Too Many Secrets To Hide | ✔| #Wattys2017

Chapter Five

Word Count: 3229

   The rest of the week passed typically. I remained paranoid for the duration of our time at home and I was sleeping more in class than in my own bed. For this I blamed Jasper, but he was having very much the same issue as me so I didn't contest him about it. It had become a routine for Jasper to take me home, which I'm sure he didn't like to do (despite saying my house was on his way home; I doubted that) but if it would keep me from waiting outside alone, he was willing. Of course, Bel got in on it too, her and Maddox would wait for Jasper and I to come get them everyday after their respective practices. Games didn't start until next week.
  
   Even though I had managed to cope with the growing symptoms of dementia during the week, by the time Saturday came, I couldn't take it anymore. And, of course, I had no one to call but Jasper. He agreed readily to take Bel and I on a trip to the mall if it would get us out of the house. At first, my mom didn't want to let us go, but after a few glances from dad, they seemed eager to be left alone. I thought it was borderline disgusting, personally. But hey, at least we got to get out of the house.
  
   Jasper and Maddox pulled up in his mustang, Bel and I climbing into the back. Maddox seemed very happy to have his shotgun seat status restored after an entire week of it being compromised to some girl he'd only just met. I laughed a little at it, because I was older than him anyway. Besides, he didn't seem particularly upset about sharing the back seat with Bel, who was now officially his girlfriend. Jasper and I, however, had no such title. Even as Bel got into the car giggling and Maddox smiled blushingly, I only glanced at Jasper with a not so nice tinge veiling my face. He was convinced, now that I had stopped sitting with him at lunch and instead with some of the girls on the volleyball team, that the only reason I had gone on that date was to go along with his plan for our siblings. Somehow, he seemed hurt by it. It almost made me feel bad, but how could I when I was so busy looking over my shoulder all the time? I didn't know it then, but Jasper would put a stop to that today.
***
   "Relax," he told me low enough so that neither of our siblings could hear, starting to massage my shoulders. I couldn't deny how good it felt, but relax? Easy for him to say. Right now we were walking through the mall, in much the same way as we had walked the night of the double date. Only this time, Maddox and Bel we're holding pinkies and I was getting am unsolicited back rub. "How can I?" I replied back to him. It probably sounded a little snarky the way I made a point of looking at Bel and Maddox with my voice was low. "It'll be alright," he murmured dangerously close to my ear as we stopped in front of a store. He adjusted his grip on my shoulders and kept massaging them perfectly. I involuntarily sighed and leaned my head into his neck. He made absolutely no effort to move, but instead followed as I tried to pull away. He placed a gentle kiss just under my ear before he finally surrendered and gave me some space. I was glad Bel and Maddox were too caught up in themselves to notice Jasper and I.
 
   "Ooh, I wanna go in there," Bel started pulling Maddox towards a Forever 21 at the same time I took interest in a shoe store with a buy-one-get-one sign on display. "I guess this is where we split up," Jasper chuckled a little bit. Maddox nodded, trying to hold Bel away from the store, although she tugging quite extensively. "Meet us at the food court in two hours," Jasper ordered. Maddox nodded and finally went with Bel, but not before receiving a warning glare from both me and Jasper. I watched unwillingly as my sister and his brother disappeared together into the store before I let Jasper take my arm and lead me into the shoe store I had been looking at.
   I soon got relatively lost in the store. I wasn't obsessed with shoes, and I didn't need a pair for each outfit, but I did like to have a pair that matched each outfit. The difference between myself and most shoe fanatics was that I tried to buy shoes that could be worn with multiple outfits. I didn't like to buy a pair and only have one thing to wear it with. I was actually a bit of a tight wad.
   "I like these," I said smiling just a tiny bit in front of the little mirror. Jasper sat on a bench examining the light yellow heels I had donned. "I had a pair almost just like this before we moved," I explained, "but I made the mistake of leaving them outside unattended for five minutes," I was now grumbling. "The neighbors dog got a hold of them and I didn't ask for them back." Jasper chuckled at my story. I had to admit it was kind of comical, but it certainly hadn't seemed so at the time. I continued looking at the shoes, they were only slightly higher than the other ones I had had before we moved.
   I took the heels off and put them back in the box, intending to buy them. But, since there was a buy-one-get-on-free deal going on, I had to find another pair. I voiced this to Jasper who only smiled and took the box from me. I searched over the shelves, trying to think of what outfits I had with no shoes to go with very well. I remembered a mint colored dress I had that I had been wearing white heels with. Since I had seen a pair of mint colored shoes in the same style as the yellow ones Jasper held, I went back to those. All the time, Jasper followed me around the shoe store diligently and without complaint. I finally did decide on the mint colored pair, and we went to check out.
   The female cashier nearly started drooling over Jasper, but I gave her a menacing look. It was enough for her to get the message, but I wasn't sure why I had acted like that. It wasn't like he was my boyfriend, or even remotely a love interest at this point.
 
