Chapter 36

-Justin-

 

VALENTINES Day, my birthday, the final exams the school b-ball game pep rally... I missed it all!! Valentines I could have spend with Aika (maybe), and I think dad was going to buy me a new piano for my birthday! But nope.. And I hope that Kevin was able to pass all my exams for me!!

   Yes that's right, I've been here for another 4 months... It's not fun. I was able to send one more letter out last month, and it was just telling my family that I was doing alright and I would see them soon, and I know I will. Because tomorrow is April 1: The day I finally break free. For the last month, when I wasn't spending my love-dovey time with Toma, I was devising a plan just for this day. I would escape into the night, away from the horrible horrible place. Away from Toma.

   It's quite funny. Along the way into my plan, I kind of felt sad for leaving. I know Toma doesn't want me to leave, and who can I blame? I was his first friend after all. But he's still the enemy, after my millions in inheritance, and that I can't let anyone take.

   I still keep wondering how the final exams at school went, though. Hopefully Kevin did a pretty good job, I mean he is smart. He better have been taking good care of Aika too; I wonder how they're both doing. I just know I cant wait to see her face when I get out.

   Knock knock. came from the door. It couldn't be anyone else besides Toma, so out of habbit I went over and unlocked it to let him in.

"Hey~!" His small frame strided towards me to give me hug.

"Hello." I hugged back, with little effort.

He must have noticed that, because he replied, "Hey, what's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong." I pleaded.

"Are you sure...?" He closed and locked the door behind him. "Wanna chat?"

"Nah, its cool." I got onto the floor, pulled out a deck of cards from under the bed.

   His definition of 'chatting' would be spilling out how we felt then snuggling on the bed..

   It was quiet for awhile. We both sat on the floor, and I took out a few cards to demonstrate a lame card trick that would usually amaze Toma, but right now he was just staring at me with the kind of distant awe that made you fall into a trance.

Finally his facial expression changed. "There's something wrong." He straightened his back.

"What?" I gave him a weak chuckle. "What are you talking about?"
"There's something wrong." He stood up from the wooden floor.

   I looked up at him, his gray-blue eyes locked into mine, and he gulped.

"There's something wrong! Tell me what's wrong!" Little tears began to form in the corner of his tornado eyes.

Really, he's going to get all dramatic over this? I then got up myself. "I'm telling you there isn't anything wr--!"

"Yes there is!" He cut me off, and leaped into my arms, now sobbing and soaking my shirt.

"Shut up!" I tried to push him off, but he linked his hands around me. "If a guard hears us, they're going to come in here and report to your dad!"

"Then tell me whats wrong!" He pulled back, and stared into my eyes. Its like he was hypnotising me.

"I... I couldn't possibly tell you.." I shrugged him off and looked away.

He took a half-step towards me. "Why not?"

   And at that moment, the door flew open. The lock had cracked off the door and flew across the room, striking Toma in the back of the head.

"AGHHH!!" He drained out as he headed towards the ground.

"Toma!" I leaned in to catch him but someone at the door stopped me with a violent and loud "STOP"!

   There was a loud thud when Toma hit the floor, and it made me flinch. He curled up into fiedal possition and grasped the back of his throbbing head.

"Ahh..." He whimpered and squirmed. But in less than a minute he stopped moving..

   A man, definitely one of the guards, walked in and picked up Toma by the arms, shaking them.

"Mhmm, he's knocked out. Take him away." Said the other man in a suit, the one who yelled 'STOP' when I tried to help Toma.

  The guard did just what the man said. At first I couldn't tell who it was, but when the air finally cleared I noticed the man in the suit was Toma's dad!

"Hello Mr. Hue." He snarled at me. "I think we need to talk."

   Looks like my Master Plan has been interrupted..

 

 

-Aika-

 

I CANT BELIEVE its been like 4 months since the final exams! Man, those were a KILLER. I studied so hard with Mason, Kaitlin, and Bea (believe it or not..), and I still barely passed my science exam. Oh, but the rest of the tests went smoothly!

