Ending of Scandal...

"Please just be inside," I wispered. "Please, Noelle."

I held my breath and opened the door.

"Hey!"

My heart leapt, but it wasn't Noelle. Josh was kicked back on my bed, the desk light on, reading a folded-over paperback.

"Where were you?" he asked, laying his book aside with a smile

"You cheating on me already?" he joked.

I started to cry. His face fell.

"Oh, hey. Bad joke," he said, getting up and wrapping me up in his arms. "I guess we shouldn't joke about cheating, considering how we broke up..."

"It's not that."

I buried my face in his sweater, letting my bag and Noelle's fall to the floor with a thump.

"Then what is it?" he asked, cupping my face in both his hands and tilting it up. "Reed, what's wrong?"

How was I going to explain this to him? where did I start? Should I reveal all the Billings Literary society up-front? He was not going to like it. Josh hating Billings from the beginning, and I'm sure that he was relieved the house was gone. If he knew I started it up again, and that apparently starting it up had put me in danger, he was going to lose it.

"It's Noelle," I said finally, my voice breaking. "She's-"

Suddenly, my phone beeped. Or was it Noelle's phone? I dropped to the floor, scrambling around frantically, dumping the entire contents of our bags out onto the floor. Noelle's phone was silent. Dark. But where the hell was mine?

"Looking for this?" Josh asked.

He crouched down and stood up with my phone in his hand. The screen was lit up with a text.

"It fell out of your pocket," he said. "It's a text."

He did a double take as he looked at the screen, his green eyes frightend. "Reed? What the hell is this?" he asked.

I snatched the phone away from him. It was a long text, all in capital letters, and as I read it, my insides slowly turned to ice-cold granite.

WE HAVE NOELLE. IF YOU GO TO THE POLICE, SHE DIES. IF YOU GO TO HER FAMILY, SHE DIES. IF YOU GO TO THE HEADMASTER, SHE DIES. YOU WILL FOLLOW OUR EVERY INSTRUCTION TO THE LETTER, OR SHE WILL DIE. THE GAME IS ON, REED BRENNAN. THE PRIZE?NOELLE'S LIFE.

Never have I thought in my entire life that my best friend that I've grown to love would be taken away from me in the blink of an eye. I'm not talking about Josh; I'm talking about my headstrong, determined BFF Noelle Lange.

Just six hours ago I was sitting next to and talking to her at our BLS meeting. I never would have thought that might be the last time I would ever see her again. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not to Noelle. Not to anyone. This was my fault that she's been kidnapped. Mine. No one should have to go through what I did when I was kidnapped over my Christmas break. Noelle didn't deserve this. Why would someone take her away from me? What was their motive?

I bit down on my pencil eraser thinking about all this while everyone around me listened intently to a lecture about Spanish history in my Spanish class that I shared with Sawyer.

I looked at him from across the classroom. He was so focused in what Mr. Shreeber was saying. His wrist was covered in his own made bracelet, and his fingers where tapping the desk slowly in a constant rhythm.

As if he'd felt my gaze on his back he turned around and looked me in the eye. I felt a chill run down my spine. His expression was so familiar that I almost fainted. His expression was the same exact one as Ariana when she was about to kill me. Not that I thought Sawyer could kill me, nor kill a harmless fly for that matter, but his anger towards me tripling by the hour. I felt bad that I kind of led him on at the dance when my heart was already under seize by my once again love of my life boyfriend Joshua Hollis.

I didn't view Sawyer in a boyfriend/girlfriend way. I admit he is cute, but I would never have fully gotten over Josh. The boy did save my life which makes him my hero while Josh never even once picked up the phone to see if I was alright when I got shoved off the yacht or was kidnapped for six days, not once and that stung.

I smiled at him trying to lighten the tension between us, which I didn't succeed in before he turned around and faced the front, once again tapping the desk with his fingers. Couldn't he forgive me already? I honestly felt bad for him, and I didn't want my relationship with Josh to ruin our friendship.

