Vanished

Chapter 11

Three weeks. It's been three weeks and Lorenzo is still working at Buckley's. I'm not exactly sure why he hasn't gone home yet, considering we haven't had a real conversation since our "date", but I hope he leaves soon. I mean, don't get me wrong I really like him, it's just his presence is distracting. Whenever we work together the tension between us is so high that I can barely do my job sometimes. I've resorted to basically having to ignore him to get the job done. That's the only way I can focus.

At the moment Its closing time on a Thursday night, and Lorenzo and I are beginning to clean up. During this time, we usually don't say anything to each other, so I was surprised when I heard Lorenzo call out my name.

"Hey bailee?"

I turn to look at him, halting my cleaning from moments before.

"Yeah Lorenzo?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to go to this Christmas party being thrown tomorrow? A friend of mine from high school lives in this area and invited me."

Before I can respond, he continues.

"I know you and your friend Josh have that thing you always do on Fridays, so maybe you can both come to this party tomorrow. A party is fun so it fits the title." He says with a smile, trying to convince me to go.

"I don't know Lorenzo," I respond hesitantly, "I've never been to a party before and my mom would kill me if she found out."

Plus, we haven't had a real conversation in weeks, so this is sort of abrupt. I added in my mind.

"Well if you don't like it, I'll get you and Josh out of there in a second. Also, does your mom really have to know?" He says slyly, smirking.

I sigh, "Fine, but if I get in trouble its your fault."

Lorenzo smiles brightly.

"Awesome, you won't regret it." He says excitedly.

"Is there anything special I need to wear?" I ask, not having any idea of proper party attire.

"No, just wear whatever you want. Casual clothes are perfect."

I smile "Alright, what time should we meet here?"

He thinks before responding.

"Well, the party starts at 9 so we can meet here at 9:30. It's always good to be a little late to a party."

"Okay." I reply chuckling, continuing my cleaning when the conversation finishes.

9:00 PM

"Josh, just wear whatever you want, and hurry up because we're supposed to be at Buckley's at 9:30." I whisper quietly over the phone, trying not to alert my mom.

"B, this better be fun or else you just ruined Fun Friday for the whole week." Josh says dramatically, putting on cologne over facetime.

"Don't be so dramatic." I roll my eyes at him through the phone. "I'm going to try to sneak out now. Wish me luck."

He laughs and replies, "Good luck girl."

I hang up the phone and put it into the back pocket of my skinny jeans.

As I begin to quickly sneak out of my room, I look under the crack of my mom's bedroom to see the light is off. That's a good sign.

I continue to sneak down the staircase as slowly and quietly as possible. As I'm 1 second from opening the door, I feel a presence behind me and quickly turn around in shock.

"oh my god Ash, you scared me." I exclaim with my hand over my heart.

He looks at me blankly before asking, "Where are you sneaking off to?"

I debate on telling him the truth. He could tell my mom, but then again maybe he could cover for me?

"I'm actually going to hang out with my friend Josh. We forgot it was Fun Friday and we can't ruin tradition. Please don't tell my mom."

Okay, that was a semi-lie. Not too bad.

"I won't tell your mom, I'm not a tattle tale Bailee. Hopefully this gets me some good guy points though." He laughs slightly, walking back to the kitchen where I assume he was getting something to eat.

I smile, but don't respond. Maybe I shouldn't have given Ash such a hard time when we first met...Whatever that doesn't matter right now. What matters is, I'm about to be late!

I rush to Buckley's and get out of the car quickly.

"Hey guys, I'm sorry I'm late."

I say sort of out of breath after having just ran inside the café.

Josh laughs.

"You aren't late Bailee, its not even 9:30 yet."

Oh. I guess I should have checked the time before rushing over here.

I laugh in embarrassment, dragging my hand through my hair in nervousness.

"Oh, well I see you guys have met each other."

Lorenzo smiles.

"Yeah, Josh is really cool. I can see why you guys are best friends." He says sweetly, while Josh secretly mouths "He's hot" to me behind Lorenzo's back, making me blush.

"Yeah, he can be a handful sometimes though." I joke. "You want to get going now?"

"Yeah sure, lemme just grab my keys." Lorenzo replies.

And with that, we were off to the party that would be the ripple effect for everything. If I would have known what was to come, I would have done things way differently. To bad we cant see the future...