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BLAIR'S POV

I tossed my phone back onto the bed and let out an exasperated sigh.

"Blair, you've checked your phone twenty times in the last half hour. if she wanted to call she would have. You haven't changed your number she hasn't changed hers either clearly…Maybe it's time we face the reality of this situation."

I didn't want to.

I didn't want to face the fact that she was gone and I was never going to get her back. Not without a reason at least. I hated this feeling.

I hated the never-ending disappointment that bubbled in my chest whenever my phone rang and it wasn't her calling me. I hated how I spent two years thinking about her none stop yet she hasn't thought about us.

Two years. She's been gone for two years.

I prayed that one day I would wake up and this would be a sick nightmare and she was really still here. that I was sixteen still and my father had played some sick joke on me that they felt when really they were still in that Manor at the end of the street.

One day she was here beside me cracking some sick joke with Hadley about her wild imagination while I sat around and fantasised about my brother's best friend and what it would be like to have him like me the same what I do him.

But the next thing I knew I was coming home and told by my father that they had left the UK and I would never see my best friend.

That it would be best for me to just forget she ever existed and move on with my life.

She left me alone and now I had this impending hole in me that I don't know how to close up or fix. She was the only one who would do that, but she wasn't around to do that.

I never believed in soulmates. Not in a romantic way specifically but she was my soulmate. She was my other half. We were bounded together from the first day we butted heads in the second grade.

Literally. We both ended up in the nurse's office because of it.

Despite her own pain, she was more worried she had hurt me.

She was everything I ever needed in this world.

Literally. We both ended up in the nurse's office because of it.

Despite her own pain, she was more worried she had hurt me.

She was everything I ever needed in this world.

She was the one person in this world that truly freed me from this cage I've been forced to live in my entire life. The one my father threw me into the second I was born into this world.

But now, I was sitting by my phone every day for two years anxiously waiting for the call to tell me that she was dead or the long-awaited message I was looking for. I waited for a call.

A text.

Anything to let me know that she was okay, so I didn't have to worry about her so much, but I got nothing from her.

"Two years, Elle. What could she be doing that has her drawn away from her phone for two years?"

"We don't know what's going on with her Blair and we won't ever know. It's time to put the phone down and let things go. If she ever comes back we can ask her."

I wallowed in the sinking feeling of reality crashing down on me. Giselle was right. She wasn't coming back, and I was never going to know why until she came back for me to ask her.

"Are you still stressing, little sis?" I held back an eye roll as Dalton waltzed into my room as if it was his own.

Dalton was my older brother. By two years to be exact. He had mum's dark brown fluff hair and dad's deep blue eyes. Heart-shaped lips, high cheekbones, and a straight nose.

I was the opposite. I had dad's blonde hair and mum's hazel eyes with a light sprinkle of dad's freckles over my cheeks and nose.

Despite the two-year age gap, you'd think I was the older one of the two of us. Unless you saw his birth certificate you wouldn't be able to tell, believe me when I say we had a number of people asking if I was the older one.

I'd never seen Dalton look so offended before in my life.

He hadn't aged a day since he was seventeen but then again he was still in his early twenties, so he wasn't doing much ageing right about now.

But I don't think he ever would, thanks to our mother's genetics.

"I was on the phone with Roman last night. They're both fine. They have some things going on with the family."

"You spoke to them?!" I questioned. I felt the same tightness in my chest as the day I found out she was gone from my father.

The asshole didn't even try to ease me into it, he just slapped it in my face and walked away.

"Actually, Corbin did, I just happened to be there when Roman called him."

Corbin.

Of course, they would call him. He was their insider on everything that happens when they were not around. Dalton was always too drunk to remember what was going on for them to call him.

"We're going to be late if you don't hurry up, I don't have time for you to play big brother today."

I felt a shiver crawl up my spine at his voice. I felt him before I saw him. Better yet, I knew he was there before I saw him. But this time I didn't.

Not that it's much of a shock, but my mind has been so wrapped up in everything Lana, I haven't exactly been myself lately that even my mother was taking concern in my well-being more than she usually does.

