattoo?” he asked when Parker sarcastically shook his head.

            “She spilled beer on her shirt. I saw her back when she changed into Sally’s spare shirt. Why?” he asked rudely. I definitely did not like this Parker kid. “Is that why you said what you said to her?” he asked sounding amused with a look of understanding on his face. He sneered at Cadience. Before anyone could speak Sergeant Hall came back into the room.

            “Do any of you youngsters know where she might have gone?” he asked obviously worried about my missing sister. He seemed very upset when he found out a seventeen year old girl had gone missing in his town. My eyes stayed glued to Cadience as he leant back against the wall.

            “Carlton,” he said without a trace of doubt in his voice. Hall looked at me in a questioning way.

            “She would not have gone willingly back to Carlton without having lost all hope, and she would have only done that if…” I trailed off, as the dots began connecting in my head of all their conversations and how Lili had acted on Friday before the dance. I pulled out Howard’s arms as Cadience slid down the wall, placing his head in his hands as his elbows rested on his knees. “What did you say to her, Cadience?” I snapped at him. “It could only have been one of two people, and it sure wasn’t me. What did you say to her?” I practically yelled. Howard pulled me into his lap whispering things like calm down please into my ear.

Cadience shook his head. “She would have gone to Carlton.”

A/N: For those of you who have made it this far in the story, thank you! Let me know what you think! Comment and I'll try to answer anything! Vote if you like it! -Vanessa