Part 23
“Hey Al, It’s me. We’re downstairs waiting on your tardy ass. We’re gonna go eat so if you’re hungry you better get your butt down here now.” Chris flipped his cell phone shut and turned to the other guys. “He’s still not picking up.”
“Where is he? How long does it take to put shit on a bus?” Justin said in annoyance.
“What are you talking about, J?” JC asked looking directly at Justin.
Justin shrugged. “Last time I saw him, he and Becca were putting their stuff on the bus. That was like half an hour ago.”
JC frowned. “Maybe they’re still there.”
“Oh yeah. That dog.” Joey raised his brows in a comical leer.
“Mind. Out of the gutter, man,” Chris said rolling his eyes.
“I’ll go check to see if they’re there. Someone go check the hotel room. It’s not like Alex to ignore phone calls. His phone is always on,” JC said, worry etched over his face.
Chris volunteered and JC turned to the other guys. “Why
don’t you guys go ahead to the restaurant and we’ll meet you there in
fifteen--twenty minutes.”
Joey, Justin and Lance agreed with the plans and they all separated.
…
“…get your butt down here now.” Alex turned off her cell phone after she finished listening to Chris’s message and sighed. This really sucked. More than anything, she wished she was right back at the hotel getting ready to eat dinner with the rest of the guys. She wished that a lot of things were different.
She shifted slightly against the wall she was leaning against and looked over at Becca, who was sitting beside her. Her eyes were closed and Alex felt a pang of deep affection hit her. She might not have the world but she had a great best friend and sister, whom she both loved and that was enough.
She checked her watch. Less than an hour to go. She wondered if the guys had realized yet that she was gone.
…
“He wasn’t there,” JC said, when he and Chris met back up ten minutes after they had parted.
“You didn’t find anything on the bus?” Chris asked.
JC shook his head. His gaze turned hopeful as they fell on Chris. “You?”
“The room’s been cleared out,” Chris said frowning.
“I don’t get it. Where would Alex go? Why would he leave?” JC put a hand through his hair and blew out a frustrated breath.
Chris wasn’t sure what to do. He was worried because he knew that Alex wouldn’t have left unless something big had happened. And he had a terrible feeling that the something big came in the shape of her father.
He was frustrated with himself for not keeping a better eye on her but how could he have known that her father would have gotten to her with the kind of security they always had around them? And what if he had caught her? Alex had told him that her father was a violent man and Chris was afraid of what he’d do if he caught her.
He was torn. He wanted to tell JC what he thought had happened but he didn’t think it was the time to tell him that the Alex he knew was a lie.
JC shook his head. “We have to find him Chris. Something bad could have happened to him. He’s just a kid.”
Chris took one look at JC’s worried face and knew what he had to do. He would tell JC, he just wouldn’t tell him everything. He’d leave the fact that Alex was a girl out of it. He would be lying by omission but at least he would stop JC from feeling betrayed.
“JC? There’s something I gotta tell you about Alex.” He took JC’s arm and led him to the bar in the restaurant. He had to explain and then they’d have to move fast because chances were that Alex was in trouble.
…
“Okay N.”
“Nope.”
“What kind of phrase doesn’t have a N in it?” Alex asked as Becca drew an arm to the stick figure in her notebook.
“This one. Stop whining and ask for a letter.”
“Uh, I don’t know. Give me a clue.”
Becca shook her head. “There are no clues in hangman. It’s
like the easiest word game in existence.”
”Oh shut up … P?”
Becca rolled her eyes before glancing down at the paper. “Mmhmm, one.”
Suddenly a commotion at the other end of the station caught both Alex and Becca’s attention. Alex’s heart sped up before she realized that a younger man who was obviously intoxicated was causing the commotion. Security was trying to get him to leave and he wouldn’t.
Alex glanced at Becca and she saw the relief on her friend’s face.
Becca sighed. “You know, I think I’m going to have grey hair when this is all over.”
“That might not be a bad thing. Maybe you could start a trend,” Alex said amusedly.
“Really? You think?” Becca asked, a smile coming over her face.
“No.”
Becca gave her a playful shove and winked before turning back to her sheet of
paper. “Next letter?”
Alex groaned but gave her another letter.
…
“I still can’t believe he told you about his dad but kept it from me,” JC said.
“He didn’t want anyone to know, man. The only reason he told me is because I uh, I overheard him talking about it with Becca,” Chris improvised.