   I was still digging in my purse for the money when Jasper slapped the correct bills onto the counter from behind me. I looked back up at him quickly, but his eyes barely met mine for a split second. I decided it would be best not to question him now and wait until we got out of the store.
  
   "You didn't have to pay," I said to Jasper who was toting the bag with my shoes. "I wanted to," he answered with a shrug. I flashed him my exaggerated pouty face. "You shouldn't have," I snapped back. "Well, who has a job and who doesn't?" he countered with just a hint of a smile threatening to over take him. I crossed my arms over my ribs and looked away from him. But wait, he had a job? "You work?" I asked. He nodded. "I work evenings after practice," he told me. "So you had to take a day off for the date?" I queried. He shook his head. "No, I have Friday's, Saturday's and Sundays off." I still had a little bit saved up from babysitting back home, but now I was considering getting a job when I turned 16.
   We passed by a store that had the cutest bags I had ever seen in my life. I liked bags, very much. But I quickly dismissed the store when I noticed how expensive they looked. "Do you wanna go in there?" Jasper asked. "No..." I lied. "Yes you do," Jasper accused, and I knew I was caught. "They just look so expensive," I whined. "So?" Jasper retorted, a devious grin to go with it. I rolled my eyes. "I'll buy you whatever you want," he told me. Suddenly, my expression turned accusing and angry. So that's what this was about. He was trying to buy his way into my heart. I was utterly disgusted. "You can't buy me, you know." I sneered at him, walking away. "No no no, that's not what I meant," he tried to explain chasing after me. He came around in front of me, his large frame forcing me to stop. "I was just trying to be nice, I'm not trying to buy you. Even if I was, I would have known by the way you reacted to me paying in the shoe store that that wouldn't be happening." I considered, he made sense. Honestly, I didn't see him as the 'try to impress her with money' type anyway. I shuffled my feet, embarrassed for having overreacted. I felt him smiling down at me, grabbing my elbow gently and directing me towards the shop with the bags.
  
   I didn't fight him, and instead thought of Maddox. I knew he was very much like his older brother, so he would insist on paying. Bel, on the other hand, differed from me in this one way that she wasn't nearly so sparing with money as I was. I could only imagine what he was having to buy her. I said as much to Jasper who just shrugged. "He works too, he has some money. When he doesn't blow it on stupid stuff." I could see he had the same issue with a money wasting younger sibling that I did. But more importantly, Maddox worked? "Don't child labor laws keep him from working?" I asked. "He...found a job he could do," Jasper said hesitantly, sure to not give out too many details. I respected that and didn't press the matter further.
  
   Without very much help from Jasper, I soon got lost with all the bags. I was deciding between two mint handbags to go with the dress I had bought the shoes for when Jasper's phone rang. I glanced over and saw Maddox's face on the screen. I instantly went on alert. It hadn't been two hours yet, had it? The word "hello" was barely out of Jasper's mouth before Maddox's voice could be heard frantically on the line. "I can't find Bel!" he exclaimed. I dropped the bags and started for the exit in pace with Jasper. "What?" he growled, the entire store instantly whipped their heads up, mostly in evident fear. They must have thought the store was being robbed by the tone of his voice. I couldn't blame them though, the anger flashing in his eyes terrified me too.
  
   He grabbed my hand before he pulled me into the onslaught of people in the mall. I listened to Maddox as best I could make out. "I don't know," he tried to explain. "She went into the changing rooms at Old Navy and she just never came out. I tried calling her twice but she never answered and I never heard her phone ring. After that it just started going straight to voice mail." Maddox was panicking, even his voice trembled. Jasper was in no such condition. "How could you do this, Maddox?" he roared. "I give you one fucking responsibility. One! And you lost her?" His grip tightened on my hand as he spoke.
  
   I heard Maddox again. "I looked in all the stalls, but they made me leave before I could get a good look and I couldn't get her scent anywhere." Scent? He sounded near to tears. "Where are you now?" Jasper asked, finally calming down slightly. "Standing outside Old Navy," he replied quietly. Jasper took a deep breath before he could answer. "Stay there," he ordered. "We're on our way. And don't get lost, Maddox," he snarled. Then, without waiting for a response, he ended the call.
  
   Jasper turned his head to look at me, the rage in his eyes about to meet the rage in mine. To my surprise, his expression was nothing but sympathetic when we made eye contact though. "I'm so sorry," he murmured, leaning down close to my face. "I promised she would be alright." he raised back up and shook his head sorrowfully, pulling me along at a pace so fast I had to run at times to keep up with his long strides. I didn't answer his apology though. I couldn't decide if it was his fault. On one hand, he was the jerk who got Bel and I involved in all of this. On the other, he hadn't abducted Bel right from the changing room. And to add to that, he was under the impression I would be happy about all this one day.
  
