Sally

I slowly opened my eyes as the cold breeze invited itself inside our room and hit my whole body, making me shiver. I forgot to close our balcony last night before going to bed. Yawning, I straightened up and stretched to relieve my muscles. Julia and the guys didn't wake up yet. I checked my alarm to see that it was still five-thirty in the morning. I woke up half an hour earlier than usual. It was a good opportunity for me to take my hot shower and do my daily morning routine without rushing.

After I had finished my shower and brushed my teeth using my favorite mint toothpaste, I headed for the kitchen and prepared a cup of coffee with milk. I had learnt my lesson that I should never leave my house without having my morning coffee. Never. My hair was still wet, so I wrapped a large towel around my head to help my hair dry more quickly. Checking the wall clock, I noticed that the time flew and it was six-forty already. I put my cup in the sink before waking Julia up. She groaned as she opened her eyes. A couple of water drops escaped from my hair somehow and lay on Julia's face as soon as I removed the towel.

"Is it raining inside our room?" Julia chuckled as she wiped the water drops away from her forehead.

I gave her a small smile, rolling my eyes playfully. She lazily climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom. Nick finally woke up after the hundredth time of shaking him. He was such a heavy sleeper. It was an achievement for me to succeed in waking him up. I should add it to my CV.

"Leave me alone, please. I need more sleep," Nick frowned.

"It's seven in the morning. We have to be in our classes at eight sharp," I rolled my eyes.

"Why did I choose to join this university?" Nick groaned and dragged himself out of bed, then walked towards the kitchen while rubbing his red eyes.

Josh and Daniel woke up too and we got ready. We checked our books, copybooks and some notes before we exited our dorm. The weather was sunnier than usual. Weird. It was a little cold a couple of hours ago. Moody weather. The sun rays found their way to my eyes which made them burn. Damn! I forgot to bring my eyeglasses with me. Thankfully, we managed to reach our classes quickly before the sun could do any more harm to my eyes. I entered the lecture theatre and as usual, Jacob was sitting in his usual place and I had a seat next to him.

"Hey," I greeted him before grabbing my laptop and books out of my bag.

"Good morning. You look so beautiful today," Jacob complimented me.

My heart skipped a beat for his sweet way of complimenting me. I was just in the mood for more makeup today, so I put on more than usual and changed my look for a bit. Maybe that was why he thought that I looked that beautiful. I replied with a shy "thank you" before our professor came in and started to explain our new topic. The class was so boring. Jacob kept yawning during the whole class and he almost fell asleep. He looked cute being bored and sleepy. The professor gave us tons of homework assignments and projects to do. Great. It seemed like he wanted to torture us. I hated those homework assignments and stuff. After finishing our classes, we went to the cafeteria to meet my friends once again.

"Shit, my day was tiring," Nick said.

"We all had a tiring day today," I agreed.

"We're so tired now but trust me when we go out together tonight and drink, our pain will fade away in no time," Jacob winked.

"Sure," Daniel smiled.

"All right, let's get back to our dorms now. I want to have some rest," I sighed in exhaustion.

We bid our farewells before going back to our dorm. I changed my clothes and entered the balcony with my red mat to practice some meditation to clear my head. Julia was talking on the phone with her father. I could see her smiling genuinely a couple of times. She seemed to be more understanding with her dad and they could work things out between them, something that made my heart feel warm. I wanted to check on my parents too tonight before going to bed. I closed my eyes. Inhaling slowly, I could feel the gentle breeze touching my skin kindly. I sat down cross-legged and again, I inhaled more fresh air inside my lungs. I felt so relaxed and calm. As I was going to do another meditation practice, the sound of Nick's video games was going to damage my eardrums. I jumped from Nick's voice cursing and yelling. He was so attached to his game. I stood up furiously and went inside to tell him off.

"Don't I have the right to read my book peacefully?" Josh yelled as I met him in the hallway. He was annoyed as well with Nick's video games.

"To my knowledge, Nick isn't deaf," I rolled my eyes.

"I'm not really sure about that."

I and Josh stormed into the room with Nick. He seemed happy and enjoying his game. The loud sound of his games reached my ears, making them burn as hell.

"Nick! Pause this shitty game right now!" Josh commanded as he looked at Nick then shifted his eyes to look at the game. "Oh! You're playing Battle Field V. So pause this good game right now," Josh giggled.

