Lake Larson

Hudson shifted in the chair across the table from me as we studied in the library. The baseball cap trapped his blonde hair, pushing it back. His blue eyes glanced my way while I shifted mine back to the book.

"Can I show you something?" he asked.

"Yes." I shut my book shyly.

He swiftly rounded the table, grabbing my hand. His smile spread across his face, guiding me through the empty library to the dark corner of the building. Between the tall shelves of dusty books, Hudson squeezed my hand tighter with his.

"What are you trying to show me?" I watched his fingers with mine.

"This," he whispered, stepping closer to me. He removed his hand from mine, placing it on the lower part of my back, forcing our hips to touch.

His free hand reached slowly to my cheek, hovering above my skin before whisking his thumb on my chin. Hudson played with my bottom lip, piercing my soul with his blue eyes. With my heart beating out of my chest, I glanced away.

His breath danced on my neck as he barely tickled my skin with his lips. "I've been wanting you for a while now."

I inhaled a lump in my throat, coughing slightly. Hudson's lips kissed my neck, and he leaned away to look at me. His beautiful hazel eyes read my heart, showing depth.

"Ian?" I whispered while Ian stood before me instead of Hudson.

"Lake," he mimicked my whisper, buckling my knees.

I bit my lip in habit, looking away from him.

"Don't look away." His warm hand cupped my chin, tilting my face toward his.

Ian's magical eyes bounced around my face, stopping at my lips and telling me what he wanted. I let out a breath, parting my mouth. He smirked, letting out a snarl and expressing his hunger. Ian quickly leaned into me, pressing his lips to mine.

Soft, firm lips, convincing me he'd been waiting too long. His mouth parted while I mirrored him, letting his tongue slip between my teeth and roam. My hands gripped his back muscles, flexing between my fingertips and sending heat between my thighs.

Ian deepened our kiss, prompting me to moan into his mouth. His hands tightened around my cheeks, creeping to my upper neck. He sped up my heartbeat while slowing down time.

Ian pulled his lips away from mine while I looked into his autumn eyes. I stepped out of his arms, glancing at my hands with a shy smile. My heart ached, and I brought my palm to my chest. My body jolted quickly, making Ian and the library disappear.

---👻---

I jumped awake in the darkroom of my apartment. Slowly, my eyes focused on my hand, holding a shirt tightly. As my foggy mind woke up, I realized my head was lying comfortably on Ian's chest with my legs stretched over his. My heart sunk to my gut as I quickly sat up, seeing Ian reading a book.

"What were you doing?"

He peeked over at me from the page. "More like, what were you doing?"

I huffed, brushing my hair from my face. "What was that? Why are you in my bed?"

He pointed at the empty spot next to him. "That was you getting in my space, and I lay in your bed every night, in my spot," Ian smirked. "First night with you cuddling me. I could get used to that." He set the book in his lap.

"What?" I shook my head.

"I was just reading, minding my own business, and you flopped your body on top of me like a wild animal."

"No," I huffed out. "Well, um." My cheeks burned red as I grabbed my blanket and covered my head with it. The embarrassment hitched in my throat from laying on him, but also for the dream. I wanted to scream into my pillow.

"What were you dreaming about?" Ian's voice mocked on the outside of the blankets like he knew.

I flipped the covers off me with static hair. "What do you mean?" I yelled in a panic. "I don't know."

He tilted his head, arching his brows and trying to read my mind. "Asking," he intoned. "Because you had a tight grip on my shirt."

"Oh." I made sure not to look at him. "Not sure," I coughed. "I don't remember."

I saw him from the side, grabbing the book and leaning back to continue reading. Sun peeked through the cracks of my curtains while I crawled to the edge of the bed and grabbed my laptop. I had plans today, and I knew Ian would protest me every part of the way.

I moved my computer, facing it away from him, while I searched Rebecca Cros on the search engine. Stalking someone would be easy today, given the news did most of the work for me.

Five minutes later, I shut my laptop, shoving it back in my backpack. "Get ready. We are going on a road trip."

"Get ready?" he asked with his palms upward. "How?"

I rushed away from him into the bathroom, quickly dressing in fresh clothes. Pulling my hair into a half ponytail, I stepped into the room. I eyed Ian with a huff.

"I told you to get dressed," I expressed. "You've been wearing the same thing since we met. You stink."

Ian chuckled. "Ha, ha, too funny." He jumped out of the bed. "Where are we going?"

