I spent Monday hibernating in my room, finishing the never ending load of incomplete homework. I spent most of the day trying to tune out the rest of the world and just focus on school. No matter how hard I tried not to, my mind always ended up wandering back to Sam and Jack. Sam was fifteen, she knew well enough not to get in the car with strangers and how to handle herself. It was less than one year ago that my mom, her, and me took self defense classes. Then Jack. His situation puzzled me even more because the kidnapper would have had to have been physically inside our house in order to know exactly where he slept, where to park their car, how to get in and out without using the stairs or the front door. Towards the evening I decided to take out that little note that said 'It wasn't your fault.' Folding it and unfolding it, I thought about all of the possibilities of who might've put it there and why they would put it there. My mom was the one who told me to clean my closet, but it couldn't be a coincidence, could it? No, she wasn't too secretive or had been acting different lately. It couldn't've been her. I exhausted every possibility until it became so late that it frustrated me to think about it anymore. It just didn't make any sense. It was like a 100 piece puzzle with half the pieces missing.

****

I woke up the next morning sprawled out backwards on my bed. The events from last night came crashing down on me like bricks, so hard and fast that I slumped back into my blankets again. Something crinkled as I moved and as I reached for it I found the crumpled paper with the solitary sentence that seemed to freak me out the most.

'It wasn't your fault.' Was it like a warning? Did it mean that I was next? I groaned in frustration, deciding to put it off for now. Rolling over to check my phone, I panicked as I saw the time was 7:50. School started at 8:00 and it took 5 minutes to get there. Quickly, I threw on some clothes, brushed my teeth, and ran down the stairs. Noise filtered in from the kitchen and I walked in to snag a granola bar. Luke was nowhere to be found and his car was gone from the driveway which meant he had already left for school. But other than him, the rest of my family was eating breakfast and making lunch.

"Carter, hurry up, you're going to be late for school. Don't forget you're taking Emily, Liv, and Vic to dance tonight," Mom reminded me after Dad left for work.

"I know, I know," I sighed. I spun around to finish putting my lunch in my bag when Sean, ignoring the entire world besides himself, ran into me. The glob of ketchup on the side of his plate from his eggs smeared all over my shirt.

"Sean! What the heck is your problem?!" I tried to wipe the ketchup off my shirt but ended up spreading it all over the front of my shirt.

"You." Seriously? What the heck was with the boys in my family?

"Sean." My mom turned around from making a sandwich. "Apologize to your sister and watch where you're going. Carter Mason, get to school right now. I don't want you being late."

"Mom, there's ketchup on my shirt. I have to change first."

"Just take this." Mom left the kitchen and came back from the living room with a t-shirt from one of the laundry baskets. It was wrinkled and questionably small but I didn't object.

"Now, git," Mom ordered sternly. I left as fast as I could. On top of being late, Mom looked like she was stressed and annoyed, the perfect combination to have an outburst and flip out at somebody. Don't get me wrong, she loved our family to pieces and told us all the time how she was grateful for every one of us kids but when she got angry you learned how to stay out of her way.

I stopped at a red light, beginning to tell myself over and over again how today was going to be a good day. I was not going to cry, whine, or get into any fights. I was going to worry about the sketchy note and the fact that Luke makes me so mad I really just want to slap him across the face twenty times at another time because now was time for school. The light turned green and I headed towards school, occasionally waiting in traffic, but making pretty good time. The parking spot that I pulled into was towards the back and tucked away so I took the chance to pull out the clean shirt Mom handed me to change into. But as I held it up in front of me, I felt my face droop and the irresistible urge to roll my eyes. First of all, the shirt was five sizes too small because it was Liv's. Second of all, it had a dancing sparkly cupcake that had a bubble saying, 'I luv to dance!'.

I pounded the heel of my palm once against the top of the steering wheel, letting myself cool down. I already had two strikes, one was getting up late and two was the shirt, and it wasn't even 8:15 in the morning. Maybe I could save that whole 'Today is going to be a great day!' thing for another day because I had a feeling that today just wasn't it.

