Never Been Kissed

Chapter 9

I blinked in shock at Xavier's words due to the fact that I was at an utter loss for words myself.

"That's the face I was afraid about." He said with a twitch of a smile playing at the corner of his lips.

"I'm sorry I didn't mean to." I apologised honestly. I twiddled my fingers in my lap. "It's just that you're always so happy, and sweet and nice. I would've expected that someone who's sister was kidnapped and sold to strangers would be a little more secluded and conservative. Possibly even anti social."

He looked past me into the dark winded path that lead down farther into the park. "At first I was afraid to step foot outside of my house. I thought if my sister was so easily kidnapped that the same would happen to me. My mother nearly went crazy. She called the authorities, posted signs, paid local companies to make advertisements and missing child announcements on t.v." He stopped to take a breath. " It was tough to see her worry so much. I was still shocked that she had gone to school and never arrived home. I was only five and had just started kindergarten. I was nervous about school since it was my first year, but with the whole incident it got worse. She was twelve and had just started seventh grade."

"What happened? How did you find her?" I asked in a voice that didn't even seem like my own. Everything seemed surreal. I never thought that I'd meet another person who could relate to something like that. Memories rushed back but I pushed them away in order to listen to Xavier more intently.

"Well we knew the last place she had been seen was at her school. So mom made all the security guards submit themselves for questioning, the cameras taken down to see their recordings, she hired a detective. Everything you can think up from those missing person's t.v shows, she did." He responded. I reached out a hand to him and he wrapped his hand around mine and held it close. I scooted over and let him wrap his arms around me. I knew it had to be terrible bringing back all those memories so I said, "You don't have to tell me."

His voice was muffled by my coat which he was speaking into. "It feels good to talk about it with someone else outside of the family. A lot of the family actually faded out and left. They didn't want to help or have anything to do with the matter." I looked up at him in shock.

"But they're your family!" I was shocked and amazed at how insensitive they were. The whole point of family is to be there to help and support when times get tough, you need a shoulder to cry on, or just need some reassurance that everything will turn out alright.

Xavier let out a shaky breath and I could feel his shallow shudders the way I shudder when I'd feel when I was about to cry. He continued. "They found her eight years later. She had just turned twenty. I remember the day we got the phone call. The guy said 'is this the Carterson residence?' " He mimicked the offiecer's voice comically and I couldn't help but grin at his acting.

"My mom literally said 'Part of it. We've been missing a big part of this family for a while.' so they guy goes 'Well I was wondering if you could come down to the station. There's someone here by the name of Kinley. She says she would like to speak with a member of the Carterson family.' My mom dropped the phone and passed out. I couldn't get her back so I answered the phone thinking it was the bastard who kidnapped Kinley. I found out it was an officer and he wanted us to come pick her up."

"So was it her?" My eyes wide and hopeful for him to tell me that it was.

 He smiled warily. "Yea. It was her." He looked down at his hands which I could see were balled into fists causing his knuckles to turn whiter than they usually were. "My mother was barely conscious so we called a cab to drive us to the precinct. She was there waiting for us.It was as if Kinley was there, but her presence she would always bring to the room..." He stopped momentarily as if to think through his next words. "It was just all gone. The last memories I had before she disappeared were of her laughing and being her usual bubbly lively self."