Borderline

Chapter 20

I almost didn't hear the knocking.

I opened my eyes quickly and looked toward the door.

The knocking got slightly louder.

I sighed. "This had better be damn important," I mumbled.

Carefully, I opened the door to my shared bedroom.

"What do you want, Eli?"

He didn't say anything. He just grabbed the front of my shirt and pulled me into the hallway, then pulled the door closed quietly.

"Why are you here, you moron?" I asked.

Eli grabbed my hand and pulled me down the hall, still not answering my question.

I dug my heels into the carpeted floor. "Eli, if you don't answer me right now, I'm turning around and going back to my room!" I angrily whispered.

Eli stopped and sighed. "Fine. I need your help."

"What could you possibly need my help with at one o'clock in the morning? And why are you still up, anyway?"

"I could ask you the same thing."

I rolled my eyes. He had me there.

"I'll give you the details when we get to my room."

I didn't say anything. I just let myself be tugged along behind him.

***

The second the door clicked behind us, I felt that something was wrong. It didn't take me long to realize what it was.

I whirled around to face Eli. "Where's Joshua?"

"That's what I was going to tell you. He's gone."

My eyes widened. "Gone? Gone?! What the hell do you mean, 'he's gone'?!"

"I don't know! I woke up, and he was just gone!"

I rubbed my face. "Did you try calling him?"

"Yeah, but it didn't do much good." Eli reached into his pocket and pulled out a crappy, little, black cell phone.

Joshua's cell phone.

I stared at the device. Fear was starting to grow deep in my gut. "H-He probably just went for a walk, r-right? H-He'll be back before school." I didn't believe a word that just came out of my mouth, but I tried to convince myself that I did.

Eli shook his head and pulled out a piece of paper. I took it, shakily.

Hello, Ryder. Nice to see you again. Well, you didn't see me, but I saw you. That skirt doesn't really suit you, by the way. Anywho, if you're little blond friend gave you this note, you can probably guess what happened: I've taken your little buddy Joshua. You probably won't ever see him again, dead or alive. However, I'll make sure you see him in the afterlife. Meet me at the last place I saved you at 5pm on Friday. Then we'll talk. Love, Carter

I stared at the letter, holding back my screams of anger. Today was Tuesday. There was no way I could wait that long.

I crumpled up the note and threw it on the floor before marching out the door and back to my room.

"Ryder, where are you going?" Eli asked urgently, trailing behind me.

"To change into my old clothes."

"Why?"

I stopped so suddenly that he almost crashed into me. "Because, you idiot, I'm going on a rescue mission." I continued walking.

"I'm coming too."

I laughed, trying hard to keep my voice down. "As if, rich boy. You'll just slow me down!"

I could feel Eli glaring at me. "I'm coming with you, Ryder. You can't stop me."

We reached my dorm room and I entered. "Wait here then," I said before closing the door in his face.

I grabbed my clothes from my bag and changed, putting various weapon restraints on different parts of my body: gun holsters on both calves and my waist, knife restraints on my thighs and inner arms, and a small sword strapped to my back.

They really need to beef up security at this school.

I shrugged my jacket on over my outfit, then went back out to meet Eli.

"Alright, back to bed with you!" I started to push him in the direction of his room.

"No way, Ryder! I was serious! I'm coming with you!"

I stopped my fruitless attempts to make him leave and looked at him. "Please tell me you're kidding."

He said nothing.

I sighed. "Fine. But only if you can prove to me that you won't get yourself killed."

Eli raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You want me to show you I can fight, huh?"

"Basically, yeah. If you can beat me in a fight, which won't happen, I'll tell you that right now, then you can come with me." I winked at him and started to turn around, but he grabbed my arm and faced me back toward him.

"Alright, you're on. Gym. Now. Let's go."

I raised my eyebrows. "You realize you basically just signed up for suicide, right?"

He laughed. "Yeah, right."

"Someone's cocky." I crossed my arms. "Alright, dreamer, let's go. Lead the way."