Caleb

Caleb waited until Izzy drove off and he began to shiver before trudging back inside.

What the hell just happened?

He collapsed onto the couch, resting his head in his hands and rubbing his forehead. Izzy was so dramatic. Clearly, she'd misunderstood what he meant. He'd never be interested in her if he thought she was stupid. She had to know that.

Unless, she didn't.

Rewinding their interactions, he searched for a single compliment. What had he said to her? I can't believe you've never been to Great Smokies. You looked tired. It feels like you're avoiding talking about things. Don't be stupid. You freeze up when you're stressed

Admittedly, not great.

However, his actions should have been clear. Going out into the woods with her; organizing the second trip to the abandoned hospital; getting the blood sample run; helping her get down the mountain after she passed out. Why would he do all that if he didn't care about her? Well, aside from the sheer possibilities that investigating this disappearance suggested.

But he didn't know that at first.

Plus, she did stress easily.

And she had been giving mixed signals.

Besides, she'd probably pass out if he told her she was beautiful. Or, even worse, directly asked why she'd been so hot and cold. It's like she was allergic to even facing her feelings, let alone discussing them.

Ludicrous, really. Not talking about it didn't improve the situation. Quite the opposite. The more time they spent together, the more off-balance she seemed, to the point that she'd literally tripped over her own feet outside.

In many ways, Izzy wore her emotions so openly that she was his polar opposite. But as open as she could be, she'd also been hiding things. A lot of things. Hiding them well, too. A whole different person hid under that shallow cheerleader exterior she'd exuded for the past couple of years.

That's what intrigued him – trying to figure her out. Since that first time he humored her with that trip to the woods, he'd been interested. Maybe now she'd realize how much since he'd given her that stupid countdown like he was some kind of pickup artist. Thank the false gods, it'd worked. Otherwise... no, there was no otherwise. No point in dwelling. It worked. It just worked so well that he completely lost himself in her. So much for being in control of the situation.

He rubbed his fingers against his scalp. A million other topics demanded attention, yet all he could think about was Izzy. Kissing her and the softness of her hair when he ran his fingers through it. And that tiny little indent in her chin. And the way she smelled like magnolias and nutmeg and some other fresh flower. How when she got mad her blue eyes sparked and her face got hot and damn did that make him want to kiss her some more.

The door to the music room popped open, and Chord stuck his head out. "You, uh, you alone?"

Caleb looked up and gestured at the empty room. "Far as I know."

Chord opened the door wider. "Coast is clear, guys." He came out, grabbed a slice of pizza, and dropped onto the couch. Cymbals clattered in the other room.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Chord looked half amused, half embarrassed. "We just wanted to make sure your girlfriend was gone."

"Izzy's not my girlfriend," Caleb said automatically. At least, not yet.

"Coulda fooled me." Chord leaned back, stretching his long legs.

His eyes widened. "You didn't."

"No, you didn't. As in, you didn't even come up for air when we opened the door."

Caleb groaned and buried his head in his hands again. "That noise."

"Yeah. I maybe slammed the door when we retreated back into the practice room. Oops."

He looked over at his brother. "So you saw...."

"More than I wanted to. I mean, here I was, all prepared to give you some brotherly advice, 'cause of the vibe I was picking up between you two." Chord laughed. "Turns out, I should be hitting you up for pointers. Damn." He shoved half of the slice in his mouth.

"No, you shouldn't. And, I really, wow. I don't even know what to say." Caleb wrapped his fingers behind his head, studying the Berber carpet.

Riley bounced out of the room. "Girls, amirite? Still bringing you home, Chord?"

He swallowed with effort. "Yeah, one sec."

"Okie dokie! Gotta finish packing my drum set anyway." She twirled around.

"Look at me," Chord ordered.

Caleb sighed and raised his head.

"What'd you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"All I know is if I just kissed a girl like that, I'd be bouncing around this room like Riley after a bag of Skittles. Not moping around on the old pull-out couch."

The door to the top of the stairs banged. "Caleb!"

"Yeah, Mom?"

"Dinner's ready! Let Chord know in case he wants to stay."

"Thanks! Be up in a couple of minutes." He turned back to Chord. "You want dinner?"

"Nah, not hungry. And you dodged the question." He shoved the rest of the slice into his mouth and buttoned up his shirt.

"I'm not really the bouncing type."

Chord laughed, almost choking on the pizza. "For real," he said after a minute.