He was sitting around the corner this entire time? His voice came out harsher than his expression let outs. You can't expect much out of him. He was just like his father. Always stoic and cryptic about everything.

And the same impulsive need to know everything about everyone. It was annoying at times when I wanted to leave but got caught him. He'd question me until I finally let out where I was going.

Never smiled a day in this life after the age of fourteen. Never laughed or cracked a joke to my knowledge.

He was tall and lean. His tight shirt outlined the light muscles beneath his clothes. His sharp and prominent cheekbones looked sharper than usual. His light brown hair pushed back from his face as his dull eyes bore straight through Dalton. It was like there was nothing in them. No emotion behind his eyes. They were empty.

Hollow.

Vacant.

It was like there was no life or soul behind them at all. it terrified me but sparked a small fire of curiosity. I was nosy but not because I felt the need to know things.

I've been thrown into the back corner so many times, it's in my nature to be curious about everything

I never understood how they were friends. Roman and Dalton were the biggest extroverts I had come to know in my life. They were loud and messy. They loved the attention and being around people. They thrived on the attention and loved it when people kissed their arses.

Corbin on the other hand was different. He was quiet and put together. He hated large crowds and noisy places despite being dragged to a party every other week by Roman and Dalton. He kept to himself and enjoyed staying within the four walls of his own place rather than being out with others.

They were polar opposites, but they made it work.

I guess Lana and I were the same in that sense.

She was always so quiet and kept to herself growing up. She hated physical touch and people being in her personal bubble. She avoided people like the plague but had her moments when she would get into fights with people for saying things about her and her family.

She was always so alone growing up. She never hung out with the other kids or tried to make friends. She never bothered to speak in class but she was our smartest student. She was always the highest-graded student and if not the first she was always the second one.

She glared down at anyone who invaded her private time or bothered her in any way. The only expectation was our teachers. She hated everything in this world and I had yet to figure out exactly why.

I, on the other hand, was a lot like Dalton but not as extreme. I was always outgoing as a kid. I made friends easily and I adored helping people. I found myself drawn to them more than anything else. I hated confrontation tho. It made me squeamish on the whole another level that I tried to say the right things and became a people pleaser.

I had a crazy obsession with making everyone happy before I dared to think about myself. Lana always scowled at me for doing that saying my own happiest was. more important than anyone else in the world.

I never broke out of it…not fully. I always had the urge to make sure

But she always had this storm raging behind her eyes and in her mind that I never understood really. It drew me to her. I wanted to know about it. Why it was there and if it ever went away.

We always worked and we always clicked together.

"We have to be there at four and it's a half-hour drive, Laurie. Relax." Dalton grinned at his best friend.

His jaw twitched, "call me that again and you'll be in a hospital bed tonight."

Cold and bitter as always.

Corbin never stepped foot into my room. He always lingered by the door and watched from there when Dalton was in the room. It was as if he stepped into the room he would be contaminated with something.

"You love me too much to hurt me, Laurie."

He shook his head, pushing himself off the door frame, "find your own ride then." I watched him take a quick glance at me from the corner of his eye before walking away. Dalton scurried off after him, yelling to lock all the doors before he actually did leave him behind.

"They spoke to Roman, which means they would have spoken to Lana too."

My heart sunk to my stomach. The sick feeling, I washed away months ago came back all at once and I couldn't stand it.

"Hey, stop it. I know what you're doing…this is a good thing, all right? It means she's okay and she's safe."

I sighed, "then why wouldn't she call me? Why won't she answer any of our texts? Why won't she tell me that she's okay herself?"

"Stop this. This isn't good for you or anyone else. I'm sure she had her reasons for doing so, Blair. One day we'll get our answers but for now, we can relax knowing she's okay and alive, Blair."

I didn't want to wait for answers one day. I wanted them now. I wanted to know what the hell was going on with her.

Why did she choose to ignore us for two years?

I wanted to know what happened that had them running out of the country without a single word to anyone.

I wanted answers. I wanted the truth from her.

I wanted her back.

I wanted her back home already.

Was that too much to ask for? Am I selfish to ask for her back despite the consequences that could occur in our lives?

Was I foolish to think that we'd be able to jump back to where we were if she did come back to me?