I was talking on the phone to Hilary earlier. She gave me a hard time about Declan. How come all people turned out to be such supporters of a relationship between me and Declan? Even my dad suggested to choose him in the talk we had about Mark yesterday.

I remember how he disapproved Declan and me the first time we went out together. I can literally hear my dads voice again, telling me that Declan was not "the person" for me and now he somehow is all Pro-Declan? Seriously does that make any sense?

I know that I always wanted him to be more open and honest,more caring and now when he finally is all I want is to ran away from him. Part of me still wants to be together with him, he is after all, the only guy I ever truely loved, but I have moved on, I changed and right now I can´t get back to the place we used to be. The talk we had tonight seemed like the break-up reloaded, but this time we changed positions, this time I was the one rejecting him... eventhough he would never admit it, I really hurt him. I guess I have never seen him so messed up before, he actually looked like he was about to cry. I felt so bad turning him down but I guess this time I have to do whats best for me...I spent the whole year wishing for a moment like that to happen. Two months ago I would have been the happiest person on the planet, if declan had given me that speech ...he has matured so much I´ll doubt that he ever accepted to be friends with a girl who turned him down or that he even cared enough about the feelings of a girl before, he became the perfect boyfriend and yet I can´t go backwards. I´m not saying that we are done for good, just that I came to terms with everything and that I need to find out who I really want to be and what to do with my life before dealing with the whole "find-the-right-boy-you-want-to-spend-the-rest-of-your-life-with" issue. Is this so hard to understand?I...

Suddendly there was a knock on the door, and Lori couldn´t finish her thoughts. She threw a look at her clock ...She had been thinking for almost two hours...How could ones life be so melo-dramatic, she asked herself.. there was a knock on the door again...

"Isn´t there any chance that one could have his privacy for more than five minutes?" she moaned..."Lori , come on open the door" Josh seemed pretty anxious,so Lori dragged herself from her bed to the door to unlock it..

Just when she was about to turn the key Josh screamed again:"For gods sake,Lori..." The minute she saw her brothers face she knew something bad happened. Before she could even ask a question Josh took her hand and literally dragged her downstairs, to the living room.

It took her minute to realize that it was whole crowed: Andy sitting on the couch biting her nails, Jessy and the strange mother of hers standing a little bit away from the others looking out of the window, her father comforting her mother who was talking really fast to someone on the phone, Hilary keeping herself busy with serving glasses of water to everyone needing it or not and ...Declan, the last person she wanted to see this night...paving around like a fox looking for his wreath..she scanned the room more precisicely...Two person at least were missing...yet again her thinking got interupted, someone turned the television louder...before she even realized what the reporter said she noticed the building showing in the news...her school...

She tried to focus "We are assuming right now that this isn´t just a prom-night vanishing, in which the missing person turns out to have spent the night drunken at her boyfriends place...so in case you have seen the 18 years old Amanda Bloom call 911.." Amanda missing?Lori somehow felt the floor moving under her feet, before she could even fall down someone took her and placed her softly on the couch..

Without looking up she knew who it was. "Whats happening?Where is Kyle?" Lori asked shakingly. "He just called, he is looking for Amanda with the guards. He left her alone in the entrance to get her purse; which she left inside and when he came back Amanda was gone. All he found was a ring looking familiar to the one he owned " Declan responded

"So, they took Amanda?" She wasn´t able to have one straight thought, a few things came to her mind at the same time, yet she couldn´t quite focus.. So Amanda vanished, how on earth could they explain their assumptions to the police without giving Kyles and Jessy´s real identities away?

"How come she is already on the news? I thought that you have to be at least missing for 24 hours before they even start looking for someone?" Lori asks puzzled.

"Beloved sister,seeing that watching cis and whatsoever taught you a lot, you are missing the tiny fact that we are talking about Amanda, daughter to Carol Bloom. I´m quite surprised that she didn´t call for international help yet" "Josh Trager, that was a really rude thing to say, how would you react if your child would get lost? Right now I´m having great expectations for our future family, seeing how caring you are" Andy gave her boyfriend a sour look, as much as she loved Josh he sometimes clearly was a jerk.

"So I talked to the guards and they suggested to form search-teams so that we can do something,so lets team up and guys no one will walk around alone, got that?" Nicole threw a knowing look to her son and her daughters on-off boyfriend, the past had indeed taught her something.

