Bad Memories // a.u.

chapter 25: tracking

keaton's pov

"Ok, so where do we start?" Skylar asked. We were all (minus Wes) sitting in a circle on their living room floor. She had a notebook in her hand and a pen sticking out of her mouth. It was the next day and we had gotten no leads on where to look for Noelle. I was starting to think that she was out of the state entirely and this guy was going to murder her any minute.

"Who is this that took her again?" Drew asked, scooting up closer behind Skylar and wrapping his arms around her middle. "No one ever really explained this to me."

"The guy that killed her parents, Drew," I told him, not wanting to deal with his unnecessary questions. "And we did explain this to you earlier. Now can we move on and brainstorm, please?"

"Keaton. I know you're worried because so am I. She's my best friend in the whole world, but you don't need to take it out on Drew."

I wanted to roll my eyes at them, acting all cuddly and happy in front of me - like they had everything, but instead I apologized. I knew I was acting out because I just wanted to find Noelle. "Ok, can we please start thinking of where to look?" I asked more nicely.

Skylar smiled politely before drawing random doodles in the notebook in her lap. "I just have no idea. I mean he could've taken her anywhere."

I threw my head back against the couch I was leaning against. "There has to be something. Maybe we just aren't thinking hard enough."

We sat in silence for a long while before Skylar gasped, causing my head to shoot up. "What is it?" I asked, not expecting much.

"Ok, so I don't know if she'll know anything and I know you said you didn't want to involve the police but Noelle's aunt is the one that told her about the guy coming to California, right? So maybe she knows about his whereabouts? We could call her and ask her?"

"But if we call her and tell her that Noelle is missing, won't she want to involve the rest of the police or come to California or something?" I interjected. 

"Do you have anything better?" Drew asked. 

I glared at him. I wondered why he was even here because all he seemed interested in was kissing Skylar's neck and asking questions he already knew the answer to. "No I don't," I sighed.

Skylar pulled out her phone, but realized she didn't have Noelle's aunt's number. "I'll have to look it up," she stated and I handed her my laptop that had been sitting on the coffee table. She found the number within ten minutes and soon had her phone to her ear. I wished that she put the call on speaker phone, but soon the call was over and she hung up.

"So?" I asked, eagerly. "What did she say?"

"She said that she wished we would've told her Noelle is missing and she can't keep it from the station, but also that she put a tracker thing or something in her phone and synced it to mine before we left to come here. I'm not sure what that means though."

"Skylar!" I exclaimed. "That means we can use your phone to track where she is!"

noelle's pov

A couple more days have passed. Ian finally let me have a shower. The water was freezing and the water pressure was terrible, but my body feels clean for the most part at least. I had to put back on my filfthy clothes though, which made me feel disgusting again. My hair dried into waves around my face without me being able to brush through it. 

Now, I sat on the twin sized bed with the floral sheets in the windowless room of the cabin and wait. I wait for Jake to bring me a glass of water. I wait for Ian to bring me dinner. I wait for Ian to make his move because I know that eventually he will. That's the whole point of him kidnapping me, right? To murder me like he did my parents? I wait for the heat to go away even though I know it won't. I wait for my hunger to go away.  I wait for my rescue that I know isn't going to come because if it hasn't come yet, why would it come now? 

A soft knock at the door startled me, but also confused me. Ian and Jake usually didn't knock - they just entered. I sat up on the bed, criss-crossing my legs. "Hey, Noelle. Just bringing you water," Jake announced, opening the door.

"Why did you knock?" I questioned. 

He shrugged, holding out the glass. "Thought I would polite?"

"Whatever," I mumbled, gulping down the water. Jake was anything but polite and I knew not to trust him ever again. I couldn't believe what he told me the other day about wanting payback on Skylar and that was why he was helping his uncle. It stunned me that they were related at all. 

Jake took the glass from me, but instead of leaving he took a seat in the chair next to the bed. "So, why are you being so rude, Noelle?" he asked, his voice deep. 

I ignored him as I stretched out on the bed and closed my eyes. There was no way I was going to talk to him if he wasn't going to help me escape from his murderous uncle.

"Oh come on, Noelle. Stop being such a baby. You had to know that I wouldn't help you."

This made me sit up again and scowl at him. He helped me that night when I was having one of my bad memory flashes and I gained some respect for him. Then he was nice to me on the street that time. 

"Don't hurt yourself, Noelle. If you wanna say something, say it," Jake pushed.

I layed back down and shook my head. He wasn't worth it. He got up and left, closing the door behind him. I covered my face with my hands and I couldn't help but think about blaming Skylar for everything.  

Hi guys (: please vote/comment. what do you think of jake? do you think they'll find noelle? xx zoe