The Disappearance

Chapter 3

Ring-a-ring-ding.

The doors door bell rang. Skylar jumped up from her and scurried off to the door, she looked through the little hole in the door and saw James glaring at the door. A mirror was on the right hand side to her so she quickly looked at herself in disgust and fixed her hair up a bit. She zipped up her blue hoodie and opened the door. There he was... just standing there, hand behind his back. As he stepped a little closer and closer to Skylar he gave her the little gift that was behind her back... flowers, dead flowers? James looked down at them and let out a deep breath, it sounded like he was disappointed and looked at the beautifully crumbled up flowered in despair.

‘Um, thanks?’ Skylar said taking them off him.

‘Sorry, they werent supposed to come out like that.’ He said in quite a low voice.

‘Hey, it doesnt matter, its the thought that counts.’

They both sat down on the couch and Skylar started to flick through the channels on the screen. James just stared at her like he wanted to say it but he was scared to say it she thought. She finally found something to watch when he took the remote of her and put it on the corner of the couch and said to her, ‘I want to talk to you, about your parents, if that is OK of course?’

Skylar knew it was coming, she knew that they all seen it on the newspaper and proberly agreed for him to come up here and give her the pet talk. She slowly held her hand and squeezed it a little, then they both stared at each other for a few moments and James started to talk, he seemed quite serious about this because in his voice it wasnt the jokey James anymore it was quite like Maxs style in his voice or in other words the father voice.

‘I do know what your going through you know.’ She looked well stunned! He knew what she was going through? She never expected that, ever!

‘Its hard to know what is happening to them right now or what, well has happened to them.’ OK now she really didnt understand.

How could James the hottest guy in the world know what im going through? He is just well so jokey and fun to be around, you would never think anything like this would happen to him! She thought.

‘Look, Sky, I know its hard but ill help you, I know Sammy and Max will to but they dont know what your going through, I do.’

She still was stunned and said to him trying to control her voice, ‘Thank you but how do you know what im going through? I mean look at ya?’

He frowned and spoke. ‘I thought you were smart?’

She stared at him and deeply offended, was he calling her dumb? Stupid? Not intelligent?

‘Sky, it doesnt matter the way you look you can still get hurt you know.’

Now she understood why he said it and kind of agreed!

‘What happened?’ She asked with such an interest.

He said, ‘Well, eh...’

You could hear it in his voice and in his expression that he didnt want to say it so she held his hand, tighter and said quietly, ‘James, you dont have to, its OK.’

He looked up from the ground and got his voice back in control, ‘No, I do need to explain. It all started when I was only twelve, my dad, he um... he took my mum away and I havent seen her since, I doubt theres any hope for her, ive doubted that for a very long time Sky, I doubt I will ever see her again...’

A tear prickled out of his eye and down the side of his cheek, Skylar felt so sorry for him. Her heart started pounding hard and fast, she felt guilty even though she did nothing wrong after all! She wanted to do something to help him but what was there to do? He wiped the tears away and forced his eyes to look fierce but Skylar knew that he just wanted to cry so much instead of acting brave. James coughed a little and tensed himself up trying to focus on not crying, he continued.

‘Before he had taken her away he locked me and my sister, Lauren, in mums bedroom. He locked us in there because he didnt want us to see what he was doing to our mum. Alls I remember is seeing how much Lauren was bruised, she was crying in the corner, she was only five and I was fourteen. I was banging hard on the door with my fists and I started kicking it but it didnt move, I couldnt do anything to help my mum, I thought he was killing her down there when I heard all of her screams. I finally found a hockey stick, he loved hockey, so I picked it up and hit the door with it plenty of times, the wood was coming of the door so I ran into in and fell through it. Lauren was still crying, I told her to stay put. I picked up the stick, clenched my fist around it and ran down the stairs trying not to make a sound. At first I couldnt find them then I heard a loud scream with a thump going on with it, it was my mum on the ground, dead for all I knew. He had tied her up Sky, tied her feet, hands up and a rope was in her mouth and around her head, blood was dripping from her side onto the ground, he had stabbed her. He stabbed her Skylar. I seen that look in her eyes, they were pitch black with fear, no loving sparkle in them, no, it was fear for me and Lauren and death. I ran across the room towards her when my dad got the gun out of his pocket and shot me in my chest, I fell right down onto my knees and my face landed forwards. I was lying on my chest and I seen my mum before it went into a blur. I just remeber hearing screams of Lauren from upstairs and my dad dragging my mum by the hair out of the back door. After that my eyes just shut, I thought I had died, it probably would have been best anyway. When I woke up, I was in the hospital with a lot of wires attached to me, they were everywhere. I had alot of pains and then I remember hearing off the doctor, he said that Lauren was put up for adoption and that I would be to but it was harder for me to get parents, I said no and I got through life on my own. When I had got discharged from hospital I seen a girl, it was Sammy, she had flowers in her hand she was looking for her dad. We bumped into each other and she was so sorry because she thought she hurt me, she did a bit, I said it was fine. We got to talking and we got along very well. It wasnt long until we met Max, we met him in the cinema two weeks later. Sammy and I arranged to meet each other up again so we watched some movie. We sat next to each other and there was no more seats so this guy, Max, sat next to me he was with his mates, we started laughing at things that werent even funny to his friends but then we knew that we had something in common. We got to talking and Sammy had a soft spot for him and since then we have been the three best friends. Now its the four, Skylar, you complete us and we are glad we met you to.’

He said that last bit with a nice relaxing smile. He looked so cute and young. Skylar felt a hot blush coming on into her cheeks, she tried covering it up with her hair and looked completely stupid! She wanted to ask him questions but she didnt want to cause pain. Nobody spoke for a few moments and she felt awkward, the words just started to slip put of her mouth and she said.

‘Do you know where Lauren is now?’ She quickly covered up her mouth and realised what she had just said and what memories he would be thinking.

Oh my, why am I so stupid to ask that sort of question! Sometimes I need to really shut up!!!

He looked up at her and smiled slightly. He moved his hand from hers and stroked her hair so lightly away from her face. She stared deeply into his eyes and the he spoke, quietly and gently.

‘It OK. I know youll have some questions and I dont mind, I guess its better to get it out and not hide it in anymore. Yeah, I dont know where she is, I dont know if I want to look anymore.’

After he told her everything they moved onto talking about nothing but making a long conversation about it, how weird right? It was easy to talk to James now, they just needed something to say and they were off talking for hours.She felt safe around him and she loved how much they were bonding compared to how they started off. It was... words couldnt put into how it was but nice I suppose.

James slept over. He had to. Skylar couldn't let him walk out there at this time of night-midnight-, it was pitch black and the guilt would of destroyed her. He never bothered her through the night. He had slept in Debbies room. The double bed. He was nice and warm because the radiator was on full blast! Skylar checked on him a lot through the night but he never heard her... she hoped. James had snored a little and Skylar couldn't help but giggle!