A/N: Thank you like always for the comments. Appreciated! ^.^
Carlos made good on his promise to get us to Gwen's house in fifteen minutes. He pushed his silver 2005 Aston Martin well pass the speed limit but somehow didn't get pulled over. "Being partially famous has it perks," he said when I asked him. It most certainly did. Through the ride I mainly questioned Carlos on what he knew about his brother, which wasn't a lot. "He was a good kid as far as I knew. He made good grades, participated in a lot of clubs, even helped our mom around the house. The only thing that I could tell you that might help is that him and José fought a lot. José is only two years older than Alejandro but always gave him a hard time. I was always the referee to their fights. I couldn't stand to see them fight and I always told them that brother's shouldn't do that. Of course they didn't listen to me and went on anyways. It seemed that anything Alejandro did José always had to best him at it. It drove Al crazy and that was normally what their fights were about."
"Do you think, and I mean no disrespect to your family, but do you think it might be José that drove Alejandro to do what he does?" I asked. He glanced at me and seemed to be thinking about that for a moment.
"It never crossed my mind but...maybe. When I left home to play soccer there was no one to referee their fights anymore." He shook his head slowly. "Es muy mal," He muttered. "I guess it is with in reasoning that José's taunting could have gotten to Alejandro more than I thought. If that's the case..." he trailed off but I knew where he was going. If that was the case than Alejandro wasn't the only one to blame for me or anyone else that Alejandro might have rapped.
"Dude, you need to have a talk with your brother when we get home." Duncan said from the backseat. "'Cause to me it seems like your family is a bit messed up." I shot him a glare and he held up his hands defensively. "Hey, don't tell me your weren't thinking the same thing." I was but I wasn't going to say it out loud.
"No it's alright," Carlos said, never taking his eyes off the road. "I take no offense, Duncan. My family...does seem to have issues. And I will talk with José when I get back. If he does have anything to do with Alejandro..." he trailed off once more and I was beginning to get the feel that he did that when ever he was uncomfortable with saying something.
I let the silence drag on and studied Carlos. Unlike Alejandro, he wasn't a good actor. I could see the unrest in his eyes, the way he gripped the steering wheel, the way his mouth twitched downward. He was unsettled at the idea that both of his brothers were...messed up for lack of better words. I felt sorry for him; he seemed to the be only normal one out of the Burromuerto siblings. I covered one of his hands with mine and felt his grip relax. "It'll be alright," I said gently. He glanced my way and I smiled at him softly. "I promise," He smiled back and I figured maybe I wasn't the only one that needed to be comforted during this situation.
Apparently Gwen lived in a suburban neighborhood-not exactly a place I was expecting to find one of Duncan's friends. Carlos parked at the end of a cul-de-sac and we piled out the car, letting Duncan lead us to one of the white, cookie cutter houses. "Are we in the right place?" I muttered, looking down at the little welcome mat.
"Positive," Duncan replied and knocked on the door. A boy probably about thirteen answered the door, his black eyes seeming to light up as he saw Duncan. "Hey, short stuff." Duncan said. "Gwen here?"
"Yeah, she's upstairs." The boy said, letting us in.
"Thanks," Duncan ruffled the boy's brown hair and lead us upstairs, knocking on a door that was covered in different stickers of band names, guitars, hazard signs, and a few other things.
"Come in," Duncan opened the door to reveal a girl laying on a bed, writing. "Hey, Duncan." She closed the book she was writing in and sat up, smiling at us. After seeing where Duncan had taken us I wasn't expecting this. Gwen had extremely pale skin, almost like she hadn't been outside in a long time. Her hair was short, black with teal highlights and her outfit screamed fashion reject. "Who are you friends?" she asked, examining Carlos and I.
"This is my girlfriend Courtney and that's Carlos." Duncan introduced us and by the look on her face Duncan had most likely told her what had happened. At least I wouldn't have to explain. "We didn't come here for a visit though. You remember what I told you right?" he said and she nodded. "Well Courtney thinks that you might know someone who has something to do with this."
Gwen gave me a confused look and I reached into my pocket and pulled out the picture of the blond girl and showed it to her. "Do you know her?" I asked.
"Yeah, that's Bridget. She's a friend of mine." Gwen replied.
"But you don't know the guy?" I said eagerly.
"Nope, never seen him." She said shaking her head. "Is that..." she trailed off and I nodded.
"Yeah. We're trying to find him and we think your friend Bridget might know something. Has she ever said anything about him?" I said, putting the picture back in my pocket.
"Not that I know of," Gwen cocked her head to the side then shook it again. "Wait! I do remember her saying something a guy she had met about a year ago. I can't remember his name though..."
"Alejandro?" I offered.
"That's it. I remember she had met him a few days after he had moved in. She said they hit it off real well, went surfing all the time. They started dating like a week or two after they met. But...once they started dating she started acting real weird."
"Like how weird?" I asked, sitting on the bed.
"Like...really jumpy. She never talked about Alejandro any more and her eyes would flicker everywhere if he was brought up. She wouldn't tell me what was wrong and denied that she was acting weird. But I knew she was. Her best friend-now her boyfriend-would suggest going to the beach and she would practically freak out. I was worried about her but let her be. I figured she'd tell me when she was ready. It wasn't until Alejandro moved a few months later that she finally started acting normal again. She never did tell me what was wrong and I forgot about it soon enough. She was fine and surfing again so it must not have been that important."
"But it was..." I whispered, biting my lip. She had been acting like I had. Jumpy, acting weird, I wouldn't tell my parents what was wrong but they had suspected something.
"Of course it was," Gwen said, covering her eyes with her hand. "I feel so stupid now."
"Hey, you shouldn't. You wouldn't have known. No one would have." I said.
"Yeah, I guess you're right." She sighed then looked to the dresser as her phone went off. "That's Bridget now." she said, picking up the phone. "Hey, Bridge. Nothing much just talking to Duncan and some of his friends." She then bit her lip, glancing at me. "Hey, Bridge. Duncan's friend's...they want to talk to you...about Alejandro." Gwen paused, listening. "Bridge...they know, calm down. They know what happened!" she practically shouted. The line went quiet. "Bridget, you still there?" She listened then nodded. "Alright. Alright. I'll talk to you later. Tell Geoff I said hi. Bye." she hung up then looked at us. "She said she'll talk with you but it has to be today. I guess she's still kind of freaked out about him." she said with a shrug.
I looked at Duncan then Carlos, their faces mirroring mine. "You don't think..." Duncan started and I hopped up.
"We have to go now! Gwen, can we get her address off of you?" I said, my mind beginning to whirl around. If Bridget hadn't seen Alejandro in months and the mere mention of his name sends her freaking out...she might seen him more recently than we thought. Gwen tore out a piece of paper from her notebook and wrote down the address handing it to me. "Thank you for talking to us. Call Duncan if you remember anything else." I said, grabbing Duncan's wrist and pulled him along. If Alejandro had seen Bridget there was no telling if he was still around and possibly watching her!
"Please make sure Bridget is alright!" Gwen called as we rushed out the room and down the stairs.
"I'll make sure of it of personally! Bye, Gwen!" I called back. I had a feeling Alejandro was going to be keeping me on my toes for the next few days.
A/N2: So...Going to see Bridget. Has Alejandro been watching our poor blondie or are they just freaking out? Who knows? Wait! I do! But Courtney is right, Alejandro's going to be keeping her on her toes. Oh, I figured I'm putting a few more of the TDI people in here besides the rape victims and Gwen. So stay tuned! And don't forget to comment!