Sawyer was nowhere to be found.

I blew up his phone that day with texts and calls that he didn't answer. As the entire school ran their mouths off about what had just happened, I tucked myself under the bleachers in his favorite smoking spot, trying to reach him. My head was spinning, and although logic told me that it was possible, I refused to believe it. Something that ran deeper than logic told me he was innocent. I had to prove it.

I sat in a haze during Yearbook activities, but as soon as that was done and papa picked me up at school, I asked him if he knew whether Sawyer had shown up at the shop that day.

Papa gave me a side glance. "Strange."

"What?" I asked, breathless as if I'd ran a marathon.

"You, asking about him."

I snapped my jaw shut and faced forward. Yes, it was strange. I'd made it a point for years to pretend indifference about Sawyer.

That didn't matter anymore.

"It's important, papa," I said. "Something bad happened at school today that affects him."

While we were stopped at a red light he asked me about it, and I spilled the beans. Not all of them, though. Nothing about the true relationship between Sawyer and I, but everything about the incident at school. Including the fact that the Principal had expelled Sawyer with no chance of him defending himself.

I was blabbing now. "I mean, I get it. The trophy's important, it has a lot of sentimental value to the school. But isn't a student just as important as the symbol that honors another one? Am I crazy to think so?"

"No, I don't think that makes you crazy." He paused for a while as he continued driving but finished up with, "I think it makes you compassionate."

I froze.

The sight of the streets around us blurred as my eyes filled with unexpected tears.

"Tell you what, I'll drop you off at home and go to the shop to check it out."

"Okay," was all I was able to say while I struggled against the desire to dissolve into an ugly mess. I was wrung out by the emotions of the past couple of days, but the fact that papa just gave me a free compliment, one I wasn't even sure I deserved, was the cherry on top.

Mama was on the phone in the living room when I arrived, which bought me the freedom to run upstairs undeterred. I locked my door and pulled out my cellphone for one more try. The screeching beep of a disconnected line greeted me and I fretted about what that could possibly mean. Papa was on his way to the shop to check, but it occurred to me that even if Sawyer wasn't there, maybe his best friend knew where he might be. I sent Manny a text message, because I knew he wouldn't have his phone on him while he was working.

I paced back and forth until he texted back with, haven't seen him today. something wrong?

That was what I was hoping he'd tell me.

After a couple more of back and forth texts Manny promised me he'd call him, too. I was going to be pissed if he succeeded where I had failed, but the most important thing at that point wasn't my ego.

I didn't sleep well that night, which meant the next day I was less of a human than I'd even been on the day of the disaster. I was a lot crisper with my words than I normally would try to be, and I couldn't even turn off that switch while I stepped into my favorite teacher's office.

"How could you let that happen?"

Mr. Davies reeled back at my question. "I'm sorry?"

"Yesterday." I stood across his desk while he sat, like I was the teacher scolding an unruly student. "You stood there like an idiot and didn't say anything while Sawyer's reputation was getting torn to shreds in front of everybody."

He blinked a couple of times like he couldn't believe what had come out of my mouth. I couldn't, either, but I also didn't want to take the words back. They were true.

"Aren't you supposed to be his big champion? The one person in this entire institution who believed in here?"

"Rory, I-"

"Don't Rory me," I said, my chin trembling in a way that betrayed how I truly felt. "I'm disappointed in you."

Saying that, the fight completely drained off my body. I collapsed in the chair with limbs that had turned to jelly. A couple of tears rolled down my cheeks and I wiped them with the backs of my hands. It was a wonder I still had any left.

Mr. Davies sighed and offered me a tissue that I accepted.

"I'm surprised you care this much."

I pursed my lips, which must have told him that was the wrong way to go about this conversation altogether.

"I tried," he said. "After the dust settled, I talked with out Principal and explained to him that we had to give Sawyer a chance to explain himself. Something doesn't seem right about this."

I leaned forward in my chair. "Right? It's so weird. What reason would he have to do this?"

He nodded and his eyes got lost in thought. "I'll talk with the Principal again, see what I can do. But we need to make sure Sawyer's willing to give his side of the story."

I shot up to my feet. "Leave that to me."

Mr. Davies smiled in a particular way. "Look at you, being all selfless now. This is good."

My eyebrows went up. "Why do you look like you planned this all all along?"

"I'm not puppet master but I sure was hoping you both would be a good influence to each other," he said with a shrug. "Guess I was right."

My eyes rolled in a very disrespectful way that made him chuckle. Either the circumstances or the closeness to graduation made my tongue loose because I said, "Save your gloating for when we fix this mess."

As I made to leave his office, Mr. Davies asked, "Hey, weren't we supposed to be discussing about your future now that Rollins is out of the picture?"