He and JC were currently walking down the strip in their usual disguises of baseball caps and sunglasses. After JC had heard Chris’s abbreviated version of Alex’s story he had insisted that they go searching for them.
Chris hoped otherwise but he knew the search was most likely fruitless. The area was so large and populated that looking for them was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack.
“C, we might not find them,” Chris said.
JC shook his head. “They couldn’t have gone far. We’ll find them. We’ll find Alex.”
Chris saw the stubborn look on JC’s face and he knew that they’d probably be searching all night. He flipped open his cell phone and made a call to the other guys. If they were going to spend the night looking, they’d need all the help they could get.
…
Fifteen minutes.
Alex looked up from her watch and watched as the driver climbed down the stairs of the bus. An attendant opened the doors and prepared to check passenger tickets.
Alex and Becca got up from their seats on the floor and got their tickets ready. Alex slipped her backpack on and waited for the line to start shifting forward.
This was it. The end, well almost the end of her journey. It had taken months longer than she had planned but she couldn’t have asked for a better temporary home or family than she’d had with the crew and the guys.
She hadn’t had much time to think about this moment. She’d known that she was only going to be with them for a short time but she had never harped on the thought. Now here she was months before she was supposed to go, leaving them all behind and not even being able to say goodbye.
She was surprised at how much it hurt. Surprised at how little time it took for that group of men to find their way into her heart.
“You okay?” Becca asked, concern colouring her voice.
“Huh? Yeah, yeah. I’m fine,” Alex responded.
“Then why are you crying?”
Alex scoffed. “I’m not crying. I never—“ She suddenly realized that silent tears were falling down her face. Not a stream of tears, not even a trickle, just a few misfit drops of water wetting her cheeks.
“It just sucks, Becca. I don—I don’t want to go.”
Becca hugged her silently and patted her shoulder awkwardly around the big
knapsack. “I know hun. I’m sorry.”
”Yeah … me too.”
…
“Guys, you were supposed to check the next streets. This one is JC/Chris territory,” Chris said gesturing to the street they were on.
“We did,” Lance said as he picked at his nails.
“You did them in twenty minutes?” Chris inquired sceptically.
“Well … Okay, so the truth is we took a few shortcuts but Lance made this brilliant deduction and it made sense to follow it up,” Joey said easily. “He was like, guys if you were Alex and you were on the run where’s the first place you’d go?” He lifted up his hands as if to ward off any answers. “Don’t answer ‘cause I’ll tell you. The bus station. It made sense so we decided to come over and check.”
“That’s good Einsteins. JC and I already thought of that. That’s why we’re here,” Chris looked pointedly at the bus terminal of which they were all standing in front.
Joey shrugged. “Whatever, man. So we all had the same idea. Are you gonna stand here all day bitching or are we gonna check?”
Chris sighed and walked through the bus station’s sliding doors. He glanced over at JC. He hadn’t said a word since Chris had called the other guys for help. He looked tense. His shoulders were bunched and he was fiddling with the rings on his fingers.
Justin’s voice brought both JC and Chris to a stop. “Isn’t that Alex? In the line of people over there boarding that bus?”
JC’s gaze fell over the person Justin was indicating with his hand and his shoulders relaxed as relief fell over him. “Alex!” he shouted.
Alex didn’t turn around. JC frowned and quickened his pace. “Alex!” Still he didn’t turn. Finally, JC was behind him but something felt wrong. He grasped Alex’s arm and said quietly, “Alex?”
The boy turned around. He was dark haired, dark eyed but he wasn’t Alex. JC dropped his hand and backed away. “I’m sorry. I thought you were someone…someone else, ” he whispered the last words and closed his eyes.
It wasn’t Alex. Alex wasn’t here. Alex was gone.
…
Alex looked at the window and watched the bright Vegas lights turn into a dusty Nevada plane. Her body drooped in the seat out of both mental and physical exhaustion.
Becca took her hand and squeezed it. “Things are going to
be good now, Al. We beat him.”
Alex nodded and gave Becca a soft smile. “Thank you.”
“Oh, like you ever need to thank me for anything. I love ya, honey.”
Now it was Alex’s turn to squeeze Becca’s hand. “Love you too.”
Alex took one more glance at the lights. She thought about the people there she was leaving behind and said a silent goodbye before she closed her eyes to sleep.
*