Out of the Blue

It's him

I haven’t moved on from the fact that Nathan from the band ‘The WANTED’ was actually my best friend. My biggest crush or maybe the only person I was in love to. He was the person that actually stayed with me when I was troubled or problematic. He made me the best I was, the one that kept me away from Caroline. Tom went in my room holding their albums in his hand.

“Here are the albums. You wanted to listen to them”

I took out my CD player from my drawer and listened to the first song, ‘Heart Vacancy’. The tone was like the tone of the song I gave him, it was the ending of the first chorus. It was already the second verse.

“This ain’t the heartbreak hotel - even though I know it well - those no shows - they sure tell - In the way you hold yourself - don’t you fret - should you get another cancelation? - Give me a chance I’ll make a permanent reservation”

Those were the lyrics I gave him when we were thirteen. He actually kept those lyrics that he promised to keep for a long time and used it as a song.

“Who gave you the part of this song? The second verse”

“Nathan did, he said it can be used at any part”

No wonder it was so familiar. I wonder if he can still remember Paige and Caylah.

“I gave him these lyrics, I had thoughts about love at my age of thirteen and I gave him some lyrics he might turn into a song”

Voices ran in my head several times. It was strange how I actually got to remember our friendship even though there were already so many things in my mind. The boys were roaming around my room but Nathan was sitting on my computer chair while texting someone on the phone. Jay and Siva went in my walk-in closet; I keep asking Tom how I actually got the biggest closet in the house. Our friendship wasn’t that long but he was the only person I was actually falling for, until now I still had feelings for him.

“Hey why do you have a photo of Nathan at his sixteen in your closet?”

Siva went out the closet holding the envelope where I put all the photos of me and Nathan that I developed after staying here for two weeks.

“Nathan? I haven’t even met him before”

“Yeah Siva, she must’ve gotten those from Google”

He shrugged and put the envelope back in the closet. Max went out the bathroom holding a small chest that was from the cabinet in my bathroom. Nathan gave that to me when it was my fourteenth birthday.

“Why do you have a chest that has something written on it saying ‘Nathan and Ellie’, and where is this from?”

Nathan looked up from his phone and looked at Max then to me. He went outside slamming the door behind him.

“What did we just do?”

“Boys, can you sit down? I have something to tell you. Nathan and I were friends back in Abbeydale, I’m just adopted. So this might be the reason why he doesn’t wanna talk to me or ignores me. Also, I don’t think he remembers me. But I remember him, I’m not a Parker but I’m a Collins. We met when we were eleven and I lost him when I was sixteen when I was taken here”

“What do you mean by taken?”

“My step-mother drugged me to take me here easier”

Awkward silence filled the atmosphere. They remained quiet for a minute until Tom went in breaking the silence.

“Has anyone seen Nathan?”

“We thought he was with you”

I ran outside and searched for every room in the house. Every room that can be possible to hide in, closets, bathrooms even balconies. The boys went out and split up driving around the neighborhood. Wow, Tom was serious. He was the baby of the band. I took out my phone and dialed the boys’ number.

“Any sign of him?”

“No”

They answered in unison. I took another look at my contacts and saw Nathan’s number; he must’ve kept his old phone. I dialed his number and waited for him to pick up.

“Ellie”

Oh My God it was him, it really was him.

“No this is Lea”

“Lea how did you get my old number?”

“Nate, this is Ellie. Remember when I was sent away, I was taken to Tom’s”

He suddenly hung up. He must’ve thought I wasn’t saying the truth, if he could only remember by me saying something that we’ve been telling each other for a very long time. Maybe it was possible if I show him the equation, if he could only remember.

Tom and the boys went back inside; I stood up from my seat and waited if Nathan would be with them.

“Did you find him?”

“We tried tracking his phone down but we found it, only the phone in the park”

“Do you still have his old number, his number when you all met him?”

They shook their head; I took out my phone and looked for the tracker.

“Found him, he’s at the same location as us”

“The roof”

We ran to Tom’s room and climbed out the window.

“You guys really need to study your searching-skills”

Nighttime was a bit disturbing; there was a life-lesson downstairs. The boys were giving Nathan a life-lesson about him hiding from all of them while he was only sitting at the roof looking at a photo on his phone. He went in my room making me drop my phone on the bed.

“Hey”

Nathan sat down beside me on my bed and took out his phone.

“Why did you call me this afternoon? How did you get my old friend’s number?”

“I must’ve pressed the wrong number”

He remained quiet and grabbed his jacket that he tossed on the floor when he appeared.

“Should we go out for a minute? I feel bored in this house”

I nodded and grabbed my leather jacket from the headboard.

“Where are we going?”

“Just come with me”

He handed me the small chest and walked out the door. I followed him, sneaking out from my brother and the boys.

The summer grass still had some heat even if it was nighttime. The heat of the breeze was different from the morning; I was dreaming that the one paper crane turned to a thousand cranes. I was still confused about the folding-a-paper-crane thing. 

I slid my fingers around the wings of the paper crane and looked at Nathan who was taking out a case that had an anonymous thing inside. I don’t know what he filled it with that.