With the blinds pulled aside, sunlight streamed in through the windowpane of the Volunteers Club. It highlighted the pages of the book in a vague yellow tint as Serena leaned further over my shoulder, nearly squishing her nose into a passage at the very top. 

“Why did he go out of his way to clone his wife? Couldn’t he have used anyone for his Mutant Extermination Plan?”

“Never thought about it like that. I guess it didn’t really matter in the end.” I tapped a finger to my chin. “Maybe it was because he wanted to be with her again, no matter what.”

Her brow furrowed, narrowing her eyes to slits. “Kind of weird how he treats her like a daughter and has her call him daddy though, isn’t it?”

“...And that’s enough reading for today.”

I slipped in the paper bookmark I had been using for novels I brought to the club room. Nicole still had her nose buried in some fantasy hardcover book, an image of a stopwatch front and center over broken glass. It looked interesting enough, but I didn’t dare to ask her more about it. Her mood had soured the last week, and this Monday didn’t magically bring any changes about. She was liable to snap at the mere mention of her name, so Serena and I had found our own entertainment in some trashy light novels whose only redeeming qualities were the beautiful illustrations.

That wasn’t exactly fair to her, however. A lot of her anger stemmed from trying to grant my request to talk with Aubrey and her. Since Aubrey had proven herself quite the capable escape artist, and we were going on day five of her demonstrating this fact, the three of us were stuck in an odd limbo. It was weird how one person could create such a void and ruin the mood, yet here we were, all wanting for her to return and plug the Aubrey-shaped hole that she had left behind.

Surprisingly, her absence did not deter Serena from continuing to show up. Considering how she came in slouching and quiet last Tuesday, however, it was safe to assume that Aubrey was maintaining her distance from us all. That worried me a little. From what I had seen, she had never rejected the younger girl before, no matter how annoying or clingy she was being. That left Serena to become my shadow: constantly underfoot and fussing about every little trope in the novels I busied myself with.

Not that I could blame her when it was partly my fault for being so wishy-washy.

I exhaled slowly, rapping my knuckles atop the paperback novel. “You, uh… watch that new episode of Kangaroo Hoarder?”

She blanched at my attempt to reinvigorate the conversation. “That can’t be a real show.”

“It is. It’s on–”

“This is getting ridiculous!” Nicole slammed the hardcover book shut and allowed it to topple face down onto the table. “I can’t stand here listening to you two go on and on about random shit that neither of you cares about.”

“To be fair, I do kind of like watching Kangaroo Hoarder. It’s got a lot of wholesome moments, despite what the title may have you believe.”

Her cold scowl shut me up, and she stood up to tower over the crouched form of Serena. Not that it made that much of a difference because she still towered over her when the girl was standing at her full height. “Where’s Aubrey at?”

Serena blinked. “How would I know? I’m not her keeper.”

“Yet you always seem to know how to find her. Hurry up and sniff her out or whatever the hell you do.”

She crinkled her nose. “First off, gross. Second off, I have no such superpowers. Sorry to disappoint you.”

The younger girl certainly didn’t sound it, and the snarl from Nicole meant her already frayed temper was close to bursting. That left me to try and douse the flames before they burned out of control and somebody did something they’d regret.

“Why don’t we call it here for today?” I asked, stepping between them. “We can try and talk to her again tomorrow.”

Nicole swung a hand out in front of her, narrowly smacking my chest in the process. “No, I’m tired of dealing with this. Either she can talk to us like a normal human being, or we’ll wait until she’s ready. We’re wasting too much energy just chasing her around.”

Serena's teeth teased her bottom lip. “You don’t mean that?”

“Of course I do. Why bother with someone who doesn’t care enough to even speak with you?”