"You're not deaf. Turn the volume down," I rolled my eyes at him. Something which I started to do a lot unwillingly these days, but Nick got on my nerves and forced me to do it instead of beating him.

"Why? I can barely hear. I was looking for the remote control to turn it up a little bit more," Nick shrugged.

"You don't have to share your stupid video games with our neighbors. Turn it down!" I shouted.

"Okay, if you want me to turn the volume down, Josh has to beat me in a FIFA match first," Nick challenged.

"I don't know. I haven't played it for a while," Josh rubbed the back of his head.

Julia joined us in the room as she hung up with her father. "What's going on here? Your voices are too loud."

"Nick is challenging Josh to beat him in a soccer match in order to turn the volume down of his video games, and if Josh doesn't win, Nick will turn it up again," I explained.

"I didn't say that if he lost I would turn the volume up, but it sounds like a great idea," Nick grinned.

"Hold on! I haven't accepted the challenge yet," Josh said.

"Why? Are you afraid?" Nick laughed.

"Okay, challenge accepted," Josh rolled his eyes and reached for a second controller.

Nick switched the game and opened FIFA. They started the match and Josh seemed so nervous. Julia and I couldn't miss the chance of watching Nick kicking his ass in that soccer match. We sat down on the couch and watched them excitedly. As they were still in the third minute of the game, Nick lobbed the ball from the center of the pitch over Josh's players including his goal keeper, then oops! Josh suddenly saw that his net embraced the ball and Nick scored his first goal.

"How did you do that?" Josh's mouth was wide open, and so were ours.

"Still got the old magic," Nick laughed.

They set the whole match for twenty minutes, so we had to sit down for the whole twenty minutes watching Nick scoring an uncountable number of goals. Nick scored ten goals in the first half of the match. Josh didn't even score a single goal. I felt like Nick was playing alone or something. I knew that Josh already wasn't a big fan of video games.

Daniel got inside the room with us while pulling the buds out of his ears. Whenever he put on his headphones and played songs, he disconnected himself from the outside world.

"What did I miss?" Daniel asked.

"Nick is playing a soccer match versus Josh and we are waiting to see who will win," I stated.

"Yeah, I kind of noticed that but heck! We all know that Nick is gonna win for sure. Josh sucks at video games," Daniel chuckled.

"I can hear you by the way," Josh shouted.

"I know that. I guess I don't want to miss the chance of watching Josh getting his ass kicked," Daniel laughed.

Daniel came and sat down next to me and Julia on the couch. We watched both of them together and kept cheering for Nick whenever he scored a new goal. Josh was so pathetic but we enjoyed our time together. Finally, Josh scored his first goal and went crazy about it.

"Yaaay! My first goal," Josh shouted, raising his hands up in the air.

"Josh, it's just one," Julia laughed.

"So what?"

The match had finally ended after another ten minutes. Nick won by a score 12-1.

"So I won," Nick smirked.

"I knew from the start that you would already," Josh rolled his eyes.

We had two choices, whether each one of us go back to what he was doing or sit down and continue watching Nick playing alone. We actually chose the second one. It was much better and funny anyway. He played an uncountable number of different games. He won in one then switched to the other. Wow! He could sit down and play video games for ages without getting bored or tired. I was sure that he had to win a prize for this. Finally, after a couple of hours, he finished playing and turned off his PS4 console. My whole body ached. I felt like I didn't move it for ages. I stretched to relieve my muscles. The sound of every bone snapping inside of me reached my ears. I looked at the wall clock and noticed that it was seven. Heck! We had been watching Nick for four hours straight. We all planned to get ready by then not to be late. Jacob informed us to meet him at a nightclub which was fifteen minutes away from campus. He sent me the location and told me to meet him at nine. I was a bit nervous and confused. It had been a while since I last went to a nightclub when I was in first year of high school. I didn't know what I should wear for this place, but I knew that I had to wear something different from my usual style. I opened my closet to take a look. It was full of my usual clothes. Jeans, ripped jeans, hoodies, T-shirts and some blouses. I found an old dress by chance. I even forgot that I brought it here with me. It was a short black strapless dress. My mother bought it for me last year for prom. It looked so nice actually, so I decided to wear it for the night as a change. I checked my reflection in the mirror and felt so exposed. The dress didn't even reach the half of my thighs. Yes, I wore it before, but it was just for once and it was my prom. I had to dress up for it, but should I dress up for a nightclub? I wasn't really used to this, but at least it was something different. Routine was boring and I needed to do something more exciting. I curled my hair using my curling tongs. I never tried anything rather than a high ponytail or a messy bun. Curling my hair was new to me. I liked my new look anyway. I went to search for Julia before putting makeup on. I wanted her to help me in choosing the perfect makeup look for my face. I knocked on the bathroom's door three times before Julia gave me permission, then I swung open the door and went inside. I couldn't stop my jaw from dropping. She looked so attractive in her knee-length purple dress. It showed her body's curves in a perfect way. Its sleeves were long enough to reach her elbows. A fancy black belt was wrapped around her tiny waist. Again, she looked stunning. Her body wasn't as exposed as mine.