"And I inadvertently called her stupid."

"What an idiot," Jaxon said, carrying an amp out of the practice room with a guitar slung across his back. "Chord, your brother's an idiot."

Riley backed out of the room, hauling her kit in a couple of hard-shelled carrying cases. A small drum began slipping off the top of the pile. "Jaxon, I told you to grab the snare!"

Jaxon rolled his eyes but grabbed the drum before it slipped.

"And he's not completely stupid because I've never seen you kiss a girl like that," Riley said.

"That's because I don't really like girls." Jackson flipped his hair out of his face.

"Ok, Morrissey. You don't really like anyone. How could I forget?" Riley set the kit down for a moment. "Caleb, you need to apologize to that girl and figure out a way to make it up to her. Got it?"

Difficult to do when she'd probably refuse to talk to him. Maybe he should just try to kiss her again. Fifty-fifty she'd go for it if she thought she could avoid talking. "I already apologized."

"Wonderful. I hope it works out and you make lots of babies together." She grabbed the cases. "Come on, Chord."

Caleb glared as Chord laughed and held out his hand for a complicated sequence of high-fives. "Text me later if you need anything."

Caleb nodded. "Thanks. And Riley? I was going to say you could borrow my set next time, but forget it."

She stuck her tongue out of him. "I need practice with the travel kit, anyway." Then they left, hauling their equipment out the door.

"Food's getting cold," his mother yelled from upstairs. His stomach growled right on cue. Maybe after dinner, he'd work things out with the drums. It'd been weeks since he'd played and it'd probably feel good. Better than imagining Izzy at the stupid party or thinking about kissing her all night.

His phone buzzed when he grabbed it to go upstairs. Ren.

Ren: Busy right now? Cuz we got a situation here.

Caleb: Dinner first. 45 minutes.

So much for the drums.

𓄿𓄿𓄿

"What's so bad you couldn't tell me over text?"

"Usually people start with hello, Caleb," Dara shouted from the living room.

"She's not wrong." Ren stepped aside and let him into the house.

"You didn't start with hello, either." He walked to the kitchen table and sat down.

Ren shrugged, shoving aside a dirty plate as she dropped into the chair beside him.

Dara refocused her attention on her mandolin, picking up "Battle of Evermore" from the beginning.

"So?" He leaned forward and clasped his fingers together.

"Check it." Ren slid her phone over and pressed play.

Some guy on YouTube rambled on about cryptids over way too many graphics. At the record scratch, Caleb paused the screen. "Can't you just summarize this? I'm already getting a headache."

"No. Suffer." She reached over and unpaused it.

"I can barely hear the guy over all the sound effects." Until he caught the name Stark Raven James. His eyes widened, and he backed it up a few seconds, adding the captions.

"Dara, kill the music, will ya?" Ren shouted.

Not helping the headache. "He's talking about the live stream where James and Austin vanished?"

Dara stopped playing. "Yes. It's all over the internet. Now you don't have to listen to this insufferable jerk." She continued to play from where she left off. "You're welcome."

Caleb's eyes darted to Ren. "Earbuds."

"All yours." She flipped a small black case to him.

He stuck them in his ears and resumed watching.

"Besides the fact they haven't dropped any new videos lately, the real question is – where's this building even at? Vermont? Louisiana? Seen lots of guesses out there, but no one knows for sure. What we do know is that it's kicked off a whole new wave of urban exploration!" Cut to a clip of Laura Croft rappelling down a building. "And don't forget to drop your thoughts in the comments below if you think you've solved this riddle!" Cue the drawing of Sherlock Holmes. "But, be careful, my spooky sleuths. because this one may actually be haunted." A ghostly howl sounded over an animation of the Scooby Gang running across a room."And James and Austin, if you're watching, hit us up!" A photo of the boys from some earlier video popped up in the corner. "Cause your fans are shook and it's kinda selfish keeping those ghosts all to yourselves!"

Caleb yanked the earbuds out as the obnoxious outro music played. "Well, that's going to make everything more difficult."

"That's it? That's all you got?" Ren asked.

"What do you want me to say? We knew it was a possibility it'd still get leaked. That's the problem with the internet. Once something's out there, it can never be completely scrubbed."

Ren tapped her index finger against the table. "Valid. That's why I hate social media."

Caleb nodded in agreement. "The other thing is, if we want to get back into that hospital, we need to do it before someone figures the location out."