Chapter Seven

Tika nibbled furiously on her lower lip. Something she had a habit of doing when she was nervous. Right now, she was extremely nervous. It wasn't like Hilary to just take off without telling someone that she was leaving.

The guys must have done something to seriously upset her, that was the only logical reason. Why else would Hilary, someone so responsible, run off without letting anyone know?

She glared at the back of Kai's head. It was probably him that made her leave. After all, he had the emotional capacity the size of a grain of sand…if it was even that big.

The bastard.

As if sensing her thoughts, Kai turned around and glared at her. "What are you staring at?"

"I'm not staring at anything," she said perkily. "However, I am glaring at you. I can see how you got the two mixed up. They both have to do with the eyes and the words do rhyme."

Kai glowered at her and she was forced to resist the very childish urge she had to stick her tongue out at him.

They had decided to split up in order to search for Hilary better and, somehow, she had gotten paired with Kai while each of the others went off on their own.

She was not happy.

The guy was like a brick wall…he didn't talk unless it was to make a snide comment. He never smiled. In fact, Tika was positive that that scowl had been permanently etched on his face.

He also had this high and mighty, greater-than-thou essence about him. If she stuck her tongue out at him, which she really, really wanted to do, he would probably give her a very degrading look which would only suffice in making her angry and get her to start yelling at him.

And she couldn't get angry and start yelling at him. She had more important things to do…like look for her best friend…who the arrogant jerk in front of her just so happened to loose.

But she wouldn't get angry at him. That would just distract her from finding Hilary.

She could yell at him later. After they found Hilary.

So, instead of sticking out her tongue, she forced herself to smile sweetly at him…which earned her an odd look from the seemingly emotionless blader.

So, his face wasn't permanently etched into a scowl.

Darn it.

Kai turned around.

Tika decided that she wouldn't be angry with Kai until after they found Hilary. She wouldn't think about how cute he was until after they found Hilary, either.

Julia placed her hand on top of Hilary's after hearing her story. "Hilary," she whispered, "I'm so sorry."

The younger girl only smiled wanly, tears still rolling down her cheeks. "You're right, I do feel better," she let out a soft sigh and wiped her eyes. "I only wish I knew whether or not to stay with the guys."

The orange haired girl sighed as she pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. "I think that you should," when Hilary opened her mouth to respond, Julia held up her hand to silence her. "I mean, it's obvious that all five of you have been seriously hurt, and by the same person. The guys have lost their best friend and you lost most of your family. Maybe you can help them heal and they can help you. Running away won't do you any good."

Hilary wrinkled her brow slightly. Julia did have a point. Maybe what she needed, what they all needed, was someone to help them heal. Someone to help them accept what had happened and to help them to stop living in the past.

The guys weren't anything like Kenny had described them. In the week that she had been living with them, she had only seen Max smile once, she had never seen Tyson pig out on anything, she could probably count the number of times that she had heard Kai talk on one hand, and Ray, though kind, was hardly big brother material.

They may have been Kenny's friends at one point, but they were no where near the friends that Kenny had talked about so lovingly all the time. They were no where near the group of guys that Hilary had wanted so badly to meet because when Kenny talked about them his eyes lit up in a way that, previously, only she and some new discovery that he made could do.

And now that she thought about it, she wasn't much the same either. She didn't go shopping on a regular basis anymore. She didn't play as many sports. She didn't act in any plays. She hardly ever read anymore. She didn't eat nearly as much as she used to. She was slacking off in school.

Basically, she hardly ever did the things that she loved to do.

She gave Julia an anxious look. "Do you really think that I should stay with them?"

The older girl nodded softly. "Yeah. I really do."

Hilary sighed and tapped her fingers nervously on the table. "What if things don't work out?"

Julia smiled softly. "It will," she said gently. "Everything always winds up fine in the end. It may not wind up like you want to, but everything find a way of working out."

The brunette sighed. Kenny had told her that before when she and Terri, her older sister, had gotten into a really big fight over a guy and both said things they didn't mean.

Kenny had been right then, so it was possible that Julia was right. Everything would turn out right in the end.

"Yeah. I guess you're right," she said with a gentle smile.

The green eyed teen grinned. "You'll find that I usually am."

Tyson scowled as he left the café where he knew Hilary loved to go when she left the apartment. Dimitri, the owner, said that he hadn't seen her since two days ago, when she had met Tika for a cup of coffee and a slice of apple pie.

The eighteen-year-old sighed, thinking that Hilary must have been extremely good at hide-and-go-seek as a child. She probably hid in the most unlikeliest of places, like under the bathroom sink or under a pile of clothes.

He shook his head, knowing that he was letting his thoughts wander from the matter at hand: finding Hilary.

He thought of all the possible places that she would go and realized that, aside from the café, he didn't know where Hilary liked to go when she was upset. He hadn't known her long enough to figure that out.

It could take him all day to find Hilary…and he was willing to search all day, and longer, to find her.

He hated to admit it, but in the week that she had been living with them, Hilary had grown on her…and then there was the fact that she was Kenny's cousin.

That alone was reason enough to find her.

The minor (huge) attraction he felt for her didn't matter, not at the moment anyway.

"Tyson!" a familiar voice called, breaking his thoughts.

He stopped and turned to see Raul Fernandez, a boy from one of his classes with red hair and green eyes, running towards him with grocery bag filled arms.

Not wanting to seem rude, he waited for Raul to reach him.

But he intended to keep the conversation short. He had to find Hilary.

"Hey, Raul. How's it going?"

The red head made a motion with his shoulders that Tyson thought would have been a shrug had his arms not been full. "I guess I'm okay. Julia just called me on my cell and told me to buy some extra groceries because some girl named Hilary is staying over for lunch."

Tyson, who knew that when Raul got to talking about his sister he could go on for hours, had been trying to interrupt the other teen when Raul mentioned the name of his sister's guest.

"Hilary?" Tyson repeated in a slight squeak.

Raul gave him an odd look. "Yeah. Hilary."

The bluenette cleared his throat. "Do you know what she looks like?"

He shook his head. "No. I've never met her before," he did that thing that resembled a shrug again. "Julia said that she just met her today. Apparently they ran into each other…literally."

Tyson knew that what he was thinking was a long shot. There were probably a lot of Hilary's running around the city. What were the chances that it just so happened that Julia ran into the Hilary that he and his friends were looking for?

He shrugged. Well, it was better then nothing.

He looked to the bags in Raul's arms. "Do you need help carrying those bags?"