- Monday, May 23rd, 2016 -

– 4 months after the disappearance –

The second Nathan brings Stan up to his bedroom, Stan's eyes find me, gently swaying from left to right in the desk chair, staring at the picture of Finnley that Nathan likes to keep in his drawer, while I like to look at it.

He doesn't want to be reminded of Finnley each and every day, and I do.

We're all dealing with this differently. Nathan also gave me the green sweater since I refused to take it off last week. Now I'm back to wearing the sweaters I still have that belong to Finnley, instead of the clothes Stan bought for me, or the ones that I bought for myself.

"How did you get here? Did your parents bring you?" He stares me up and down, his eyes lingering on the green sweater a while longer than necessary.

"Nathan picked me up."

He squints his eyes angrily. "Why didn't you ask me? I almost pass your house on the way here anyway."

I shrug, feeling too tired to argue with him about this. "What's the problem? We're all here. Besides, my parents want him to drive me because Nathan actually puts in effort to get to know my parents."

"I know your parents." He snaps, looking at Nathan, who is casually strolling towards his bed, looking like he wants to stay out of this. He's nearly whistling to put some strength behind his casual attitude.

"You had dinner twice with them in 3 months. Nathan had dinner with us twice in a week." I sit up straight, slamming the picture on the desk. "All you do is snap at me, get mad for asking questions to which I deserve a goddamn answer, and you expect me to call you for a ride? I'm not your bitch, I'm your boyfriend."

"Then start acting like my boyfriend! Trust me a bit!"

"Yeah, well, that's the whole reason we're here anyway, aren't we?" My tone might be a little cold, but I am a bit pissed over his annoying behaviour in the past week. "Not even mentioning, or actually I am mentioning it, since I'm going to mention it now, the fact you dragged my ass to a party against my will, endangering me by leaving me behind with those shady friends of yours."

"Okay, enough." Nathan stepped in between us. "We are not here to mend your relationship, we are here because you." – he points towards Stan – "obviously know stuff you kept from Cris willingly, while trying to frame me for something I have nothing to do with."

"In my defence, you are very unlikable and you tried to fuck up my friendship with Finn." Stan snaps. "I told you not to mess with me."

"Dude... just..." Nathan turns around and looks at me with eyes full of disbelieve. "Just, what?" He hisses, looking back at Stan. "Finnley went missing and you have something to do with it!" Nathan losing his cool is a rare occurrence. "How can you blame me for warning him about you!?"

"I didn't do anything to him!" Stan snaps. "And if Finnley wasn't so damn proud and looked a little more like his minion over there, none of this would have happened!"

"Okay." I hold up my hands in surrender. "This isn't going to work if we keep fighting and blaming one another. I think it's safe to say all three of us want Finn to go home. Let's have a truce and just get the story straight, okay?"

"If he stops blaming me, I agree." Stan eyes Nathan in anger, getting a cold look back in return.

"Ditto." Nathan mumbles annoyed.

"Ditto." Stan repeats in a mocking voice.

"You are aware we're in my house and I won't hold back on punching you?" Nathan bites in a loud voice.

"You do realize you asked me to answer your fucking questions?" Stan shouts back in annoyance and anger.

"I'll punch out those answers if I have..."

I grab my head and pretend to be in pain, bending over, whimpering softly, which results in both of them looking at me with worry.

"Cris, are you okay?" Stan hurried over to me, cupping my face.

"Good, now that I have both of your attention, can we please act like adults and talk this over?" I grin when both of the hotheads realize I was faking it, Nathan rolling his eyes and Stan sending me an annoyed look. "Stan, where is Finn?" I start my interrogation.

"In the city, staying in an apartment that belongs to a guy I don't know personally." He simply answers.

"Why is he staying there, not coming home?" Nathan jumps in, calm tone-of-voice, flopping down on his bed after grabbing a notebook and a pen. "Did he run away and you helped? Is he involved in some shady business?"

"Finnley got abducted." Stan takes in a deep breath. "I don't know who exactly took him, but they spiked his drink, they took him to that apartment and they've been keeping him there ever since."

"But he is capable of walking around, because he was here twice already."

"He isn't free to do whatever he wants. Finn apparently just likes to act rebellious every so often." Stan shrugs. "He wasn't allowed to meet with Cris, he wasn't allowed to send notes..."

"How do you know about the notes?" I cut his sentence short, staring at him, feeling a bit scared because he knew about them already.

"Finn told me last week." Stan takes in a deep sigh. "But I've seen them at your home a while back, after the fight with Jaimie. I was getting you your meds and I saw them."

"Okay, but Finn isn't allowed to go out whenever it pleases him, but he did manage to sneak notes out and meet with Cris twice already. Care to explain how he managed to do that if he's held locked down in an apartment?"

"Look." Stan takes a seat on the end of the bed, staring at the floor. "Whenever Finn acts out, disobeys, refuses to do something they want him to do, Cris is in danger. They threatened Finn to harm Cris for every misstep he took."

