Kaitlin

We had all just left Layla’s Mom’s house, and the cops had arrested Keith. He confessed to taking Layla. But won’t tell us where he took her. I swear I just want to up and murder him, he took my best friend. My sister! He took the person I have been friends with since we were youngins. What if we never find her? What if we lose her forever? What if she’s dead?! I broke down as soon as we got back home. I fell onto the ground and curled myself into a little ball. I felt arms under me, lift me up and carry me to what I’m guessing was the living room, I couldn’t tell through all my tears. Once the person sat down, I knew for sure it was the living room. I still didn’t know who picked me up yet, but they held onto me and laced me into a tight hug, as they rocked me back and forth. About fifteen minutes later, I felt myself have no more tears. I looked up at the person whose lap I was in, and saw it was Alex. I looked to his side and saw Lisa curled into his side, looking like she cried herself to sleep. Which was probably what happened. I put my arms around Alex and put my face in his chest, as he tightened the hug. A few minutes later, I heard his voice.

“Boys, can you take Kaitlin out for a little bit? Try to get her mind off things, please?”

“Sure thing.” The voice of Chris spoke. Alex released the hug but I didn’t move. He let out a small chuckle. “If you move now, I’ll carry you out there.” I removed my arms from around Alex and turned around. I got off his lap and stood up, holding my arms out to Chris. Who become like a brother to me after these past few months. He gave me a smile and walked over to me. He lifted me up by my waist and I wrapped my legs around his so I wouldn’t fall. I also put my arms around his neck and hid my face in the crook of it. He laced his arms around my back and we started walking. “Brent, can you get the door, please?”

“Yeah.” The voice of Brent said. We stopped for a second and I heard the door open, and we continued our way out the door.

“Here’s my keys Jasper. You can drive. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to get away from this one anytime soon. So I’ll just sit in the backseat with her.” We walked over to the driveway, and doors of the car were being opened. “Kaitlin, can you let go of me for a second? That way we can get in the car? Then you can cuddle back up to me.” I left out a sigh and let go of him, I turned to my side and got in the waiting vehicle. Once I moved over into the car, Chris got in after me and closed the door behind him. Before he could even put his seatbelt of anything on, I cuddled back into his side. I felt his arm be placed around my shoulder and he pulled me closer to him, if that was even possible. If you didn’t know us, you would think that Chris and I are dating. But no, we’re not. He’s a brother to me, and plus, I’m gay.

I must have ended up falling asleep, because Chris was lightly shaking me to wake up. My eyes slowly fluttered open and I sat up. I noticed we were still in the car, and that it was turned off. Chris had his side door open and Brent and Jasper were standing outside of it.

“Come on Kaitlin. We’re at the ice cream shop. I know how much you love ice cream.” Chris spoke. I sat up fully and rubbed the sleep out of my eyes with the sleeves of my jacket. Chris soon got out of the car, and I followed suit. Once we shut the door, he looked the whole car up. We all four walked over to the stand and went to the window. “What would you like, Kaitlin?”

“I don’t care. Not really in the mood for anything right now.” I spoke. Noting that my voice was really weak. I heard all three boys let out sighs and heard Chris speak again.

“Can I get a plain vanilla cone, and a mint chocolate chip cone, please?” He said. Mint chocolate chip, has always been my favorite since I was a toddler. I thought about my younger days. Back to the first day of second grade.

“Hi! I’m Layla!” A little brown-haired girl said as she walked over to me.

“I’m Kaitlin!” I replied with my winning seven-year-old smile.

“Wanna build with these blocks with me?”

“Can I?”

“Yeah!” She laughed and smiled at me. I sat down next to her and we started building what we thought was the best building ever, but turned out to just be a stack of blocks. We gave each other a little high-five when we finished it and smiled at each other. A minute later, we were talking about the snack we just ate, and some boy just came over to us and kicked our little building down. I started crying and Layla got up from her seat. “Hey! You made my best friend cry! That’s not nice! I’m telling on you!”

“No-no! Please don’t tell! I’m sorry. I’ll help re-build it!” The boy pleaded. But before he could say anything else, Layla grabbed my hand and pulled me off the ground, and we walked over to the teacher.

“Oh-no! Kaitlin, what’s wrong, sweetheart?” Mrs. Kimmy said in her soft kind voice.