"You look amazing," I finally said.

"Really? Do I look good?" She asked, sounding unconfident.

"Of course you do. Don't be silly. You look staggering."

"Thank you. I didn't want to wear a very short dress, so I chose this one," She smiled.

"I didn't want to be too exposed like a slut, but I have no dress rather than this," I shrugged, looking down at myself.

"It's okay. You look so hot in it. Jacob won't cope and he may lose his mind," Julia giggled.

I joined her before going back to our room to put some makeup on. She suggested that I use a thin layer of foundation, concealer, red lipstick, blusher and last but not least, some mascara. She just applied a little bit of blusher with a nude lipstick and mascara. She had a sensitive skin, so a lot of makeup wasn't going to work for her.

"Hey ladies, are you ready?" Daniel asked as he entered the room while we were putting on our high heels shoes. "Oh damn! You both look hotter than hell," He gasped as we laughed in shyness.

"We are always hot," I rolled my eyes at him playfully.

"Sure, but it seems like we are going to spend the whole night fighting with other perverted men," Daniel winked.

We laughed a little before checking our looks for one last time, then exited our dorm. We called a cab and explained the address to him. Thankfully, he already knew that nightclub, so we didn't have to spend ages trying to explain to him. I fished my phone out of my small bag to text Jacob and tell him that we were on our way.

'We're on our way now :)' I sent.

'Cool! I'm waiting for you. I just arrived ten minutes ago,' Jacob replied after three minutes.

I put my phone back inside my bag and stared out through the window until we finally arrived.

The place was huge and the music reached our ears before we even got inside. My anxiety started to grow more inside of me after every step. We got inside the nightclub after showing our IDs to the guard. It was massive and people were everywhere dancing, laughing and drinking heavily. I also spotted two love birds kissing in the corner. The dance floor was big and crowded. We looked for Jacob and found him sitting at the bar and waiting for us. We headed towards him, and I slightly tapped on his shoulder.

"Hey," I said and his face immediately lit up as soon as he looked at me. He stared at me for a couple of seconds before he nervously cleared his throat and greeted me back with a small "hey". I could feel his piercing blue eyes scanning my whole body from head to toe as I sat down on the bar stool next to him.

"This place is cool as fuck, man," Daniel shouted.

"I told you so. Our city has a lot of cool places," Jacob smiled. "Would you like to have a drink?"

"Yes, maybe," I smiled, tucking a lock of my hair behind my right ear.

"What do you want to drink?"

"I don't know. I never really drank before. What do you recommend?" I shrugged, looking at Julia who seemed more nervous than me.

"You've never drank before? You must be an angel," Jacob raised his eyebrow.

"No, I'm just not used to these kinds of things," I nervously replied.

"Well, as it's your first time to drink, I recommend cherry liquor. It's my favorite."

"Okay, I'll have one from this liquor too," Julia added.

"I'll have tequila," Nick said.

"Me too," Daniel stated.

"I'll have brandy," Josh added.

Jacob called the bartender and told him our orders. The place was so loud and full of life.

"So tell me. Do you like Chicago so far?" Jacob asked.

"Well, yeah. It's a pretty cool city, but weird too," Daniel smirked and I could understand what he meant by weird. Shit! I prayed that he wouldn't tell Jacob about those letters which we received recently. I didn't want anyone to know about them.

"Weird? Why?" Jacob raised his eyebrow in a questioning gesture.

The bartender finally prepared our drinks then handed them to us. I took my first sip and tasted the sweetness of the cherry, but it burnt my throat as soon as I swallowed. The taste was foreign to me but I liked it.

