Brian stared at me with his deep baby blues, as we watch the events unfold together. I could tell he felt bad for Howie as did I. "That’s not like Trisha at all. Something has got to be wrong." I replied, thinking quite hard.
"I guess so, I really don’t know Trisha that well." He replied looking into my eyes.
"Come on, let’s go find out." I said, pulling his arm.
"Please, let us in." I whined.
"Fine," she said.
We walked in and she was wiping away her tears. Her phone was in her hand.
"Who’d you call?" asked Brian breaking the silence.
"A friend" she said.
"Can you tell me why you just did that?" I asked, anger building up inside.
"I think he met someone else. Maybe she is a fan. When we went out yesterday…" she continued to tell us what had happened yesterday when they had gone out. She had gone to the bathroom and when she came out she had seen the fan or so she thought, and Howie kissing. He did push her away, just not right away, she told us. "I guess I didn’t really like him that much anyway."
"I know for a fact, that Howie isn’t like that!!" shouted Brian.
"Bri, calm down." I said. "Trisha, you know that’s bullshit!! The way you talk about him." I spat.
"Well, you don’t know what I feel, so don’t act like you do. Please get out of my room now!!" she spat back. Brian got up and took my hand. We left the room not speaking until we reached the staircase.
"I say we call Howie and get him over here so they can sort things out, I’m sure D, has a good explanation" said Brian.
"Okay, I’m sure he does too." He let go of my hand and picked up the phone.
The Conversation
Brian’s POV
"Hello?" asked Howie from the other end, he sounded dead.
"Hi, Howie. Do you think you could come over here, just for a little bit?" I asked, cautiously.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because, you and Trisha need to sit down get on the same wave length." I said, knowing what I just said was totally corny.
"Hold on a sec, Bri. Maribel, stop that tickles! Okay, Bri, I’m back!" he said.
"Who was that Howie?" I asked, thinking now that maybe Trisha was right about him.
"Oh, that…is my…sister’s friend Maribel." Said Howie.
"Oh," I said. I had the feeling he was lying through his teeth.
"Well, I hate to say this to you, but I gotta jet. Tell everybody I said hi." He said.
"Aren’t you going to come over here, and talk to Trisha?" I asked.
"I don’t need to but you can tell her I said hi." He said.
"Sure, whatever you say, Howie. Bye." I replied, quite disappointed.
"Bye, B-Rok." He said, then hanging up the phone.
"Well, is he coming?" asked Sarah.
"No, he said he doesn’t need to talk to her." I said, becoming disgusted.
"Well, maybe he will come over on his own." She said, hopefully.
"Maybe," I replied, not as hopeful.
"What’s wrong, baby?"
"Nothing, it’s just my lips, they hurt." I complained.
"Oh, you poor thing, let me make it all better." She said, leaning forward and gently kissing my lips. I didn’t pull away. She deepened the kiss. I slid my tongue across the front of her teeth.
"Hey, why don’t you two come up for air!!" commented Kevin as him and Ashley walked past them in the hall. We separated, but I left my arm around her waist.
"Shut up, Kev." Said Sarah.
"Yeah," I said.
"Sure, that’ll happen" he retorted.
"Just, go away!" I said.
"Come on, let’s go!!" she said, pulling my hand.
"Where?"
"You’ll see." We both walked out of the room leaving Kev and Ashley standing there.
Later that night, Emily began to worry about Trisha. She hadn’t come out of her room since she had dumped Howie. AJ had gone to the bathroom so she ventured up to Trisha’s room. She knocked on the door quietly. No answer. She walked in the room and Trisha was asleep on her bed. She noticed a box sticking out from underneath her bed. She went over and picked it up. Inside there were a bunch of envelopes. She took the one that was on top out. Inside was a letter that read:
Dear Little Whore,
If you don’t dump your little Howie, then you are going to DIE DIE DIE!!!
And so is he!!
I just want to let you know I’m not playing games, so don’t fuck with me.
I’ll give you 24 hours, if this is not done, your consequences will arise!!
Like I said in the last letter if you tell anyone, you’ll be dead before they are able to get help for you.
One word of advice----DON’T TRY ME!!
Anonymous Emily immediately ran downstairs. The tears started pouring down her face. She ran smack into AJ. She fell to the floor. AJ looked down and saw that she was crying. "Baby, what’s the matter?" he asked. She didn’t trust her voice so she handed him the letter. He read it and after he was done it looked like his eyes were going to bulge out of his head. "Where did you get this?"
"It was in a box underneath Trisha’s bed." She sobbed.
"This explains why she dumped him. She cares about him so much that she doesn’t want to see him get hurt." Said AJ.
"We need to let everybody know about this."
"Yeah, let’s get them all in the living room." She commented. "Wait a minute, I’ll be right back." she quickly ran upstairs and grabbed the box she had earlier dropped on the ground.
By the time she reached the bottom of the stairs, everyone except Sarah and Brian were in the room. So I asked, "Where are Brian and Sarah?"
"They left a while ago, probably to make out!" cooed Nick.
"You’re such a baby!" replied Tiela
"I’m not!" said Nick.
"You guys, shut up, this is serious!" screamed Emily.
"What happened?" asked Ashley.
Emily began crying again. AJ started seeing that Emily couldn’t continue. "Emily went upstairs to talk to Trisha and she found this letter." He said, holding it up in the air. He then read the letter out loud. "There were a bunch of other ones too. In the box right there." He replied, pointing to the box sitting next to his foot. A tear slipped down Ashley’s cheek.
"Was there anything else in the box?" asked Kevin.
