"Hurt...Hurt? How?" The bile rising in Cindy's throat, made the pit in Avery's stomach enlarge. Cindy choked slightly on her bile, "It's..I...Me, Rose and Laura...We were sitting." She gasped as the tears fell freely, "And heard...we heard her scream." Before she continued she vomited, all in the sink luckily.
"Cindy..." Avery glanced as the young girls eyes clenched tightly. "We..weren't allowed downstairs...but...but Rose went" Avery swallowed thickly, "And..."
"And she never came back..." Cindy now collapsed into full on mental break down tears and Avery's breathing felt hard and laboured. Fuckk, fuck, where was her best friend, crouching down to Cindy's level, the petite twelve years old had her face buried into her arms, "Did your mother return?" Despite hating Mrs Duke, Avery had to admit her husband was a dick head.
Cindy didn't answer, but Avery wouldn't take her silence as an answer not matter if it was truth. She needed to hear her say it, say something Avery never wanted ever hear. But luckily she answered, "Yeah..She picked me up from school and left to...the mall."
Avery narrowed her eyes furiously, Rosalie had been missing and she'd left to go the mall?! Rage filled inside Avery, she was going to find her best friend, no doubt. But she was dying to give Mr and Mrs D a fragment of her mind, the truth about this face they created about their family. Ugh Dick heads. Avery wanted to murder something, quick time.
"Look Cindy." Avery stuffed some money out of her pocket, "If you want why don't you get something for you and Laura from the shop and I'll order pizza, but I need to find Rose, so you can give the delivery guy his money and keep the rest."
Before the young girl could reply Avery dashed out the house, as her fingers simultaneously began browsing across the screen, Rosalie. Clicking the icon she began ringing her frantically, and each time it had went straight to voice mail. Berserk, Avery's fingers found another number; Farkle. If she couldn't get to Rosalie first hand, she'd get Farkle to ping it and she'd find Rose herself.
"Hello, Farkle?!"
The caller on the other end seemed slightly surprised, Avery was popular, pretty and had expensive taste. But she was parallel to what whom she was expected to be, and one of the factors she did that, "She wasn't suppose to" was associating with nerds or lower class people, but Avery couldn't care less about what people thought about her. "Farkle I need you track Rose's phone now."
It was difficult to interpret Avery Lowe's expression, tone and what she was going to say. Being unpredictable was understatement, but Farkle amongst Avery's father had the rare ability to sense and determine Avery. And right now he could detect the mixture of rage, urgency and desperation in her tone even if someone else could only percept her rage. But Farkle knew better; much better.
"I'm on it now." He vowed, and Avery could hear the furious clicking of keyboards and beeping. "It's tracking..."
"Hurry Farkle, Hurry!" Avery hated not knowing, being kept in the dark. And loosing people, even if she'd never admit; disappointment, loss and grief is something she'd been accustomed to her whole existence, and not matter how much she tried, she'd accepted and allowed Rosalie in. Their group had always been them two, and Farkle had always been Avery's side bitch. It sounded hash but Farkle understood, it Avery's silence people mistaken.
She'd make people perceive she was an innocent naive teenage girl who, like millions of others were on the winding, rocky road of adulthood. But she was much more complex and diabolic than people thought. Or gave her credit for. Both Rose and her were underestimated in that sense.
"L5o2. That's all I'm getting." But Farkle knew it was more than enough. No one in their school spoke like this, it was one of New Orleans prized talents, coding, and abbreviations. Even Farkle, who had the highest IQ in the whole of Louisiana High School, he was advanced in the most technological way, Avery wasn't surprised if he won a Noble Prize Award at this age. But even Farkle with his advanced intellectual was clueless when it came to New Orleans hidden language. He'd confess, Avery was rather astute when it came to language. She knew English (Obviously), Spanish, Arabic and a little French, although she didn't really study much French in fifth grade they'd covered the basic, she knew enough to start a life their, and she'd easily be able to pick up the rest.
"Safe, shout me if anything changes." Aver instructed before hiking towards the path of her best friend.
Avery didn't know Mr Duke was abusive, sure he always seemed like a dodgy dick, but abusive? Mrs D was no better but Rosalie had confessed their was some rare moments when the insults and annoyance halted and in that silence, everything had been perfect. But she'd always reminded herself it was the moment she'd fallen in love with. Avery knew, better than anyone else; Silence had an answer that impacted more than words or text could ever have.
Everything that had happened her mother died, it was torment she was forced upon her, she hadn't dealt with it, Avery hadn't dealt with anything; she'd just accepted and avoided it. Sentimental figures were long gone in Avery's life. What was the point of them anyway? It was the reason why Avery hadn't got a boyfriend. She detested relationships of any sort. Trust wasn't built along the way, you built it and then formed a relationship, she didn't want a relationship and then everyday realize something new about him. Trust was intricate, it was difficult and sometimes distressing to build. But that didn't mean it didn't existed.
And it was most definitely not attained over a time period, it was the actions that were taken in the a short period; a second, a split second. It was the milliseconds that counted, not the minute or hour.
But that milliseconds, that was the hardest, harder than anything.
OMGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG GUYS, I'VE JUST REALIZED SOMETIMES I CALL ROSALIE, VICTORIA! I'M SOOO SORRY! I'm going to change that right now. Shit!
This chapter did not solve the mystery of Rosalie, I know I'm sorry! Kind of dedicated the last part to Avery and her thoughts and opinions because they matter and play a crucial part in the story, but also I felt I hadn't included an insight of Avery as a person so yeah. I've been thinking about Cami being a sort of motherly figure towards Avery, who would be guidance counsellor due to the death of her mother? I don't know, tell me what you guys think!
