Lightning (Thunder Sequel)

Chapter 18

Ryan's POV:

I knock on the door of my neighbor's house, Kyleigh's house. Her mother opens the door greeting me with a smile.  "Hello, Ryan, how are you doing?" I wonder if she knows about the fight Kyleigh and I had just the other day or not.  However that is exactly the reason I'm here.  I realize that even though she is keeping a lot of secrets from me, under our circumstances I understand.  I'm ready to admit that I shouldn't have been so upset with her and I'm ready to apologize.

"I'm good, Mrs. Everson. Is Kyleigh here?"

"Actually she is spending the weekend with Caitlyn.  I haven't heard from her; I don't know when she will be back here."

"Oh, that's alright. Thank you," I say politely.  We say a quick goodbye and I leave, and instead of going back home, I walk in the opposite direction, knowing that Caitlyn's house is just a few blocks down the street.

I pull out my phone as I walk and I try to call her again.  The phone rings, and rings, and rings, and goes to voicemail.  I immediately hang up, not wanting to leave a voicemail because I already had left one last time I tried to call.

I don't intend to knock on Caitlyn's door. In fact I don't even know why I'm walking this way. I guess I'm just hoping that I might end up bumping into Kyleigh on the street by coincidence.  Evidently that doesn't happen, however, when I do reach Caitlyn's part of the street, I hear a voice calling out, "Gem! Gem, get back here!"  Suddenly a calico cat runs around the corner of the house and finds a hiding place underneath the front porch. An exhausted Caitlyn appears around the corner as well.  She notices me walking down the street and says, "Hi, Ryan!!"

I stop walking and respond jokingly, "Hey... Are you having trouble there?"

"My mom and I are trying to get my cat to a veterinarian appointment but she decided to start running away from us.  Did you happen to see her?"

"Yeah, she ran under the porch," I answer, pointing in the direction of the hiding calico.

"Thanks!" She walks toward the porch, crouches down onto her knees and looks underneath the porch in the dark, muddy, probably spiderweb infested area the cat ran into.

"Hey, uh, I'm actually looking for Kyleigh, and her parents said she was spending the weekend with you."

Caitlyn has her torso under the porch now, with her arms reaching into the darkness in search of the misbehaving cat.  Her slightly muffled voice replies, "Kyleigh isn't here.  I haven't seen her since school on Friday."  Two days ago.  That's when I last saw her as well.

"Are you sure?" I ask again.

"If she was here right now, I would've had her catch Gem.  It would've been so much easier with her powers. Caitlyn crawls out of the small space with a struggling cat in her arms. "Gotcha!" she says to the cat as it accepts defeat.  Turning in my direction, Caitlyn says, "I haven't even talked to Kyleigh. Why? Did something happen?"

"Well..." I say, running my hand through my blonde hair to push it away from my face, "she and I had a bit of a fight on Friday..."

"Oh. Then maybe she is just avoiding you, needs some space," Caitlyn says, trying to give some friendly advice.

"You're probably right," I say, feeling it unnecessary to say any of the details of this situation to Caitlyn. Neither her parents or her best friend know where Kyleigh is. I decide that I shouldn't be so obsessive about this right now though, so I choose to just apologize to Kyleigh when I see her at school tomorrow.

But when the next day comes around, Kyleigh isn't at school. Caitlyn tells me that Kyleigh's parents had called and asked about her but Caitlyn didn't know what to say. She and I become a bit worried at this point. I decide that it is time I do some further investigating.