Chapter 14 Cassie:

"I don't know, I just don't know." I told my mom. She was talking to me about what Jake did last night. He made no sense, what he was talking about made no sense to me at all. What did he mean about me never being there for him?

"Do you think that he was just stressed and just lost it for a moment?" My mom asked me.

If only she knew, our relationship is not just at risk but the whole team is in danger.

"I don't know," I told her. "I was thinking that I would call him and talk to him about it."

"Don't just call him," She said. "You need to talk to him face to face. Why don't I drive you down to his house in awhile so you can talk to him? Just remember to be calm, that's the secret to all arguments. You don't want to lose your cool as well, that would just make it worse."

"Okay, I'll do that. We can go after I finish fixing my work boot. I don't know how these things break so easily."

Later that day my mom drove me to Jake's house. I was nervous the whole way there. I didn't know what to say. I still had no idea of what he meant by me not ever being there. Maybe my mom was right, maybe he got stressed out, called me to feel better, then ended up losing it. But what she doesn't know is that Jake has more stress than anyone his age. Jake is fighting a war. But he is also the one leading that war. Jake makes life and death choices everyday. And several times a mission.

Maybe he was just stressed. He's probably gotten over it by now.

My mom parked the car at Jake's house, wished me luck as I got out of the car and drove off. I started walking to the door before I knew what was happening. I didn't know what to do. I didn't know what to say.

I walked up the front steps, stopped at the door. Gathered my thoughts and knocked on the door. His brother Tom answered.

"Hey, Cassie." He said. "Jake's not here right now. He left and said something about heading to Taco Bell with Marco to help him get his mind off of his dad. Oh, you heard about Marco's dad right?"

"Yeah I did, we were planning to go see him tomorrow." I answered.

"Oh, okay." He said with a fake sad tone in his voice. "So he'll probably be out until midnight like always since our parents are going out of town in a few hours and since I'm going on a camping trip with The Sharing. So I have no idea when he'll be back, if he comes back at all. It's not my job to look after the midget, he's seventeen, he can do whatever he wants as far as I'm concerned."

"Okay," I muttered. "Thanks, see you later."

He closed the door as I turned and walked away. I always felt a little weary around Tom. He's a controller, and if he ever found out where Jake went every day and what he did, we would all be dead.

Well, I thought to myself, now to find Jake. I decided to head to Taco Bell for lunch on the off chance that Jake was actually there. Hopefully Marco wasn't with him so we could talk in private.

So I turned the corner and hopped the bus and headed to Taco Bell.