Deadly Infatuation

30 - Mentally Exhausting

Elle's POV

I'm seated in one of the empty booths at The Eat, one of the most famous restaurants in Lamonte. Taylor and I agreed to meet here today, in order to discuss our plan to help find Tameron.
I glance at my watch as the time is finally eleven am and I hear the front door open. Taylor walks in and looks around the restaurant, trying to locate me.

I put my hand up and signal to him, after a short while, he sees me and walks to the booth I'm sitting in, and sits across me. " 'Sup," He nods at me in greeting. "Yeah, whadayagot?" I ask him. "Let's see your list first," He counters and I open my backpack to pull out an exam pad. I set it on the table, flip it open to the relevant page before sliding it to him.

Taylor reads through it for a while before raising an eyebrow. "That's actually a lot less girls than I thought there would be," He comments. "Same difference, he's still a man whore, I mean, he's been with twenty one known high school girls at St Peter's alone, in a span of three years," I tell him as I cringe in disgust.

I wouldn't be surprised if the dude has a whole family of STDs. Luckily, he never got to infect Tameron with 'em. Taylor chuckles when he sees the look of disgust on my face. "Okay, well, we pretty much have the same names, so we'll use your list," He says.

A waitress walks up to our table and gives us a friendly smile. "Hello, may I take your orders?" She asks. "Uhm, I'll have a chocolate smoothie in the meantime," I tell her. "Give me the same thing but in a blueberry flavour," Taylor says and the girl nods at us before turning to leave. "Alright, before I begin, I wanted to tell you that Tam's mom told me that they received a ransom note from the kidnappers, so maybe there's hope of getting her back soon," I inform him.

Taylor's eyes widen at the news. "So she really has been kidnapped..." He trails off sadly and I give him a small smile. "We're gonna catch this scumbag either way, so first up, we have Caitlyn Du Bois, what could she gain by pranking Jennifer?" I ask.

Taylor shrugs. "Well, Caitlyn is part of Jenny's clique and perhaps she could've been jealous that Calum is now with her best friend, I mean, y'all have girl code and shit, right?" He says. I think about it for a while before responding, "Well it does give her motive and makes sense, but I don't think Caitlyn or anyone in Jenny's squad is like that, sure they don't really adore Jenny but I doubt girl code applies to them, it's gross, at least half of them have slept with their friend's exes, and they're all thots so..." I point out.

"You have a point," Taylor slumps his shoulders. We discuss the other twenty exes for hours before coming to the conclusion that none of them have a concrete story that would make them a suspect. Two burger meals and slush puppies later, we're back to square one. "Well, now that the exes we know of aren't an option, we need to go with Plan B," Taylor sighs.

"This detective shit is mentally exhausting," I complain. "I know but you shouldn't forget why we're doing this," Taylor reminds me sternly. "Taylor, basically everyone despises Jenny, how are we going to know who actually pranked her?" I ask him. Taylor raises his hands up in exasperation. "Look, I don't know, but we're gonna at least try, yes it's going to take a long while, but we need to start investing the people in our grade first, it could've been anyone, but I have a feeling that the prankster is in the same grade as us."

I push my empty plate away from me as I wipe my hands with a napkin. "If Plan B fails, honest to God, I'mma let this thing go and leave it to those who are actually qualified to deal with these things." I tell him.

***

It was a Friday night, and the entire Cummings family had come together to hold a short prayer service for Tameron's safe return home.

Other than her parents and little brother David, the external family that consisted of Tameron's grandmothers and her only grandfather, along with aunts, uncles, cousins and close family friends we're in attendance. Of course the family had notified the school of this, and a few of my best friend's classmates along with the staff are present.

I'm seated with my parents next to Tam's parents in the living room that has been cleared to accommodate the guests. The room is candlelit and the pastor of our local church that Team's family goes to, Reverend Matthews, walks up to the fireplace area.

"Thank you brethren, for taking the time out to come support and join the family of Tameron Cummings in prayer," He begins. "This very unfortunate and sad situation is a heavy burden to bear but the good Lord Jesus says, 'Come to me all of you who tired firm carrying your burdens, give them to me and I will give you rest'," The Reverend declares and the audience says an "Amen."

Matthews continues to preach his sermon, and I hear Tam's mom crying and her husband comforting her. I look around me and notice that the room is full with people who've just arrived, including neighbors and students from other grades. I manage to locate Taylor, who's standing at the back of the room with his twin brother Joseph.

"Let us not forget that Tameron is not alone in this predicament but so are Calum Dawson and Jennifer Bolton, who are her classmates. We will sing a short hymn before praying noe, and as we pray, I ask that we do not forget those two children and their families," Matthews says and at that moment a hymn is sung.

After the hymn, everyone joins hands and begins to pray. I close my eyes and beg for my best friend's safe return.