Playing Poker [BEING REWRITTEN]

20| Frozen

Weston

I ran as fast as possible, the cool spring breeze blew past me. Even with how fast I was running, I was dreading knocking on the door when I arrived. I finally made it to the doorstep and took a quick second to catch my breath before rapidly knocking.

As soon as it opened, I regretted knocking immediately but at this point, I didn't have a choice, my best friend was at stake.

"You know this is the last place I want to be."

"Hello-"

"Weston, listen to me, I'm going to send you the address to where I'm going tonight and you are going to call the police at exactly 6:38. No sooner, no later. Tell them I'm in trouble. Got it?"

"Rayland, what the hell are you talking about? Please don't tell me you are actually-"

"I don't have time to explain. Do you got it or not?"

"Yeah."

"What do you want?" I was greeted with the face of Jayden, I paced my way inside the house, ignoring his glare.

"Where's Rayland?" I rushed out. He stared at me for a moment then started to laugh.

"You came all the way over here for your little crush, you're more desperate than I thought." He bellowed in laughter, attracting his younger brothers.

"Look, I don't care what 'feud' we have or whatever but she could be in danger right now so is she here or not." He scanned my face for a lie and once he sensed my urgency, he sighed and led me to Rayland's room.

I knocked on the door and called her name a couple of times before twisting the door knob only to realize it was empty. Jayden and the rest of his family that followed upstairs looked shocked at my discovery and immediately started to panic.

While they searched the house, I called her phone. Like expected, she didn't answer but I heard her ringtone coming from the bedroom. I picked up the phone and sat down on her bed with a huff, tears threatened to come out but concealed them and began typing in her phone password. Her birthday, how predictable.

I went through the messages from yesterday and found a thread of threatening messages from the same contact, including pictures of the Brown family and her twin, Ryan.

"What is that?" A voice from above startled me. There stood Blake, an alarmed look was plastered on his face even with his unbothered stance.

"What are you doing here?" I questioned. Blake was by far, the worst stepbrother to Ray. She always tried to express that it didn't bother her but it was obvious she wanted him to not hate her at least. Why he was even remotely worried beats me.

"Real question is what are you doing here but I spare the casualties so I'll ask again, what is that?" I knew he wasn't going to let this go, I eventually handed him the phone and watched his face get redder as he scrolled.

"She was hiding this the whole time?" He asked angrily, even if his anger didn't seem directed at her. "Who even is this prick?" He slammed the phone on the bed.

"Her aunt's ex-boyfriend." I muttered with my head down, the lump in my throat got bigger, making it hard to even swallow. Every time I went to her house, I knew she was in trouble but she always told me not to tell anyone because it would make it worse, and my dumbass believed her.

"Dammit. This is all my fault." I put my head in my hands. Every time I went to her house, I knew she was in trouble but she always told me not to tell anyone because it would make it worse, and my dumbass believed her.