The Beginning to an end

Chapter Seventeen:

Drake POV

After Rose disappeared from the hospital, everyone’s been looking for her nonstop. Phoebe, the guys (including Remus and Nicoló and I went back to her house with Ruby and Sebastian I think Rose said were their names. When we got there, the first thing everyone but her parents noticed was that Rose’s car was gone. She came here sometime after she left the hospital; I hope she’s ok. When the door was unlocked, Phoebe ran up the stairs to Rose’s room with us guys following closely. Phoebe opened her door, making sure we were all inside before closing and locking the door. As she looked around the room, walking around before she disappeared through a door. We followed her and saw that it was the bathroom and attached to that was her closet. We saw that she took a lot of clothes and shoes with her. After I stopped looking around the room, I saw Phoebe standing in the middle of the room before she sat on the ottoman next to her and staring off into space.

“Phoebe?”

“She’s gone. She’s really gone… I didn’t think she would really leave.” 

“Phoebe” Alex knelt down in front of her and grabbed her hand making her look at him and then me. 

“We have to find her Alex, Drake. We have to.” I walked over and sat next to her, pulling her into a side hug.

“We will Phoeb’s. We’ll find her; I promise.” Alex was about to say something to when she pulled away quickly. “What? What’s wrong?”

“What time is it?” we all looked at her confused before looking between each other. “Don’t look at me like that and hear me out.” she leans back and pulls her phone out of her pocket. The screen lights up and her lock screen is a picture of her and Rose making funny faces at the camera; seeing it makes me smile. “It’s 3:45pm…” she whispered before standing up quickly, almost knocking over and falling onto Alex who puts his hands on her waist to steady her. “Thanks.” 

“Phoebe” she doesn’t answer as she continues to pace around and mutter while waving her hands around frantically.

“Phoebe” she continues to ignore us and we all look to each other before we all look at Alex and then to Phoebe, nodding our heads from him to her. He sighs as he gets the message before walking to her and stopping her pacing, turning her to face us.

“Phoebe! Calm down and talk to us.”

“It’s 3:45pm…”

“Ok and?” she sighed before moving back from us and start pacing again.

“So~” she draws out before looking at us and waving her arms around wildly “I know where to find Rose!” 

“How?”

“Her jobs. She never misses a shift at any of her jobs, NEVER, no matter how banged up or pissed off she is. She’s a waitress at both ‘The Lighthouse’ and ‘Spiral: Bar and Grill’. She’s working at Lighthouse tonight, til midnight.” shit...

“She works at Lighthouse AND Spiral?” Alex and Justin looked at me before back at Phoebe.

“What’s wrong? You know what; I don’t care about that right now. We’re going to go over there, talk to her and help her find a place to stay because by the looks of this closet, she’s not coming back here for a…” she trailed off as her eyes widened before she ran out and back into Rose’s bedroom.

“Damn it! It’s gone! Her safety net. Money she saved from a bunch of babysitting jobs, tutoring, waitressing, all of it; gone." we ran in and saw her shoving her hands through her hair roughly.

“What does that mean?” 

“She wouldn’t leave town or anything, maybe get a room at a hotel or inn or something? I don’t know!” she ran her hands down her face before clasping them in front of her chest before her head whipped up and she stared at us; I swear this girl is going to hurt herself someday. “We have to go. Now.”

“Phoebe, for the love of food; talk to us!” I looked at him, really Alex?

“Do you even think before you speak? Of course you don’t”

“Shut up Justin!”

“Make me.”

“Enough! I’m not in the mood nor do I have the patience to deal with you two.”

“Sorry…” I sighed before walking towards the door and unlocking it.

“Let’s go, we’re going to Lighthouse.”

Phoebe locked Rose’s room, we walked downstairs and heard people in the kitchen. We saw Ruby and Sebastian cleaning up the mess from the fight from earlier while they talked back and forth. We all edged closer as much as we could to hear better.

“I told you this would be a bad idea but you didn’t listen.” what are they talking about? I looked at Justin and Alex as they nodded to me. I did the same before looking back and taking out my phone, angling it to where I could record their conversation but still stay hidden as I hit record.

“Ruby, I’m not in the mood to have this discussion with you again.”

“Well too bad! I told you. I told you that if we took that little b***h in, that this would happen but you didn’t listen! You never do! And look where it’s gotten us! How do you think he’s going to react when he finds out that we lost her? Huh!? Did you ever think of anything besides cashing out?”

“Shut the f**k up, Ruby! God, you’re so annoying! Always whining, always complaining, always trying to prove you’re right and better than me. Just shut up for once so I can think!”

“WE DON’T HAVE TIME FOR YOU TO USE YOUR SMALL ASS BRAIN TO THINK! WE NEED TO RUN FOR IT BEFORE HE COMES AFTER US! BECAUSE  HE WILL ONCE HE FINDS OUT THAT SHE’S DISAPPEARED!” who is this ‘he’ they keep talking about?

“He won’t so calm down.”

“And how do you know that he won’t find out? Hm?”

“This is why I didn’t want to team up with you to do this job.”

“Yeah well, I kept telling you it wasn’t too late to take her back to her parents and if we did, we wouldn’t have almost died today when her family came looking for her!”

