Inside the supermarket seemed cold... colder than usual. The supermarket usually closed way later than this, but even so, there were few people in here. Albeit, the people at the store looked as they usually do when in the supermarket, it didn't help me get over the fact that something was happening to my boyfriend in this very place. My heart was in my throat as I carefully walked up the stairs to the employee's room and scanned the room for any sign of his jet black hair. There was only a thick, pale skinned woman, who's usually up here doing absolutely nothing. Ely described her as the laziest and most hated. But I had no time to think about her, my only care was Ely. I stepped into the room and walked past her, noticing she's more concerned about picking something off her sandwich than me. 

I moved around the tables and whatnot to get to the bathrooms, which was behind a wall, so I was no longer in view of the woman who could possibly be my savior if anything was to happen. I opened the door to the male washroom and peeked in carefully. When I realized it was empty, I bravely stepped in, closing the door behind me. My first instinct was to check the three stalls in the washroom, but before I could do that, I heard the sound of the lock on the door clicking. A slight and startling tingle tip-toed down my spine and I turned abruptly to the door which was just locked.

There I found Ely, with a gun to his forehead and a black cloth around his mouth. Upon taking in the sigh properly, I noticed it wasn't Cj or Jess who had Ely, it was Jaxon, and the sight had a rush of fear wash over me. I felt like my head began to spin as I took a cautious step backward. I longed to do something to save Ely, but there was too much fear inside me to actually do anything at all. And so I cower back to the wall.

He would no doubt kill me for running -- there was no getting away from that. I only prayed that he had mercy on Ely. He doesn't deserve to be roped into all of this because of me. Jaxon's eyes were trained on me as he removed the gun from Ely's head, allowing me to let out a soft sigh of relief. And then an even bigger one when he pushed it in his waistband. I blinked a couple times in shock, watching as he took off the cloth from Ely's mouth then shoved him to me. He was always the violent type..

"I didn't come to hurt anyone," he finally spoke. For the first time since I met him he wasn't shouting or demanding anything of me, and I'll admit, that instilled a bit of fear. My mind went crazy wondering why he was so calm. Ely took my hand slowly as we stood together, giving me the most hope in the world. I blinked across at him and felt a thousand times better when I saw there was not a scrape on his gorgeous face.

"Well then why are you here?" I dared to ask.

"Because," he said taking a step closer, but we were already against the wall, so we had no where to go. "You need me and I need you."

"Excuse me?" Ely interjected.

"But out, boyfriend, I'm speaking to Sebastian," he said to him, then looked to me again, "Word on the street is that you know where Jared Alexander is-"

"Jared?" Ely spoke again, this time looking at me."Are you still-"

"No, babe, I promise you that," I tell Ely, "I don't get why they all believe that I know where he is -- I don't. I haven't seen the guy since some months ago. He left Colorado." I looked between them both. I wish I knew where Jared was, so I could slap him for getting me in all this mess. I don't even know what's so important about him. All I did was sleep with the guy, that's it. He barely spoke of his family life or anything about himself for that matter. We talked about shit that was happening to us. It was a dumb relationship, to be honest.

"Yeah well no one is going to believe you, so either you find Jared yourself..."

"Or...?" I cocked an eyebrow at him, waiting for him to continue.

"There is no or, you find Jared or they kill you. Don't you get how this shit works by now? If you don't give them what they want they kill you -- easy."

"No! Not easy! They can't kill him because that asshole disappeared," Ely protested.

"No one gives a shit about that!" Now that's the Jaxon I know. The shouting Jaxon that instilled fear every time his mouth opened, making me want to blend into the wall, just to mask the booming of his voice. "They'll kill him, kill you, kill your fucking family and his too," his voice lowered a bit as he spoke to Ely. I rose my head a bit and stepped out. I asked, "Why are you helping me? And how can I trust you?"

"First of all, I didn't kill your boyfriend when I easily could have, I put away my gun, so that's enough trust right there. And secondly, I'm helping you because you're going to help me," Jaxon said matter-of-factly. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, staring at him. 

"How am I to help you?"

"You never got me where I was supposed to go," he stated simply. Where the fuck is he going anyway? He never even told me.

"What about my family?" I asked, "What if they go there for me and kill them."

"I'm taking care of that. But we need to go now," he stepped closer and violently grabbed my upper arm, like he usually does. I tugged my arm away from him, "I'm not your prisoner anymore. We're partners."

