When We Were Kids {Currently Revising}

Chapter 10: Half Of My Heart

All I was deliberating at that moment was how sorry I felt for her. Henri had (I assumed from recent hints.) raped her. I felt so sorry for Clementine that I just wanted to run up and hug her, to tell her it would be alright. She had been looking down at her knees since Colton gave her little secret up. 

While I felt bad for Clementine, I also was angry. I was angry that she had been so vulnerable. She was my rock. Whenever I needed someone to hold, someone to cry to, someone to tell my puberty mishaps to, I called her. What I'd put her through all those years with guys and drama was enough to make someone run away. Clementine had always been the one to stay. 

When Colton mentioned that Clementine had been with Henri, I wasn't too surprised about the Henri part. Henri had always been a jerk. I knew that behind those overprotective glares, he was having his own affair. 

I wasn't surprised by Monique and all the other girls. Monique was one to fall victim to men. She was always gushing over her hot boyfriend which I assumed had been Colton until he kidnapped her. 

The other girls, I didn't know very well but the looks on their faces were ones of fear and regret. A lot of them looked like they had thrown this on themselves. They didn't believe they were worthy of true love which is why this had happened to them. Others were busy praying to god.

"Let me get out of this mess, my lord. Away from these terrible girls who have sinned. Yes, lord. Thy ladies in this room have sinned and I am the only victim, my lord." She really got on my nerves. Her name was Vanessa, she had said. She told me that I was 'worthy' of my mechanical leg and that "God had to punish me somehow." 

I was literally about to rip out of my ropes and slap her across the face for saying that. I could've slapped that smug grin off her face so hard. Then, maybe she could say I deserved punishment but was there punishment for revenge? I wondered. I couldn't decipher that at the moment. The Christian "Saint" was on my right and another girl who was, I believe bulimic on my left. 

I couldn't focus on anything with praying and barfing echoing in both my ears. 

Finally, Henri walked in. He glanced at me and ran back out. Coward. 

Colton apparently agreed and rolled his eyes. 

"Looks like someones still got a crush on the skankiest girl in town!" He screamed back to Henri. I growled. 

"Shut up, Laylah." He waved me off and pointed at five girls. He started cutting their ropes with a tiny pocketknife. Once he had finally freed all of them, he ordered them to leave. Of course, he freed the ones that were weak, the ones that were probably not going to mention that there were five other girls left. Colton grinned at all of us, probably laughing hysterically inside his head.

"We have something special in mind for the five of you." I glanced at the five he'd kept. Of course, Sweet Clementine, Weak Monique, Barfing Bella, Christian "Saint" Vanessa and me. I could tell he wasn't planning to release us soon and if he was, it would be into a pit of alligators, rather than our families. 

*** 

Words couldn't describe how he felt. He was lost without her. She was like the piece of his heart that he needed to survive. If anything happened to her, he would probably die. 

When she broke up with him, yesterday morning, he was utterly confused. The thought of her not loving him was too hard to take, so he considered other options. Was it something with his friends? His clinginess? It was all so confusing.

They'd only been together a couple days. He remembered Friday when she said she'd wanted more than just a friendship. Then, he remembered getting her mailed letter about how she needed to get away, and then Monday morning when she'd said things weren't working out. 

After that morning, he'd basically tried to make it through the day, pretending to be happy, and pretending to know answers when teachers called on him but he just couldn't. When he got home to his mom crying, he couldn't bare it anymore. He went up to his room and sulked for the whole night. 

At around two in the morning, her mom called him and was frantically telling him how she hadn't come home that night and the next thing you knew, police were surrounding the entire area, barricading houses and more. There were even headlines in the newspaper and it wasn't just her. Clementine and another girl from their school was missing as well. 

He couldn't believe all this had happened just after his own father had gone to prison. He always had suspected his father knew something about Laylah's accident but he never asked for fear of being hit. 

After two hours of sitting in his room, mediating whether to have a nervous breakdown or not, Jay finally got up and decided to be a man. Something he had never learned how to do from his own father. So, after this brave decision, he kissed his mom goodbye and went out to search for help. 

"Jack? Oh, Ms. Smith? Is Jack home?" Jay inquired after he'd opened the door to come in. He knew Jack's little sister, Rita would be sleeping. Ms. Smith smiled at him, sympathetically and pointed up towards Jack's room. 

"Jack?" He whispered. He heard crying from outside the door. Good god, man, he thought. Jay hated hearing guys cry. He did it all the time but just hearing it was one of his biggest pet peeves. When Jack heard Jay's voice, he tried to stop crying and finally managed to wipe away his tears and hear Jay out.

"I'm holding a search party. Wanna come?" Jack shook his head.

"What if...what if Clem's dead?" He pondered. "I can't see her like that."

"Don't think that way! We're going to find them and that will be that! Now are you going to man up and join me or just sit around here all day waiting for her to come back?" Jay was now standing in front of Jacks bed, his hands on his hips.

"Fine." Finally, Jack stood up, and grabbed a snack and a water bottle. Jay shot him a disapproving look.

"You bringing a gun?" Jay asked. Jack nodded and pulled out a hand gun from under the socks in his sock drawer.