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“That plus we didn't really
kiss, kiss. What's that about? I think he would since you say he
has such a reputation.”

“Addie, you have kissing
issues.”

“What do you mean by that?”
I shook my head “I do not! I just think that after several
dates...” I leaned in toward him for a more private conversation
“maybe he should have
like
really
kissed me not just a peck on the
cheek…. What do you mean I have kissing issues?” I said softly and
my face blushed.

“If you wanted to be kissed
why didn't you kiss him, ugh, never mind.”

I leaned in close to him “I
thought guys were supposed to lead with that stuff. You did and I
thought you were a good kisser...... Huh!” I covered my mouth. “Oh
my gosh, I'm a horrible kisser.”

“You're a good kisser...just
so you know...” He looked a little uncomfortable; he was looking at
his lunch tray. “I don't know, maybe I don't know what I'm talking
about.” He squinted his eyes looking right at me when he said it.
He cleared his throat and continued “So you're telling me Cale
never
really k
issed you, and never tried anything else?”

“No!” I said “Weird right,
not that I want this conversation to go anywhere else, but no.”
Storm just looked at me wide eyed, and said he didn't believe it,
and laughed.

I felt some tension leave us
“I know!” I said half laughing with him. “It’s like I was dating my
grandpa or something, he was always kissing me on the cheek or
forehead and dressed geeky when we went out.”

“And that's it?” Storm asked
looking at me trying to detect deception.

“Nothing else at all I
swear,” I shook my head no.

“Break up with him” was all
he said.

“I don't know what to say to
him, I've never broken up with anyone before.” Storm laughed
sarcastically and turned his head.

“What is that supposed to
mean.”

“You broke up with
me.”

“I so did not! We weren't
even dating exclusively and since school ended I never heard from
you, when I said goodbye to you, you didn't say anything
like
‘we should get together this
summer
.' I believe I...you know what,
it's a moot point. I didn't break up with you because we never went
steady, we went out a couple times, but we weren't exclusive, and
besides, what does it matter now you're dating a
nympho.”

He looked shocked. “You're
calling your friend a nympho, that's not very nice.”

“I take it back, I like
Shelby but you know she tells me everything.” I gave him a look
back squeezing my eyes together, studying him back... “Who’s the
slut now,” I mumbled.

“So you thought we weren't
even dating”.

“No, I didn't say that, I
said I didn't think we were going steady, there is a difference.
You know that has to be mentioned in some conversation and I never
remembered any conversation like that between us.”

Shelby and Nic had found
each other and came to sit by us, I was thankful. I didn't want
Storm and I to get back to the “cold shoulder” phase again although
it may already be too late for that. Storm and I didn't talk much
after that, didn't have to not with Shelby there. But I was
dumbfounded, was he treating me like crap the whole time because he
thought I broke up with him last year?

I couldn't hold it in any
longer, I fired out “
So that's why you've been mad at me all
this time, from eighth grade!
” Storms head snapped
up in surprise. “Well that's just great, there's nothing I can do
about it now Storm, it's done it's over, get over it! I'm sorry
Storm but let's not blame it all on me – you did nothing about it
either!”

I'm not sure why I was so
mad, but I got up without a further word and just started walking.
I found myself in front of my locker.

Nic caught up with me a
couple minutes later, “What was that all about?”

“Storm is mad at me and has
been treating me like crap because he thinks I broke up with him
last year.”

“But you guys weren't
exclusive, right? I mean you dated a couple of times but nothing
serious.”

“Well that's what I thought
but he thought otherwise, and it's irrelevant now. I mean why bring
it up? You'd think after he had a girlfriend that our so called
break-up would have been a faded memory by now.”

“Maybe he still likes
you.”

“Maybe he doesn't. If he did
why is he dating Shelby? That doesn't make any sense to me. In any
case, I don't like him that way… I guess I have other things on my
mind.”

“Well we know guys are
unstable.”

“And Storm is majorly the
king of unstable.” We both had a good laugh over that.

I decided my blow up may not
have been about Storm that maybe this Cale thing was weighing on my
mind more than I anticipated. I decided to try and break up with
him before school was out, but he was nowhere to be found. He must
have left school early.

Nic and I decided to hang
out all weekend, have some girl time. Since Cale was going to be
out of town, we concocted a scheme to try and find the house he
took me to, see if we could find any clues. Even though we were
going to spy on him, I felt more relaxed, like my life was back to
normal. I felt more at ease than I had in a long while. Although,
in the back of my mind I was still thinking about breaking up with
him, the crazy guy who drugs girls and does who knows what with
them – I wanted to think he was crazy, but I just
didn't.

Nic got to my house around
3:00 and so far our
‘spy’
plans have been foiled since we have no one to
drive our getaway car. We hung out at my house Saturday night, my
sister hung with us too. I was very surprised, she usually always
has plans.

We were all bored stiff so
we decided to go down to the neighbors to see if any one was home.
To our amazement Gus was and he had a friend over. They came out to
hang for a bit, they must have been bored too. We talked on the
porch until dusk, when I noticed an unfamiliar car in the driveway.
I nudged Nic and pointed to it.

Nic said excitedly “Oh my
Gosh! You guys are bored and you can drive and have a car!” She
said pointing to Gus's friend. We started laughing. “Can you take
us somewhere?”

“I'm not allowed out past
eleven with the car.”