    Then a month after that was Valentines Day! The week before I was crazy shopping trying to find something perfect just for Kevin. I wasn't sure what he was going to get me, but I knew that my gift had to be something special.

   I decided to go with a nice ellegent card... but not saying too much, like "I LOVE you".. Thats still wayy away from where we are now. Actually, honestly, I don't love him. I don't really love anybody at this point in time, but.. I really care about him. Which is why for V-Day I bought him a small box of chocolate and a nice card. It mostly talked about friendship and happiness, but it also talked about how much people can care for eachother, which practically summed up everything I want to tell him anyways.

    From Kevin, I got a teddy bear with an "I love You" heart and a simple but sweet card. It was sweet by the way, but then Kaitlin struck me with something...

 

"Hey Aika, did you get anything for Justin for V-Day?"
"What?"
"Justin.. you know, the one you liked before Kevin?"

"Oh, well, he's still not at school so--"

"Do you still like him?"

"..Who?"
"Justin."
"Wait, what?? Where is this coming from?"
"Well, I kinda just wanted to know, you know, it's like.."
"It's like?"
"Okay, so they're twins. No, they're identical! Sure they have different personalities, but they are pretty much the same. Did you just start liking Kevin because Justin wasn't around anymore?"
"Hold on, they are very different, they don't even get along that much!"
"Don't change the subject."
"I'm not!"
"Then what?"

 

   I never gave her an answer. Even though I had spent the best Valentines Day ever (so far) in my young teen life with Kevin, when I got home later that day it still stayed glued in the back of my mind.... Was I really just head-over-heels for Kevin because Justin wasn't here anymore?

   I really didn't want to think of it like that; That would make me seem so shallow, and even worse, DESPERATE!!! I'm not desperate... I hope not.

 

   Anyways, now its 4 months past that and everything has been going pretty good. Last month I was away on a college tour in Alabama and Georgia. It was really fun!! I will never forget the days I spent there. Luckily for me, I wrote a diary entry every night I was there so I wouldn't forget anything important or fun that happened to me.

   I started thinking more about Justin every night, not like in a romantic way, but more in a I wonder how he's doing way. He's been missing for 6 months, we only have 2 letters from him, and none of them are getting us closer to where he might be help captive. Its mostly just about how he's doing, which is good, because now I dont have to worry that much.

   There where times when I thought, 'Hm, I wonder if he's gotten over me already' but then that just brings me back to 'I wonder if I've gotten over him already' and it turns me updside down.

"Agh this is too much!!" I stress out on my bed.

"What's too much?" Kaitlin's voice boom from my laptop speaker. We're on video-chat.

"This!!" I shove my face into my pillow.

"And this would be...?" She tilts her head.

"Ever since you brought that up on Valentines Day, about Justin, I couldn't stop thinking about it, and it's DRIVING ME INSANE!!!"
"Aika, hun, if it's still eating at you after this long it's obvious something is wrong."

I sigh because I know she's right.

"Listen," she speaks louder into her microphone, "Who did you like first?"
I hesitate. "Justin.."
"Correct. And when you found out about Kevin, what happened to Justin?"
"Well I.. I still liked Justin alot, I thought Kevin was a jerk, and I hated talking to him, and I hated that he had to take Justin's place at school when he got sick."
"But then your feelings changed."
"Yeah! Because the more I spent with Kevin, the more I realized I.." I had an epiphany.

"Yes..? You realized what?"

"I realized that the ideal boy I always dreamed of, the perfect Prince Charming, isn't what I was going to get. I liked Justin because his personality traits met my standards, but now that he was here there was nothing I could talk to him about, because I already knew eveyrthing about him."
"And there was nothing new you could find about him, huh?" I could tell Kaitlin was smiling as she said that.

"Well, except for the fact that he's the heir to his family fortune, yeah.. there wasn't anything new about him. But Kevin was so different, and I enjoyed learning something new about him every day. And when I found out I had to choose just one of those 2 great guys, I picked Kevin in the end."
   I glanced over at the clock, and my thoughts drifted back to the day Kevin confessed to me by the tennis court, and how I felt right then. I felt guilty, because I liked Justin first, but that changed. I remember it was raining that day.

