Chapter 19 Old friends

                                    

                                          
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Christian's POV
                          
"Hey Chris! How was practice?" Emma asks me from their kitchen when I walk into the house. I feel like this is my home, like our house is just there for emergencies. For as long as I can remember I have come home to this house after school and we have been eating dinner at Luke's since I was little. They have been our neighbors since I was two years old. "It was fine. Hey mrs E!" I greet them while snatching some tomatoes from their salad. Since Kate left with her dad five years ago Emma started helping her mom in the kitchen whenever she could. Kate used to love helping mrs E and for a few weeks after she left, we would find mrs E crying in the kitchen missing her. We all missed her. Still do every day. Sometimes my sister, Alice, also helps out when Emma is busy because mrs E is like a second mother to us. Our parents started their own firm a couple of years ago and it has been really busy. They are some of the top lawyers in the state and it is a huge deal for our small town. My mom also hates cooking so that might be one of the reasons we always eat at Luke's. "Where's Alice? I thought she came home with you after your soccer practice," I ask Emma while getting a soda out of the fridge. "She has an extra tutoring session for our maths test tomorrow. Looks like she might have failed last week's test and they won't let her play Friday if she doesn't pass tomorrow," Emma says thoughtfully. "Don't worry, if there's anything that can motivate her to study it's soccer. Luke said he wanted to do some extra laps so he's also going to be late," I try to reassure her. "Well if no one is going to bother showing up on time for dinner, why are we still cooking? Lets order pizza with our salad," mrs E says winking. My parents are out of town for a few days so we are staying here but it is not really any different from always. I grab the phone and start dialing to order pizza, already knowing what to order for everyone. By the time the pizza arrives, I have eaten half of the salad and Emma is furious with me. "Don't worry we got it!" I hear Luke yell from the door. He and Alice come walking in together and gives everyone their pizzas. "Lets watch a movie or something while we eat," Alice suggests taking off to the living room. Every time we want to watch a movie the girls suggests She's the Man, it is their favorite and we have all seen it at least a hundred times. "It's our turn to choose the movie, the girls chose She's the Man last time," Luke quickly says before the debate even started. We end up watching NCIS, one of my favorites. The new character on the show, Bishop, makes me think of Kate. It is kind of ironic since she indirectly took the place of another character whose name was also Kate. "What do you guys think of the new league? I heard there's one team that could possibly beat you in the semi's," I ask the girls. "Nah, it's just the one girl we need to worry about. She's currently the lead scorer in the league and luckily they are in a different pool so we won't face them before the semi's," Emma says while watching the TV. "We were going to go watch them play this weekend to see how good she really is but apparently she won't be playing. Some kind of injury I guess," Alice joins in our conversation. In the corner of my eye I see Luke trying to steal a slice of Emma's pizza and I try to distract them. "It will be kind of funny if they beat you guys, I mean you're one of the best teams in the country and they are just this small public school team." "Take that back!" Alice angrily shouts at me. "How would you guys like it if we laughed last year when you lost in the semi's?" Emma says glaring at me. Luke gives me the sign that he is in the clear and I quickly tell them that I was only kidding. After the episode ends mrs E brings us ice cream for dessert and Emma looks down at her pizza for the first time since Luke stole the two slices. "You STOLE my pizza! Luke! I was saving it for lunch tomorrow, now you owe me lunch." We all start laughing because he always steals slices from her and she NEVER notices until it is too late. "Okay, kids, I'm going to bed. Your father said he was working late tonight so leave the kitchen light on for him and don't stay up too late yourselves," mrs E tells us after dessert. "Night mom!" "Night mrs E!" We decide to play some games on my computer and Luke and I run over to my house to get my laptop from our treehouse while the girls get us some snacks. "Who's going first?" Alice asks. Soon we have a playing order set up and we start our game, I have been playing this one for a while and are surprised to find that my avatar has advanced a couple of levels since I last played. Someone must have played on my profile! But that is  impossible, no one except Luke knows my password. "Luke, man did you play on my profile since last week? Someone played with my avatar and they were really good, like insanely good, I've advanced two levels!" "What? That's so unfair, now you can buy the new armor and stuff and you don't even deserve it!" Luke wines. "Are you sure someone played on your profile?" Alice asks clearly thinking about something. "Yeah, I'm sure! It's weird because the only way they could have done it is if they were playing on this laptop in the treehouse." "That's creepy! Someone is using our treehouse?" Emma squeals. "Dude, that is pretty messed up, even I am freaked out now. I think we should tell our parents or something maybe it's someone dangerous and the girls go up there on their own all the time," Luke says protectively. I can not help but to agree with him, even if that means my parents might take it down. There is nothing and I mean nothing that will stand in our way of protecting our sisters. We already failed once. The day Kate was unknowingly taken from us, I made a vow with Luke never to let anyone hurt any of our family ever again. Our parents