“It’s not like that! She isn’t doing this to–”

“Then explain to me what the hell is it? Did our friendship mean so little that it’ll break over this? I can’t read her mind. I don’t know why she’s upset. I can take guesses, but everything little thing I hint at gets shut down with that sad little smile of hers.” Her breathing became ragged and her hands curled into fists. “Does it have to do with Grant? Is she pissed off at me for liking him? Is this payback for everything I've done to her? Or did she stub her goddamn toe and can’t let it go? Is she on her period and trying not to lash out? For all I fucking know, she never meant anything she said that day about second chances. I was just a stupid bitch she strung along out of pity. And I hate that…” 

She closed with a gasp and stared at the ground, arms shaking in frustration. There was little I could do to comfort her, but I knew what had to be done. Everyone was far too on edge for this to end well otherwise.

“Sorry, but I think Nicole was right about us needing to get this out in the open today.” Serena turned to me with incredulous expressions. “Do you have any idea where she might be, Serena?”

She folded her arms under her chest. “I assume she’s going to be the last place we’d look. But, no”–she turned to level a glare at Nicole–”that doesn’t mean I can track her.”

“You sure she’s still at school?” I asked. “I wasn’t thinking about it, but she might have left already.”

Because what reason did she have to stick around?

Serena disagreed, swaying her head from side to side. “She doesn’t have much of a choice. Won’t you guys flunk if you don’t meet the club requirement?”

“Ah, you’re right about that.”

It was a blunt assessment, but there was some logic to it. And besides, if anybody could help extend an olive branch, surely Serena was our best candidate. I just hoped I was giving the obnoxious girl more credit than she deserved.

“Fine, let’s grab her and go. I’ll hear it from her if there’s something more going on,” Nicole said quietly, refusing to move her gaze from the floor. 

Serena gave both of us a long look and then sighed. “Just remember to keep your cool when we get there. We’re there for Aubrey. Not anybody else.”

Forgoing any further explanation, Serena led Nicole and me through the ‘L’ shaped amendment of our school. She seemed to know exactly where she was going, even if she denied having any special Aubrey-finding powers. We ended up in front of an abandoned storage closet that had two wide, wooden doors. The doors were badly chipped along the edges, but the metal plate hanging center on the right door tended to distract from it. Etched into it were the words ‘band instruments,’ which were barely visible under the masking tape the photography club saw fit to apply to it. It was more or less a scribble across the tape in permanent marker that declared the room their own.

“Damn,” Serena said, “and I complained that our room was a dump.”

I shrugged my shoulders lightly. “They always say it could be worse.”

Serena reached out to touch the knob, resting her hand on the brass. With a deep breath, she turned to us again. “Remember, we are just here to talk to Aubrey.”

The knob was turned and the door was yanked open, causing a few members to glance up at us in confusion. The room was long but narrow, with photographs plastered over every inch of wall space. Three tables were crammed together in the middle of the room, covered in a jumble of cameras, lenses, and tripods. It looked like an assembly line, with photos being passed in a line and critiques being traded along. However, much of that died away when we entered the room.

A girl with a toothy grin and mousey hair stepped forward to greet us. Something was familiar about her, yet I couldn’t place my finger on what that was. “Serena, Nicole! You need something from us?”

They reacted strangely, seemingly off-put from the bubbly girl. And that was when it clicked for me. She was Luke’s girlfriend, the one he had decided to date out of all those girls. Did they still hold some resentment toward her? I waited with bated breath, ready to intervene should they—read: Nicole—decided to be snarky.

“We’re just here for her,” Nicole replied, a mask of indifference as she pointed to the corner of the room.

A beat-up sofa occupied the space, the shabby thing having avoided my attention entirely. It was missing a cushion and some chunks of fabric, but it wasn’t missing Aubrey sitting on it. She regarded us with wide eyes, glancing around like she was planning an escape route. At this point, I wouldn’t have put it past her.

The door swung open, and I had to step out of its path to avoid getting hit. Luke bodily walked in, waving at the other members and closing the distance to Kate. “Hey, Abby. You still need help getting everything hung up?” He locked eyes with me. “Oh, you’re all here too? What a pleasant surprise.”

Not for us, it wasn’t.

LonMair399

God, work has been kicking my ass recently. Busy season and all that jazz. Hope you all enjoy, and I will have the next chapter up on Saturday! Thanks for reading and see you again soon!