“We only need it for about
an hour...door to door.” Nic said getting all excited. “We need to
get something from Addie's house first. Pick us up in five
minutes!” She yelled as all three of us girls ran back to my house.
We got inside huffing and puffing, we each grabbed a pair of rubber
gloves that my mom used when cleaning her paint brushes. Tori had
no idea what we were doing but looked excited so she just grabbed
all the same supplies that Nic and I did. We ran upstairs and I
gave everyone sandwich baggies, in case we found something. My mom
came in the kitchen and we all froze.

“What are you girls up to?”
she asked.

Tori, quick on her feet
said, “We're going to pick up one of Gus' friends and then we're
going to play football.” And asked, “Where are the flash
lights?”

“There are a few down in
your dad's work room.” she said as she reached for one above the
fridge and handed it to Nic not knowing she was aiding and abetting
future convicts.

“Thanks Mrs.
Gellar.

“You’re welcome my dear. You
three stay out of trouble ya hear?”

“Really, she says that now?”
I said in a whisper taking two stairs at a time into the
basement.

“We will!” Tori yelled back
as she scrambled to follow Nic and me. We found three other flash
lights and then booked to the top of my driveway where Gus and his
friend were waiting. All the girls jumped in the back.

Gus turned around to face us
and asked, “Where to?”

“I know the approximate
location.” and I rattled off the first few directions.

“We aren't going on a wild
goose chase are we?”

“It's possible” Nic said,
but added “If we don't find it in fifteen minutes than we'll come
right back.

He didn't look very
satisfied with that answer. “What else do you have to do tonight?”
Tori asked.

“Good point, but we get to
do what we want when we get back.” Gus replied.

“Fine.” she said. I just
rolled my eyes hoping she wasn't getting us into
trouble.

Thinking about trouble, I
started concentrating on our route. “Turn here.” I pointed. It
wasn't the street, we had to turn around and go down the second
street, and then a third. As Gus's friend turned down the street
slowly I got an eerie feeling, the same one I get when I've had a
dream that comes true, this time it sent a chill down my spine. The
houses were not close together at all, Gus' friend (I wish I could
remember his name) was driving slowly making the moment seem more
suspicious than it was, or maybe not.

I grabbed Nic's arm and
pointed, “That's it.” I whispered loudly enough for everyone to
hear. He drove slowly past it and down one more house, turned
around, parked and turned off his headlights. Both the guys flung
their arms over the front seat to look back at us. We gave the boys
the details on why we were here, but we didn't have to, they knew
something was up.

“Now what?” They whispered,
they were intrigued.

“Should someone stay here to
keep the car running in case we get into trouble?” The guys looked
at each other and said “Naaaa.”

“What are we doing?” They
asked.

“We're looking for clues.” I
said.

“What kinds of clues?” Tori
asked.

Nic and I looked at each
other, she shrugged, and responded “We need to know who lives here,
what kind of people they are and look for other clues like drugs or
weapons, anything out of place.”

Gus replied “That's easy,
check the mailbox.”

“Glad we brought you, I
wouldn't have thought of that.” I said.

Tori the organizer, pointed
to Gus' friend and Nic and I, “You three are in one group. Gus and
I will be in another. You guys go to the left of the house and
we'll take the right.”

I nudged Nic “I'm just
guessing but maybe the bracelet's here.”

“Noooo.” Nic said
exaggeratedly. I replied “It's a big maybe.”

We all snuck out of the car
and closed the doors quietly, I wonder if anyone else was as
nervous as I was. Nic and I went right and Tori followed and then
the two boys followed, so much for the plan. Until the boys stopped
at the mailbox, filtered through all the pieces, and then flanked
the house left.

There were no lights on in
the house, it was only about 7:30pm or so, it seemed like no one
was home. In my dream, where the girl got attacked, they start on
the right and moved left, I wanted to do that here just in case it
was the same place. Everything about this place screamed déjàvu to
me, but my senses could be off because I was here with Cale the one
time under weird circumstances. I just don't know.

As we were creeping around
the corner of the house Tori tripped over a branch or root and fell
into me taking us both to the ground face first. We both started to
giggle on the spot, Nic tried passing us and Tori grabbed her ankle
to bring her down to our level.

“Glad to see you're so
serious about this Addie.” She said sternly, trying to get up. Tori
and I tripped her again. She couldn't help but laugh this time, the
quieter we tried to be the more we laughed – tears and
all.

We gained composure and
rounded the corner. I stood totally upright taking it all in, even
though it was dark it wasn't pitch black. I popped my flash light
on. I walked toward the back of the yard down the right side of the
property line and stopped halfway. There was a river birch tree
centered in the back yard just off of the deck. This is where I was
watching the girl get attacked in my dream, I could sense it, and I
wanted to see more. I shined my light across the field in the path
they took this summer. I got a chill.

When, Kaboom! I flew to the
ground and tried to grasp my flashlight, the girls tackled me and
pointed toward the house, I turned it off. People were inside. We
were frozen to the ground for a bit, our anxiety growing stronger.
I moved my head up slowly, I could see the guys at the far tree
line waving us over and then they ducked. I stuck my head back in
the tall weedy grass, it was itchy and all over. We were in a
meadow-like area, the non-mowed part of the yard.

I looked back at Nic and
Tori they lifted their hands to gesture what next. Like I'm an
expert at this, I had no clue what to do. We were low to the ground
so no one would notice us. I peeked back up at the house, the
sliding door curtains were only drawn a bit I could see two people
in the kitchen and one was helping the other to the table like they
were injured or sick. I squinted my eyes to really
focus.

“What do you see?” Nic
whispered.