My body turned around in slow motion. It had completely slipped off my mind. I gave a wane smile. "Can we tackle my future when we figure out the present?"

"Sounds good to me, I'll be here when you need me."

I left his office feeling better. This was why Mr. Davies was my favorite teacher of all the ones I'd had in my life. He really tried for his students, and some of us needed a supportive grownup like him in our lives. Especially Sawyer. He'd needed someone like Mr. Davies on his corner much more than I did. I was glad that despite appearances, our teacher was still willing to bat for Sawyer.

If only he'd grace us with his presence.

I skipped extracurriculars after class and headed straight for the shop. Where I promptly found no answers. It wasn't just Manny, but none of the other guys had seen hair or hide of Sawyer. Even papa was starting to worry.

"What if something's wrong?" I whispered in his office when it was just the two of us.

He ran a hand across his face, trying to wipe away the exhaustion that took over his features. "I really hope not."

He didn't deny the possibility, though.

"Papa," I started, hesitating because what I was about to say was loaded with history. "Should we go check up on him?"

The memories of the last time we did this were burned in our minds. Although papa had cut off all ties with Jack Logan, he had never done the same with his son. Mama, Toni and I had never understood why. After all, people said the apple didn't fall far from the tree and I knew for a fact that I'd always been uncomfortable around Sawyer. Now I knew I had misinterpreted everything. Not only was I awkward around him because I was attracted to him with an intensity that could create new big bangs, but I also couldn't have guessed the reason why papa still gave him a chance.

Until I saw it with my own eyes.

In a way, papa confirmed this when he said, "Está bien, I'll do it. Call your sister to pick you up and I'll see you at home."

"I'm not letting you go in there by yourself," I surprised us both by saying. I didn't even care that there was thunder in his face. "I'm not budging."

"Aurora, it can be dangerous. Jack Logan is... an unstable man."

"I know," I said. Before he could react or ask how or why I knew, I picked up his car keys and said, "Let's go."

"Are you driving?" he asked, almost amused despite the circumstances.

I gave papa a look. "Of course not, are you crazy? I don't want us to die on the way to the Logans."

"Yeah, that would be bad."

Since we were united at last on a topic that had always divided us—Sawyer's role in our lives—papa let me join him. He did say I should stay in the car when we made it there, but I figured he knew I was going to spring out of the car as soon as he parked it. Except he was smarter than me, because in the seconds it took him to turn the car off and unbuckle himself, he activated the children's locks and trapped me inside the car.

"What the-" I stopped myself from cursing at first, but allowed myself free reign as papa waved at me and headed to the front door.

Dang it, for being the daughter of a car repair man, I had never been able to figure out the way cars operated. It was why I didn't drive and why my parents gave me Uber allowances. They'd learned early on that it was better to keep me off the road for my safety and others'. Problem was that now I felt really stupid for not finding the way to unblock the locks.

Then the car beeped and the driver's door opened. I stopped my fiddling around as papa climbed back into the car with a sigh.

"House's empty," he said.

I looked back at the building as if expecting a light to suddenly turn on, or the door to open. "How can you be sure?" I asked.

"I knocked hard, screamed and walked around to peek into the windows." His mouth was a grim line. "It's empty."

I looked at my hands wringing each other on my lap. "What do we do now?"

"We call the cops," he said.

My breath hitched.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

He turned on the car and as he pulled away from the Logan house, papa said, "Yes. Jack Logan is capable of anything."

We made it home in full panic mode and called the police. Papa did all the talking as I paced around him. Mama didn't understand what the big deal was, but Toni helped us distract her after she arrived from visiting Adam.

It was Toni who, after a long while passed and papa was still on the phone with the authorities, that she came up with an idea. She abandoned mama in the living room to the TV showing some cooking show and came over to join me in the kitchen. I'd been compulsively drinking water just to have something to do with my hands while papa answered questions.

My sister sat across from me and said, "Why don't we call hospitals?"

My eyes widened. I hadn't thought...

I didn't want to think something really had happened to him. But the fact that he'd been MIA for two days-

Oh God.

Shakes took over my motor function. Toni squeezed one of my hands, locking her fingers with mine, as with the other one she picked up the phone and started making calls.

Three tries. That was all it took until we found him.

He'd been admitted into the same hospital close to UCF where he'd taken me to see Toni's condition. Except from the words that were coming out of Toni's mouth, the way her eyes were tearing up, Sawyer's condition wasn't just a scare like hers had been. My lungs seized and everything blurred, because Sawyer was in the ICU fighting for his life. By himself.

I stood up with wobbly feet. Not anymore. I wasn't going to leave him alone.

yes, we had two villains in this book! (three if you count me)