– 2 months before the disappearance –

I'm currently at the mall, outside of the book store, waiting for Finnley to decide on what book to buy. He's taking longer than ever; mostly because he already has plenty of books. I'm kind of bored, having to wait out here by myself, while I watch Emma saunter behind Finnley, talking to him animatedly.

Every so often, she picks out a book and shows it to him, all the while getting the same answer; read it already.

"Finn!" I call out. "Just accept the fact you've read them all."

"I haven't. I just can't decide on what genre I want."

"Next time, decide before making me wait out here until I'm sixty years old."

He chuckles and shrugs. "I'll hurry a bit. I guess you're hungry."

"Yeah, kind of. There's a burger with my name on it waiting at Maccy D."

Finnley rolls his eyes in response, before going back to searching the bookshelves for a book he likes enough.

It takes him another 10 minutes before he comes out empty handed.

"I'll order one online or whatever." He shrugs. "Let's feed that little hungry monster inside you." He prods my growling stomach, making Emma giggle while I grin.

We walk towards the McDonald's, even though Finnley and Emma both don't like to eat fast food. They just love me enough to every so often tag along with me.

"So, how's school going?" Emma skips beside Finnley, cheerful as ever.

"Fine." He shrugs. "Stressful as ever. But still good grades."

"Are you available for tutoring me in French again this weekend?"

"I'm still really busy Em." He sighs deeply, sending her a forced smile. "You know I'm busy."

"You've been busy for the past two months." She whines. "Finny, you promised to help me."

"I will, but I have a lot to do myself. Maybe next week during free period."

"I thought we could study at your place again."

"Eh, no." He shakes his head. "My mom's a bit stressed over work and she wouldn't allow it."

"But Cris is allowed to come over." She stops skipping, or walking, or moving in general, making me bump into her since I fell a little behind, amused by Finnley's not so tactical way of turning Emma down yet again. They've been acting weird around each other since a while. Finnley avoiding her a little more, while Emma seems more hopeful then ever he might really be interested in her. But she's still dating Jacob so I'm a bit confused about her current attempts to get some alone time with him. I know they went on a date, or at least Finnley's mom told me. But neither one has told me anything.

"Cris is different. He's like..." Finnley shrugs, not finishing his sentence.

"I'm his brother from another mother." I grin at him, putting an arm around his shoulder. "His mom always talks about how she used to babysit me and we shared baths and all. It's something you never had."

Emma sends me a cold glare, Finnley's face flushes at the thought of those stories.

"What he said." He shrugs of my arm, entering the McDonald's without another word.

"Do you have to remind me of the fact you will always be more important to him?" Emma hisses, shoving me lightly. "You could at least help me to get him to spent some time with me."

"Yeah, like you could not have bailed on me twice already, after promising me to help me with Julia."

"Just talk to her!" She rolls her eyes. "She won't bite."

"Neither will Finn. Besides, you already had a date with him."

"For the record, yes, we went on a date." She snaps. "And he kissed me." She holds her chin up high, looking rather certain of her case. "He even told his parents we'd been dating."

"So, what's the problem? The fact you're cheating on Jacob?"

"No." But her face flushes. "The fact he's avoiding me ever since we kissed." She mutters.

"So, he's not into you?" Somehow this makes me happy, but I can't really explain why. Let's just say I don't really like them together. They wouldn't be a great couple.

"I don't know, he hasn't said a word about it. We went on a couple of dates, you know..." She shrugs.

"Are you guys coming in, or what?" Finnley comes back out, sending us both an annoyed look. "I don't have all day."

* * * * *

Finnley has been acting snappy and frustrated for the past couple of days. Out of the blue, he cancelled all of our plans to hang out together and he told me not to come to his house. Then he went on and told me nothing was wrong, just busy for school; but that excuse is getting a bit old. He's always busy with school, so why is this week any different? It's not like there's mayor tests coming up soon or whatever.

It's not just him, but Emma too. Ever since our conversation in the mall about her kissing Finnley, we've been bickering about small things. I feel like we're a married couple now. Finnley stays up in the library all the rest of the week, asking us to give him some time to study. At Friday, I went to look for him in the library, ending up sitting with him in silence during the entire lunchbreak. I'm just there, watching him study. There's organized papers in front of him, pens and a couple of markers, organized by color. Anyone who would look at him right now, would think he's got little OCD. It's actually fascinating to watch him do his thing. But I came here with a purpose and instead of asking him what I wanted to ask, I'm a bit bored and entertain myself by watching him study; yet again. I need to know if he's avoiding me, because Emma is always by my side. Maybe he's just avoiding her since they shared a kiss. Or maybe he's just avoiding me in general.

