The airport was packed with thousands of people all flying out to New York. Luckily, my dad had gotten us a private jet so that we could fly out immediately. Jade and I had had to say our goodbyes to both Mason and Liam. 

My father's words kept ringing in my head, "She is gone. There is blood everywhere and... and she is gone."

"Who is gone?" I had asked.

"Your mom. It's been seventy-two hours since I last heard from her. The police have been alerted and there is a such for your mother. You don't have to come back home right now."

"There is no way I am staying here while you are alone," I had said.

Jade agreed that we had to go back home to be with my mom. The thought had still not stuck that my mother had disappeared. She would never do anything as irresponsible as that. Jade was doing everything in her power to keep me from breaking down. I simply followed her. Liam had wanted to join me back home but there was no way that I would have allowed him to cancel his world tour. I would be able to see him in a month when his tour was in New York. The silver lining is that I would have online lessons for my classes during the one week and the other three weeks would be the Christmas break so I would not miss any lessons. Jade had decided that she would come for the first week and return for the pre-Christmas shows which she had to participate in.

"Are you okay?" asked Jade. 

"I am. Are you okay?"

She handed me my favourite order of coffee. "Yes. The jet is almost ready. They are just preparing for take-off, okay?"

"Okay. Thank you"

Jade's eyes lit up. "Let's go shopping?"

I laughed at her. "Now? Here? We are in an airport, Jade." 

"Come on! What is our favourite activity to do together? What is the one thing that always makes you smile? Heck! What would you rather do than listen to Elena?" she asked, waving her hands dramatically.

Her smirk grew into a smile. "You know the answer, Catherine Peace."

We dragged our luggage to the area where the security guards were and pleaded with them to look after them. They groaned but eventually agreed to help us with the luggage. Jade and I ran hand in hand across the airport. I knew that at that moment we were those annoying girls who made everyone around them squirm but I didn't care. 

I didn't care what anyone would think about me because at that moment the only opinion that mattered was my mother and she was nowhere to be found so I couldn't have cared less about the others. 

In the noisy airport, the only sound that mattered was the laugh that escaped Jade's mouth as I realised how much this was affecting her. 

She modelled around and waved to the imaginary fans. "Don't I look fabulous?"

"That dress is horrific," I laughed. She was wearing a long-sleeved cotton black and white dress which stretched out to her feet. It was horrendous.

"Well. You don't look any better in those jeans," she pouted. 

She shook her head. "Who am I kidding... You look gorgeous in everything you wear! So unfair."

"Stop lying and get out of that ugly dress."

She mumbled some french words which I was betting were offensive, but I simply laughed as I watched her storm into the dressing rooms. Her laughter following shortly after. 

I shook my head and walked into the shop next door. The most beautiful thing had caught my eye and I knew that I had to buy it for Jade. There were two golden necklaces which came with a bracelet. The necklaces had a heart at the centre which was embedded with diamonds. This would leave a hole in my bank account. There goes my allowance for the next three years but I bought them either way.

I approached her at the other till. "I bought you a gift."

"Me too. You are going to love it," she giggled. "However, I will only give it to you on Christmas Day."

We agreed to give the gifts during Christmas as Christmas was less than three weeks away. The shopping had been a wonderful idea until my mother started blowing up my phone and I had to switch off my WIFI until later. I could face the problem later. Jade wasn't as lucky. Her mother called her with an unknown number and threatened her to and I quote "remove her from the face of the earth since she thinks she is rich enough to act like a damn fool. She will show her exactly how much of a fool Jade is when she comes for Christmas."

Jade had cut the phone call and she was officially a walking corpse.

.........

The flight was unbearable as knowing that my mom was out there somewhere in pain. I could not bear that she was in pain. The entirety of my existence revolves around my mothers. They have given me everything that I could have ever needed and wanted. The ride home was even worse than the plane trip. Jade had gotten in an argument with her mother and there was nothing scarier than an angry French Jade. 

There were red and blue lights flashing when we finally pulled up in the driveway. Three police cars were lined up in front of the house and my mother was crying to them. Her smile grew as she saw us arriving and she ran to the car. When we stepped out of the car, she pulled both of us into a hug. 

"Catherine Olivia Peace, what happened to your money? I received thirty-five notifications. Are you stupid?" she yelled from where she was. "We will talk about that later for now. I missed you!"

"You silly children, you did not have to risk your futures for this. You should be in school," she kissed our cheeks.

 "And you should be rehearsing for your first big Christmas show," she looked at Jade.

"I wouldn't even dream of not being here with you, Mama B!" smiled Jade. 

