Little Women¹

Little Women¹

Eloise Kingston

The cold air and the eerie feeling settled on my skin as I stepped out of the car. Something felt strange, very strange. There's a change in the wind. That was what my uncle would say when something felt wrong. At this moment, something was wrong.

The thought was pushed to the back of my mind when I focused on my cousin who was talking loudly at the person he was talking to through his phone. I haven't been back in town in two years. I spent my sophomore year and junior year in California with my uncle Luke and his family. Why was I shipped there? My mother said I needed a "change of scenery".

The scenery was great, by the way, but it involved a couple of people going missing and their bodies being retrieved. Seeing those body bags made my skin crawl and the thought of murders. Uncle Luke and mom decided it was better for me and my cousin to go back to Centrale. Centrale, Washington.

Is it going to be better though? Maybe. I hope so. I'd very much like to enjoy my senior year with the right amount of stress and happiness. Maybe a little trouble too.

"So, Aunt Helen is still at the hospital. She's working an overtime shift." My cousin, Paul, voiced, slipping the phone inside the pocket of his trousers. "She said we'll have to get take outs."

"I'm actually meeting a friend of mine, is that okay?" I asked before handing him the keys of the house and he used his free hand to open the door for us whilst the other hand was holding two duffle bags.

Paul arched a brow at him, placing the two bags on top of the dining table. "Which friend are we talking about right now?"

"Elijah." I simply answered. "Am I allowed to go out?"

"Lincoln, right?" he asked and I nodded. "What do you want me to do, Eloise? Do you want me to break the rules for you?"

"Yes." I deadpanned.

"Then, consider it broken, Lou." Paul grinned mischievously. "Just be back before, I don't know, eleven. Means you have to be back in four hours. I don't want dad at my ass and I'm sure you don't want your mother at yours."

"It might get me shipped to Auntie Lorraine in New York." I grinned, grabbing my bag before climbing up the stairs. When I reached the top, I trudged to the left and stopped in front of a white door.

When I opened it, everything was the same. The walls were still coated with cream colored paint that matched the white furniture in my room. Photos were still plastered on one side of the wall which is very surprising. I expected my mother to get them down considering the fact that she hated most of those photos, most specifically the photos I have with Elijah and party photos.

I placed my bag on the floor before I proceeded downstairs when I heard the doorbell. Paul already opened the door when I reached the end of the stairs. The two seemed to be laughing when I got there. Typical.

"Ellie, you still look like shit I see!" Elijah hollered, smirking which made me roll my eyes at him whilst my cousin laughed with him. "Nice. Very nice."

"Very funny." I said, sarcastically as I narrowed my eyes at him. My best friend still looked the same except for the fact that he looked even more taller which wasn't surprising really, his father is very tall. "Can we leave now? Someone implemented a curfew and I'd very much like to enjoy a couple of hours with my best friend."

Paul snorted, clearly amused. "Have fun you two, but not too much fun." he pointed his finger accusingly as Elijah and I stepped out of the house. Elijah and I shared a glance before we laughed together as we hopped inside his car.

"So—"

"When were you going to tell me?"

"What? Tell you what?" he asked, his brows slightly furrowed. I pulled out the paper from the pocket of my jacket before handing it to him. Elijah's face paled as he frowned. "I was going to tell you." he started the ignition before driving away from the house.

 "But you didn't." I stated, pursing my lips. "We talk on the phone almost every night, Elijah. You could've mentioned that Rory had been missing the entire summer."

"Look, I know that she was your best friend during the first grade until sixth, but I didn't think that you would care about it since you two aren't really that close anymore."

I sighed, leaning back against the seat. "Still. We don't talk that much, but that doesn't mean that I don't care about her anymore."

Rory and I were really close with each other ever since we sat next to each other on the school bus. We met Elijah along the way of our friendship which was the summer before our second grade. We got along pretty quickly and always fought about food and such. Though, Rory drifted away from Elijah and I when we reached high school. I guess she preferred hanging out with others. It hurt, but I couldn't really stop her from having other friends. We occasionally talk, but not that much anymore.

Now that she's gone, it feels horrible. Considering the fact that I saw her in California during the holidays. We talked for a bit, but that was it. I haven't heard from her since. God, where would she even go? Rory's a type of girl who depends on someone, she could've run away without any help. She must've had help if she even ran away.

"Anything new to our beloved town?" I asked as we stepped out of his car and went directly to the diner. Phyllis' Diner to be exact, home of one the most amazing food in the whole town.

"Nothing much has changed, you know? It's still the same." he said as we sipped inside a booth that was against the wall and the large window that overlooked the cars that were passing by. "Except for you know. So— Let's order."

We discussed a few things as our order was being prepared and greeted Phyllis who was working the house tonight. It was calming to be back by now, I expected it to be worse to be honest.

"Do you think they'll find her?" I asked out of nowhere, causing my best friend's eyes to soften. "What?"

"They'll find her, Lou. Dad's working on it."