"It's a surprise."

Ian followed me to my car, suspicious of everything. We drove to the next state over in silence. I figured I could convince him to tell me which house his mom lived in if I got to the neighborhood. The article stated she bought a house on Arrow Point Dr. in Harrison, Idaho, the closest house to Eastern Washington University.

Ian peeked over at me as I turned down a road. His eyes widened while his jaw dropped from disbelief.

"You have got to be kidding me?" he yelled, watching me as we drove down the road.

I shook my head. "I need answers, and so do you."

He crossed his arms, slumping into his seat. "I'm not gonna help you."

I pulled my car to the side of the road, putting it in park. "Ian, we need to know what happened to you."

"No." He looked out the front window.

"I'm only going to talk to your mom." I brought my palms together, praying for him to point at the right house.

"Why?"

"You know why. Ian, I care about you, and I can't let you go on living as a ghost."

I turned off my car and leaned into the backseat to grab my backpack. Without glancing at Ian, I stepped out of the vehicle and swung the bag onto my shoulders. I walked down the road, feeling the chilly breeze from the lake. The apartment buildings had kids playing in the small yard.

Maybe if I kept walking, Ian would give in and help me. I faked looking up at a bird and shifted my eyes to look at him. Ian shook his head when our eyes met, prompting him to exit the car. I smiled at the ground while he jogged up to me.

"Stop smiling," he said, pointing at my face.

I cupped my lips. "Sorry," I replied, keeping my palm on my face.

He glared. "I can still tell you are smiling with those cheekbones."

I shook my head, blowing out my lips to lose the grin. "Okay."

"I will point out the house, but you must be alert. I loved my mom, but my memories are hazy, so I'm unsure who to trust."

I jumped onto my tippy toes, wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug. "Thank you."

He brushed his hand on my back, tightening me to him. His head rested on mine for a split second before he pulled away and pointed behind me.

"This way."

I followed him near the lake's edge until the road arrived at a dead end. An enormous house sat at the peak with a view of the water. He paused, looking at the house while I stopped beside him. I sped to the door before he could protest me and rang the doorbell.

After a little while, a woman opened the door. The lady had her hair perfectly curled while she brushed her palms along her expensive dress. Her eyes glanced at me, confused, before scanning behind me.

"Hello, how can I help you?" Rebecca asked, tapping her heels.

I pulled at the sleeve of my shirt. "Hello, I'm sorry if this is a bad time, but I am here to see if Ian is around?"

Ian grabbed my wrist. "What are you doing?" he whispered.

She smiled without her face moving. "Sorry, deer, but Ian hadn't lived here in a while."

I looked at the ground and back at her. "Oh. I've been trying to find Ian because I live in the dorm he had lived in at EWU. Do you know where I could find him?"

Her eyes narrowed. "No. I hadn't seen my boy in a while."

"So you don't know what happened to him?" I asked, in a snarky voice.

Rebecca's lips twitched. "What are you trying to say?"

Ian had a tight grip on my wrist as he tried to pull me away, but I stepped closer to her. "I'm trying to figure out what happened to him."

"Nothing!" she yelled, but fixed her angry expression. "Ian ran off like a scared little boy."

"You aren't fooling me!"

Rebecca swallowed hard, placing her hand on the door trim and squeezing it tight. "Miss, we have finished. My son is none of your business, and his disappearance had nothing to do with me," she said through her teeth.

I arched my brows together. "Oh, but if Ian disappeared. Why didn't you file a missing person's report?" I pointed at her. "Is it because you know he is dead?"

Her eyes grew in disgust. "I will admit, that had crossed my mind, but I don't believe for one bit." She glanced over my shoulder. "Now you need to leave." She shook her head, slamming the door.

Ian's jaw dropped as he shook his head. "Lake," he said my name with anger. "You shouldn't have done that," he pointed down the path back to the road. "Let's leave before anything happens to you."

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms, but listened to him while I took slow steps away from the house. We reached a round bush at the end of the driveway when I heard the garage door open and pulled Ian into hiding.

"What are you—" Ian said, but I placed my palm on his mouth, peeking through the bush.

We watched Rebecca back out of the garage and drive away. I glanced at Ian with a smirk. Crawling out of the bush, I plucked a leaf from my hair and jogged to the garage door.

"What are you doing?" he asked. "You can't do this."

"Yes, I can." I pointed at the keypad to the garage door. "With your help." I opened the flap to the numbers. "What is the code?"