“Derek knocked over our block tower and made my best friend cry!” Layla complained. Mrs. Kimmy took both of our hands and walked us over to our fallen tower, and I noticed that Derek was still standing next to it.

“Derek, why did you knock down their tower?”

“Because I thought it would be funny.” He said as he put his head down.

“That’s not funny at all. That’s called being mean. Now, I want you to say sorry to them and help them put the blocks away since it’s almost time to start with Math class.”

“I’m sorry Layla. I’m sorry Kaitlin.” He said as he rubbed a tear off his cheek. I let out a small giggle and gave him a hug.

“It’s okay! Just don’t be so mean to us next time.” I spoke. He nodded his head with a smile and we all three bent down to pick up the blocks.

Little did we know, that Derek would grow up to be one of Layla’s bullies. I felt a tear run down my cheek as I thought of other memories.

“Kaitlin! Open the door before I just climb through your window!” The voice of Layla rang. I let out a giggle and walked over to the front door. I opened the door and was attacked with a huge bear hug. “Happy fourteenth birthday best friend!” She shouted into my ear. I returned her hug and we both let go at the same time.

“Thanks, but I think you just broke my eardrum.” I said as I rubbed my ear.

“No one cares about the eardrum. What does matter, it you are now fourteen! And here, is your birthday gift!” She said as she held out a small birthday gift bag. I took it from her as she fully walked into the house and I shut the door behind her.

“Good morning, Layla!” My Mother’s voice rung as we walked into the living room to see my Mom and Dad sitting on the couch together.

“Morning Mr. and Mrs. S!” Layla spoke with a smile.

“Ooo, what do you got in your hand, birthday girl?” My Dad said.

“Only the best gift ever! From the best person ever!” Layla laughed.

“You are so full of yourself!” I laughed as well.

“You love me!”

“I do. Can’t deny that.”

“Good, now open the gift!” She motioned to the small bag in my hand. I let out another small giggle and opened the bag, inside of it was a small jewelry box. I opened the little box and let out a small squeal. It was a best friends charm bracelet. “Best gift ever, right?! Here’s mine!” She spoke as she held her wrist out to me. I gave her a huge hug and repeated ‘thank you’ over and over again. I walked over to my Mom and held it out to her.

“Can you please put this on my wrist.?” I asked with a smile.

“Sure hun!” She said with a smile as she took it from me and I held my wrist out to her. She quickly put it on my wrist and Layla and I took pictures of our matching bracelets. The rest of that day, I spent it with the three people I cared most about in life.

I was ripped from my thoughts by the sound of Brent’s voice.

“Kaitlin? Are you in there?” He said, waving his hand over my face. I shook my head a bit and looked up.

“Yeah...uh...sorry, was just thinking about something.” I said. I looked down at my wrist and noticed I was rubbing the bracelet on it. I haven’t took the charm bracelet Layla gave me off, since the day she gave it to me. She still wears her’s as well. By this time I was in full on cry mode again.

“Shit. Here, hold these.” Chris’ voice said. Behind anything else happened, his arms were wrapped around me, holding me to his chest, as we all slowly moved out of the way so the people behind us could get their ice cream. “Shh...calm down Kaitlin...it’s okay, we will find her. Just calm down. Shh.” He cooed to me.

“I just miss her so much.” I said as I pressed myself more into his chest, if that was even possible.

“I know, I know. But the cops have Keith under arrest, he will fess up sooner or later. And when we find her, she will be alive and well. Don’t stress about it.”

“But what if she’s already dead?” I said as I felt myself, and Chris stiffen. “If Keith has her locked away somewhere, how is she going to get food and water?”

“Don’t worry about it, Kaitlin. She will be fine. Trust me.” I nodded into his chest and he tightened his grip on me a little bit more.

“Hey guys, how about we go bowling? Then we can take Kaitlin home. It would help get her mind off of things.” Jasper spoke.

“That’s a great idea. Do you wanna go bowling Kaitlin?” Chris asked. I slowly nodded my head again, and he let go of me. I watched as he reached over to Brent and took two ice cream cones from him. “Here you go. Mint chocolate chip cone.” He said handing it to me. I gave him a small smile, and nod, telling him thank you. We all walked back to the car, and made our way to the bowling alley.

Notes

Look at that! Another new POV!

What do you guys think it going to happen to Layla?