"Me?"

"Well, Finn didn't really keep it a secret he really likes you. Or the fact there's no one else in the world he cares more about." Stan looks at me. "I figured if I kept you close, became friends, I could protect you."

"Why do you want to protect me? Why not just go to the cops and tell them where he is and who's doing this to him?"

"He isn't the only one who's a victim." Stan snaps. "Just, listen, okay? I love Finn, to death. He made every part of my life better, he even helped my parents with complicated insurance issues. Without him we would have lost our house months ago. He's been the only person in my life who actually cared about me instead of the stupid drugs I sell people."

"And in return, you let your shady friends abduct him and... what do they do to him anyway?" Nathan joined in again, crossing his arms.

"They are not my friends, okay?" Stan hisses in anger. "I didn't even know them before Finn introduced me to them."

"So, Finn knows the people that are holding him against his will, and you know them because of him?" Nathan sits up straight, looking a bit confused. "Who are they?"

"They're people Finn met during a night out months ago. I only know one guy. Finn wanted to try something different, no pot, no alcohol, but XTC. He told James and me he knew how to get the stuff and we thought it would be fun to try once. So, we let him do his thing. He got the drugs, we had a great night because of it and we did it more often because it had been fun. I don't know how Finn got his hands on it, or how he paid for the drugs. He just did and he never asked James or me for a dime, told us it was taken care off."

"And then Finn went missing." Nathan scribbles down things on the notepad while talking to Stan and I let him. I figure Nathan is smarter than I am, so he might come up with better questions to get all the information. "When did you got in contact with Finn again?"

"About three weeks after he went missing. I went out with James and he was right there, out on the streets with another guy, laughing over something. It pissed me off to see him like that, like nothing was wrong while we're all here, worrying over him. So, James went up to him and he might have hit him once or twice in anger, demanding him to tell us what was going on. Some guy came up, beat the crap out of James and told us to stay away from Finn, dragging him away from us."

"So, someone was watching him?"

"It took them three seconds to get James off of Finn, so yeah, someone was watching him." Stan nods, taking in a deep breath. "But while the dragged Finn away from us I caught his eyes with mine and I just knew right in that second something was up and Finn needed help. I've never seen him scared like that before. And we've went through some nasty fights in the months we hung out."

"Why didn't you help James, or Finn, that night?"

"Because you didn't see the guy that was beating up James." Stan looks at me, sadness written all over his face. "I yelled at Finn to run, but he didn't. The guy that was with him didn't either, they just stood there and waited for that guy to drag them away from us."

"Wait up." I jolt up a bit, staring at him with wide eyes. "Three weeks, you say?"

"Yeah, something like that. I remember it hadn't been a month yet. Why?"

"You told me Nathan beat up James around that time," I snap. "We we're still in community service and you stole Nathan's phone..."

'...not my phone."

'...told me you stole Nathan's phone and James got beaten for returning it."

"Yeah, well, seriously, up until the point we ran into Finn that night, I honestly believed Nathan had something to do with it. I wanted the police to focus on him, find out if I was right. So, I made that up to get them to see Nathan as a suspect."

"Thanks a lot dude. I got in a shitload of trouble at school and with my parents," Nathan seethes. "Because they all thought I was involved."

"Sorry," Stan mutters, fiddling with the hem of his sweater nervously.

"Whatever." Nathan holds up one hand, pinching the bridge of his nose with the other, closing his eyes for a couple of seconds. "What did you do after you saw Finn that night?"

"I wanted to go to the cops, so did James." Stan starts pacing up and down the room. "But Finn called that same night. I didn't recognize the number but since it's not the first time a strange number called me for some pot, I answered anyway. He begged me not to go to the cops, telling me he would explain why I couldn't go as soon as he figured out a way to talk to me for a longer period of time. He hung up and that was it. But I didn't miss the fact Finn nearly panicked, thinking we might go to the cops. We decided to wait for a bit until he contacted us again."

"I'm not buying this," I mutter, starting to swing from left to right again, grabbing the picture with Finn in it. "Finn told me you're a puppet in a much bigger thing and now you're telling me you've got nothing to do with this."

Stan lets out a loud laugh, his head lolling backwards, hiding his face in his hands. "O my god I hate him." He keeps laughing, while Nathan and I stare at him in wonder. "He could have been clearer with you." Stan looks at me. "I'm his fucking puppet, if that's what you'd like to call it."

"Hispuppet?" I frown, sharing a look with Nathan, who seems lost right now. "How are you his puppet?"

"I hate the sound of that word, but okay. The only way I could stay in contact with Finn without him getting in trouble for it, was to get at least a bit involved with those people. He asked me to, because he needed to be able to talk to me more often and he got beaten after calling me once. So, I kind of agreed to dealing drugs for a guy that is involved with his disappearance from a distance and I sell to people more directly involved with Finn."

