Prologue
She was just gone.
6 moths ago, 16 year old Catarina Valentine disappeared from the face of the earth. It's like, she was a magic disappearing act that couldn't be brought back. Well, not literally. But you get what I mean. My best friend in the whole entire world, though I'd never admit it, just vanished. Sweet, lovely little Cat Valentine. No one knows where she went or why she disappeared. And if Cat did run away, she was pretty good at hiding and staying hidden. The police won't even try looking for her. One too many 'accidental' calls from Cat's brother, Frankie, made sure of that. Jackasses.
I saw her though, the night before she 'ran away'. We all saw her, I mean Beck, Andre, Robbie, Vega and I. She personally invited us all out together. It was weird because she had recently been avoiding leaving the house except for school purposes. She insisted on paying for everything, she told us what and when we were doing something. I don't think she ran away, I think she just knew she was going disappear. I think she had known for a while.
I'm pretty sure no one else noticed it, but I did. They may have noticed how she was slightly more distant and spacey than usual, but I noticed how her smile, although radiant as ever, wasn't as vibrant. It was slowly diminishing, slowly fading away. I hadn't seen her real smile for a really long time. I thought I'd never miss that thing, I always thought that she was annoying and loud and just so, so innocent. But whatever's happened to her couldn't have happened if she was as innocent as she seemed.
And even though I've known her since we were 7, I never saw through her facade. Or maybe I did, but I wasn't bothered enough to care. Why, why, why?! Why was I so stupid? She was always so kind and nice. She always looked out for all of us. When Beck and I broke up she came over to my house and she even watched comforting movies with me. By comforting movies, I mean movies that I'd find comforting.
"The Scissoring Trilogy Directors Cut with 2 hours of commentary and behind the scenes specials."
I didn't question her motives or even why she'd want to watch it, or why she even had this. I was too caught up in my own problems. That night, we watched every single thing on those discs. The movies, the bloopers, deleted scenes. It took all night of my crying. I never noticed how she didn't even flinch while watching the movie. I was too busy worrying about myself. She held me and comforted me.
I think that that night started it all.
The next day, she didn't come to school. I thought that she was just tired. The day after that, she wore a jumper. In 100° Los Angels weather. She didn't complain about the heat and no one bothered ever asking her why she wore it. The following 2 months, she constantly wore jumpers, jackets, anything that would cover her up. For 2 continuous months before disappearing, she avoided going out with us like the plague. Like she'd contract some deadly disease from hanging out with us, leaving only consequences that could endanger her life if left alone.
It's been 6 months of no Cat. No one calls me at 6:30 in the morning just to say good morning. No one comes to my house for random sleepovers. No one openly envelopes me into rib crushing hugs. Honest to God, Cat is a lot tougher than she looks. She could probably beat me in a fist fight if she tried.
There are a lot of things people don't know about Cat. As open as she seems, if someone actually cared to pay attention to Cat, she was a closed booked. A book glued together forcefully, covered in binds that almost broke the book into lots of little pieces. Out of the few secret I've gotten from her, four of them stood out. First, Cat is actually the older one between us. Not really a secret, but I'm the only one in the group who knows when her birthday is. Secondly, Cat is 100% purebred Italian. This has led me to believe several different things, including the fact that she could probably beat me in a fist fight. Third, Cat has a potty mouth. Like, out of school and especially when we're alone, she swears like a sailor. And lastly, I'm pretty sure Cat knows how to use a gun. Or anything like that, this leads back to the Italian heritage thing. I'm pretty sure her dad's a mafia gangs man or something. I once found a handgun hidden in Cat's room while looking for a place to hide while playing hide and seek. I never told her, so she actually never told me if she actually knows how to use it. Just an Italian hunch.
Right now, we're sitting on a park bench. By 'we', I mean Beck, Andre, Robbie and Vega. It's dark and we all have cups of melted ice-creams in our hands or in our laps. This was the last thing we did with Cat. Sit in the park at night after a day of fun. Just eating ice-cream by ourselves. Because seriously, who the hell goes to the park at this ungodly hour? Tori's been crying. Her eyes are red and there's a dozen used tissues in her bag that keep falling out whenever we walk. Robbie's been crying too. Not to the extent that Tori has though. Andre is trying to put up a strong suite. Beck is the calmest of us by outer appearance. But I know Beck, and I know how bad this is hurting him.
The silence of the night is broken when we hear a voice yelling at us. "Get the fuck down!"
We don't do anything at first, but hearing a gunshot and a strong gust of wind literally next to my ear makes me reconsider that command. "Everyone, get under the table!" I yell while panicking and getting under the table. This time, everyone does get 'the fuck down'.
That voice though. Or rather, the source of it came run towards the table, jumping onto it. I hear gunshots coming from above us and I can tell that whoever is on the table didn't miss their target. The sound of a groan and a gurgle could be heard. Then a loud thud and across the street lies a dead body. With a rifle underneath him.
"Holy shit that was close." The voice says, jumping down and running across the street. The person easily picks up the body, alongside that gun and carries them towards us.
By now, we've crawled out of the table. I can hear my heart beating so fast. I look at the person who just saved our lives. Short. The person's short. Walking closer towards us, I can tell by the way she walks that she's a woman. Also, any man that height just makes me laugh. Sorry to anyone man that tall, just the honest truth.
She dumps the body on the chair and looks up at us. "Well what the fuck are you all looking at?" Her voice sounds familiar. And as she removes the hood from her head, my head starts to spin.
"Cat.." I mumble out before I can even register the thought.
"Aren't you glad to see me?"
Hello anyone who actually wants to read this crap. I dunno where this came from. Ariana Grande said she swore like a sailor, so it made me interested in the fact that that basically means Cat Valentine also swore. Review if you'd like. First fanfiction, wish me luck. :)
