Chapter 3- Blossoming... Or Blooming

Did I say he was odd? Well he was, he's a lot of things, Liam...he already knew who I was when I first met him. Apparently he only knew me because I'm the talk of the school, but how come I've never seen him? He must be an "outsider", as many people would call it. "I'm glad you're able to help me." I said as Liam walked through my door, me and him decided on a day to meet so he could help me find Ansley easier. He said he's helping for my sake and others, I don't know what he really meant by that, probably for the sake of the thousands of people that never received justice or help. "Excuse the disgrace of a room I have" I walked him up the stairs, down the hall and in my room. I cleaned my room but it's gotten messier since then. "Not a problem, let's get started! Have you used your computer yet?" he asked, looking over at my surprisingly clean desk. "I have, but no matter where I looked there wasn't one trace of her." I was sorta disappointed that I couldn't find any trace of her.

     I hated knowing there's a losing chance in this. "Well that does us no good. I have another plan, but it'll be a lot harder." I couldn't say no to him, that definitely wasn't an option at this point, "What is it?" I asked with a more ecstatic look. He smiled a little and sighed, "We'll have to break into the police station and dig through the files there." "Okay." I started, Liam seemed a little shocked how easy going I was, "I'll park my car by Abby's house, she won't care. The guards and officers won't be able to see it either." "Really? Her parents won't care either?" He asked, I shook my head at him. "Nope, Abby doesn't really live with her parents. They're always on business trips. They only mostly appear on the days bills need to be paid, but then again they pay online most of the time." Liam didn't ask anymore questions, he didn't want to get too into Abby's personal life, I liked that about him. He wasn't nosy like most people. Liam looked down at his phone. "Okay, can't argue with that then. Let's start heading there." He said in a rushed voice. It made me wonder what he was in a hurry for, but I didn't get too much in my head about it. I got up off my bed and followed him out to the door. "Hang on..." I said and went to the kitchen. I took a peak by the wall to see mom prepare yet another dinner for Haden to eat as he sat at the table and watched her. I swear he should just move in, but I didn't say anything. "Cecily, come on!" Liam yelled in a whisper, with that being said I quickly went back to the door and we both went outside to my car.

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     We got outside to my Dodge, got in and started driving off to Abby's. "I take it you don't like him." Liam said. I could see him tilt his head, as a questioning manner to get more of my attention. I gave him a shrug, "I'm not sure, not really but I guess there's still a chance for me to like him." Liam just nodded and leaned back into his seat, letting the subject fade away as we arrived at Abby's house. "Let's start walking, it shouldn't be too far." I said. We sat there for a minute and he agreed. Soon enough, we arrived at the police station. It was still weird to me that this boy just appeared so quickly in my life, but in some way I could see him as a trusting person. Those thoughts never left my mind once.

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     "I think that window leads to the record room. The student files should be in there." I say as we both begin to sneakily run to the window. I took a glimpse through the window, and when I didn't see anyone I tried to open it, "Shit, it's Locked." I said quietly, then Liam tried to take a try to open it and failed as well. As Liam was having his attempts at opening the door, I went around the police station and found bricks that were used to decorate around flowers and trees. I brought it around the back and threw it at the window, without warning Liam. "What the hell?! Just.....give me a warning next time!" He said a little loud, he looked a little terrified. I laughed as quiet as I could, "Okay okay, I'm sorry!" I said in a defensive manner. We both made our way inside the window, I almost cut my leg on the glass but thankfully I was paying attention

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     Once we made our way inside a random room in the station, we started making our way around to the file room. It wasn't too hard since it was right across the hall from the room we were in. Obviously it wasn't as easy as we thought, we still had to find the right key for the door. "Look out there." Liam pointed to a guard with a whole bunch of different keys wrapped on his back belt loop. I gave him a look, but he returned a discouraged look, "Wait, how are we going to get the keys from him?" "Seriously?" I questioned him, giving him a famous what the fuck look, "Yes seriously! Are we just going to sneak in there and take them from him?!" "Of course, why not?" I was only replying as a joking manner, but I was also being kind of serious too. "This is crazy...." Liam said. He was so panicky he took a step back for a second, he needed to "have time to think''.

     I understood it was tougher than it sounded, but we didn't have time to turn back or quit. I began to stealthily open the door, knowing if he heard even the slightest voice or noise, I would get caught. Once I opened the door successfully, I crouched down and slowly walked towards him, I wrapped my arms around his mouth and nose tightly, causing him to lose breath. I had learned this from Ansley's parents actually. Her dad showed us incase we were to be kidnapped or something crazy like that. I obviously used this in a nondefense way but no one has to know, it was the first thought that came into my head.

     I felt his breath slowing down more and more until he eventually fell unconscious. I didn't know if I did it right or not, I looked at his chest for a minute and seen that he was still breathing. I was relaxed about that and grabbed his keys and ran back to the room where Liam was waiting.

