CEM Book Five: DARK WATERS

Beaten

The subject was successfully changed, but not happily so. Each of the boys struggled with the knowledge they shared. They knew exactly where Avi and Rayne were. They knew why they were not at breakfast. They also knew exactly where they had been the night before and what they had just gone through, what they were likely to go through for the rest of their days. They each struggled to put it behind them and doubted that they could just mere hours after the event. There could be no doubt that what had befallen Rayne effected Avi just as deeply. They had all seen him cry before, happy tears and sad, but they had never watched tears of anger and frustration slip from his beautiful eyes and cascade down his face. It rocked them to their very cores and neither of them could honestly say that they didn't feel some of the same anger and frustration, feeling of loss, deep pain and sense of despair. Nor could they stop their fragile minds and aching hearts from thinking about it. They had all fallen for the kind and gentle soul that Rayne possessed and they all loved Avi very deeply. The pain Avi and Rayne had in their hearts had become their pain. The fear, their own and the hurt the pair felt was felt keenly by each of the boys.

They stood there, fumbling over their words, preparing to get caught in their own lies, as they struggled with the right words to say. They didn't want to disclose the events of the early morning hours. They didn't want to not. They were vulnerable and frighten and like scared little children they just wanted to be held. Instead, they fumbled all over each other, trying in their hearts to deny the truth as if that very action would make it less true.

***

Kevin, Mitch, and Scott looked around nervously, each of them trying their best not to meet Ester's eyes. It was a very challenging exercise in futility. There simply was no way to avoid her questioning gaze.

"You sure about that?" She asked coolly eying each of the boys before letting her gaze slide over Kirstin and Kate where her eyebrows raised. What were those boys hiding? They were hiding something. There was simply no two ways about it. But, what were they hiding? Rayne and Avi weren't at breakfast. They got very defensive when discussing their whereabouts, Scott and Kevin speaking up for Avi and his choices with a conviction that was a little more determined than normal. Yet, they stammered over the answer to a simple question as if they knew the correct answer and it varied greatly from the truth. Someone, perhaps all of them, was lying. Ester looked at Mitch hoping he was somehow the weakest link in the chain of boys.

"We spoke to the police last night." Was all that he provided her with. He didn't elaborate or even exaggerate, which was his typical style, he just stopped talking. She looked at him a little longer and notice the bags under his eyes. His eyes had a certain luster that made them look even more alive than normal. There was something there that she hadn't seen in a very long while, yet his words were clipped and almost angry. Despite the happiness she saw in his eyes, there was an underlying sadness that threatened to dominate him and overwhelm his features. He looked like he was on the verge of losing control. Seeing that small light in his amazing beautiful brown eyes made her smile a small knowing smile. Ester found it very difficult to pull her eyes away from Mitch and his tired, nervous, yet completely happy eyes.

She turned next to Scott. He almost always had an air of slight arrogance to him. It just seemed to come with his natural good looks and swaggering confidence. But he was looking particularly smug that morning. He had a little shine in his eyes that said something wonderful happened. And still, something was seriously amiss. He looked tired, but not just in his eyes. He looked tired in his soul. More tired than the beginning of tour should have left him. She watched his blue eyes, more intense and vibrant than she'd seen them in a very long time and found the contradiction he had become a little more than intriguing. There was a happiness that lay over a deep sorrow. It was confusing. She watched as Mitch drew closer to him, slipped a small hand in his and put his head on Scott's shoulder.