Sorry for the late update. I have been stuck up with my exams. Tbh, 12th grade sucks to the core! Can't wait for it to get over in two months.

Here's a long chapter to make it up to you guys.

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"Why?"

That was all I could ask. Helping me and Sarah to find out the real reason behind Hannah's disappearance clearly meant going behind his friends' back.

"Because I want to," Sal replied looking straight into my eyes, "I know something's up with Aaron. And Hannah is missing for god's sake! No one knows where she went. No one knows when she's coming back if  she's planning on coming back anytime soon. No one knows if she is okay or not!"

"Well, she had come back two days ago."

"Are you sure it was Hannah, Rach? Because no one saw her. We couldn't find her anywhere. How is it possible that she was able to run away so quickly without anyone else noticing?"

I kept quiet as I myself didn't know how she had managed to do that. Well, she's been on her own for two weeks now, so how difficult can a little escapade be.

"Rachel, do you trust me? Even a little?" Sal took my hand in his and looked at me intently, waiting for an answer. His green eyes were boring into my hazel brown ones.

I stared at my hand in his and then looked up at him. Shoud I? Should I not? Taking a long breath, I replied.

"Yes."

******

"Has he talked to you about his feelings?" Sarah asked from the couch looking at me as I paced around the living room.

"What are you talking about?" I stopped and narrowed my eyes at her.

"How I had told you that he has a thing for you?"

"What you had told me was that you had seen him staring at me," I air quoted and emphasised the word.

"Whatever, isn't it obvious now? Asking you to the Dance, gazing into eachother's eyes while slowdancing and now helping you with this."

I very well knew that it was obvious. When Sal had told me about having feelings for 'someone else' a week ago, I am pretty sure now that he was talking about me. But still, I was not yet ready to accept the fact that Hannah's only crush had a thing for me.

"He isn't helping me, he's helping us," I countered.

Sarah opened her mouth to say something but the doorbell stopped her. I opened the door and greeted Sal inside. We had decided to meet up after school to talk about Hannah and lay down all the facts and possible clues.

"Hi Sal!" Sarah smiled.

"Hey, sorry for making you two wait."

His hair was wet again like yesterday sans the weird spikey look and he smelled like lemon scented shower gel. This guy loves to shower. Am I observing too much?

"Hey, it's totally fine," I replied, drawing myself away from the thoughts of running my hand through his wet hair. Whoa, where did that come from?

The three of us sat around the small four-chaired dining table and I took out a notebook and a pen from my backpack which was sitting on the vacant chair.

"So, where should we begin?" I asked glancing at Sarah and Sal who had amused looks on their faces. "What's wrong?"

"Feels like we are playing Detective," Sal replied with a small smile.

"Actually, we kind of are," I said, "the police aren't being much of a help, Hannah hasn't contacted us, and I and Sarah have just been going around in circles. So yeah, it is time we play Detective."

"Rachel's right," Sarah sighed.

"Coming back to my question, where should we begin?"

"The day before she ran away?" Sarah suggested.

"Yeah, we talked to her that day after the play."

"Wait a sec," Sal narrowed his eyes, "wasn't it the same day she ran away? Her mom had called me around 2 a.m. So it must mean that she ran away sometime at night."

I had briefed Sal about what had happened that day and later at night. Hannah coming to talk to us, the after party at my house and Mrs. Chamberlain's call. Hannah's mom had called him too, asking if he knew about her daughter's whereabouts.

"Yeah, he's right," Sarah slowly nodded her head, "so let us concentrate on the day before the play. That means Friday."

"I don't remember seeing her in school. Had you seen her that day?" I asked Sal.

"I don't think so. Even Vanessa and Amelia weren't in school that day, maybe they must have gone for shopping or something."

"Didn't Amelia have a sleepover that night?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah, you are right," I replied, "it's the same night when Hannah had made the last call from her phone. To Vanessa."

We knew about the sleepover as Amelia had said it when we had confronted Vanessa about that call.

"Okay, I am gonna start writing points as they come up." I announced.

After almost an hour of ifs and buts and maybes, we had decided to focus on these final points:

1. Something must have happened at Amelia's sleepover.

2. Amelia must have found out about Aaron and Hannah.

3. Aaron must have snapped at Hannah, scaring her away.

Yeah, that's it. After an hour of playing Detective, we were able to finalise on three main points.

Sarah's phone started vibrating, picking it up from the table, she looked at the caller id and frowned.

"Who is it?" I asked.

"My mom. Wonder what she wants?"