"Aika!!!" Kaitlin's voice echoed through the microphone again.

"Huh what!!"
"You didn't hear me?"

"No, I'm sorry I was spacing out."
She rolls her eyes. "Okaay, I'll explain again. So do you know who you love? Isn't it clear now?"
"I don't love anybody." I stated.

"Oh right right, you're a weird one. The girl who doesn't love."
"Come on, you know what I mean." I just haven't found the one yet.

"I know, sorry sorry. Anyways, who do you really want?"
"Kevin of course!!"
"Then why keep thinking of Justin?!"
"Because...!!! I just.. I hope he's okay. When he comes back, I hope things wont change between us. Because we both went through some hardcore changes, I'm sure. And I just want him to know, that I'm still here. As a friend."

   As I heard the words spewing out of my mouth, I felt like I really meant them, and that everything was making sense again. I care about both of the Hue brothers, but one is just a close friend, and the other is my soul mate.

"So you good now, Aikacon?" Kate's nickname for me.

"Yes, Katiecon," my nickname for her, "I'm all good."
"Well great; doesn't it feel good to have your head clear?"
"Totally." I say, and I log off of our video chat.

   I call her again later to tell her I felt sleepy, and that night I went to sleep at 9:30pm.. the earliest for me ever. It was a good sleep.

 

 

-Kevin-

 

LATELY I CANT help but think Aika still feels some love for my brother. I know she misses him, and I can understand that. I miss him too, oddly enough. But sometimes she'll just bring him up like 'Have you heard form him lately?' or  'I really wish he was here' or 'I remember this one time...'

   But I wouldn't want to ask her that, I might invade her personal space, and I wouldn't want to do that.

   Anyways, it's April. The last letter we got form Justin was March somethin', and all he told us was that he knew was gonna see us soon. What the hell is that suppose to mean?? If he meant that he was going to sneak out soon or something, I know he wont. He can't! I know my brother like the back of my hand: Spoiled. He got everything handed to him where he never had to lift a finger. If he wanted to actually escape from some tightly-guarded facility, I dont think it'd happen any time soon. Maybe in his next lifetime as a thug or something..

   Well, moving onto something else, I've noticed some weird things happening withing my group of friends. Let's start off with Bea: Being nice?? She's been having really weird mood-swings. Lately she's been acting really nice, some of us (Including Aika!) even accepted her back into our group of friends again, but I dunno.. Somehting smells fishy. I think she's trying to put the moves onto Nick again and get him back. He doesn't deserve her, I hope he doesn't fall into the trap.

   And I might be wrong, but I get the feeling that Mason might be gay. No one has told me though, but everyone else acts like it, but what if I'm wrong? So I haven't told anybody yet, not even Aika. If it turns out he's not gay, or even bi, I will look like a frickin idiot. That's the last thing I want.

   Knock knock knock.

Furious knocking on my door causes me to lose my train of thought.

"I'm comin'!" I walk over to the door.

   When I open it I see my mom drenched in tears, struggling to hand me her cell phone.

"Mom, what the matter??" I take the phone from her.

"Oh! Con trai của tôi!" She sobs in between her Venglish (Vietnamese-English) talk.

"Mom, what is it? I can hardly understand you when you mumble like that!" Speak English, damn!

She leans in towards me, still sobbing. "It's your brother's kidnapper."

I feel my eyes widen, I glance down at the cell phone in my hand.

"H-he said th-that, he wanted to talk to you."

   I mouth to my mom 'go away' as I put the phone to my ear. She understands then quickly heads downstairs. After making sure no one else was around to hear my conversation, I slowly inch back into my bedroom then take a seat at my drawing desk.

"Hello?" I get serious on the phone.

"Yes, Mr. Kevin Hue?" It's an older man, sounds about 30, and I can make out a little asian accent. Probably Thai. I don't know.

"Uh, yeah."
"My name is Henri Saowaluk, and I've got your brother hostage."