"L.Broadly was the last person to check out this book, so I guess the letter L." Rowan pulled the library card from inside of a checked out book.

"Clever girl." Brandon looked her way. Ryan shifted, watching the interaction.

Rowan looked over at Trevor. "Did you find anything yet?"

"No Lance Broadly." he shook his head.

"Ryan?" Rowan looked her way.

"No social media, no records." Ryan listed on as she looked up from her phone. "Dudes like a literal ghost."

"Zero social blade." Trevor agreed. "Who doesn't have an Insta?"

"I can see if I can hack into the computer system at the library and see if there's a photo by his library card." Ryan spoke up, looking toward Roward.

"You can do that?" she asked with frowned eyebrows.

Ryan shrugged. "I can do anything."

"Ryan's a secret nerd." Brandon hummed, Ryan's face fell as she looked down at her phone. In no way did he mean it in a mean way, teasing more so, but it was so much more complicated in her head. Especially from him.

"Look, this is the page where the piece was torn out." Rowan turned the book page to show the cut out ones.

"So Lance checks out a book from the library, a book Zoe has read before. He tears out a specific line, and he sends it to her." Brandon confirmed, Ryan walked over to get a better look while Trevor continued to search. "Why?"

"Romantic?" Ryan rose her eyebrows.

"This is your idea of romance?" Brandon looked down at her with a questionable look.

"Not the creepy text part, the messages part." she corrected him.

"Wait, look." Rowan turned the book around to show a number written close to the spin.

"What is it?" Brandon looked at her.

"I don't know." she answered, meeting his eye. Ryan looked back at Trevor for some back up, feeling weird right between them with the intense eye contact they were sharing, only he hadn't been paying attention either.

"Trevor will probably know!" Ryan cut in with a clear of her throat, grabbing the book. Trevor looked up, dropping his phone as she walked his way.

"Maybe if we find out who Lance Brodley is, we can get answers about Zoe." Brandon followed her, Rowan close after. Ryan fell down next to Trevor as he looked down at the page. "Maybe he's KingCobra."

Trevor held his phone in one hand. "It's a phone number."

Rowan and Brandon looked closer. "Let's call it."

"Wait." Rowan shook her head as Brandon took the phone. "What's your plan? We need a plan."

"Just ride the wave, Rowan." Ryan waved her off.

The line rung for a moment as a feminine voice came through. "Hello?"

"Hey, I got a new phone. Who is this?" Brandon asked on the other line.

"It's Allison. Who are you?" she asked.

Ryan hit Trevor with a whisper. "Ali with Hawk."

"It's Lance. Lance Broadly." Brandon said back with a clear of his throat. The call ended.

Ryan huffed. "You should have tried to sound more like a possible murderer!"

"What does a possible murderer sound like, Ryan?" Brandon asked her in disbelief.

Ryan dropped her voice low. "Hey, i'm a possible murderer. Gimme your soul."

"So, Darth Vader." Trevor confirmed with an exhale. "That's fantastic."

Rowan yanked the phone from Trevor's lap, looking to Brandon. "When do you leave for the army again?"

"Son of a bitch!" Ryan yelled as she walked from Trevor's room the next day, holding her phone up. "No photo at the library! No photo at all!"

"Ryan, relax!" Trevor yelled. "Stop yelling."

"We have been looking the entire freaking night!" she announced with wide eyes, tossing her hands up in disbelief. "I am tired, probably now have a kidney infection from not stopping to pee, need to shower, in uncomfortable jeans, and hun-"

The door opened, Brandon and Sean on the other side. He held a bag up. "Burrito, babies."

"See, there you go." Trevor pointed to Brandon. "And their cranberry juice in the fridge. And just pop the button on your jeans."

"I'm starving." Rowan spoke as the trio walked into the kitchen, Ryan grabbed the bottle from the fridge.

Trevor hopped up on the counter, taking the burrito. "Thank you."

"Ry." Brandon held hers out. "God, I thought you said you hated those jeans?"

"I do!" she announced, taking the burrito.

"Please do not get her started." Trevor begged.

Brandon turned to Rowan with the burrito in his hand. "Don't say I never did nothing for you, sweetheart."

Ryan pulled a disgusted look, rolling her eyes. Sean walked in, making Rowan gap. "What is he doing here? Brandon, he was at the bonfire with Zoe."

"Yeah, duh." he looked at her oddly, giving the burrito to Sean. "I was the one who told him to go to find out who sent me to juvie."

Ryan looked down at her burrito. "Is this is tomato?"

"Oh, yes." Brandon switched the burritos. "This one's yours. No tomato's, and no mustard."

"Sean's the one that told me it was Zoe." Brandon continued to explain to Rowan as Sean hummed.

"What about the dance studio? Or Zoe's house, why were you there?" Rowan listed on in Sean's direction, leaning against the fridge.

"Same reason you were." Sean answered. "I was trying to find her. She did ruin Brandon's life."

"Trev and I almost died too." Ryan pointed out as Rowan looked over quickly. "Without B, we're just a lonely little Ry and T. Never a good combo without a B."

"What she said." Trevor hummed.

"What she said." Brandon agreed.

"What about the pig mask?" Rowan asked Sean again, taking her attention off the trio.

"That was me." Trevor spoke up with a chuckle. "Pig mania here. Name picked via Ryan."

"But the mask was in Sean's locker." Rowan gave an odd look.

"Well, yeah, they were looking through mine, Ryan's, and Brandon's lockers because of those flyers. I mean, I had to put it somewhere." Trevor explained with a shrug.

"Dick." Sean looked his way.

"Hey, um, did Zoe say anything at the bonfire?" Rowan looked toward Sean.

"Honestly, it was a whole lot of bullshit." he explained honestly. "It was like some witch ritual thing. Kept calling us empties."

"Vampire." Ryan pointed out.

"All right, well, while you fraternal twins scour the internet for Mr.Empty, Sean, Ry, and I are gonna find Lance Broadly." Brandon confirmed.

"And way lay on his ass!" Ryan announced, pulling a knife from the counter.

"Without the knife." Brandon took it from her hand. "The way one real man finds another real man."

Rowan laughed. "Have you ever done a real man thing in your life?"

Brandon turned to her with a forced smile. "You dream about me doing real men things to you all night long."

Ryan threw his burrito down, no longer finding it interesting.

"Sounds like a nightmare." Rowan admitted. Brandon went to say something before a hand collided with the back of his head, Ryan storming out of the kitchen before Trevor did the same, less then a second later.

•

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ryan every chance she gets: 🤜🏼