LAURIE

“What do you mean he’s missing?” I shrieked into the receiver.

“He...” Lo paused for a beat and then let out a defeated sigh. “Maverick took him out to clear his head and left him at The Bay, but he never came home.”

“Oh God.” My heart stopped. I swear, for a split second, it actually stopped beating and when it reset, a jolt of pain rushed through me.

Kyle was missing.

Gone.

How had we ended up here?

“H- how long?” I barely managed to say the words, paralyzed by fear.

“Three hours.”

“Okay, well, three hours is nothing. He could with the guys or at The Shack or maybe he needed some more time.”

“We checked in with Matty and Trent, they haven’t seen him. And his cell is going straight to voicemail. Rick’s already done a drive by of all the places we thought he might go.”

A beat passed.

And another.

But I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t find any words.

“Laurie?” Lo’s gentle voice came over the line. “We’ll find him but if you know why he ran, now’s the time to speak up.”

The words were right there. Right on the tip of my tongue. But if I said them, if I betrayed Kyle more than I already had by going after Kiera, there was a chance he would never forgive me.

“I- I can’t, I’m sorry.”

“Shit, Laurie. He’s not involved in anything... you know, dangerous, is he?”

“No, it isn’t anything like that, I promise. He’s just going through some stuff.”

“So why the secrets, why can’t you—” Lo paused, whispers and mumbling filtered down the line. “Sorry.” She was back. “Maverick needs me. I’ll keep you updated. Whatever’s going on with him isn’t going to stay a secret for long. Uncle Gentry is here, Rebecca too. They saw his room. They’re asking questions.”

When I didn’t reply, she breathed out a long sigh. “I’ll call as soon as we hear anything. If you think of where he might have gone, text me. Please. I know you think you’re protecting him, but this isn’t like him, Laurie.”

“I will,” I said, and she hung up.

Scrolling to his number, I started texting.

Me: Kyle, where are you? Everyone’s worried. Your dad and Rebecca are asking questions. You’re only going to make things worse. I know things are a mess. I know you feel betrayed, but I’m here for you. I’ll always be here.

He didn’t reply, but then, I hadn’t expected him to. Because we didn’t turn to one another anymore. We hid behind lies and fake smiles and forced conversations. And right there in that moment, as I clutched my cell phone willing it to ring, I didn’t know if we’d ever find our way back to one another.

~

THE VIBRATIONS OF MY cell phone pierced the darkness, and I fumbled to the side, trying to locate it. “Yeah?” I rolled onto my back.

“He’s okay. Kyle’s okay.”

I bolted upright rubbing the sleep from my eyes. “He came home?”

“No,” Lo’s voice was grave. “But he texted Maverick.”

Ignoring the hurt slicing through my chest, I said, “Did he say where he was?”

“Just that he was safe and needed space.”

“God, this is such a mess.”

“You could always talk to me. My mum used to say a problem shared is a problem halved.” My best friend’s voice was thick with pain.

“If I could, I would, you know that. But he’ll never forgive me if I tell you. It’s his story, Lo. I have to respect that.”

Silence followed and then she whispered, “God, this sucks. I thought we were done with all this. The drama and secrets.”

“You do know who your family is, right?” Nothing about the Stone-Princes was straightforward.

“I know, I know.” She sighed. “I just... it’s our last summer together, I wanted us to have fun. Yet here we are again, surrounded by scandal.”

“Kyle spending the night away from home is hardly a scandal, Lo.”

“You know what I mean,” she ground out. “Kyle is jeopardizing everything. He got benched at football camp, did you know that?”

“I...” There was no point in lying. I’d already done enough of that. “Yeah, he told me.”

“Maverick said it’ll be fine, that USC will still want him, but I can’t believe he did that.”

“Lo, Maverick would go to war for you. He’d risk everything... for you. Is it so hard to believe that Kyle isn’t the same? They might not be blood related, but they are brothers in every sense of the word.”

Kyle was just much better at forcing down all of his crap, whereas Maverick wore it as a shield, keeping people at arm’s length. He was better since Lo, softer around the edges, but if anyone threatened him or his family, I didn’t doubt the old Maverick would come out swinging.

Literally.

“Is that a roundabout way of telling me, Kyle’s Jekyll and Hyde routine is all because he’s protecting you?”

“What? No! I’m just saying... God, I don’t even know what I’m saying. I hardly slept, worrying about him.”

Kyle’s secret would affect them all. His dad, Rebecca, his siblings. I still had no idea what they believed, where they thought Kyle’s mom had been all these years, but her reappearance would cause shockwaves.

That’s what Kyle was trying to prevent.

He was protecting them.

But in doing so, he was ruining himself. Alienating himself from his friends and family.

From me.