He glanced behind us. "What if my mom comes back?"

I stomped my foot like a child. "Come on, Ian." I tapped on the keypad. "You are wasting time. The faster we do this, the less likely I will get caught."

He huffed and pushed in the code with his hand covering it. The door opened as I crouched and entered before it opened entirely. I walked into the kitchen, hearing Ian clicking the button to close the garage door. My fingers brushed over the expensive countertop, and Ian grabbed my hand, pulling me into a hallway.

"This way." He stopped in front of a door, knocking on it. "This was my room."

I wiggled my brows, grabbing the door handle. "Perfect."

The dust filled my nose while the dark room smelled of musk. A poster hung on the gray walls, telling me Rebecca never changed it. The desk under the window had books stacked high, with a few on the floor.

"Maybe your mom was telling the truth," I said, glancing at the men's dress shoes beside the bed. "Maybe she doesn't know what happened." I picked up the books from the floor and set them with the rest. "Looks like she left your room, like she expected you to return."

"Maybe," he replied, crouching beside a cardboard box and fishing in it.

I strolled to him and settled on my knees beside him, watching him shift through the box. There were clothes, shoes, and college books. I brushed my hand over a box with burnt pictures in it. I knew the story behind the photos. No matter what we did, we were always back to square one, back to the burnt pictures.

"Becca. My mom's real name is Becca," he said, pulling a red beanie from the box.

"I never read that when doing my research."

"My father thought Rebecca fit better with his name, so he made her change it. He said it was close enough, so just change it." He tossed the hat back in the box. "How much had you researched?"

I giggled. "Obviously, not enough."

He glared at me and stood to inspect the rest of the room. I set my bag on the ground. While he glanced in his closet, I put his shoes and beanie into my backpack. I swung the bag back to my back, standing up.

"Which room was your dad's office?"

"None." He shrugged. "This was my mom's place, not his. He didn't visit this house very often."

"Do you believe your mom?" I stepped closer to him. "Do you believe she had nothing to do with it?"

"I don't know. Rebecca was the type to look away when things became serious. Since she didn't see it happen, she was not responsible. Even when she heard the screams and loud crashes on the other side of the door, she still ignored it."

"I'm sorry, Ian." My heart sank. I stepped toward him.

"We should go," he said, stepping to the door. "There isn't anything here."

"But we still—" I protested.

"No," he replied, quickly approaching me and covered my mouth. "We should leave before my mom comes back."

He slowly removed his hand, brushing his thumb on my bottom lip. Ian lost his thoughts while he watched my mouth. Everything spun as I thought about the question he asked me this morning. He needed to know I would not stop looking for answers. I could not stop researching what happened to him. Ian spun away from me, walking to the hallway.

"The answer was you!" I yelled, rushing out of the room to look at him in the dark hall.

"What?" His silhouette darkened the walls.

"When you asked me what my dream was about," I said, playing with my hands and not making eye contact. "It was about you." I glanced at the ceiling, huffing out. "I'm here because I need to help you." My eyes finally met his. "I know you said you don't want to move on, but I still think we need to answer all the unanswered questions. We need to help you get some peace of mind."

Ian's mouth opened, but he froze, unsure how to respond.

I pulled at the straps of my backpack. "I need peace of mind."

A creaking noise echoed around the silent hallway as Ian took one giant step toward me. "Okay, yes, peace of mind, but later," he said while I realized the loud bang was the garage door.

Ian tugged me into a room at the end of the hall. I spun, noticing the chandelier hanging above the bed and the bear rug on the wood floor.

"Come this way," Ian said, running into another room with all glass walls looking out at the lake.

Ian ran through the glass onto the back patio while I unlatched the sliding door open. Rebecca's voice echoed behind me as I closed the door and spun to see no exit from the balcony and no Ian in sight.

"Ian?" I whisper-yelled in frustration.

His head poked up between the metal bars of the railing. "I'll help you. Hurry."

I rushed to the guardrail, climbing over to the other side. Ian reached his arms up while I placed my palms on his shoulders. His hands gently squeezed my hips and helped me down. Slightly tumbling forward, his fingers slid up my back inside my shirt, holding me to his body.

"Sorry." He removed his warmth from me. "Let's go," he said, running away with me in his shadow.

I glanced over my shoulder, seeing the balcony with dead bushes under it. Ian's mother stepped onto it with her cellphone to her ear as she watched the lake, not noticing us running away.

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