Control » l.h

Chapter Twenty-Two

L U K E

"Luke," Michael's voice hissed in my ear. "Luke, wake the fuck up!"

I groaned. "What, Mikey?"

"She's gone."

Those two words said aloud made me shoot up in my bed. I searched the sheets for Jemma but she wasn't there. I crawled off the bed to see Calum standing beside Michael with a worried expression. How could Jemma get away from me? I thought I was a pretty light sleeper, not to mention she'd never leave the house. She knew she would get caught. She knew she wasn't sneaky enough to be on her own outside.

"Shit, shit, shit," I kept saying over and over as I paced through the room. I turned back towards Mikey and Calum. "Where's Ashton?"

Calum and Michael looked at each other in confusion. "Um, sleeping." Calum replied.

"Why is he asleep and you two aren't?" I raised an eyebrow, walking towards them. "How did you realize she had left?"

"I fell asleep on the couch downstairs," Calum explained, scratching the back of his head. "I heard the door shut and got really confused so I went to check it out. I didn't see anyone outside so then I got really suspicious. I went investigating and found your picture on the counter. I think she meant to take it but she accidentally forgot it here."

"Calum woke me up and then we tried getting Ashton up but all he said was 'Whatever' before going back to sleep." Michael added.

"That fucking..." I trailed off as I flung the door open and bolted down the two flights of stairs, making my way down the hall to Ashton's room. I burst inside and walked straight to his bed, pulling him up by the collar of his shirt. "What did you do to her?"

"What?" Ashton asked groggily, not bothered by my obvious aggression.

"Jemma. She's gone and you don't seem to care which leads me to believe you had something to do with it." I explained through gritted teeth.

"What, you think I packed her shit for her and just opened the door?" Ashton questioned with a cocky smile.

"You might as well have." I stated.

"I've been sleeping the entire time!" he shouted, finally getting fed up with my accusations. "Yes, Jemma and I have had our troubles and differences, but I didn't make her leave."

"Did you say anything to her after I left?" I questioned.

"Jemma talked to you?" Calum inquired, cocking his head to the side. His expression softened. "That explains the mood change when she came back to the kitchen."

"What mood change?" I demanded, letting go of Ashton and turning towards Calum and Michael.

"She was all happy before she left the kitchen, but when she came back, she was kind of...distant." Michael shrugged.

"It was like she was thinking about something." Calum added.

"Did she say anything to you?" I pressed.

The two boys shook their heads. "She just said she solved everything." Calum said.

I turned my head back to Ashton to glare down at him. "What. Did. You. Tell. Her?"

Ashton sighed and looked up and to the right, thinking back to his conversation with Jemma. He let a breath out between his lips, making a horse-like noise. "I guess I told her to get lost."

"You guess?" I roared, gripping onto Ashton's collar again.

"Alright, alright," Mikey stepped in, breaking my grip off of Ashton. "Obviously Ashton's bright idea didn't work because now we're back to where we were before."

"Look, we just have to go find Jemma and bring her back," Calum said. "The only reason she left was because she thought it would actually fix everything like Ashton said. If we explain that we need her back here, she'll come back."

"It's not like she wants to go back home anyway." Michael pointed out.

"Yeah, we just have to find her." I muttered sarcastically.

"What?" Ashton wondered about my attitude.

"Do you seriously think it'll be easy to find her? There are plenty of other people looking for her too. The hard part isn't going to be finding her, it's finding her before someone else does."

J E M M A

I walked down the dark, almost-abandoned street Luke's friends lived on. It only looked vaguely familiar since I'd actually only seen the road once while trying to get away from Officer Wigg. I was still curious as to why I'd fallen behind that bush and passed out, but now wasn't really the time to think about that. I was running away from the only people who truly understood me, the only real home I'd ever had, and the only boy I'd ever loved. It was all so cliche and sounded so silly to me but it was all true. Those boys were the only people that listened when even my own family wouldn't. And now I was leaving them all because some angsty boy who was probably just jealous that his best friend was spending more time with me had told me to.

Ashton's drastic attitude change was more than odd. He was the one who'd rescued me and usually brought some sort of comic relief to the house. Ashton was always such a sweetheart, and now he wanted nothing more than for me to leave. It was his house so I felt I had to comply, but I also felt that maybe my being gone would mend things with the four boys. They had each other before I even came around. I just had to go and ruin everything for them. I seemed to ruin a lot of things lately.

There was the sadness and emptiness again, buzzing around in my brain and my stomach and my heart and everywhere else possible. I was actually, truly alone as I walked down the street with an old drawstring bag I'd grabbed from the closet in the room I shared with Luke. I'd packed a few snacks and a few water bottles just to keep me full. I'd also grabbed a picture of Luke I'd found in Calum's room when I snuck in while he was asleep in the living room. 

The picture. I searched through the pockets of my pants and jacket but came up empty handed. I must've left it on the counter while trying to get out before Calum woke up. I sighed and kept walking down the street, wishing I was back with Luke and Calum and Michael. But I couldn't go back. I wasn't wanted there. I wasn't wanted at my own house. I just wasn't wanted anywhere except for an insane asylum, apparently. So I just walked down the dark road, letting the sadness and loneliness lead me wherever.

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it's boring but i needed to update