"I really didn’t look," said Emily. She reached for the box and opened it up.
"Is there?" asked AJ, looking down at Emily.
"Yeah, there are some pictures and a tape." She replied.
"You guys, don’t you think we should tell Howie?" asked Tiela.
"Yeah, I think you’re right." Replied Nick.
"Yeah," said AJ, Emily, Kevin and Ashley at the same time.
"I’ll call him," replied AJ.
AJ returned 5 minutes later and announced to everyone that Howie would be over soon but first he had to drop Maribel off somewhere.
"Shouldn’t we get Trisha? We really don’t know what this person is capable of." Replied Kevin.
"I’ll go get her." said Tiela. She walked up the stairs quietly. She entered Trisha’s room, and to her surprise she wasn’t there. She hurriedly ran down the stairs and into the arms of Nick. "She’s gone Nick, she’s gone."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"She’s gone I think she was kidnapped." She sobbed.
"Oh my god!! Come on!!" said Nick, as he took her hand and guided her into the living room.
"What’s wrong, T?" asked Ashley.
Nick went on to explain about Trisha. Tiela cried softly into Nick’s shoulder as he spoke. Kevin finally broke the silence. "I’ll call the police" he said, as he left the room.
"When you are done I’ll call her parents." Said Emily, as AJ embraced her in a hug. They were all quite startled when the doorbell rang. Then they all remembered it was Howie. Nick answered the door.
"Hi, Nick" said Howie as he walked inside the house.
"Uhhh, hi Howie. I really hate to be the bearer of bad news but Trisha is missing." Replied Nick.
"No, she can’t be!!!" said Howie. "Is this the same person who wrote the letters AJ told me about, over the phone."
"Most likely, we really have no idea who this person is or could be." Replied nick. Howie started to cry softly. The doorbell once again rang. AJ went and opened it up this time. It was Kris. "You’re here almost all of the time aren’t you?" he commented snottily.
"I’m Emily’s boyfriend. Why wouldn’t I be here most of the time?" AJ retorted.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Is she home?"
"If you yeah, yeah, whatever, me again, my foot is going to find a new home up your ass." Said AJ. "Yes, she is home."
"Can, I talk to her?"
"If she wants to talk to you. Right now she has bigger problems to solve then to talk to you." replied AJ.
"What happened?"
"Well, Trisha is missing if you must know."
"Well anyways, where is Emily?"
"Stay here and I’ll go get her." said AJ as he quickly exited the room. He came back about 3 minutes later with Emily by his side.
"What do you want?" she asked him snottily. AJ watched with amusement from the couch.
"To be with you, my sweet." He said.
"Well, guess what? It ain’t happening!!" she said, as she laughed along with AJ.
"I’m going to get you back. No matter what. What about when this mama’s boy has to go on tour?" he asked.
"I’m going with him" she said, without thinking.
"Yeah, yeah, whatever." He said.
"What did you just say?" questioned AJ as he got up off the couch. "Guess what? My foot is ready to move in. I suggest you leave before it does." Said AJ.
A look of fear crossed Kris’ face, and he turned and left Emily and AJ on the floor laughing. About 15 minutes later they had gained their composure and the doorbell once again rang. It was the police. They asked that everyone go to one room so they could question them. "First let me introduce us. I am Lieutenant Cartrell and this is Lieutenant Mcoughson. We’ve been told that there is a missing person. Is that correct information?" asked Cartrell.
Everyone nodded ‘yes’ in approval. "Who is missing?"
"Her name is Trisha Lynn Rivera. She is 5’4". Has light brown hair and hazel eyes. She is about 105lbs." Said Tiela frantically. Once again she began to cry. Nick soothed her by humming quietly in her ear. The lieutenants wrote almost every word she had said down on their pads of paper.
"When was the last time any of you saw or heard from her?" asked Mcoughson.
"Earlier this afternoon. She was asleep when I went up there, and that’s when I found all of these things." Said Emily, as she handed him the box. He opened up the box and looked inside.
"We’ll take these things down to the station to see if we can come up with anything." Said Cartrell. "We better get going soon, but before we do we need to ask did Trisha have any enemies that anyone of you knew of?"
"No" they replied in unison.
"Thank you for your cooperation. We’ll let you know if we come up with anything."
"Good night, officers." Said Tiela, before she closed the door of the house.
She went over and sat next to Nick and laid her head on his shoulder. He put his arm around her in comfort.
"I think we all better get some rest. Today has been a very long day." Suggested Kevin. The girls were headed upstairs when they heard the backdoor open and shut. It was Sarah and Brian. "Well, it’s about time you and your wrinkled clothes selves showed up. I wonder what you were doing." Said Kevin.
"Shut up, Kev. It’s not like we missed anything important." Replied Brian.
"Didn’t miss anything important?? Well, if you call Trisha missing unimportant then you’re right." Screamed Emily.
"Whoa, Jam. Calm down." Said Ashley.
"Shh, baby it’s okay." Said AJ, as he pulled her in closer to him. He walked her up to her bed. She told him that she wanted him to stay with her tonight.
Back downstairs
"You’re such an ass!!" said Nick, as he lectured Brian.
"Nick, shut up! You know if it was you, you would want everyone to be forgiving."
"Yeah, I guess." Said Nick. "Come on let’s get some sleep"
"Okay"
Back upstairs
"I will but I’m going to sleep downstairs, alright?"
"Okay, I love you, AJ." She whispered before she fell fast asleep.
He quietly got up and before shutting her door he replied, I love you too, Emily."
AJ went downstairs and fell asleep on the couch. He was woken up not even ten minutes later by a loud piercing scream.