"Why would he ask you to do that?"

"Because I was able to keep him updated about you, his brother and his parents." Stan's face flushes. "He wasn't too happy that we got in a relationship, but he figured I could keep you safe that way."

"That's why I couldn't break up with you? Why you wouldn't let me?"

Stan nods. "But gossip went quick and Finnley went out of line twice and they wanted to warn him by hurting you. The only thing keeping them from actually hurting you, was the fact you were my boyfriend. Than they found out you wanted to break up. I took you to that party because some of them are involved in it and I wanted them to see we were fine."

"I just have one very, very simple question." Nathan waits with asking it until he's finished writing the info down. "Why no cops?"

"There's three more guys." Stan sighs deeply. "About two of them I have no clue what they're doing there or why they are there. But the last, Alex, is in the same position Finn is in. They're threatening him with his little sister. Finn and he have been trying to get someone to protect her but she's dating a guy that's directly involved in all of this, who isn't dating her because he loves her, like I am with Cris, but because that way he's close to her whenever Alex steps out of line. They are both afraid that when they go to the cops, either Alex' sister, or you, will get hurt before the police gets a chance to protect the two of you. Because boyfriend or not, they will come for you if they get the cops involved."

- Tuesday, May 24th, 2016 -

"Hey!" Emma's voice sounds chirpy and annoying and I can't remember when I ever liked to hang out with her, listening to her voice every single day. But perhaps I'm a bit biased because she's acting like a bitch lately. All of the sudden, she's part of Janet's group of minions. She even joined the cheerleaders squad while she was completely against that exact group of people acting like they are better than anyone.

I frown, watching her taking a seat beside me, while I was having lunch with Julia, Willow and Stan, the latter sending Emma a cold glare.

"What do you need?" Stan sounds like he's holding back some anger.

"Nothing?" She smiles widely while her ponytail sweeps from left to right the second she turns her head to look at him. "I was just checking on my friend. How's your head feeling?" She looks at me, blinking her eyes a couple of times.

My frown increases and I stare at her, my sandwich still right in front of my mouth since I was in the middle of taking a bite, frozen in the air waiting to be eaten.

The fake gigantic smile never leaves her face, even though I am capable of hearing the crickets all around us despite the noise coming from the other teenagers blabbering and laughing in the lunchroom.

"I'm fine..." I slowly answer. "Why?"

"Well, I felt like we haven't talked in a while and I was worried, you know? You are my friend and I figured to give you some space for a while because you'd been acting weird. But I'm sure we can leave it in the past, right?"

The frown is now permanently melted on my face, my mouth slightly agape, the sandwich still untouched. All four of us are staring at her, the girls probably feeling awkward, Stan fuming in anger and I'm taken by surprise.

"Leave it in the past?" Stan hisses angrily. "You dropped him like a brick when he needed you most."

"I didn't drop him like a brick." She's still smiling, although by now it looks forced. "Cris said some hurtful things I couldn't deal with back then. I was also in pain because of Finn disappearing. If anyone dropped anyone, it was Cris who left me out of his life."

"Excuse me?" I drop the sandwich, staring at her fake smiling face with a little too much make-up. "First of all, wasin pain? We're still worried sick and in pain and sad and goddamn it, I miss him more each and every single fucking day. Secondly, you only hung out with me because I am his best friend. Right when he went missing, you started acting like a bitch. You belong with Janet's group of friends, you know? Because you fit perfectly in with your fake cheeriness and tons of make-up and forced smiling."

"Wow," she mutters while the smile finally leaves her face. "I didn't think people were right about you." She gets up from her seat. "But you have changed since you started hanging out with him. What is this anyway? I heard you two broke up."

"Well, we didn't." I grin, while Stan puts an arm around my shoulder to prove the point. I lean against him, smiling a fake smile towards her. "And I didn't change, and neither did you. You just took of your mask that you wore while you were using me to get Finn to like you. But news flash..." I gesture towards her body. "You ain't got the right body parts for him to like you."

"Fuck you," she hisses, leaning in closer. "I wanted to help you get your popularity back, you know? If you hang out with the right people you'd be back on you pedestal in no-time. But if this is what you dig, fine." She shrugs. "Your choice." She walks away, swaying her hips a little too much, smiling sweetly whenever a guy is whistling to get her attention.

"She's so shady." Willow chuckles softly. "I can't believe we actually thought she was cool. Maybe Finn was right when he said she was superficial."

"He said she was superficial?"

"Yeah, said she was okay to hang out with. He accepted her because of you, but he didn't really like her. Said she was a bit clingy." Willow nudges Julia in her side. "Remember him always ranting whenever she was trying to hug him too much?"

"Finn did not like her. Said she was a devil in disguise." Julia nods. "And look at this..." She gestures in the direction Emma just took off in. "Her true nature has been revealed."