The bell rang so I slung my bag over my shoulder and hurried into school. I crossed my arms over the ketchup stain so it was at least partially hidden. But it was definitely visible and I could see the few stares of confusion glancing my way before I even stepped a foot into the thinning crowds of the school hallways. I rushed as fast as I could to my locker, knowing I wouldn't find any of my friends along the way to ask for an extra sweatshirt or shirt. But as I rounded the corner, crowded around my locker and Luke's locker was Luke and a few of his football friends. Including Gabe.

Be cool. I breathed, painfully aware of the giant red blotch in the middle of my shirt. But I didn't cover it enough because out of the corner of my eye I could see Gabe's eyes shift down to my shirt and back up to my face again before he walked away without a word. I looked away quickly, trying not to read too closely into it.

"Excuse me," I muttered to Luke, who seemed to be the one conveniently standing in front of my locker.

"Of course, your highness." He took a dramatic step backward.

I cocked a hip, facing Luke. I could sense all of their stares drifting downwards toward the stain on my shirt. But Luke was too concentrated on how angry he was with me to even notice. My face started to heat up but I ignored it.

"You got a problem, Luke?" I asked.

He pretended to think about it before taking a challenging step closer to me. "You know what Carter, yeah I do." Then he sneered, "But I bet you already know what it is."

There was a pause as I flushed and a couple of Luke's friends dispersed to go to their classes. Gabe materialized beside us with a sweatshirt in his hand, confidently giving it to me before meeting up with a girl to walk to his first class. Butterflies erupted in my stomach and I subtly suppressed a smile before anyone could notice.

Quickly, I shoved Gabe's football jersey over my head. As I was, Luke looked down to see the stain and I could tell he almost laughed. Seriously, what did I do to deserve a brother like this?

"Stop, you're being ridiculous. If this is about Jack, you know it's not my fault." I lowered my voice to a whisper and turned to open my locker. "Besides, you weren't even there. So you don't get a say in this matter."

"Carter," He started.

"No," I interrupted. "Don't Carter me. And don't you dare stay mad at me either. You don't get to. Where you were? Oh right, football. Where was I? Oh right, staying at home babysitting. I love Jack more than anything in this world and if you think that it was my fault that he was kidnapped?" I immediately thought back to the note in my closet. "Don't." I grabbed the books I needed out of my locker and slammed the door shut. Turning on my heel, I left as fast as I could for Bio.

I walked in just as Mr. Trent called my name for attendance, "Carter Mason?"

"Here," I chirped, pasting on a smile. I plopped down in the empty seat beside my lab partner, Mandy.

As soon as I did, Mandy leaned over to whisper to me, "What died?"

I frowned. "Nothing."

"Then what happened? You look like you're going to burst into tears."

So much for looking like I was the happiest person on Earth.

"I'll tell you later," I grumbled as Mr. Trent took the moment to ask us to take out our notebooks for textbook problems. I turned my back to Mandy to rummage through my backpack for the notebook when she practically jumped on me.

"No way," she squealed, gripping the back of my sweatshirt.

"No way what?" I sat up.

"No way you're wearing Gabe Taylor's sweatshirt!" She exclaimed a little too excitedly. Mr. Trent shot us a look and she lowered her voice. "How did you get it?"

Oops, I completely forgot about Gabe's last name, 'Taylor', printed on the back of the sweatshirt in big bold letters and couldn't figure out if people seeing me in his sweatshirt was good or bad. "Well after he saw me with a huge ketchup stain on it this morning, he went to get it from his locker. It was so embarrassing though, I-"

Mandy cut me off. "That is literally the cutest ever. Carter and Gabe. Gabe and Carter." She paused, pretending to think about it. "I think it has a nice ring to it, don't you?"

"I hate you," I laughed, playfully punching her on the shoulder.