"Whatever. Let's go," he said.

I turned to Ely and kissed him. His head was in my hands and as we pulled away, I kept my forehead on his. "I love you," I whispered to him, "I love you so much."

He nodded and kissed me again. "I love you, too, baby." His lips brushed against mine as he spoke. I leaned up and kiss him, ravishing in the kiss completely, before Jaxon jerked me away and shoved me out the door of the bathroom. "Keep his fucking family safe, you hear me, or I will murder you," Jaxon threatened then walked out of the bathroom. 

He looked a bit shocked when he saw me standing there with a curious look on my face. Why does he even care about my family? Why is he threatening Ely? Jaxon barely looked at me as he grasped my arm again and pulled me along. I just rolled my eyes, accepting that he's just a violent person. We passed the woman again, still eating a sandwich and not caring about what was happening right behind her.

Jaxon and I rushed out of the supermarket to the parking lot behind the building, where the vans park for closeness to the entrance to get the goods in. But the park was empty, besides a black car, parked a pretty far distance from the exit. Jaxon pulled me along, as usual.

"Hey, stop with the tugging. I'm not a bag of garbage."

"Yeah, well you walk too slow, come on." He continued to pull me along. I pried his fingers off me and began to walk ahead of him to the car. Jaxon began to jog so he'd be in front of me, making my jaw drop. Is he really that immature? Well, so am I. I began to jog also, making sure he's behind me. But soon after he began to run to the car while I was still jogging. I groaned in annoyance when he ended up at the car before me. I glared at him as I went to the driver's seat.

"You're a fricking child," I rolled my eyes.

Jaxon tossed me the keys and said, "Just drive."

"So what, after I drop you off you're going to leave me for dead?" I asked him.

"No, loser, you before me. Can you start the goddamn car?" he looked across at me with this annoyed look. He obviously doesn't want to talk about that topic any longer. I exited the parking lot of the supermarket, with no clue of where I was going or why I was even doing it. But despite all that, my mind seemed to only revolve around my family. I wouldn't be able to live if something happened to them, or Ely. I'm aware I don't always act like I appreciate them, but no normal teenager goes around praising their loved ones twenty four hours a day. It's silly.

Except for times like this where you are wishing you actually did that. That way if you didn't make it back they wouldn't have to guess, they'd know. But at least I got to tell Ely, and I'm positive he's sure of how I feel about him.

My thoughts were cut short after Jaxon asked, "What do you really know about this Jared kid?"

"Nothing," I answered honestly. As I said before, our conversations were crappy. "Which gives me nothing to start with, which means I won't ever be able to find him, which means I'm going to be killed."

Jaxon obnoxiously groaned and I glanced across at him to see him rolling his eyes. "What kind of dumb friendship is that, huh? You don't even have a phone number for the guy?"

"Are you stupid? Do you seriously think he'll keep his phone number if he knows people are looking for him?"

"Yes. Do you know it?" Jaxon asked.

"Of course I know it, he was my best friend."

"Yeah, you should use that pretty loosely, considering you don't know shit about the guy."

"What is your purpose again?" I looked across at him.

"To keep your sorry ass from getting killed." My eyes widened in shock. How is he even going to do that? By threatening everyone with his gun? I pulled the car to the side so I could fully stare at this idiot in disbelief.

"And how exactly do you plan on doing that? All you do is make empty threats-"

"Shut the fuck up!"

"-and scream at people!" I finished, shouting at him also. He ran his hands over his face the shook his head, as if to show how fed-up of the current situation he was in. But I was fed up also! I wanted out of the whole mess. If I didn't ask to change my stupid ass report card, I wouldn't have to be here right now! Goddammit!

I stared across at him as he stared out the window, to the large lot of nothingness. There were trees there, but none of the trees were actually beneficial. They were less useless than the bush that inhabited the area. I decided to turn my head to stare out at the speeding cars at night. I stared as one car's headlights came and went, out of absolute boredom. I don't know why we weren't moving, but he wasn't pressuring me and I had no problem with just sitting there.

After minutes of silence between us, Jaxon sighed. "Listen, I'll be you're guard, protector, whatever you want to call it, but you have to get me where I want to go safely and quickly." 

"I can't get you anywhere until I find Jared."

"Then start looking."