"Did you know that she went to California during the holidays?"

Elijah's hazel blue eyes grew wide in shock with the information. "What? Really?"

"Yeah. Rory was there and we talked about a lot of things. I miss my best friend." I sighed, looking down as I picked my nails. "Then, she told me that we had to talk more soon so we exchanged numbers, but we didn't get a chance to talk again because she never texted me back."

"Why not?"

"Because I didn't want to text her first. I think it was the pride talking back then. I admit that it's stupid that I didn't text her, but I don't know. I regret it now."

When I woke up the next morning, I could smell something mouthwatering from downstairs. I fixed my bed first before making my way downstairs. As expected mom was cooking breakfast whilst Paul was brewing the coffee.

"Good morning, mother." I grinned, making her turn around and smile down at me. "I am officially back home." I announced as I sat next to Paul by the island stools.

Mom rolled her eyes at me as she placed pancakes on my plate along with a few pieces of bacon. "You are, obviously." mom said before placing food on her own plate. "School is next week. Have you thought about where you'll be going to college? Or what program you'll be taking?" she asked before taking a sip of her coffee that Paul poured into her mug.

Paul and I shared a look and he raised his hands, gesturing that it's out of his hands. I swallowed the food in my mouth before I spoke, "Well, I haven't really decided what program I'm going to take. I still have a few months before I start applying to universities."

I lied. Of course I knew what I wanted, I just don't know if mom's going to like it. My brother, Connor took a civil engineering program while my sister, Cara took a medical technology program. Mom expects me to be better. To do better and rise higher than the rest. She has high expectations for the three of us.

Mom hummed. Before she could even speak, there was a knock on the door. She excused herself before heading towards the door. 

"When are you going to tell her that you already decided what program you're going to take?" Paul questioned as he continued to finish his meal and I did too. 

"When I finally know what I'm going to say." I simply replied and my cousin gave me a look. "I just don't think she'll be too happy to hear about it right, you know? I need time." 

"Well—" 

"Eloise, want to explain what this is about?" Mom stepped inside the kitchen with a stern look plastered on her face and Sheriff Lincoln (or most formally known as Elijah's dad, Marcus) was trailing behind my mother in his uniform.

"Oh God, what did you do last night?" Paul said, dramatically, catching the attention of the adults. "I let you leave and you have the Sheriff in our house. If you murdered someone, at least dispose the body prooperly." he grumbled, shaking his head. 

My forehead creased at his accusation. "I didn't do anything." I stated firmly. Do I really look like someone who can kill? Yes, actually. "What's going on? No offense, but why are you here, Sheriff?" 

"I'd like to talk to you. Preferably at the station." he replied and the glare from my mother's didn't go noticed by me and my cousin. God, did I commit a crime while I was sleeping? 

"About what?" Mother asked. 

Marcus looked hesitant, but sighed in defeat when he saw our nervous looks. "It's about Aurora Carter." 

Sitting inside an interrogation room was not how I wanted my day to go. I wanted to go to the quarry and maybe swim, but I guess we don't always get what we want. Here am I telling them about my friendship with Rory.

Sitting on top of the metal chair as I faced Marcus and his deputy who were behind the table that was in front of me. They looked serious and I couldn't really blame them. Although, why do they need to talk to me about Rory? I mean, if anything they should talk to Caroline and Renée, her best friends.

"So, you and Rory were best friends during elementary school, but you two stopped being friends in high school?" the deputy asked.

"Yes, that's what I said, but we're still friends. Just not as close as we were." I replied, calmly. Uncle Luke taught me to always be calm if being questioned, agitated behavior can cause suspicion.

"When was your last interaction with Rory?" Marcus asked. There was something about them that felt, I don't know, like they wanted to tell me something.

"Around December in California. She said that she and her family were staying there for the holidays." I answered in which they returned odd looks. My brows slightly furrowed at them. "Why? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." The Sheriff answered before slipping a purple journal on the table."Do you recognize this?"

"A journal."

"Rory's journal." Added the Deputy. "Go to the first page."

The journal was leather bound, flower designs were embroidered on the covers  and it had her initials on the bottom left corner. My eyes wandered to the police, asking if it was okay to open it and they nodded. What I read on the first page sent chills down my spine. My name was written repeatedly on the first page until there was no more space. It could've been any Eloise out there, but my full name was written there.

"What does this mean?" I asked, closing the journal and slipping it in front of them. "Does this have any meaning?"

"We don't know."

Mom had a hundred questions as we drove home which I answered. She was skeptical about my behavior as we were going home, but she didn't question it. Can I even tell her about the fact that my childhood best friend wrote my name in the first page of her journal until it filled all the spaces? I'm pretty sure she'd shipped me to Vancouver where my aunt Oliva lives.

I pushed those thoughts at the back of my head before I started to unpack and organize my belongings. I folded the clothes neatly and hung the clothes that needed to be on a hanger before placing all of them inside the wooden wardrobe. Next was the books I purchased while I was in California. I slid them one by one on my white bookshelf. I took a step back and examined the beautiful books.