"Because you know it's true." Mandy grinned like a Cheshire cat and sang, "Carter and Gabe sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-G."

"Mandy, you are a child."

Mr. Trent shushed us again and we looked down to our notebooks. But that didn't stop Mandy from flicking her curly red hair over her shoulder and murmuring, "I know."

****

I didn't have any classes with Mandy, Gabe, or Luke for the rest of the morning so it passed by uneventful. Although, on my way to lunch, I ran into Gabe in the hall.

I nudged his arm with my shoulder. "Thanks for the sweatshirt."

"No problem." He smirked. I melted.

"Hey, do you know what's wrong with Luke?" Gabe asked. "I tried to talk to him but, I don't know, something's wrong."

I shrugged. "He's probably just PMSing."

Gabe groaned. "Carter, what did you do?"

"Ask Luke. It's his problem."

"Alright," he sighed. "I'll see you later, ok?"

I smiled at him and practically skipped over to my lunch table. Mandy smirked at me as I took a seat next to her.

"Happy much?"

"Little bit."

"Still don't like him?" Mandy raised an eyebrow.

"Not at all."

"Liiiaaaar." She made an L with her right hand and shoved it in front of her forehead.

"You do know that stands for 'loser', right?"

"Yeah I know, cause you're a loser for not even noticing that you totally like him and he totally likes you back!"

"Ok, say I did. It'd be so weird since he's Luke's best friend."

"So?"

"So...what if we dated and then we broke up? Do you know how horribly awkward that would be?"

"Ok, ok, yeah I get it. Same lame-o excuse as always." She turned back to her lunch.

"Whatever, I'll be back." I escaped from underneath the bench to go and grab a spoon. When I turned around from the counter to head back to my table, Luke was there.

"Hey. Can we talk?" His eyes darted around, clearly uncomfortable.

"If by talk, you mean you're ready to apologize. Then sure." I was not going to have another 'talk' just to let him accuse me of losing my baby brother. Uh uh, not going to happen.

"Yeah, apologize. Whatever." He led me out into the vacant hallway.

I folded my arms as he drew in a breath and began to explain, "Look, I'm sorry. What I did and said was really wrong. I shouldn't have done that."
"No duh," I sneered, flinging the spoon around in my erratic hand gestures..

Luke looked up sharply. "Just let me talk, Carter, ok?" I shut my mouth and he continued, "As I was saying, I'm really sorry. I'm just under a lot of pressure for football and there's been something weird going on with Dad lately that I'm worried about and Sam was already gone and now Jack is gone. Everything is just happening all at once and I have no idea what to do. I'm just so frustrated because I feel like there's nothing I can do. And then I just took it all out on you." He ran a hand through his hair nervously.

I exhaled a breath. "I forgive you. We were all under a lot of stress last night. Me too. It's ok. Let's just...let's just promise to stand by each other in the future."

"Deal." Luke held out his hand and I shook it (we don't do hugs in public).

But as we were turning to walk back into the cafeteria, something Luke said crossed my mind. "Hold on, what were you saying about with Dad? What's worrying you about him?"

"To be honest, I couldn't put a finger on it. He's just being different and lately I've been noticing it." After a moment Luke added, "It's probably nothing more than another problem at his job."

Luke shrugged and walked back into the loud cafeteria. But I stopped in my tracks, wondering what this meant. What if it wasn't just his work? What if it was connected to the events that had occurred these past four days? Did Dad know about the note in my closet? If he did, then why was Mom hinting for me to look in my closet? Did Luke know something he wasn't telling me?

I took a step into the doorway to go find Luke and just check with him, but someone came running around the corner and barreled into me.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" A girl from English class exclaimed before she took off again. By the time I looked up, Luke had already sat down.

These questions could wait, right?

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heyyyyy!! I've been so so so busy lately which is why my updates are less frequent...sorry about that :( but thanks so much for reading and giving me your feedback anyways! It means A LOT to me! 

-_ginger333_