"No, I don't want to come back." I say adamantly for probably the fifth time. My phone is sitting on the counter on speaker while my hands are wrist deep in pizza dough. Since I don't have a mixer, I have to kneed the dough by hand. Luke is over and we decided to have pizza. It's something that reminds me of Vi but doesn't hurt too much.

"But Ashy, you always come home for the summer."

"Don't call me that." I grit my teeth. That's what Vi used to call me.

"Sorry, honey. I forget you don't like it anymore. If I promise to not use that name again, would you-"

"Mom, I'm staying here. I can't come back right now." I take my anger out on the dough, pounding it harder than I probably need to. But she's not understanding the situation.

"Why? School is over, and what about your job? Mrs Flemming at the library always counts on you to help her in the summer."

"I'm sure there's plenty of high school kids who need a summer job. She'll find a replacement. I have to stay here for Vi, mom. I know you don't understand, but I love her. I can't just leave right now."

Mom sighed over the phone, and I knew she was thinking about her words carefully.

"Honey, I don't think it's good for you to be there anymore. I think you need some space from this whole thing, it's got to be hard on you."

"Mother, I'm fine. I'm not the one who was kidnapped."

She sighs sadly. "I know, baby, but-"

"No buts. I'm staying here this summer, and that's that."

"Ashton,"

"No. I'm going to hang up if you say one more word about it. I'm going to find someplace to stay, and I'm going to be here until we find her."

She doesn't say anything for a couple moments and I'm not sure if she hung up on me.

"Hi, Mrs Irwin!" Luke enters the room, leaning against the counter over my phone.

"Is that you, Lucas?"

"Just Luke, ma'am. How are you doing?"

I throw Luke a grateful look over my shoulder as I separate the dough into two mounds and roll one out onto one of the round trays. Luke really saved the conversation, and we finish up talking to my mom for a bit before she has to go help my sister with something.

"Are you sure you don't want to go home for the summer? If they find something here, they can let you know. Your number is the one they have at the station, you'd be the first to know." Luke says as we watch the pizza cook in the oven.

"No, I want to be here."

"Okay, I'm not going to protest that, we can hang out all summer!" Luke cheers, throwing his arms around me in a quick hug. He also stays here for the summer, his family situation is a bit rough for him. He goes back to visit on some weekends, but he doesn't like to stay long. "Do you have any idea where you're going to be?"

I shake my head. I tried putting out an ad for roommates, but I didn't get any responses.

"Okay, so I was talking to Sammi about this the other day, and she and Sarah think it might be a good idea if...you lived with them this summer."

I look at him in shock.

"Vi was supposed to live there over the summer, so rent is taken care of for her spot, and that fourth girl is leaving, and they've been looking for someone to fill it, but had the same problem you did, with no one wanting the spot."

"But..."

"Sammi and Sarah would move into Sarah's room, and you could take Vi and Sammi's old room." I wince. It's still Vi's room. "It would just be the three of you, but that's pretty much the same as it's been here, and there anyway. I think it would be perfect."

I don't know why I didn't think of that.

"They're okay with it?"

"You know they both love you, mate. They're here for you, just like you would be for them if the situation was reversed, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"So what do you say?" Luke asks, twirling his phone around as I open the oven door to check on the pizza.

"Well, if you're sure they're okay with it, that would kinda be great."

"Cool. Well, we can go over there later tonight and tell them the news."

"Okay."

I practically lived in Vi's room anyway, my only concern is what I'd do with her stuff. I could always just use Sammi's closet, I don't really want to move all of Vi's stuff since she's coming back. I'll figure it out later.

"Is the food ready? I want to watch the car show now." I check on it again and the cheese has finally turned brown and bubbly, so I take it out and let it sit for a bit. We get drinks and salads prepared, and the pizza is finally cool enough for me to cut the slices. I plate them up and Luke and I carry our food into the living room, settling onto the sofa. He presses play on the show he'd set up earlier, waiting impatiently so we could watch it.

After we've finished eating and the show is over, Luke checks his phone.

