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❝ where have you BEEN?
do you know when you're
coming BACK? ! ❞

reflections, the neighbourhood.

"WHAT THE FUCK-?!" jaelin exclaimed as she turned around to face her living room that had a board up with different papers, maps and string lines spread across it. max was studying it as jaelin noticed the coke lines on the living room table.

max turned around and smiled widely, "like what you see? i'm so close to figuring out where the missing boys are, but i just can't seem to grasp it."

maybe it's because your mind's not even in this universe. she scoffed, walking cautiously towards the boards to take a closer look.

"do you work with the detectives?" she asked him, letting her eyes wonder towards the maps and pins at different locations.

"yes..and no. kinda- just, ugh, if only i had my friend bill's projector, i could line up the map with the different locations. this would be way easier than using strings."

her eyes followed all the pins and strings, each leading to a precise location. under each pin, was also a picture of the missing boys.

vance's picture at a random street near the grab n go, griffin's picture on a street near school and lastly, billy's picture, just a couple ways down on this street.

their pictures were enough to make her heart ache. also the fact that she wasn't doing enough or even attempting to try and find them herself made her ashamed and feel useless.

she remembered walking into the grab n go, walking up to the pinball machine by habit, but frowning once she saw it unoccupied. she used to sneak quarters on his machine without him knowing so he could play longer.

she remembered that for a while she couldn't walk down her street, or the street where griffin went missing. the atmosphere and tragedy it held made her shudder at the mere thought of walking even near there.

however, she was still intrigued. she took a step closer and grazed her fingertips over the map, seeing x's and circles on places near the 3 boys' pins.

"what do these mean?"

"well the x's are places that i, or the police, have looked and checked. the circles are potential places that are near all the three disappearance spots." max answered for her and went to sit back on the couch.

she heard him breathing in and immediately knew what he was doing without having to turn around. she grimaced at the fact that her mother let a coke user into her house. or maybe she didn't know.

she scanned over the board again as an idea clicked into her head, "hey max, you don't mind if i make notes of this do you?"

she turned around and saw him with a dazed look, sat back on the couch. he waved her off, "go ahead.." he trailed off before shutting his eyes closed and sighing.

she nodded once before leaving to get a pen and paper. when she went back, max was sound asleep on the couch. she rolled her eyes and made her way to the maps, copying down the addresses of the circled places.

AFTER JAELIN HID the piece of paper and got changed into more comfortable clothes, she quietly left her room and went to check on her mother. she opened her door to find her sound asleep with paper work scattered on her bed and two wine bottles on her bedside table.

she frowned and silently went inside, tidying the paper work, leaving it in a neat pile and placing it to the side. she grabbed the wine bottles and threw them out. after that, she fixed the covers on her mother and shut the lights off.

cereal for dinner then.

she already missed all the homemade dinners back at the arellano house hold. jaelin would kill for another one of their dinners right now.

she went down the hall and saw max still sound asleep. she looked to the table where the coke was originally, only to find not even one trace of it. as if it wasn't there in the first place.

her brows raised as she turned off all the main lights and left a few lamps on. she went into the pantry and fridge, grabbing cereal and making it. once she sat down and ate half in silence, the phone rang.

she checked the time: 9:21 pm. she looked at the ringing phone in confusion. nonetheless, she got up and quickly answered it.

"hello, covey residence." she spoke into the phone.

"hello? jaelin?" she heard finney's relieved and concerned voice through the phone. she instantly relaxed.

"oh, hey finn. what's up? are you okay?" she asked, leaning against the wall, fiddling with her necklace.

"uh, i'm good. sorry i'm calling so late, but me and gwen wanted to know if you're okay and why you left school?"

she chuckled, "i'm okay finn. long story short, my mother is letting an old friend of hers stay with us, and she didn't want me to come home to a stranger and call the police."

she heard finney sigh of relief, "that's good. i mean- not good because of the stranger but good as in you're okay-"

jaelin started laughing at his attempt to fix his words. on the other line, finney shook his head with a small smile, relieved to hear his best friend's laugh.

"it's all good finn, i know what you mean. also, how was school? i left, like, halfway through so i didn't get to have lunch with you and gwen." she frowned, missing the two blake siblings.

"oh..oh yeah, it was good." finney replied. though, the fact that he was saying that with a bunch of bruises on his side and arms made his face drop.

"nobody fucked with you or anything, right?" jaelin asked.

he lifted up his shirt to see the big purple and black bruise on his right side. he wrapped it with a gauze as best as he could, but it was that big that it was showing even outside the bandages.

"earth to finn? hello?" he snapped out of his daze and dropped his shirt down.

"sorry aylin, bad connection. what was that?" he chuckled slightly, hoping to cover up the hesitation.

jaelin sighed, "bullshit, blake. you hesitated."

"pfft, what? no, i didn't." finney tried to defend himself but silently cursed at his demeanour.

"finney blake i know you're lying." jaelin now had a stern tone, "i know when you're lying and when you're not."

"what? how?" finney's eyes widened. was he that obvious to read? then again, he couldn't get anything past jaelin or gwen. robin only sometimes, but that was when he was really lucky.

"i can tell from your tone, dumbass. you said 'what? how?' as if i just told you your biggest darkest secret." she scoffed before chuckling at how easy she could read him.

"oh.."

"well? who was it and where?" jaelin insisted. finney could've sworn he heard jaelin's knuckles crack.

he gulped before speaking, "they were just name calling it's fine. i didn't get a good look since i was in a middle of a hallway with a lot of people." he lied.

jaelin processed what he was telling her before she pinched the bridge of her nose, "i'll believe you this one time. but if i find out on monday that you lied to me, i won't hesitate to tell gwen."

"no! don't please, i swear i'm not." he quickly exclaimed, knowing that his sister would blow it out of proportion.

"it's your word against yours, finn." she went back to a softer tone, "but you can tell me anything, okay? don't feel like you can't ask for help."

finney nodded before forgetting that they were on call, "yeah, sorry, of course. thanks aylin."

"i got you, finn. always. oh, and tell gwen to call me tomorrow when she gets home from suzie's please?"

"mhm, i will. good night aylin."

"night finn, love ya."

he smiled, "love you too."

୧ ׅ𖥔 ۫ iloveblondead speaks ! ⋄ 𓍯

I WANT THEIR
FRIENDSHIP🥹

also MASON & MIGUEL's
PICS AT UNIVERSAL?!?!
got me giggling n twirlin
my hair🤭🤭🤭

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