If You're Gone by Brittany Goodwin

Author:Brittany Goodwin
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
ISBN: 9780997579000
Publisher: Edge of 22 Publishing
Published: 2016-06-15T23:00:00+00:00

9. The Honest Truth

I pushed open the doors to the police station and was blinded by the bright sun as I rushed down the stone steps. Please Lord, don’t let me cry here. Please let me make it somewhere, anywhere but here. I blinked the sunspots away from my eyes and saw a tall male figure on the sidewalk coming towards me.

“Lillian!”

Brad? I stopped in my tracks, trying to focus on him.

“Hey! I was hoping I would find you here.”

I recognized his dark hair first and realized it was Chris. But I didn’t get the sudden sinking feeling I usually got when I discovered it wasn’t Brad. Instead, I wanted to run to him and hug him as tears continued to well up in my eyes.

“Hi. I thought you were leaving… what are you doing here?” I felt a tear rolling down my face before my hand could wipe it away.

“Hey. Hey, it’s okay.” Chris put his hand on my shoulder as I lowered my head to hide the reddening of my cheeks. “Come on, let’s take a walk.”

Chris’ hand drifted onto to my back as we started down the sidewalk, his fingers rubbing back and forth against my sweaty t-shirt. Just like a young child needs their parents to hold them and tell them everything is all right when they cry, I felt like I needed his touch.

“What happened in there?” he asked once my breathing had calmed.

“Nothing,” I sighed, staring at my feet as we walked. “Nothing happened. That’s the whole problem.”

He suddenly stopped in his tracks and pulled his hand away from my back.

“Do you need to get back to school?”

“No. Not today.” Maybe not ever.

“Well, then let’s get out of here.”

“What?” I jerked my head towards him and searched his face. Is he asking me to run away with him?

“I mean, let’s get off this busy street,” he responded with a laugh. “I don't want someone to see you.”

“Oh, right.” If he had asked me to run away with him, what would I have said?

“What did you think I meant?” He smiled.

I shrugged my shoulders. What am I supposed to say? I’m starved for male attention… or any normal attention for that matter… and I’d go anywhere you asked me to? That definitely wouldn’t come out right.

“Is there anywhere we can go?” Chris asked.

“Yes, I know the perfect place.”

I shouldn’t have said it. I knew I shouldn’t say it before I even opened my mouth but I said it anyway. It is wrong on so many levels. But I couldn’t stop myself. Before I could re-think my decision, I was leading Chris to the lake. I was asking him to follow me to a place I hadn’t been since the search party three days after Brad disappeared. I was leading him to sacred ground.

****

“Well, this is it,” I said quietly as we approached the waters edge.

“This place is incredible. I had no idea this town had something this cool.” Chris knelt to the ground and dipped his fingers into the clear water.

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