I couldn't bring myself to speak so I just hugged my mother tighter. 

"Cat, you look exhausted." She started. "I made you both your favourite cookies so go inside, take a shower cause you smell awful, eat and go to bed. We can discuss everything when you have had your sleep."

Jade protested. "But I am not even tired. I want to be with you right now."

"Jade, your mom will never let me hear the end of it if she found out that I have been depriving you of your beauty sleep."

"But mom... We aren't even tired." I started.

"No buts, Catherine Olivia Peace!" she said. "You may be 19 but you live under my roof and will do as you are told."

That was the last of that conversation as it would have been a death wish to protest any further. Jade groaned and marched into the house and I giggled behind her. We found our cookies next to our beds and our beds had been decorated with all of our favourite things. My mother had put in effort in making this as tolerable as possible. Jade took her shower, ate and within 2 minutes of laying on the bed she fell asleep. I had shared a room with Jade for as long as I could remember so her snoring never bothered me but today she was being louder than usual.

My phone buzzed from the table where Jade and I kept our electronics. 

Thinking of you... I miss you 

I could not help the smile that grew on my face when I saw Liam's name next to the message. My heart danced around because I had been so afraid to message him, thinking that I had scared him away. I began to type but before I could send my message I saw my face staring back at me. Liam was video calling me! My hair was a huge curly mess and I had zit cream on every other spot. He could not see me like this so I rushed to the bathroom and quickly fixed myself. 

When I was finally ready I called him back. 

I laughed without any thought the moment that I saw him. He simply made me happy. 

"Hey. It's been too long," he whined, before smiling at me.

"It's been less than two days."

"Exactly. Too long. The longest that I have gone without you for a very long time now," he said. 

"I miss you too," I smiled at him as he stared.

"What are you looking at?"

"You."

I smiled, "Oh."

The conversation lasted two hours until Liam said that he had to leave to go to rehearsal. He had started several conversations but ended them halfway and I knew that something bothered him. I also knew that it had to do with the conversation that I had with Jacob, but with so much going on I could not bring myself to speak to Liam about that. He knew that I loved Jacob and it took a while to truly forget that person that you loved with all your being. They say that teenagers are delusional and have no real sense of love. Adults laugh at us for loving but forget that they once were young and in love too. 

 I lay in bed thinking about where my mother could be. The thought of her being lost or worse tortured somewhere kept running through my head. It would be a disaster if she turned up dead in a ditch somewhere like in the movies. Images of my mom flooded my mind and I wept as I remembered all the moments that we had shared and all the moments that we still had to share. I needed her to be okay and for the first time in a long time, I found myself praying for her wellbeing. 

Jade twisted and turned in her bed. She seemed to be having some sort of nightmare so I decided to wake her up. After calling her name several times, she finally woke up from her sleep. 

"Again?" I asked.

She nodded her head and pulled me into a hug. "I can't stop seeing his face. The paleness in his face and his lifeless eyes. I just-" She broke down into tears.

"You don't have to speak. I understand. I am here," I whispered.

Her phone began to ring and the caller was "Babe/Bae/Boo Mason" 

ew.

I showed her the phone and she waved her hand indicating no. I put it on silent and told her about law school with Elena and she laughed. I told her all about the conversation with Jacob.

She rolled her eyes. "He makes me gag." 

"I wonder how their honeymoon is going," she laughed. 

I wiggled my eyes at her. "Elena would have posted. Wanna check?"

She grabbed her phone and messaged Mason. She was going to push him away but  I was not going to say anything right now. She scrolled through her feed. 

"No pictures."

She continued scrolling through it when she found a post from Elena's best friend talking about the failed marriage. Jacob and Elena had decided to not get married and they would wait till they were slightly older.

"Shocker," Jade said, rolling her eyes. She put on some of the guy's songs and let it play in the background as we lay in bed. We opened the ceiling up and the stars were revealed and we watched them together.

I decided to sleep on her bed with her so that she felt safe. She had been having nightmares since we found out that my mother was missing two days ago. The last time that she had had nightmares was right before her father died. 

The police kept telling us to prepare for the worst but hope for the best. After ten days missing, I had started to hear my mother weeping in her room so Jade and I decided to sleep with her. The waiting was the worst part of the situation. The police were assuming that since no ransom money had been requested, she had been kidnapped by people with a personal vendetta. People who wanted to hurt us or people that wanted to hurt her. 

"A/N: Loved it? (I knew you would!) Like, share, and vote to keep the magic alive. Your comments light up my day!"