all searched for months only to discover that it was her crazy aunt that got custody and then disappeared. The authorities told us that there was nothing we could do about it since social services signed Kate over to her when we did not show up to the funeral. We never knew about the funeral, no one even told us her dad had passed away until Luke's parents started to get worried and contacted her dad's old commanding officer. Imagine the heartache that followed when they discovered that their little girl was gone too. Kate was part of Luke's family, Ellie and Joe were her parents and Emma and Luke were her brother and sister. "I don't think we should tell our parents, I've kind of been suspecting someone is using our treehouse for the last few days," Alice surprises all of us. "You've been going up their on your own, knowing that someone broke in there!" I can not control my anger. The girls NEVER think about their own safety, they always do these unresponsible things and then they expect me and Luke to save their asses. "Okay, just wait before you freak out. I know it was maybe the wrong thing to do but I didn't want to tell you until I was sure. I think it might've been Kate," Alice says just above a whisper. I can tell by her facial expression that she has been thinking about this for a while. "What do you mean it might be Kate? Why would you even think that?" Luke asks suddenly paying full attention. Emma just sits there speechless with tears pooling in her eyes. Our parents do not know this but we have also been searching for Kate the last couple of years, stealing the file they got from a private investigator and posting old pictures of her online, even going through hundreds of Facebook profiles of girls that are a similar age as her. "I was going through some of my drawings and found a small bird drawn on one of them. The same bird Kate used to draw on everything. At first I thought I had drawn it and just forgot but then I saw that someone had also gone over Kate's name again, making it more visible, like ours," Alice finishes. "If it really was her, why would she not come in to the house and say hello? Why would she sneak in to the treehouse like someone that isn't welcome here? She must know that we have been looking for her by now, we've been posting stuff online for years!" I question Alice. "I don't know Chris, maybe she was scared. Just think about it, who else could it have been?" Alice tries to convince me. Emma is full on sobbing by now and Luke is trying to comfort her, she never talks about Kate, she says it is too painful for her. Luke looks at me and just shakes his head indicating that I should drop it for now. "Fine, we'll discuss our plan of action tomorrow after school, we should all get to bed anyways, it's getting late." I lie in bed for more than an hour before I decide to wake Luke. "Luke, wake up man!" I whisper-yell from my bed. "What's up, Chris? You do realize it's almost midnight and we have practice in the morning right?" He asks me still half asleep. "I can't sleep. What if Alice was right? What if it was Kate and she's in trouble? I mean who else could it have been and why would she not let us know if it was her? I'm really worried, I've always had this hole in my stomach every time I think about her and her life now. Sometimes it feels like she's calling us in my dreams, like she's in pain and needs rescuing. I know it sounds stupid but I really think she needs us and I won't fail to keep my promise to her again. I promised her that I'd always be there to protect her if her dad ever died and I never was," my voice breaks during the last sentence and I can hear him sniffling in the dark. The only times I have ever seen him cry was on Kate's birthdays, every year the four of us would sneak up to the roof at night and light a candle on her birthday and every year we all end up sobbing for the rest of the night we also skip school the day after, doing all of her favorite things like eating ice cream and pancakes with bacon. I think our parents know about the whole skipping school on Kate's birthday thing but they never say anything about it. That is why we love them so much. They are amazing parents, all of them. Even my parents make time for us and are always at our games, putting their careers second for us. "I don't know man. I don't even know where to start looking for her, she could be anywhere by now. Maybe she'll come back if it really was her." "I miss her, Luke." "Me too buddy. Me too." We both lie awake for another hour before falling asleep again. My dreams are filled with Kate calling my name and by the time we have to get up for practice I am ready to jump through the roof with worry. I am not even sure what she looks like anymore, would I even recognize her if I saw her again? Breakfast is quieter than usual and I think Joe and Ellie is picking up on it but they decide to leave it be. "Can we get a ride with you guys today?" Emma asks when Luke and I start packing our bags. "Sure, as long as you are willing to wait after school because we have a team meeting," Luke replies grabbing his lunch. The four of us are quiet on our way to school and the music is the only thing breaking the silence. I decide it is time to talk and turn it down. "We think Alice might have been right about Kate," I start. "I know I am," Alice interrupts me. For the next few minutes we talk about a plan to find out who it was and decide to install a camera in the treehouse. Satisfied with our plan, the girls go to their practice and and we head to ours. This is going to be a long ass week, I can not get Kate out of my mind. I think I have been in love with her since the moment we met, which might sound weird since we met when we were really little but I know in my heart that she is the love of my life. I have made peace with it. I know there will be others that I will love one day but for now she is still the only girl for me. Luke is also clearly distracted and our coach even pulls us aside to ask what is wrong. I wish I knew where she was and how her life turned out.