Last Kiss in Paris

Chapter 9 - Alek Tries to Become a Player

Suggested Song: Hotline Bling by Drake

You used to call me on my cell phone

Late night when you need my love

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Amrisha dreamed about Pierre kissing her again. When she awoke, it took several seconds before the reality of the situation crashed around her. Saige had been missing for almost ten hours now.

She found Sophie and the boys already downstairs, seated at their usual spot in the buffet restaurant. They were huddled together, ashen faced and murmuring to each other, while clutching mugs of coffee. When they saw Amrisha, they greeted her half-heartedly and she noticed that they too had dark shadows under their eyes. "Any news?" Amrisha asked.

"No," Sophie said. "Johnson sent out another search party an hour ago. They're doing the best they can along with the police, but Paris is a big place." She sighed, then looked back down at her coffee. Shortly after they had alerted Coach Johnson of Saige's disappearance, the police had been called and helped search well into the night. The rest of them had been locked in their rooms and forbidden to exit. Even so, Amrisha and Sophie had spent hours in their room pacing and looking out of the window.

"It's all my fault," Alek muttered again. "I shouldn't have given that dare. It was stupid."

"No Alek," Buvhi said firmly, "If it was any of our fault, it would be that jerk Pierre's. He didn't even say a single thing the whole time."

"Ran off to that other dumb party!" Luc added angrily. They all nodded in agreement. Their table seemed empty, and as Amrisha scanned the area, she realised that two other seats were unoccupied as well as Saige's.

"Hey, where's Mel? And Emanda?"

"Oh, them," Sophie shook her head and looked slightly annoyed. "I can't believe it. Emanda, maybe, but Mel? Unbelievable." She stretched out that last word

"What happened?" Amrisha questioned, still looking around for them. As Sadipoh started to reply, she spotted them and her stomach dropped to the ground.

"They enjoyed Aiden's party a bit too much. Joined that weird as Underscore Software gang." Mel and Emanda were sitting with Ashton, Davis and some others in the table across from them, and were laughing, fully engrossed in conversation. Did they not care about Saige at all?

Amrisha looked away, unable to believe her eyes. "So Mel's officially ditched?"

"Well she told me she needed a 'break' from us, so probably," Sophie shrugged.

*

As the students headed to school, there was still no news of Saige. However, just after lunch, Davis ran into Amrisha, Sophie and the boys, who were just about to head to gym class. "Guys guys guys!" he panted. Davis was a pale Austrian boy who had a reputation for talking too much, being nosey and pretending to like many girls. Amrisha and Sophie exchanged raised eyebrows and turned back to Davis, who was now flapping his hands in front of his face dramatically.

"Yo Davy, calm down and tell us what happened," Buvhi said, and exchanged a complicated handshake with Davis.

"It's Saige!" Davis said excitedly. With the mention of her name, the others perked up and snapped their heads around.

"What? Is something wrong!?" Alexander exclaimed, panicked.

"No no, she's been found!"

"What!?" the group gasped.