Silence » a.i

1.7

The sleepover was fun, even though I was the first to pass out. When I woke up, though, everyone was gone. There wasn't anyone in the living room where we had all stayed. I sat up and called out to any of them but I got no response. I knew at least Luke had to be around but I couldn't find him no matter where I looked, so I just left and went home.

I felt hurt that they disappeared and wouldn't tell me where they were or what happened. No note, no texts, no voicemails. I didn't know what I could've done.

As soon as I entered the house, I went toward the stairs but had to pass by Jeremy in the hallway who was going to the kitchen. He must've noticed how upset I looked because he stopped me.

"Alright, what's up with you?" he demanded after just staring at my face for a few seconds. "Did one of your boyfriends break up with you or something?"

"I wasn't dating all of them," I informed him. "I wasn't even dating one of them."

"Whatever. What happened?" he pressed.

"Do you actually care?" I wondered.

He sighed, "Alright, I hate admitting this, but you are my sister, so yes, I do. Kind of."

I smiled a little at his answer. But that quickly faded when I realized I could never tell Jeremy what was wrong. "Nothing."

"You're not going to tell me?"

"I can't tell you," I stated. "I don't even know what happened."

Jeremy sighed, scratching the back of his head, "Um, is it boy issues?"

"Kind of," I shrugged. "It has to do with them."

"Are you guys fighting?"

"I don't know."

He chuckled and nodded. "Yeah, guys are pretty weird sometimes. Sometimes I can't even tell if you and I are fighting."

I cocked my head to the side, pulling my brows together. "Why?"

Jeremy sighed and leaned back into the wall, crossing his arms over his chest as he looked anywhere but me, "I don't know. We've just always been...not very close. So I kind of felt like I should always be like that. But sometimes when I'm mean, I don't feel mean about it, I guess."

"I'm usually not being mean." I corrected, but I still sounded unsure of myself.

He rolled his head to the side and looked at me. "Really?"

I sighed and stared at my lap. "Okay, maybe I am being mean most of the time."

"You should talk to them," he informed me, changing the subject back to my problem, "I mean, even I talked to you about it. I think you can do this tiny thing."

A smile slowly spread across my face as I looked up at my brother, "Does this mean we're going to actually be nice to each other?"

He shrugged with a smirk and an eye roll, "Maybe. Maybe not," he pushed off the wall and continued toward the kitchen. "Call them, though."

I continued to my room just to change into some real clothes before I left, putting on the sunglasses Michael gave me, along with the bandanna that Ashton had given me. I thought maybe me wearing their stuff would help my case for some reason.

As I walked down the street, still feeling incredibly upset since I was being ignored for a reason I didn't know, I quietly called for Michael, hoping maybe he'd appear with a, "Hey, Cooper, long time no see" but he didn't.

Since Michael wasn't showing up, and I got distracted as I was walking, I ended up in front of Calum's house at the end of the street. I didn't exactly know what to do since I'd never been at his house before. Instead, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and called him.