Definitely, Maybe in Love(54)

"I need to go home," I managed to say. "Right now."

Henry's eyes were large like black Frisbees.

"I need to go home right now," I repeated. When I attempted to stand, he held me down.

"No." His voice was gruff and his grip tightened. "You're not leaving me now. What happened?"

I tried again to stand, but every limb in my body was weak. The next  second, his arms were around me, pulling me to the floor beside him.

"Tell me," he said in a low voice. "Let me help if I can. Please."

"I just talked to Anabel," I said, breathing hard.

"Anabel," Henry repeated, staring into my eyes. "Your roommate?"

I nodded, trying to hold it together. "She told me, she … she flipped out  and took off. She's been depressed, I knew that. Maybe I shouldn't have  left her. And now she's gone."

"Anabel?"

"Not Anabel." I sniffed, dropping my eyes, not able to look at him as I  continued. "Julia," I whispered. "She ran away … with Alex."

All was silent; neither of us so much as breathed. Henry's face was gray  and still. His inscrutable eyes drifted from mine to the empty space  beside me.

"Julia," he said. "Are you sure?"

I nodded, briefly recapping the phone call.

"They left together last night, so it's been hours," I said. "She's  unstable; she hasn't been herself for months. I thought she was getting  better, but she actually mentioned something about Alex a while ago. I … "  I put a hand over my mouth. "I thought she was kidding."

Henry's grip on me slackened. He stood up, leaving me on the floor, alone.

"You know Alex, what he's done to other … " I couldn't complete the  sentence. "I have no idea where they went, but I have to try and find  her, or at least be home when she comes back."

Henry was standing in front of a large window, staring out at nothing.  The morning sun was streaming through a slit in the drapes, shining on  him like a spotlight piercing the dark room. It should've been a  beautiful sight, but there was nothing beautiful about his face when he  turned around. He wouldn't even look at me.

"You understand why I have to go," I said.

He fingered his chin. "Today?"

"As soon as possible." Gripping the chair behind me, I pulled myself to my feet.

"Driving?" he asked.

I nodded then attempted to call for Mel, but the tall room seemed to swallow my voice.

"It's twelve hundred miles," he pointed out.

I shot him a glance, and his expression showed that he wished he hadn't  said anything. I made my way to the door with no other thought than  getting on my way, no time to spare.                       
       
           



       

"Wait," Henry said from behind. "You don't need to drive. We have a plane."

"No, I couldn't-"

A phone was already at his ear.

Nothing specific was given as a reason for our hasty removal and there  was no time for bon adieus. Only Cami and Henry were with us as we rode  in silence to the airfield behind their house. Henry handled our bags  from his car to the private plane, all while still instructing and  directing unintelligibly on a tiny black flip phone over the deafening  jet engines.

Just as I was about to start up the metal stairs, Henry caught my wrist.  "Yes, right, but just hold on a sec." He was looking directly at me but  I could tell he was talking on his phone, then he held it away from his  ear. "Spring," he said in a rush, "I don't know when I'll see you  again." He held my gaze for just a moment before he let go of my wrist  and went back to his phone call. I didn't even have time to reply before  Mel was pushing me up the stairs to board the plane.

"What's our plan?" she asked as we taxied down the runway.

Still a bit shaken and still feeling where Henry had been holding my  wrist, I shut my eyes, my mind whirling too fast. "I don't have one," I  admitted.

"Remind me," Mel added. "What exactly did Henry's letter say about where Alex took Cami. Maybe there's something that can help."

I opened my eyes to peer out the window. I could see Henry leaning  against the Jeep, arms folded, talking to Cami as he stared toward the  plane. Whatever he'd just told her sent both hands flying over her  gaping mouth. Then she reached out and grabbed her brother's arm,  shaking him.





Chapter 35

Melanie and I didn't speak much during our flight home. Henry arranged  for a rental car to be waiting for us at the airport in San Francisco to  keep for as long as required. I was grateful for this, because I wasn't  in the presence of mind to consider that detail. He also assured that  my car would be returned to me as soon as possible.

"I'm going to your house," Mel said as I was about to make the turn onto her street.

"You don't have to," I said wearily. "There's nothing you can do."

"I can sit there with you until she comes back," she insisted. "So shut up."

"Thanks," I said, and hung a U-turn toward home.

Anabel was perched on a barstool in the kitchen when we walked in. She  looked worried and tired, like I felt. My first impulse was to grab her  by the shoulders and scold, knowing that-with her recent track  record-this must somehow be her fault. But now wasn't the time for  blame.

"Tell us what we don't know," I requested as I sat beside her, Mel on her other side.

"I saw them leave together," she answered, diving right in. "Alex was over here and-"

"Why was Alex in this house?" I interrupted.

Anabel stared down at her nails. "We've kind of been hanging out this summer."

I glared at my roommate. "I told you to stay away from him."

"I know." She toyed with the ends of her hair. "But campus is a total ghost town and he's cute-"

"Whatever. Why did Julia take off with him if he's been hanging out with you?"

"Like I said, he was over here. It was weird. Julia was flirting with  him, like, hardcore. When I left the room for a minute and came back,  they were talking, he was touching her, telling her about some secret  cabin at the beach."

My blood turned ice-cold and I glanced at Mel. Her face was white.

"I'm pretty sure he'd been drinking a little." Anabel bit her lip.  "Well, maybe more than a little. And I know she'd been drinking a lot."

"And?"

"Around midnight, he made a phone call. As soon as he left the room,  Julia started bawling. She was hysterical, going on and on about needing  to, ya know, get some. Have you ever heard her talk like that?"

I shook my head, but then felt chilled again, remembering word for word  the conversation we'd had about how, even though she and Dart had slept  together, he still left her, and how resentful she'd felt about that … how  it hadn't been special after all.

"She wasn't making sense," Anabel continued. "So I told her to-"

"What did you tell her to do this time, Anabel?" Hot dread filled my veins.

"Nothing!" Her eyes grew wide. "I mean, I told her to chill out. She was  drunk. I'm not an idiot. Next thing I knew, she wiped her face and got  this look in her eyes, staring at Alex when he finished his call. She  walked right up to him and said she wanted to see the cabin."                       
       
           



       

"You didn't stop her?" Mel asked.

"What was I supposed to do?"

"Kick Alex in his family jewels, for one," I suggested.

"I couldn't! She grabbed her purse and they took off before I could do  anything. They just left me and … it was just really weird."

"What do you mean?" I asked, feeling another cold shiver down my spine.

"Well, why did he take her and not me?"

"Anabel!" I snapped.

"Sorry." She blinked and dropped her chin, like she was attempting to  appear guilty. But I knew better. She was in shock that someone managed  to steal a guy from under her nose.

"Were you waiting up all night?" I asked. She nodded solemnly. "You can  go to bed. Thanks for calling me last night. I know it must've sucked."

"Yeah," she said, then added right before leaving the room, "and I really am sorry."

I said nothing in reply, I just walked with Mel to the living room.  "It's barely been twelve hours," I said, slumping onto the couch. "What  should we do?"

"There's nothing we can do," Mel said. "We can't even call the cops yet. She's not missing and in no imminent danger."

"Imminent," I muttered, coldly.

"Try her cell again."

I did, but I'd been getting nothing but voicemail all day. I left another message, begging her to call.