"Since we got here, someone-"

"Hey Daniel, what about dancing for some time? I want to move my body and the music here is wonderful," I interrupted him before he could spill the beans.

"Yes, sure," He replied before gulping down the remainder of his drink.

"I don't want to dance right now," Julia frowned.

"So we will go and dance and you stay here with Julia," Daniel shrugged before going to the dance floor with the boys.

"Phew" was the first word that came to my mind as soon as they left. Thankfully, Julia didn't join them. I didn't want to dance anyway. I just wanted to stay with her.

"I want another drink," Julia blurted.

"Julia, are you sure? We planned not to drink too much, remember?" I raised my eyebrow, not believing that Julia was actually the one who ordered more than one drink.

"Let her have some fun. It's just for one day though," Jacob replied as he told the bartender to pour another shot for Julia.

We kept talking with each other for a while. Jacob told us about his mother who loved travelling so much and that she visited more than twenty countries all around the world. He told us about his father too who owned a very successful company in Washington. His life seemed really interesting and full of adventure. I couldn't control myself as I ordered seven more shots. The feeling of alcohol going down my stomach and affecting my brain was addictive.

"Oh my God! I think I want to throw up," Julia cried as she held her stomach with her left hand and covered her mouth with the other one.

She quickly ran to the bathroom before I could even tell her anything. She drank ten shots at once. Damn! Although she was the one who warned us not to drink too much, but what could I say? I didn't have the right to blame her. This cherry drink tasted really good that we couldn't stop ordering more shots. I looked behind my shoulder to check on the boys. They were dancing so hard and doing some cool dance moves.

"These guys rock!" I laughed, taking a sip of my drink.

"Enough drinking. You drank too much," Jacob laughed back as he tried to snatch the glass from my hands.

"No! It tastes really good," I giggled.

"Would you like to dance?"

"Nope," I replied, then gulped down the whole cherry liquor.

I could feel myself losing my balance bit by bit. That liquor affected my brain a lot. The bartender left the bar and went somewhere. Ugh! I needed him to get back as soon as possible to make me another drink. Jacob's eyes didn't leave me alone as I could feel him staring at me for ages.

"What?"

"Nothing. You ... you're just so pretty."

"You're making me blush," I grinned.

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"No, why?" I shrugged.

"I was just curious."

"What about you?"

"I broke up with my girlfriend three months ago and now I'm single," Jacob smiled.

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"No, no. Don't be. I didn't really love her that much anyway," Jacob shrugged.

Someone tapped slightly on my shoulder before I looked back to see who it was. It was the bartender. He handed me a small piece of paper and said that someone ordered him to give it to me. He didn't even know who that person was. He just gave him the paper then left the nightclub. I opened it to read what was written inside.

"Ready or not?
Here I come."

I jumped from my seat before I could even think. Not again.

"Is everything okay?" Jacob asked in a worried tone.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just need Julia. Where is Julia?" I asked in my pathetic drunk voice.

"She has been in the bathroom for almost thirty minutes."

"Thirty minutes? I should go and check on her."

I ran past people and could hardly keep my balance. How the hell didn't I notice her absence for all of this time? I shouldn't have drunk that much. I reached the bathroom and hastily stormed inside to search for Julia.

"Julia?" I called, but there was no answer.

The bathroom was vast and most importantly, empty. Deserted. I felt like I was the only one in this place. How could the bathroom of a large nightclub like this be empty? I knocked on every toilet door, but once again, there was no answer. I went to one of the sinks to wash my face and sober up for a bit. I could hardly walk on my feet and I was so dizzy. After washing my face with cold water, I could feel myself getting sober bit by bit again and my heartbeats became more steady. I walked further into the bathroom to find Julia. A large mirror was hung on one of the walls. My legs became like a jelly beneath me as soon as my eyes caught sight of what was written on it with a thick red lipstick.

"I'm in
You're it."

Before I even could shout for help, I felt someone pulling my hair so hard from behind and putting a piece of cloth on my mouth to silence me. Actually, it wasn't to silence me. A strange drugged substance found its way inside my nostrils as soon as I took my breath. That was when I totally lost my balance and got unconscious.

A/N: Wooah! This chapter was really long, but actually it started fun and ended depressing lmao. Who do you think kidnapped Julia and Sally? And do you think Jacob will manage to rescue them? Please don't forget to share, vote, and comment your thoughts if you like this book.