   Instead of trying to make sense of anything on my own, I asked a question. "What did Maddox mean by he couldn't get her scent?" Jasper didn't seem like he wanted to answer that. "It's her perfume," he finally says. "Maddox has a very good sense of smell." It wasn't a very good excuse, but I wouldn't press the issue because I knew finding my sister was far more important than someone's impressive nose.
  
   We moved as fast as we could in the crowd, Jasper visibly irritated with the number of them. He grumbled about it under his breath, paying no mind to the people we nearly knocked over as we shoved by. We made it to Old Navy quickly, and it wasn't hard to spot a remarkably distraught Maddox by the entrance. He was rubbing his wrist like it hurt and Jasper eyed him intently as if it had some kind of important meaning. I couldn't understand how it could even hold a candle to the disappearance of my sister, so I brushed it off.
  
   "I tried to look in the changing room," he said like he had on the phone. "But security threw me out." The reason for that was clear, and it was evident to at least myself that I was the only one capable of searching the women's fitting rooms any further. I voiced this, both boys seemed against the idea. Then Maddox spoke up. "She was on the left side, that's all I know," he said solemnly. I nodded. Jasper followed me to the back of the store. I quickly grabbed a pair of jeans that were clearly way too small for me, but I was able to get into the fitting rooms without any problem. I checked each individual stall down the row. I got to the fifth one down and spotted the shirt Bel had been wearing. I rushed inside, searching for a sign of anything. I looked for a secret door, a lever, a loose wall panel. Nothing. It was as if she just...vanished.
  
   I stormed back out of the room, threw down the jeans and kept a firm grip on the shirt. Jasper snatched it from hand without hesitation and put it to his nose. He took a deep breath...sniffing it...oddly. His pupils began to dilate and he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the store. He shoved the shirt in Maddox's face as soon as he was within reach. His reaction was the same as his brother's, but neither one said anything. I had to yell 'what' three times before either of them finally spoke. "We can't go after her," Jasper said without even looking back at me.
  
   I opened my mouth to argue, but he swung around to face me, hands on my shoulders cutting my argument short. "They're baiting us, Cadence," he told me softly, but sternly. "If we go after her now, that will be exactly what they want and we will all end up prisoners." I tried to take in what he said, but it didn't change that I was fuming. I shook him off of me. "We're going to get my sister back," I demanded. "Now." Jasper sighed heavily. "That's what they want," he reiterated. "They won't badly harm her," he stated with a glance over my shoulder at Maddox who clutched his wrist like a vice. "You said you would protect her with your life!" I protested. In an instant he was back in my face. "And I will," he snarled angrily, his nose roughly an inch from mine. He held my eyes still with his for a moment before turning back around.
  
   He took my hand again, gently as if he was trying to make up for snapping at me. I accepted it, realizing that, being totally ignorant in this situation, Jasper and Maddox were the only two people in the world I knew who even had a chance at finding my sister. I would try to remember that before I did anything stupid, or got myself lost neck deep in matters I didn't understand. For Bel's sake, I vowed to comply to the wishes of the two boys as they posed the only reasonable means of finding her. I felt imprisoned by my ignorance and helplessness, and that was all I could do.
  
   We made it to car, Maddox taking the backseat like it was his place now. Jasper draped the shirt over the dash as he closed the driver door. I guess I had assumed he was taking me home, or I hadn't wondered because I was too concerned for Bel. "I'm taking you to my parents house." he informed me. First I was surprised, then I was horrified at the realization of my current situation. I was trapped in a car with two guys bigger than myself (despite one being younger) heading to a house with people I had never met. It wouldn't have been so bad if not for Bel's disappearance, but because of that my paranoia was skyrocketing. Jasper must have sensed it. "It's going to be okay, I promise," he told me softly. "You said Bel would be okay too," I sneered. "What I said was she would be okay in the end," he stated. He was right, that was what he had said, but right now I felt new anger surging through my boiling blood. "You knew this would happen?" I yelled. Jasper shifted in his seat. "I honestly didn't think it would, but I knew it was a possibility." I slammed my back into the seat, and didn't say anything else to Jasper.
  
   Maddox, silent in the back, seemed completely disengaged from any type of conversation, or existing for that matter. He slumped into his seat looking as depressed as I felt enraged. "Maddox," I spoke to him looking in the rear view mirror. "I want you to know that I'm not blaming you for this." He perked up slightly, a hopeful gleam in his sad eyes, but it didn't help much. He really felt something for Bel, the girl he barely knew. I leveled a tentative glance at Jasper. I knew how much of an influence on his younger brother's life he was. Did Jasper feel something for me, too?
  
   It was the question I would never ask.