“I know, me too,” Lo’s voice pulled me back into the moment. “We have to fix this, Laurie. We have to find a way to bring him back to us.”

If only it was that simple.

“It’s senior year. I might be a Brit, but even I know how important it is.”

Way to remind me. I swallowed the snarky reply. Lo didn’t deserve my anger. She cared about Kyle almost as much as I did. They were, after all, family. But I couldn’t help but wonder if there was no bringing him back, not to me, anyway. Some betrayals couldn’t be forgiven.

So while I didn’t doubt Kyle would return to his family and they would work through things over time, I wasn’t so sure where my place was in everything.

If I even had a place anymore.

~

MY MOTHER WAS THE DEVIL incarnate. That was the only explanation for the fact she’d called me and demanded I head straight over to Contessa and pick up the dress she’d had put aside for me for the gala. It was the last thing I wanted to do, given my bad mood and pounding headache but as she’d so eloquently put it, ‘Hildi is expecting you. Don’t be late and remember to smile. The dress is costing me a small fortune’. In other words, I was to put up and shut up.

I crossed Main Street and made my way to the row of stores. Designer boutiques, high end salons, a cute little diner where coffee cost more than the average American’s hourly salary. It reeked of money and fakeness and everything I resented.

“Ah, Laurie,” a tall willowy woman sang as I entered the store. “Gabi told me to expect you.”

My saccharine sweet smile didn’t only hurt my pride. “Well, here I am.” I swallowed the urge to puke. Kyle had spent the night in God only knew where and I was about to get fitted for a dress to attend a gala I didn’t want to attend, where I'd be forced to play nice with my parents' friends and their parent-approved sons.

“It’s the sage green one, right?” she asked as if I actually had any say in the matter. I nodded tightly, following her to the back of the store where the changing rooms were. “Here you go.” She pulled open a curtain and waited for me to slip inside. At that point, I zoned out.  Barely aware of her thrusting a dress into my hands, I got undressed robotically. Once the dress was on, I went out to her and she beamed. “Just perfect.” Her assessing gaze moved over my body and I fought back the urge to turn back into the changing room and tear the damn thing off. “A little tight around the hips but we are what are.”

Bitch. I grimaced letting her tug and pull and smooth. She squared me in front of a mirror, but I looked right through the girl staring back at me. It wasn’t me. Wasn’t who I wanted to be.

“Excellent.” She clapped. “Take it off and I’ll have Sandy prepare it for you to take away. Do we have shoes and accessories? Your mother never—”

“It’s fine, I have something that will work.” I probably didn’t, but I felt like the walls were closing in around me and I knew if I didn’t get out of there soon, Hildi would have more to report to my mother than my less than stellar mood.

Ten minutes later, I left the store under Hildi’s watchful eye, breathing a sigh of relief when I rounded the corner. No doubt, my mother expected to be informed of our appointment; in fact she was probably already calling her.

The dress was beautiful, there was no denying that. The silk material had flowed over my curves like liquid gold, hugging my waist and flaring slightly at my hips, falling over my legs like a shimmering waterfall. I should have felt beautiful.

I felt like a fraud.

“Laurie, wait up,” a voice yelled from across the street and I groaned when my eyes landed on Jared. He waited for the traffic to clear then jogged over to me.

“Hey,” he said eyeing the dress bag in my hands. “Busy morning shopping?”

“There’s a thing next week. My parents want me to attend.”

“The Lockhurst charity gala? My parents attend every year.”

I nodded. “Are you going?”

“I hadn’t planned on it. Those things are always kind of a drag.” He flashed me a sympathetic smile, and I didn’t know whether to feel relieved or disappointed. It might have been nice to know at least one person there.

“I wish I didn’t have to go,” I said.

“So don’t.” He shrugged. “What’s the big deal?”

“My mom’s big into presenting a united front. Family first and all that.” A lie if ever I’d heard one.

“Bummer.”

“Yeah.”

“So, hmm,” he ran his hands through his hair. “How are things with Stone?”

“How much time do you have?”

His eyes widened, and I instantly wanted to take back the words. “Crap, I didn’t mean—”

“It’s cool.” He gave me an easy smile. “But if you want to talk, you know where to find me.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine.”

An awkward silence descended over us. “So, I should prob—” my bag started vibrating, and I fumbled inside until my fingers found my cell. “Hello.”

“He’s home, Laurie. He came home.”

“Thank God,” I rushed out. “Is he okay?” The words hurt my heart.

“He’s... home, that’s all that matters. Listen, I need to go but I’ll text you later.”

“Okay.”

We hung up and Jared cleared his throat and I remembered he was standing there. “Everything okay?”

“Yeah.” I forced a smile. “It is now.”

And God, how I wanted to believe it was.