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     Once I got back to the room Liam was leaning against the door waiting. "How did it go?" "Good," I responded, "Let's head into the room." We walked quickly into the room and once Liam caught the slightest glimpse of the guy passed out by the door, he jumped back and started freaking out. "Oh my- Wha- How.....Cecily! What the hell?! I can't, I got- Why did you have to kill him?!" He was jumping around and pointing at the guy, basically causing a whole crazy scene and overreacting, but it was pretty hilarious. "Dude, calm down Liam. I didn't kill him, I just knocked him out for a little bit." "Oh...." he blankly stared at the passed out guard as I looked through for Ansley's file.

     For what felt like hours, but was only a few minutes, we both looked and found Ansley's records. I got excited and began jumping up and down in excitement. I was cut off by the sound of the guard that was knocked out before, noticed his keys were gone and began talking loudly, I couldn't make out the words he was saying, and stomping around. Liam went to open his mouth to speak but covered it, realizing we would get caught if he spoke or even possibly gave out the wrong breath. I motioned for him to me, which he followed. We hid behind a counter the files were on. I knew the man heard us from our voices when he woke up, but he didn't see where. He searched the record room the three of us were in, and left in the hallway, which gave us the perfect moment to leave.

      We went down the hall but I had the idea to follow him and lock in a room to make sure we weren't caught. Liam looked over and saw me turn to follow the guard, "Wha-" he said in a whisper, but of course, a loud enough one for the guard to hear. I looked at him in anger and looked back to hear the guard coming back our way. I pulled Liam under a table, waiting for the guard to walk back past us. I saw him walking back towards the records room and I quickly followed. I didn't look back or wait for Liam. I shut the door the man was in quietly, once the door clicked, I heard him yell. He began banging on the door. I locked the door and quickly ran back to the table, grabbed Liam's arm and quickly ran back to the window we broke before. I locked the door and took a look around as Liam climbed out to see if there was any evidence that could help them find us, I only grabbed the brick I used and left behind Liam. We got back to Abby's, where my car was, and began looking through the file. I found nothing at first but some trouble we caused at school.

     The panic was coming over me until I was towards the end of her records, I found a picture of a house and a short description of it. It looked just like the house we saw in that sketchy neighborhood we both wanted to go to with Abby and Lynn. I read the short description and another paper that was tied to it. "These papers are the only part of evidence I think would make sense. The rest of these files are just school records," I pointed to the house on the paper and showed Liam, "Me and her saw this house and wanted to go in with Abby and Lynn. She went in by herself without us knowing." "Do you think she might have found something or someone there maybe?" "I don't know, " I began, "We need to go to that house, do you have time?" Liam checked his phone. " I don't actually, I have to get home." I was a little devastated but understood, "Okay that's fine, we can always go tomorrow or sometime soon. I kind of don't want to sneak into another place again today." I said with a laugh, which he joined.

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     I began driving as I looked over at Liam, but he looked back at me just as quickly, which made me a little embarrassed and quickly looked back. "What's wrong?" he laughed. "Nothing, but I have a question," he silently looked at me and waited, while I kept my eyes on the road, " What do you mean when you say you want to help me for the sake of other people, what people? Do you mean there's other people that have been missing like this?" "Oh, well I just...it's kind of deep." He said scratching the back of his neck, he seemed kind of in discomfort. "You don't have to if you don't want to, I get it." I said, trying to give him a little bit more comfort, "Well I feel like a part of me is gone, or missing, it's weird to say which one I feel exactly, but I don't want people to have to feel this way like me, I would feel bad for anyone to have this feeling. I think, maybe if I help you find your friend, I could feel better myself and it might get rid of that empty feeling I have." I took a breath, it was definitely deeper than I thought it would be.

     I smiled to make him see there was no reason for him to feel discomfort in talking to me. I glanced over at him again and then looked back at the road, "That's understandable, I get it, but do you know what made you feel this way or did it just hit you somehow one day?" He hesitated to speak but still did, "Well, I lost a friend too, but I never had the chance or dedication to find him." I felt a little sad at this point, I knew his feelings but I couldn't imagine the hurt he must've felt not being able to search for him. "I'm sorry that happened to you, why couldn't you help him?" I asked, I was so hesitant to question him more but my curiosity was winning. He didn't answer that question, actually he didn't speak until we arrived at his house, he only spoke to give me directions.

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     When we arrived at his house, he looked up at me happily as if we had never crossed any rough subject. "We should hang out more Cecily, it feels nice to have a personal therapist to get things off my chest." He had a small chuckle, it made me smile a tiny bit honestly, "Of course we should!" I answered back happily. "Can I come by your house on Saturday to help you find more evidence, and so you're not alone in that house." He asked with some confidence, I could tell he was trying not to be awkward, it wasn't working. "Of course! I think you're a great help too." I smiled at him with a nod. "We can always hang out too after that, but I know you want to get as much evidence as you can quickly." "Yeah, we can definitely do that, here's my number." I said and wrote it down on a small sticky note and handed it to him. He smiled and gave me a happy okay. We said our goodbyes once more.

     On the way home I had so many questions rushing through my mind. Did I like him? We were then friends....friends. "Friends?" I said aloud. Are we friends that are blooming? Are we already past that phase and already blossoming? I couldn't tell, This situation was new to me, but I liked this new change. Once I got home I threw the brick away in the dumpster, went inside, upstairs to my room, got ready for bed, and prepared myself for the next week.