Broken Lines || sequel • discontinued •

Chapter 6 (Further Away)

• Luke's POV •

I played with my lip ring for a few seconds as Nicole's statement sunk in.

Stiles is missing.

What does she expect me to do? Help her? Of course she's expecting me to do it. I can't do that; I shouldn't do that. There's press everywhere and they are not supposed to see me hanging out with a random girl. What if she's setting me up? What if this is all an act and she actually does know who I am and who 5 Seconds of Summer is? Am I even supposed to trust her?

Wait a minute, she already trusts me.

"W-where could he have gone?" I asked slowly. Her face shows that she's extremely worried and I noticed how she's pulling her fingers constantly and how she breathed hard.

"I don't know," she said, putting her head in her hands. "I... I just turned away to try to read something and when I turned back, he wasn't where I left him."

"Maybe he's just somewhere here," I said, trying to make her feel better. I tried not to move as much. The last thing I want to do is draw attention and I am a six foot tall teenage boy.

"I'm scared to check, I um, I only walk around when Stiles is with me and Luke, I lost him," Nicole said. Her eyes are brimming with tears. It's like Stiles is the only person she has.

"Why don't you call your mom or dad?" I asked, giving her a hopeful smile. "Come on, lend me your phone."

"No, I can't do that," she said, holding her pocket where her phone was placed.

"Why not? Come on. It's okay to tell them. That's even better because they'll help more with the searching. And Stiles wouldn't have gone that far yet. He's like, five, right?"

Nicole nodded. "But we can't call anyone. You're the only help I can get."

She's starting to get a little weirder as the minute passes. I don't get why we can't call her parents and why she said I'm the only help she can get. It's impossible that she has no friends because she looks kind and she's nice. I also suddenly found myself anxious about Stiles being missing. I don't know why.

Nicole pulled out her phone and unlocked it. I went closer to see what she was pressing and furrowed my eyebrows as I noticed her clicking on lots of things then back to home then she pressed another app then back to the homescreen again.

"Nicole, the contacts are on the lower left," I said, slowly.

Her finger stopped from moving. I heard her sigh and her hand started to shake. She handed her phone to me and started crying.

My eyes widened at the sight of her crying. I guided her to the bench and sat her down beside me. Something's seriously wrong and I don't know what it is. I'm not even good at these kinds of things. What am I supposed to do? I never comforted a total stranger before, except that one time when I tried to help an old lady to cross the road but she slapped me multiple times with the handbag she was carrying.

I stroked Nicole's shoulders and clicked on the contacts. I raised my eyebrows. I was definitely not expecting any of this to happen. There was a lot that was happening at the moment and my mind couldn't process everything properly. Nicole's brother is missing, she doesn't want to me call her parents, she had a hard time locating the contacts in her phone; she declares she doesn't have friends and... she only had two contacts in her phone.

One being; Luek

Two being; Aunt EmMa

I looked at Nicole. "Who placed these contacts here?"