Page 63 of Chase

Yasmin waves her phone in the air in response.

“What the fuck dude?” Rhys says, smacking him in the back of the head. “The restraining order gets finalised next week.” We met with Mr Gilmore when we got back from New Hope. I found a tracker on Arden’s car, and that was enough for a temporary restraining order.

“She mauled me.”

“That isn’t what I saw,” Ally retorts. “You had her pinned to the wall and it looked like you were enjoying it.”

“ARDEN!” Yasmin yells.

He holds his hands up in a defensive way. “Okay, so she mauled me first, and I’m male. I wasn’t thinking with my brain.” He’s on the defensive and if I’m honest, it’s actually quite amusing.

“That’s a shitty excuse,” Yasmin tells him with a huff.

We’re distracted from putting shit on Arden when Julia walks in.

“Where’s Millie?” Yasmin asks, her mouth full of dumpling.

“I thought she was with you?” Julia says as she sits in an empty chair. “I haven’t seen her since this morning,” Julia adds while putting food on her plate.

I see the panic take over. Yasmin stops eating and picks her phone up off the table. She presses a button and puts it to her ear.

I can hear Millie’s voicemail pick up the call. It didn’t even ring.

Yasmin starts to shake as she tries again and again. I lose track of how many times she tries to call Millie. She sends text messages between leaving messages. Yasmin stands and starts pacing the restaurant.

“She’s probably just with friends,” I say trying to calm her down a little. She’s close to the edge.

“Who? Julia is here, and she hasn’t mentioned anyone else,” Yasmin says, the panic in her voice putting me on edge.

“Calm down, we’ll find her.”

“Don’t tell me to calm down. You don’t understand,” Yasmin spits out.

“Julia any ideas of where she could be?” I ask. She shakes her head, worry settling over her features as well. Yasmin furiously keeps trying to call Millie.

“We’ll split up, to try and find her,” Arden suggests.

“No, it’s too late. She could’ve been missing for hours. How could I’ve been so fucking stupid? I was supposed to protect her.” She mutters typing out another message on her phone.

“What do you mean? Protect her? She’s just a teenager. She’s probably just with friends. Her phone might’ve died. She’ll be okay. She’s a smart girl,” Arden says.

“Don’t try to tell me she’ll be okay. What do you know? You’ve been surrounded by security your entire life. You have the perfect life, enough money to buy anything you want and parents that support you.” Yasmin glares at Arden while speaking at him.

“Yasmin…” Ally says.

“Don’t you start. You and Rhys need to sort your fucking shit out. We all know that you like each other. This whole avoiding each other is bullshit and makes it fucking uncomfortable for us.” Yasmin aims her words at Ally, not even looking away when she lands the final blow and tears form in Ally’s eyes.

She’s pushing us away and I have no fucking idea why.

“Yas…” Rhys tries to warn.

“Don’t fucking bother Rhys. You hated me the moment that you met me. I guess I’m doing you a favour. Your group can go back to just the four of you. It’s what you always wanted right? It was easier to pine over the girl you could never have when no one notices or questions your motives? You’ve been lying to yourself for years because you’re too scared to stand up to your dad. Grow a pair Rhys. Be the big bad scary wolf you make yourself out to be.” I watch Rhys’ face turn to stone. It’s scary as fuck.

“Yasmin. Stop.” My words coming out harsher than I intended, but it works. She brings her eyes to mine and leaves my best friend alone. Rhys is furious, Ally is in tears and Arden is confused. None of us have any fucking clue as to what’s going on and why she’s reacting the way she is.

“I’m leaving anyway. I need to find Millie.” She says grabbing her keys and making her way to the door. I catch up to her and spin her around to face me.

“What’s going on? I’m coming with you.” Her eyes briefly search mine. I can see how scared she is. Her walls are firmly in place. The walls that I have witnessed come down more and more over the past few weeks.

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