I leave him behind without saying anything to go to my class. I do not pay a lot of attention and I'm surprised I didn't got detention for nearly falling asleep a couple of times. As soon as the final bell rings, I make my way towards the class Finnley is supposed to be in. He's just leaving, noticing me because some girls giggle the second I smile towards them.

"Hey." I catch up, because he started walking away from me again. "Are you mad at me or something?"

"No, why?"

"I feel like you're avoiding me." I grab hold of his arm to stop him from walking further. "You cancelled all our plans, you don't talk to me. You walk away from me..."

"I'm sorry." He simply shrugs. "I've got a lot on my mind right now. I'm not really focused."

"Why don't we hang out at my place tonight, watch a stupid movie and relax for a bit?" I suggest while we slowly start making our way downstairs.

"Didn't you plan on going out or whatever?"

"I always plan on going out, but you're my best friend. I don't mind staying at home to hang out with you."

"Can I sleep at your place?" He mutters, looking down, sounding a bit sad and insecure.

"Sure, why not?" I cock a brow, wondering why he's acting this way. "We'll have an old-fashioned sleep-over. We can even do a pillow fight if you want." I chuckle over my own joke, while his face flushes a bit. He frowns and I nudge him with my elbow. "Finny, what's wrong?"

"Nothing..." He mumbles, not convincing me in the slightest. "Just stressed."

"So, ehm..." I feel awkward because Finnley never acts like this and I don't know how to respond to it. "Now tell me the truth." We're outside and I notice him watching towards Emma, before looking down again.

"Can we just go to your place?"

"Fine, but we're gonna talk about what's bothering you, because I'm worried."

"You're worried? The ever so calm and collective Cristian is worried?" Instead of flashing me his cheeky grin, he just cocks a brow, eyes still showing a bit of sadness.

"Well, the ever so calm and collective Finny is acting stressed and sad." I shrug. "Off course I'm worried about that." We get in the bus and take our regular seats. "You want to drop off your stuff and come to my place right away? Because I have to let my mom know when you want to eat dinner with us."

"Eh, yeah." He nods. "Sounds good to me."

We fall back into silence for the rest of the ride and walk towards his house. He seems hesitant in front of the door, shuffling his feet, dropping the keys twice, before looking at me. "You wait here, okay?"

I open my mouth to respond, but I don't know what to say. He's asking me to wait outside.

"I'll be back in a couple of minutes."

"Why can't I come in?"

He shrugs. "Just wait here, okay?" He opened the door, closing it right in front of my face. I huff in annoyance, wondering why the hell all of the sudden I'm not allowed to be inside his house. It's about two minutes later that Charlie comes home, sending me a weird look.

"What you doing outside kiddo?" He grins, opens the door and gestures for me to go in. I reluctantly follow, thankful to be inside instead of out there in the cold winter air. "Isn't anyone home or what?"

"Eh, Finn is grabbing some stuff to stay over at my place."

"Oh, right." Another weird look. I follow him towards the kitchen. Their mother is unpacking groceries, looking up in surprise when she sees me.

"Hey Cris." She smiles, before looking at Charlie.

"Just waiting for Finn to grab his stuff." I smile.

His mother looks confused, putting the bread down on the counter. "Grabbing his stuff for what?"

"We're gonna have a guy's night at my place." I grin. "Just some movie, lots of snacks..."

She shakes her head, taking in a deep breath. "Finnley can't go to your place tonight." She walks up to the hallway. "Finnley!? Are you home? Could you come down for a sec?"

"Why can't he? He said it's fine..."

"Yes, but Finnley already has plans and he knows." She sighs. "He's forgetful lately."

"What's wrong?" Finnley appears in the kitchen, his eyes widening for a second when he notices me inside, before his face flushes.

"Cris is under the impression you're gonna spend the night at his place. But sweety," she sounds like she's talking to a retard or something; which is really weird. "You have plans, remember?"

Finnley rolls his eyes. "I didn't have plans. You made plans. I already told you I'm not going. I don't need to, I'm fine. And I already told you, I can't miss school." He grabbed my wrist and pulls me along and upstairs.

"What's that about?"

"We have a little disagreement." Finnley shrugs. "It's nothing important, really. Let me grab some clothes and we're good to go."

Even though he said he's fine, I don't believe he really is. But since he doesn't seem to jumpy to talk about it, I decide to let it go for now.