The Summer of Ryland

27. Boys Are Back

Kai's POV

I haven't seen Eliza after the whole debacle. I assumed that she was with George and would contact me, just like we discussed in the safety plan. I have tried to go there but no one was home, so I took that as an okay sign. Maybe she went to the police, so it would make sense why I would be the last person she would message. At least this is what I hoped was happening.

"Have you heard from Eliza?" questioned Asia. We were sitting at the table in the cafeteria.

"No. I thought you have." She shook her head and I began to worry.

"I don't have a good feeling about this. She hasn't been in school in about a week." Looking down, my heart began to race. What if he did something to her? I swear I couldn't live at myself. Please let her be okay.

After school, I went to the office. A lady there owed me a favor. 

"Hello Ms. Jackson," I said with a funny accent. A middle-aged woman with black hair looked at me in annoyance.

"What do you want Mr. Blake?" I leaned on the counter and smiled.

"You remember the thing that I have been keeping a secret. Well, I will like to cash in a favor. One of them." She narrowed her eyes at me.

"What would you like?" she asked.

"I need to know about Eliza. Eliza Smith." Ms. Jackson swiveled her chair to look back at her computer. She typed for a few seconds then looked at me. 

"She's on independent study," she told me. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Okay. Thank you." Ms. Jackson hummed and looked away from me pretending to be doing work. Tapping on the counter I signaled at I was about to leave. As I was walking to my car I saw two guys coming towards me. They looked familiar but it seemed as if they had gotten tanner.

"Kai, you look like crap man," Nolan said. I laughed at him. Noel trailing behind him laughed as well.

"He ain't lying tho," pipped up Noel.

"How have you guys been?"

"We are good. How are you?"

"Not doing well. How's Eliza?"

"Actually we came to ask you," Noel responded.

"Yeah, we haven't heard from her in a couple of months. She's been ignoring us. That's why we're here a month earlier. We went home and no one was home. So we thought she would be here." Nolan explain. I took a step back, trying to process the information.

"So she isn't home?" I asked.

"Nope," said Noel.

"Crap!"

"What's up?" Nolan asked me. I shook my head.

"She's on independent study and she's not home so that only means that she's with him," I said.

"Okay. Can you not talk in code," Nolan told me. I looked at him realizing that he didn't know what happened. With them being gone, Eliza ignoring them, and us not having their contact information they were still in the dark when it came to Eliza's situation. 

Walking over a nearby bench to sit down, I heard their steps follow me. They sat down next to me and waited in silence before I dropped the biggest bomb on them.

"So my mom kicked her out. What about my dad?" asked Noel. 

"I don't know if he even knows." Nolan got up, his face red. I can tell he was angry. But I didn't know who at. It could be at his mom, me, or himself. Noel tried to calm him down but it wasn't working. He ran off to their car and took off. Noel looked at his direction with his hands in the air. He slowly walked towards me.