" Lets see, I suppose we should double..." "Sarah and I will team up"Jessy interferred. "I have a feeling that we might find something together" "Good, we´ll need someone staying here, guarding the phone in case something happens"

"I´ll do that"; Hilary suggested, "You know I really want to find Amanda, but night time outdoor activities, missing wild partying, kind of freaks me out!"

"Thank you,Hilary,so lets see, Andy, Josh I know you guys are all in for looking for Amanda, but I suggest you to come with me and Stephen, not that I don´t trust you guys, but its safer"

"So you basically say that you want me to be save and yet you let your own daughter rush into woods with no one taking care of her, to look out for people who might kidnapped Amanda?I always knew that you prefer me..."

"Josh cut it down" Stephen knew that his son always started to mumble nonsense when something freaked him out, but this time every Joke made was just another Minute wasted in which they could try to save Amanda."Besides Lori has someone to take care of her" There it was again, Stephen standing up for Declan, weird how things turned out, Lori thought "Declan would never let something bad happen to Lori, so lets get ready and head out here!"

"Where shall we search next?" Declan asked Lori. She was caught up in her thoughts so that she barely spoke to Declan while looking for Amanda. "I don´t know, you are the one who has been close to the mystery around Kyle, so spill the beans" "I know this might sound strange and I guess that Kyle has been on to it too, but I suggesst we should drive to the Place in the woods we went to after you have been beaten up...it has to be somewhat connected to all it. Maybe we find a clue there, leading the way to Amanda"

Without looking into Loris face, he knew she was afraid. She was the one he had that special bond with,as much as she got him, he got her,too. Lori was the only one ever coming so close to him, knowing him the best and he somehow could sense how Lori felt. He wanted to take her hand, comfort her, tell her that everything would turn out right and yet he couldn´t. She implied that she wanted them to be friends. No more." Or we could try to find Tom Foss or Adam" he suggested. He felt Lori relaxing next to him. "I´m going to phone Kyle to see if something important has happend" he said, taking out his cell phone "Damn it, it broke down" "Never mind, take mine" Declan took the mobile phone out of Loris Hand, slightly touching her skin. Dealing the number he couldn´t quite focus on the whole Amanda issue, he knew that he shouldn´t be so distracted but he still was a heartbroken person and as girly as it might sounded he wanted to cuddle up in his pillows instead of walking around with the girl who just rejected him. "Kyle, its me" Minutes of silence followed, shortly interupted by Declan responding to whatever Kyle said.

It seemed like ages until he finally cut down the line to hand the cell phone back to Lori.

"Kyle is with Adam, he came back to help Kyle, Lori, they got a phone call from the one who kidnapped Amanda, they are going after Kyle " Without a word he took her into his arms. She was, after all, one of his best friends and she needed a hug. "So whats he doing now?"It took her three times to finally say those words; because she could already assume the answer.

They were all sitting in the living room, starring at the phone..desperately in need for some news..Kyle had told them all to stay out of this mess, and as much as they tried to convince him to take them with him; they couldn´t change his mind.He didn´t tell them where he´d go to or what he´d do there so they were all left waiting for the phone to ring. Yet he was at least surrounded by Jessy,Adam and Sarah, trust-worthy persons and Kyle somehow always managed to escape the biggest crisis..hopefully this time,too.

Back in Loris Room she changed into more comfort-clothes...yet she knew that she would get no sleep in that night and probably not in the following ones as well, so she tried to relax a little.

There was a knock on her door again, Lori begged that whoever was in front of her door was not waiting with bad news. She slowly opened the door to see Declan standing in front of her, his hands in his pockets, looking like a complete mess. She knew that he would rather be at Kyles side and that being here,doing nothing, made him anxious and restless more than any other person in Trager household right now. "Can I come in?" he asked. She just stepped away allowing Declan entering the room. They silently sat down on Loris bed, both worrying how things would turn out. "I couldn´t stand sitting there starring at the phone. I can´t help myself imagine what Kyle and the others are going through. I should be there for him.." "Declan, you know what he said..there is a reason why he wanted you stay out of this...this might be more dangerous than everthing that has ever happened. I know you feel uncomfortable sitting here but still he does not want you to get hurt..or worse" She couldn´t dare to finish this thought. "Declan, you are his best friend. The only person he ever trusted with his secret, you risked a lot to help him, so stop worrying Kyle will be fine and so will the others." There was a reason why Declan did not want to give up on Lori, she has the ability to say the right things at the right moment, no one ever touched his heart the way Lori did. Sitting here with her was how he wanted to spend the rest of his life.

