Last 2 years of Ciara's life

Chapter 3

I woke up early morning and packed my bag. I just checked myself out in the mirror one last time. My blonde hair perfectly hanged till my shoulder. And the mascara on my hazel eyes looked just perfect. And I was wearing the dress Lucas gave me on our first date. Before getting out of my home, I noticed the book on the shelf. I thought of taking it to school. I slid it into my bag and walked out of my home.

Once we were at school I walked to my locker. I was arranging all my books. That is when Lucas walked to me. "Hey, Ciara."

"Hey. Lucas." I said and forced a smile.

"Are you free tonight?" He asked

"Oh. I am sorry but I am kind of busy tonight." I said, turned and tried to walk away. And it was the truth, I had to find out more about the book and I had to keep it a secret from Lucas. I took like two steps or something away from him and he said from behind me,

"I am not done talking." After he said that, he waited for me to turn back. When I turned towards him he continued "Are you trying to avoid me or something? Because it feels like you don't care about me anymore, You are always busy. The last time I asked you out also you were busy. Aren't you becoming too busy for me nowadays?"

"I am so sorry, Okay? I do care about us." I replied. That was when my phone vibrated. i took it out and replied to the message from one of my old friends. "But, I have already got plans. I love you Lucas." I said and continued looking at my phone and started walking away.

"Oh really? Do you? It looks like you are more interested in your phone." After a pause he continued, "Okay then, tell me when was our first date? " He said snatching the phone from my hands.

"Give me my phone," I replied harshly.

"Tell me and I will return it."

"Lucas, just give it!" I said trying to snatch it from him.

That is when Chloe walked from behind Lucas. "Hey, Chloe," I said.

Hearing this Lucas turned to Chloe. In this duration of time, I mouthed Chloe to distract Lucas.

"Hey, Lucas," Chloe said and kept talking to him. Meanwhile, I searched my bag for the book. I found the book. I knew our date was sometime around April or May. And according to the book our first date was on May 7th. I searched for all the details I could get. I slid the book back into my bag and called out to Chloe.

"Hey. Chloe. We were kind of in a conversation."

"Yeah. Sure, I will leave you lovebirds alone for some time." She said and winked her eye at me. The plan worked out pretty well.

After Chloe walked away I started talking to Lucas. "Hey so give my phone back."

"You didn't answer my question."

"Oh yeah... Fine. Our first date was on 7th May. Time was 8:06 at night. It was at a restaurant. Name of the restaurant was Olive Pit. I wore a black layered ruffle top and blue skinny jeans. You were in your white t-shirt and black jacket and blue jeans. You gave me the dress I am wearing right now as a present. I ate mashed potatoes and you ate spaghetti. And for dessert, We both had cookies and cream Ice cream with chocolate syrup. And I remember that there was this really dumb guy in the table across ours who kept laughing for all of your lame jokes." I said and laughed thinking of that moment.

He looked stunned.

"Is that enough information or do you need more?"

"No. That was enough. Actually more than enough." He said and handed over the phone to me. His looked kind of confused and shocked, but I also saw a look of sadness in his eyes. Probably because he realised i am way more awesome than him. Okay i am just kidding, he is an amazing person. 

"See. I do care about us and I love you, Lucas." I hugged him and took off to my first class. but, deep down I knew that something was wrong. I saw it in his eyes, I just didn't know what...

................

After returning home from school, I thought of how that book saved my relationship today. It really did. I was actually starting to like the book. I started using the book for many other reasons. I started getting reasons to defend myself each time I had a fight with Chloe or anyone. Even Chloe was actually starting to like that book.

But I still wondered what was the story behind this because it was impossible. How could there possibly be a book which contains one whole year of my life? Each and every detail. Many questions started torturing me. 

The next day as I walked to school with Chloe, I started talking about this book.

"Chloe. How do you think this book has all the details about my life? "

"I don't know. Maybe someone was stalking you your entire life."

"What? That is a stupid answer, Chloe. Very Stupid."

We reached in front of the school and that is when I remembered something.

"Maybe we should contact this Linda person"

"What person?" Chloe

"The person whose name was there on the book cover before me. Maybe she knows something." I said and walked towards my locker.

"Maybe, I can check her out on all kind of social media," Chloe said excitedly.

"But we don't know her full name,"

"Who cares? I can find that out. " Chloe said and we separated our ways.

I asked a lot of people in our school about Linda, if she lived nearby then maybe she has some friends. I just hoped that I could find out about what happened. Many didn't know her and some others knew but didn't want to talk about her. Finally, Riley in my English class knew about her. About Linda.

"Linda went missing 2 years ago. Her body was never found. The investigation went on for almost three months. They couldn't find her. And then they believed that she is dead. They never searched for her again. That is all I know" Riley said

"Any idea what kind of a person she was?"

"As far as I knew she was not that popular until she went missing, she was more of an introvert."

"Where was she from?"

"Not from around here, she was in a different school," Riley said.

I did not know about this incident because it happened in another town near to ours. And she was in a different school. It was hard to believe that something like this happened near our town. I knew nothing about her so it was hopeless. I couldn't contact her now because she is no more. But then I thought of contacting her family.

"Ohh, What was her last name by the way?" I asked Riley

"I think it was Linda Parker"

"Is her family still here?" I asked

"Yeah, I guess. They used to live just near the 'willow cafe', but now I have no idea."

"Oh. Well, thanks for helping me out."

I really had to meet up with them for more information. If they were still here...

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