"I DON'T KNOW WHERE THE FUCK HE IS!" I shouted. I felt as if no one is actually listening. No one is hearing that I have no fucking clue where the guy named Jared Alexander is. Yes, I was his friend (I don't know if I could say we were close anymore) and yes, we had sex, but that doesn't automatically make us bounded to each other. I went on with my life and he went on with his. Now he's being hunted by whoever is hunting him and it's suddenly my problem?

"Lure him to you."

"How am I to fucking do that, Jaxon?" I feel so eternally angry at the moment. I don't want to be a part of all this. I think I just rather die. Jaxon only stared back at me with a blank expression on his face. What really am I to do? This is the real world; I can't just call his name and he'll appear.

"What was he into? Sports, parties, what?" Jaxon asked. I stared at him dubiously. I don't doubt what he's saying, because he could be onto something there, I doubt our 'partnership'. How could I trust him? How could I trust that if/when we find Jared he won't just turn him in then kill me or something? How can I trust he actually wants to help me? How can I trust that nothing is happening to my family at the moment? How is he protecting my family? What if I make him angry and he calls off whatever he's doing to protect them?

I can't trust him. I can't trust anyone. 

"What?" he asked.

"I should get a gun also," I cocked an eyebrow.

"What? Why?"

"I need to protect myself. I can't trust that you won't kill me if you snap. I want a gun," I firmly stated.

"Where the fuck am I to get a gun?" He asked me as he turned his body to face me. I shrugged my shoulders and I folded my arms across my chest. "I don't care. If I don't get something to protect myself, I'm not taking you anywhere."

Jaxon stared at me with a shocked face. He obviously never expected this. But I don't care.

"How can I trust that you won't just kill me when you get one? After all, I did hold you captive and threaten you on many occasions."

"Touche," I replied. "But i still want one, or neither of us can have one."

"Or I put a bullet through your head and find someone else to get me where I need to go. I'm certain it would be easier that way for everyone." He spoke so calmly, yet so deadly. I just stared at him although fear was slowly consuming my entire body. The way his voice seemed so sickly sweet made me feel like doing whatever he says whenever he says. But a smaller part of me told me to fuck the fear and stand up to him.

"Have you ever actually killed someone?" I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Does it matter? I'll kill you if you don't shut the fuck up and start driving." He didn't even seem phased by me. How did he even get that way? So fearless and brave. His eyes were locked on mine, so much that just the stare scared me and I was forced to look away. I looked to the steering wheel, then the keys and let out a sigh. 

"He's into clubs -- party clubs," I added as I started the car. I began to drive the car until I could find a way to turn. I didn't know exactly why I felt like I should turn around and go back, but I did. Jared wasn't stupid and it would be stupid for him to remain in Colorado, but there was just an itching telling me he stayed there. He was just in hiding. Why would he leave? No one would actually think he'd remain home if he ran.

"What's going on in that mind of yours?" His calm, soft voice had me looking over at him for a brief moment, before I trained my eyes back on the road. 

"We're going to a club called Vape 8," I told my ex-captor. "Jared and I went there once and he absolutely loved it. His friend of a friend got us in the first time and I'm positive he got Jared in time and time again. He's pretty passionate about the things he love, so I hope I'm right about this and he's just chilling at the bar."

"See, it's not so hard when you actually use your brain, aye."

"Fuck you." I sighed softly, trying to act okay with all of this, but on the inside, I was shitting bricks. What is going to happen if I actually find Jared. I think I'm actually nervous to see him. I mean he's the cause of my beak-up with Ely. What if Jared hates me? I don't even know if I hate Jared. I'm positive when I actually see him (if I do) I'll just... I don't even know. What will I actually do? Jared is a friend, or was a friend.

After driving for about fifteen minutes, we finally made it to the street of the Club. I followed Jaxon's instructions and parked down the street from the actual club. When we exited the car, and looked in the direction of the club, all that could be seen was dozens and dozens of men from the corner of the street to the front door of the club. Men of all shapes and sizes made a long queue to get into Vape 8, how the fuck are we going to get in?

I continued to stare at the line in shock, thinking of a way to get past all of those guys. In my peripheral, I notice Jaxon walking away from me and toward the front of the line. I rushed across the street so that I would walk behind him as he went up to the security, who instantly pushed his hand out to stop Jaxon. I decided to take a step back so I would save myself from the embarrassment when the security makes him know he can't get in just like that.