"Sammi and Sarah are home, do you want to go tell them you're going to stay over the summer?"

"Sure."

We set the dishes in the sink before heading over to the girls place. Luke walks right in and Sammi greets him with a smile and a kiss.

"Hey, baby." She smiles and I see Sarah roll her eyes at me.

"Sup, Ashton,"

"Hi Sarah."

"Ashton has some news for you two," Luke says, moving back but keeping his arms around his girlfriend. Both of them look at me.

"Luke said you guys thought I could take your other roommate's place for the summer?"

"Yeah! You would do that?" Sammi grinned.

"Is that okay with you two?" I still wasn't sure it was the greatest idea, but I was running out of options.

"Yeah, we love you, Ashton. You're pretty much already part of the family." Sammi said.

"You basically live here anyway," Sarah nodded. "It's cool with me."

"Then it works for me."

"Aw yes, this summer is going to rule!" Luke cheered. "My girlfriend, my best friend, and our...other friend," Sarah glares at him but he keeps going, "Are going to hangout all the time, we're going to go to the park and have wild parties at the lake and, oh!" Luke gasped. "Bonfires! And maybe s'mores! This is going to be epic."

Luke, Sammi, Sarah, and I spent the rest of the evening planning out our summer, but I was really thinking about how I was going to find Vi. I was going to start by figuring out who those guys were, and how they knew her.

After Sarah decided she was going to bed and Sammi and Luke started to look at each other and ignore everyone around them, I bid them goodnight and went back to my place. The second the door shut I heard a loud moan and I shuddered, knowing I left just in time.

I grabbed my notes that I'd taken at Flora's the other day and Vi's journal before settling down at my desk. I had to figure out something, there was a piece I was missing here, and it was going to be the key.

I grabbed a clean piece of paper and made a list of everything I knew about the grandsons.

-Vi didn't know who they were

-Flora had never met them

-They hired Vi

-Vi wasn't supposed to mention them to Flora

-Vi said they were creepy

-There were two of them

Everything I've been able to gather from them leads me to believe these "grandsons" are the kidnappers. It's the only thing that makes sense.

But how were they connected to Flora? She got her flyer in the mail, which is probably how they advertised to older people. But didn't Vi say they hired her?

Maybe I should read the entry Vi wrote again, because something isn't adding up here.

I went to mow Flora's lawn like usual, except she wasn't there when I first showed up. She left a note on the table telling me she went to go get chocolate chips so she could make cookies-crazy lady, going to the store just for that.

Then, two men showed up. They were the creepiest people I've probably ever encountered. I tried to introduce myself after they said they were Flora's grandsons, but they cut me off, saying they already knew. It was so strange and gave me weird vibes. I got out of there, but maybe I shouldn't have let them stay. I ended up going back inside to confront them because I remembered Flora saying she didn't have any grandsons, but they said they were from Marvin's first marriage. Apparently it was a sore subject so I wasn't to tell Flora about it. I feel kind of bad since I don't want her to get upset, but there was something so weird about that whole encounter.

Okay, okay. Maybe I could talk to Chelsea and see if she knows who they are. That's a good lead. I smile.

She would have a list of everyone, and probably addresses or phone numbers. I'm close, I can feel it. This should be it. I could maybe have Vi back in less than a week.

I text Chelsea, hoping she's still around and I can meet up with her tomorrow. I have her number because of the group chat we made for everyone who was helping plan the swing dance/volunteer club party.

She responds, telling me she was leaving in two days but could probably spare an hour tomorrow if it was important.

Perfect, tomorrow I'll have more answers.

I went to bed with a happy smile on my face.

"I'm on my way, baby, I'll get you back soon."

**

I kinda hate this chapter, but alas. here we are.

hope you're still enjoying the story!

I made this today. Outer space/carry on is the song I listen to when I'm sad but want to feel better. It just has this amazing hopeful vibe, and I really love it. Plus it's such a good song. I'm thinking about getting some of these lyrics tattooed on my wrist. But anyway, hope you all have a good weekend ❤️

~ashtonfortherwin