She felt comfortable,warm and save. When she woke up he had his arms around her. They both fell asleep while waiting. Him being so close to her reminded her of the great days they had together...She watched him smiling in his sleep...She said that she didn´t want to get back together with him and yet she wasn´t so sure anymore. The buzzing of her cellphone interupted her thoughts, Declan woke up, obviously embarrassed by the way the had linked arms with Lori. Lori jumped out of her bed and answered her phone...When she realized who was on the phone she turned her back to Declan...One time you are asking yourself whether you made the right decision,next time fate brings you back to reality. There has been a reason why she rejected Declan, it was not that she didn´t love him anymore, but more that the she somehow developed feelings for her fathers TA, yet she would never admit it to herself. And there he was on her phone, asking how she was as he had heard about Amanda. He continued asking Lori if he should pick up her to distract her a little. Lori threw a look to Declan,who waited suspicious on her bed, He knew who Lori was talking to and by the look on his face you could see that he indeed figured out how Lori felt about Mark.

"Oh come on, Declan, we both know who Lori has the hots for" Hilary felt bad seeing one of her best friends so screwed. She had found Declan sitting on a bench in the garden staring at the sky and something inside her told her that some Hilary-device was approved. She always had a big heart and she was probably the greatest leclan shipper ever and she couldn´t really understand how two people who obviously belonged together could have such bad timing.. She sat down next to Declan stroking his arm..She was indeed convinced that Lori was in one of her phases and would eventually come back to her senses and back to Declan, but she also knew Lori good enough to say that there was definately something going on between her and Marc... "Yeah, Hilary right, thats why she took of with that geek an hour ago.Lets face reality: I messed it up. Again"

They were walking down the park both with an ice-cream in their hands. She needed to get out of the house away from all the people restless walking around. She could not concentrate anymore, as she was so worried about Kyle and Amanda. It has been more than 24 hours they last heard from them and she already reckoned that something bad happened to them...She desperately needed something to take off her mind a little,so she turned around to face Mark.Before she could even make the attempt to say something he linked eyes with her and opened his mouth like he was about to say something but couldn´t for some reason.

They stood there in complete silence until Mark finally started to talk.

"So who would have guessed that prom-night would turn out to be so dramatic?"he asked,

"I mean not just the thing with Amanda...but...well. I´m that guy who likes to hide behind his facade of sarcasm,but I bet you already know that since you are the queen of cynic, so I need to tell you something!" Lori stood there waiting for him to continue, her stomach was suddendly filled with butterflies. "Lori,I guess now its time to tell you the truth, don´t get me wrong about that, I like you,I really do so please keep that in mind while listening to me"

Uhh, that clearly wasn´t the speech she imagined to hear. "I know where Amanda is hidden"

"I beg you pardon, you are walking around with me for almost 2 hours and now you feel the need to let that important thing just slip out like its some uninteresting topic as the weather?"

She made a mental note telling that she should book some time with Nicole, not as her mother,but as a psychiatrist this time as she always regarded guys as interesting who turned out to have some serious mental problem. She turned around, willing to run away from him,when Mark grabbed her arm: "Lori, please listen to me, I didn´t know that they planned on kidnapping Amanda, all I knew was that they were interested in Kyle" "So great, you care about Amanda but you would approve that they do harm to my brother?"

"For gods sake,you should really start to be more patient. I was about to say that I was in charge of keeping an eye on you Tragers and your friends. We are on the good side, nothing will happen to either Amanda or Kyle. There are a few people out there who want Kyle and Jessi no matter what price to pay so we decided it was about time to show up...Amanda will turn up on the stairs of her house within the next two days, we already have our people on the police so that they will have bullet-proofed version where she had been. Kyle will remain where is, so that it looks like that they replaced Amanda with Kyle. Ergo whoever really is after Kyle will believe that some one else took him. It will also look like Sarah took Jessy out of town so that should made them less careful and we may finally have the chance to get on those people."

Lori was literally speechless