Remember Me

Chapter 17

"We have to break up." I say the smile on Kristian's face fades and his eye color changes from emerald green to just dark green. "What?" He looks at me so confused, wondering how I could do such a thing. We've been together since the ninth grade but the feelings are just not there anymore. Kristian was talking about kids and marriage and moving away, that's just too much, I am only eighteen I can't be thinking about this now. "This is just getting too serious, I can't think about marriage now, we just started university. I want to get my career started." "And you can Monique. You are an amazing pianist; you don't need to end things so you can focus on that." He reaches to grab my hands but I take a step back. He is making this harder than I intended it to be, I don't want to break his heart but I rather do it now than later. "You are an amazing guy Kristian, who deserves an amazing girl." Kristian shakes his head and starts panting. "And that's you Monique, please can we just talk?" I shake my head no. "We are talking." For four years, I never thought that I'd ever have to say goodbye, but I do. I must. I give him a final kiss and he kisses back, wishing that it could last forever but it can't. "I love you." I say a final time. "Then don't leave me Monique." Tears begin to glide down my cheek and I quickly brush them away and hurry off.

When I wake up I find myself strapped to a seat, I look around terrified but there was no one here. There were tiny windows on either sides of I think was a plane? I removed the seat belt and got up slowly. Was I kidnapped? There were sofas aligned along the one side of the plane and two recliner like chairs on the other side with a table in front of them. "Hello?" I called. No one answered. I continued walking, heading towards what looked like a door, possibly to the cockpit. It was quiet, but I am not sure if it is too quiet. I have never been on a plane or a private jet before so I wouldn't know whether they were supposed to be chit chatty or not. I walked carefully, trying not to make any noise. Just in case I was kidnapped. Although I don't think I was, evidently because I was not tied up nor had a gag to my mouth. I opened the door slowly and let out a breath of relief when I saw who it was. "Dylan? Kristian?" Dylan pressed a button and then turned around to face me. "Monique! You're awake." I nod my head slowly, "Yeah, what's going on?" are they flying this jet? Don't you need a license or something and don't you have to be like a certain age? Suddenly I didn't feel so safe. We are like a thousand feet in the air and two nineteen year olds are flying the jet. "Well first we drugged you cupcake so we could get you on the plan then─" I interrupted Kristian. "Wait what?" Drugged me? Why the hell would they do that? "You drugged me? You prick!" I hissed. "Well yeah, otherwise you wouldn't have gotten on, even though we told you that we found a lead on Carlos."

"Wait you found a lead on Carlos?" I excitedly ask. Kristian nods his head and Dylan just places her one thumb up then continued to pilot the ship. "So where is he?" The cops are crap if with all that evidence that they had and still couldn't locate him whereas us, we were limited and found him first. All this research was finally going to pay off, all that lack of sleep and lack of food that I ate was not all for nothing. Now that pleases me. Although, this doesn't guarantee that Carlos is still alive, all that tells me is that he was located here but could possibly be...dead. I shudder at the top and try to think optimistically. "Well we are not really sure, but we are positive that he is somewhere in New Orleans, Louisiana." Promptly after Dylan says the location, I feel a sudden chill, as if there is something wrong with this location. Like a bad vibe. Therefore Carlos must definitely be here. If he is still alive that is. We had gotten off the jet and once we entered the city grounds, we were welcomed by friendly faces, loud music and dancing strangers. The streets were packed, it was amazing. There were painters encircling along a street, expressing themselves through color and images that came to their minds. This reminded me of Carlos and the painting that he had painted of me, the one where I looked so flawless, so in love, so committed and passionate. The dancers were doing all kinds of moves, moving in sync with their equals as they all shuffled through the streets slowly. Reminding me of Kristian's movements, how he moved swiftly but quickly as if he were eager to move on to the next movement. I am caught between two guys. Two really great guys, that both need saving in some sort of way. Carlos is from the men that keep him captive and Kristian is from his stubborn, barricaded self. My mind was spinning, don't I have enough to worry about. I can't even articulate how stressed I am right now. I just want to tear out the side of hair that I still have, because in the end I can only truly save one person and in the end it will be up to me to be able to find the strength to choose. "You think too much, come here." Kristian yanks me by the arm and I lunge forward, slamming straight into his chest. "What the hell?" I mumbled into Kristian's chest. He ignores me and twirls me around and starts to move us with the jazz music that played loud on the streets of New Orleans. We were supposed to be heading to this fashion house to locate Carlos and Dylan's parents-they can be of assistance somehow-I am not too sure, but there was no way we were going to be able to get there with all these people blocking our way and this music to distract us. As Kristian and I danced I scanned the crowd in search of Dylan, but she was nowhere to be found. Makes sense to why she hasn't scowled us yet. "What's wrong?" He try's shouting through the music. Not wanting to shout, I pull Kristian to the side beneath the balcony of one of the apartments, I think. "Where's Dylan?" I was too busy thinking about Carlos, again to realize that she had gone missing. Kristian shrugs his shoulders, "I was focusing on you." Well, that doesn't help at all. Could the men have gotten her too? Though once again, why wouldn't they have just taken me? I am who they are after anyways.

"Don't worry my pretties, I'm here!" Dylan pushes herself through the crowd and approaches us quickly. "Sorry it took me so long, but it's kind of hard to locate your parents when they don't carry any type of cellular device."

"Uh, Then how the hell do they contact you?" I asked.

"Email, snail mail, in which they don't write, they have a snail mail writer and an email sender."

"Well now that's a little depressing." I say

"Yeah, now come on, I was told that there is this fashion house on Bourbon Street and my mom must be there." From there we hurried off, heading for that famous street.