However, much to my surprise, when Jaxon leaned in and whispered something in the security's ear, the band was lifted and we were both let in. Let me tell you, I was shocked, along with every other guy in that line to get into this club. I quickly caught up to Jaxon, determined to find out what he said to the Security, but my mind almost immediately went blank when I took a look around

I do not remember this club being this... intense. We entered at a balcony, and so I could see the entire downstairs population. The place was lit dimly, but there were many random flashing lights all about, so I could find my way around and I could also see the very good looking men dancing on small elevated platforms. They were about five of them dancing on those elevated stages around the room, it was like a mini strip club. Below them were the commoners. The normal guys dancing and kissing and just having fun, which actually made me smile. Where I was, at the balcony, when I walked around was a couple of tables and chairs, and comfy couches for probably really important people, but that was guarded by a man in black. So I just went down stairs. 

I found Jaxon at the bar, nodding his head in time with the music while sipping on a beer. "This is not what we came here to do."

"It's just a drink, Sebastian. I'd get you one but... you're just a kid."

I rolled my eyes at him and boldly took his beer. I took a large gulp then wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. I passed the drink back to Jaxon. "I'm going to do what we came here for. Join me when you want." Jaxon tugged my arm back, like his controlling self, and stared at me. "Relax, for a moment, Sebastian. Lemme buy you a drink."

I looked at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you serious? You want me to get drunk right now? We have bigger problems, Jaxon."

"Wow," he rolled his eyes, "How do you know he's even here."

"I already told you," I groaned, "Can you let me go so I could go try to find him? I want to get on with my life."

"You realize you're going to die either way, right?" he sadistically said. I tugged my wrist from his grip and walked away from him. I don't know if he's following me or not, but I didn't actually care. I came here to find Jared. I don't know what I'll do with him afterward, but it would be nice to at least find him.

I pushed past the dancing men, scanning all of their faces to make sure none of them were Jared. It's only been some months, I highly doubt he would actually change that much. I mean I still have my dumb face from childhood (puberty didn't do much for me).  As I walk around the club I do notice some very good looking guys, but I reminded myself that I had Ely and I was happy with him. I love him. And although some really hot guys were eyeing me, I had to look away. I stared up at the dancers, trying to decipher if any of them could possibly be Jared, but none were. Either ones hair was too long, or too blonde, or another was too tall, or one was too built. None fitted his perfect description.

Someone suddenly grabbed my upper arm from behind and I instantly whipped around. I actually wasn't surprised when I found Jaxon gripping my arm, like he usually does. I stared up at him in annoyance, asking what the hell is his problem but he wasn't able to hear me due to the pounding music. He leaned in to whisper in my ear, "He's not here. Let's go."

I wanted to argue against him, but he was right. I searched the building for what seemed like forever, and found no sign of Jared Alexander. I turned away from Jaxon so we could leave the club. We walked up the stairs again, and I looked around one last time, just to be sure. He definitely wasn't here. Jaxon walked passed me so he'd leave first. I'll never understand his need for leading. What the hell is his problem. He just loves being in control.

"Sebastian!" I turned around to see the face of the person calling my name so desperately. As I turned around, I didn't even have time to take in the face properly, because of two reasons. One, the lighting wasn't really one for looking at people, and two, the person pressed themselves against me in a kiss. I wanted to push him away, but it was so hard to, considering how strong he was and he had a grip on the back of my head. He tugged my hair making me wince a bit and open my mouth, and his tongue slid in. It won't be true to say I don't enjoy it at least a little bit. My hands wanted to remain at my sides to show I wanted no part of that, but I slowly found myself running my hands up to his waist and gripping his T-shirt. 

I was suddenly ripped away from him, by none other than Jaxon. He stepped between us and stared down at me with a shocked expression. "What the fuck?" he asked me. My fingers went up to touch my lips gently and my eyes went down to the floor. What the fuck did I just do?

"Are you the new boyfriend?"

"Who the fuck are you? And why did you kiss him?" Jaxon asked.

"So you are the boyfriend.. Sorry, man, it was a friendly kiss. I'm Jared." I looked up just in time to see Jaxon freeze in his spot. Jared smiled at him as though there was nothing going on with him right now. He's been here in this club partying while people are trying to kill me for him? Really Jared?

"This is Jared?" Jaxon looked at me, then back to Jared. "He's not half bad..."

Jared smirked at Jaxon in a flirtatious manner, which made me want to fucking throw up. This shit can't possibly be happening right now.