"What the hell?" my eyes narrowed at my bookshelf before trudging downstairs. "Mom, have you seen the Little Women book? And I left it on my bookshelf when I left two years ago!" I hollered.

Mom was getting ready to leave when I got downstairs. Her brows furrowed. "Didn't Elijah tell you? He borrowed it a few months ago. I thought he'd already return it by now."

"You let him borrow my book, mom? Why did you do that?" I asked in disbelief. "Mom, you do realize that book was—'' I took a breath. "The book is very important to me. I need to go to Elijah's. I'll be back as soon as I get my book."

"Fine."

"I'm taking Connor's old car!" I grabbed the keys from the rack before heading to the garage and hopping inside the black range rover.

Why, out of all of my books, would Elijah borrow that specific book? Mom knows that it isn't for borrowing, which I had a label on it and Elijah even knows how valuable that book is to me and he hates classical novels. So why even borrow a book that you won't even read?

I pulled in front of their house, stepping out of the car and headed straight to the door in which I rang the doorbell. In a span of a few minutes, the door opened and it revealed Reyna, Elijah’s little sister, the girl I used to babysat almost every time.

I chuckled when she wrapped her arms around me. "Oh my God, Elijah really wasn't kidding when he said that you were back. I can't believe you're back!" Reyna exclaimed as she pulled away from the hug.

"And I can't believe that you're already a sophomore. You need to stop growing so fast, Reyna." I said which made her smile. "Is your brother here?" I asked and she opened the door a bit wider to let me enter before she closed the door behind us.

"He's upstairs in his room." she replied, pointing up the ceiling. "Do me a favor and kick his ass for me? He's been acting like an ass all summer."

"Will do, Reyna."

When I got upstairs, I didn't bother to knock and I waltzed into his room. Elijah furrowed his brows upon seeing me before he spoke, "What are you doing here?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, folding my arms against my chest. "You have something of mine. I'd like it back."

Elijah bit his lower lip to prevent himself from laughing. "Dude, did you just quote a Draco Malfoy line? You're such a nerd."

"You borrowed my Little Women book without even asking permission. So basically that's stealing. You stole my book!" I exclaimed, flailing my hands up in the air. "Give it back before I beat your ass."

"Okay. I admit that what I did was wrong, but Rory wanted to borrow it." Elijah explained immediately before grabbing something from his shelf. "Here. Not harmed."

I took it from his fingers and examined it intently before opening the pages. I scoffed. “This isn’t my book. It's the exact copy, but this isn’t mine.” I said through my gritted teeth, placing the book back into his fingers. “I swear to God Elijah. If you damage my book and replace it with another, I am going to kill you.”

Elijah had his hands up and frowned. “I didn’t! I swear.” He defended, flipping through the pages. “Rory borrowed it and this is what she returned.” A paper of some kind fell on the floor and he immediately picked it up.

"What is it?" I asked, peaking over his shoulder to see what he was looking at.

Thanks for letting me borrow your book, Lou. Hope to see you soon and don't take it out on Elijah for taking your book. Love you both

—Rory

Elijah flipped the paper over and it was a picture. A picture of the lake house Rory's family owned. That was where we went whenever we had our birthday when we were in elementary school, it was tradition. We would have our playdate there sometimes over the weekends.

He cleared his throat before handing me the photo and I placed it inside the book. Elijah looked uneasy and well, so did I. I guess it was weird seeing it. 

"So, I heard that you were at the station earlier." Elijah said after a minute of silence as he sat down on the chair by his study desk. "Want to tell me what happened?"

"Nothing. They just questioned me about Rory since I was her best friend before and— Well, you know she has a journal?" I asked, sitting on the end of his bed. "The first page of her journal consists of my name. My full name. She wrote my name over and over again."

"I can't tell if it's creepy or what. Why do you think that she wrote your name?" Elijah questioned, still in shock with the information that I just told.

"I don't know." I shrugged, pushing myself to lay down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. "Maybe it's code, you know. Writing my name lots and lots of time is code for something." I mused as I glanced at him.

Elijah hummed, raising a brow at me. "Code for what? That she's in danger?"

I rose up from the bed, sitting up straight and met his hazel blue eyes. “You don’t think that she’s in danger, right?” I questioned. “Because that’ll be too crazy.”

“Rory’s missing and no one has a clue where she is. Hell, her car was even in her parents’ driveway the night she disappeared. She couldn’t run away without her car.”

“She could’ve taken the bus.” I pointed out.

“Surveillance cameras would’ve seen her, but she wasn’t seen that night.” I sent him a look, a look that told; how do you even know that? “I overheard dad talking about it to one of his deputies.”

I sighed, leaning back and propping my arms to support my weight. “Okay. So, hypothetically, Rory is in danger, we can’t do anything about it because we don’t have evidence whatsoever.”

“Then, let’s go find ourselves some evidence.”