Once the bell rang I slowly gathered my things and moved towards the door to go to my next class.

"Reed," Mr. Shreeber called after me. I turned around to face him. I didn't want to talk to him now; all I wanted was to leave so I could find Josh and let him hold me in his arms and tell me that it would all be alright.

"Yes?" I said turning towards him putting my books on the open desk next to me. Mr. Shreeber looked uncomfortable and finicky like he was a child in a tux at a celebration.

"I understand what happened to you over the past two weeks, well a couple of months for that matter, but your starting to slip behind in my class and a few of your other classes. I understand that you are under pressure and have a lot of stress, but now is the time to start to crack down and focus on your school work. Your one of my best students and I would hate for you to get behind in your academics. If you need anyone to talk to, you can come to me or talk to a councilor."

There were a lot of things I wanted to talk about, to let off my chest but talking to a teacher or a councilor was not going to help me. Nobody understands what I went through, what I'm still going through. With my problems, a councilor would think I was better off admitted into a psych ward with my own padded cell and a straight jacket. Yeah, I so wasn't going to take him up on his offer.

I grabbed my books off the desk holding them in a death grip against my chest. "Thank you Mr. Shreeber, but I don't need anyone to talk to. I'll be more focused on my education now more than ever," I said trying to end this weird conversation.

He nodded increasing the wrinkles on his aging forehead. "Just keep in mind what I said Reed, OK?"

I was slowly inching backwards towards the door. "OK Mr. Shreeber."

As soon as I got my body out the classroom I hit something hard.

"Oouf!"

I turned around quickly and saw Ivy trying to gather her text books again.

"Sorry," I said glad that I knocked into her. "We need to talk; something's come up." I franticly told her grabbing her forearm and moving us away from eavesdroppers.

"What?" She asked worried now. I looked around to make sure nobody was around us.

"Last night when we couldn't find Noelle and we all went back to our rooms, someone texted me and sent me this message." I thrust my iPhone into her face. "Noelle has been kidnapped, and they might kill her."

Ivy looked scared as she quickly read and reread the message. "Oh my gosh!" She put her skinny fingers to her mouth and gasped. "We have to find he and quickly. Who would have taken her? Why?"

"I don't know," I said exhausted and scared. "I'm thinking this has to do with the BLS. After class I'm calling an emergency BLS meeting in the library. I can't tell them that she has been kidnapped, but I can make up something and tell them she is visiting a sick relative or something."

"Or something," Ivy repeated.

We both looked at each other. Everyone was going to find out that Noelle's been kidnapped soon enough. There was no way of keeping that secret locked away. Shit was going to hit the fan when her father finds out. It was only a matter of time before her kidnappers would do something to Noelle.

I shivered remembering what I had been through on that isolated island, only replacing myself with Noelle.

Noelle was a strong and intimidating person but being kidnapped, she must be scared out of her fucking mind. I know I was.

"Look I have a few people I suspect that might have something to do with Noelle's kidnapping, so I'm going to call Upton and see what I can find out about Paige Ryan. Make sure everyone gets a hold of the message that I want them down in the library."

I moved away from her striding towards Pemberly, already speed dialing Upton.

"Hello?" Upton said in his sexy British accent.

I felt warming chills climb down into the pit of my stomach reminding how much Upton still affected me. Even though I was just starting things off with Josh again, I couldn't help but wonder how my life would have been different if there wasn't a plan to kidnap me when I was leaving to go spend some "get to know you deeper" time with Upton.

"It's me. Something happened, and I need your help." I told him rushing with my words.

He chuckled nervously. "Reed, you're frightening me; tell me what's wrong. Why do you need my help?"

I took a deep breath. "Upton, I need you to tell me everything you know about Paige Ryan. I think she's kidnapped Noelle."

Please REVIEW tell me what you think! I'll update again soon.

~Rebecca Bookie