Elena, Sarah's mom, wasn't the ideal mother that every child needed. Most of the time she was drunk and yelling at either Sarah or Samantha, and when she wasn't drunk, she would go and spend hours at her old apartment. According to Sarah, she hadn't always been like this. But things changed when Sarah's father cheated on her mother with some other woman five years ago. After Elena found out, she instantly filed for a divorce but the anger and hurt did not go away. Sarah still used her father's last name though her mother had asked her several times to change it. Slowly over the years, her behaviour started changing due to excessive intake of alcohol and she was never the same sweet and caring woman that Sarah always missed.

"Just give me a sec," saying this Sarah went outside on the porch.

"Is everything alright?" Sal asked.

"It's nothing."

He understood that I was not supposed to talk about it and so didn't ask any further questions.

Sarah was back quickly with an annoyed look on her face.

"Sorry guys, but I gotta go," she said picking up her bag.

I gave her an understanding nod and we both said 'bye' to her almost in unision.

"You wanna go grab an icecream?" Sal asked out of nowhere, after Sarah had left.

"Sure," I gave him an all-toothed grin.

******

After buying two scoops of icecream, blueberry for me and chocolate mocha for himself, Sal came back inside the car and handed me my cone. We sat there licking on the creamy coldness in silence. But this time it wasn't some awkward silence. I glanced over at Sal and saw that part of his scoop had melted and was starting to drip down the cone towards his hand.

"Seriously? You don't even know how to eat your icecream properly?" I teased him.

"Ugh!" He noticed the stream of icecream and started licking the cone from bottom to top.

Okay, this is some sight you don't get to see everyday. His tongue was wagging up and and down in quick motions.

I started laughing out loud, "You look like a dog!"

"Ha-ha. Shit, my hand is all sticky!" I don't know how, but just in a matter of few seconds, the drips had reached his hand and it looked like a complete mess.

I was almost done with my icecream so I pulled out some tissues from the tissue box kept on the dashboard and started wiping his hand. I pulled out more tissues and wrapped them around his cone.

Sal gave out an exaggerated sigh and turned in his seat so that he was facing me.

We both looked at eachother for a few seconds before bursting out laughing.

"I am never having icecream with you again," Sal said after we were done eating.

"Haw! Why?" I feigned an hurt look.

Sal raised his eyebrows and gave a blushy smile, "Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"That puppy face. Makes me wanna kiss you."

"What?" My smile disappeared and so did his. As he said the word 'kiss', my eyes instantly went towards his lips.

"Uh...um, nothing. We..we should, I should drop you home. It's getting late."

No, it wasn't. It was just seven.

Sal fumbled with his car keys before starting his car. We drove to my house in silence. That awkward silence which was there the very first time I had talked to him. I don't even remember when it was that I had first talked with him but I do remember that there had been a moment of awkwardness.

I said a quick bye while he muttered something like 'see you in school tomorrow' when we reached my house.

Out of the hundreds of questions that had been swarming around in my head since Hannah ran away, atleast two of them were answered today.

Yes, Sal definetly has feelings for me.

And yes, so do I.

******

I entered the school cafeteria with Sarah and saw Amelia sitting with Josh, one of the players from the school's football team. But what caught my attention wasn't the fact that they were sitting together but it was the fact that they were sitting really, really close. Josh had his face buried in Amelia's neck.

Sarah saw them too and made a face, "Did she break up with Aaron?"

When we reached our usual table, Aaron himself answered Sarah's question by barging inside the cafeteria and taking huge steps to where Amelia and Josh were sitting.

"Get the fuck away, asshole!" He shouted at Josh.

Josh looked a bit startled but didn't make any atempt to get up while Amelia had a bored look on her face. The cafeteria had turned completely silent due to Aaron's outburst and now everyone had their eyes fixed on what was about to happen.

"What do you want, Aaron?" She asked non-chalantly.

"You," he held Amelia's arm and tried to pull her up, "let's talk outside."

"Let go of me!" Amelia winced and raised her voice too.

"I know what's been going on between you two! Why, Amelia?" Aaron was still gripping her arm firmly.

Amelia suddenly stood up, ger face now matching Aaron's rage, and whipped her arm free from his grisp. She glared at him and clenched her fists.

"Stop being such a hipocrite, Aaron," her voice was cold and controlled, "I know what you did. I have known since the day you did it."

Aaron paled a little, "Known what?"

"Your cozy little makeout session with Hannah," she spat our bestfriend's name with venom in her voice,"Get ready to burn in hell!" Saying this she stomped out of the cafeteria.

Amelia had known about it all along. But how? Someone must have told her, right? Maybe someone who wanted her out of their group?

Someone who wanted Amelia all to themselves?

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Phew! I feel this slightly long and eventful chapter deserves your great Votes and awesome Comments!

Until next time,

Riya.