“So what, Ruby? Should we have told her from the very beginning that we weren’t her parents and that we stole her from her actual family all because we got paid by unknown person to do it? All because he wanted her for himself? I know you don’t like her but I didn’t think you so heartless to give her up to a murdering maniac!” what the f**k did he just say!? All the guys including myself wanted to kill them while Phoebe had her hands over her mouth, crying.

“I never cared about her and I still don’t! But at least we wouldn’t have to be running for our lives right now if we didn’t take this stupid job! We were just supposed to kidnap her and take her to him; not have to take care of her!”

“Shut up!”

“We should be out there looking for her too. If we find her first, we can just take her to him and maybe he would let us live?”

“Are you insane!? I don’t want to be anywhere near him ever again! Do you not remember the last time we met with him?  We barely made it out of that house of horrors alive and now you want to go back? If we hadn’t taken this job, you would’ve never been able to afford your life of luxury; none of it without the money he gave us every month to spend on her instead of ourselves. If you want to walk to your death, I’m not stopping you. But don’t think that if you hand her over, you will walk out unharmed.”

I stopped recording and we walked backwards to the front door, running for our cars. Justin was with me, Alex and Phoebe were behind us, followed by Remus and Nico.

We pulled into the school’s parking lot, Justin jumped out and into his car before following us to Lighthouse. I looked at the dash and it was 5:15pm, meaning Rose is barely into her shift. My dash showed an unknown number was calling which meant that Remus or Nico was calling.

“Let me patch everyone else in.” I added Alex and Justin to the call and told them to put their phones on speaker.

“Once we get to Rose, we need to make sure we don’t freak her out ok? I don’t want to risk her collapsing and passing out again. Understood?” 

“Don’t need to tell us twice” 

“Good. You there Phoebe? You know Rose the best. If we asked her to leave her shift early and come with us no questions asked, would she?”

“I would say before today maybe but after today? Not a chance.” I let out a frustrated groan. In the short time I’ve known her she is one of the most stubborn people I know. “Drake, this is Rose we’re talking about. She’s always stubborn.”

“Whatever. We’re almost there and since she won’t leave, I guess we’ll be staying there and keeping an eye on her til she gets off.”

I disconnected the call as we pulled into the parking lot and got out, making our way inside. The Lighthouse is a 2-story seafood restaurant and just so happens to be just one of the several restaurants my family owns; another one being Spiral.

“Welcome to The Light…” the hostess looked up from her chart, her eyes widening as she saw us before the manager came running over the next second.

“Mr. Stokes. Welcome, we didn’t know that you were coming by today.”

“How else am I supposed to see if the service is good or not?”

“Of course, sir. Our service is the best of the best.”

“Good. Now I have a question.”

“...Yes, sir?”

“What section is Rose Meyers working in tonight?”

“She’s working in section 2.” section 2 is on the second floor and both do waitressing and bartending. 

“Perfect. My friends and I want to be sat in that section.” he grabbed 6 menus and brought us to our table. 

“Rose will be with you in a moment, sir. Please enjoy your visit and let me know if you need anything at all.” I nodded and he rushed away just as fast as he showed up. 

A few minutes later, I saw Rose walking towards us with her head down and writing something on her notepad. The uniform hugged all her curves, and her hair was tied up into a somewhat loose pony. As she got closer to the table, she saw us and starting to walk away. But we are also customers right now. After a bit, she started walking before stopping at the front of the table and cleared her throat.

“Welcome to The Lighthouse. My name is Rose and I’ll be your server for this evening. Can I start you guys off with some drinks? Maybe some appetizers?” I wonder how long she’s been working here and I never noticed her?

“I’m sorry if I’m acting like a b***h, I’m not trying to. It’s just.. I’ve been on shift for an hour and I want to punch Michael in the face.” Michael is the manager that tried to suck up to all of us. “Ok I need to get to work or I’m going to get yelled at again. What can I get you guys to drink? Fee?”

“Coke”

“Drake?”

“Same for me and the twins”

“Ok Remus? Nico?”

“Dr Pepper for us”

“Any appetizers? Calamari? Crab Cakes? Coconut Shrimp? Maybe mozzarella sticks? I recommend the Calamari and mozzarella sticks.”

“Then we’ll go with those. Two orders each”

“Ok, and are you guys ready to order as well? Or do you need a few more minutes?”

“A few more minutes” she nodded before saying she’ll be back after she puts in the orders for the appetizers. 

“Wow..” we looked at Remus and Nico as they were looking at Rose walking around.

“Who knew we had such an amazing, nice and beautiful little sister? Kinda pisses me off that mom and dad never told us about her disappearing.”

“Nico, I don’t think that they would let their little girl be kidnapped. Which is why they’ve spent all this time searching for her well but we had no idea she was our sister until we found a note that our personal PI sent our parents.”

“What did it say?”

“The PI said that he finally found Rose and that she was just a few hours away from us. She was so close the whole time and we just now found out about her.” 

“If we had looked for her more seriously, we could’ve stopped the bullying and taken her back home. Why do I feel like we’ve failed her?”

“You guys didn’t fail her. Not at all.”

“They’re right Remus, Nico. You guys didn’t fail me at all so don’t even say stuff like that.” we looked over as Rose started putting everything in front of us. 

“But Rose, we…”

“Nope not gonna hear it so shut it. What can I get you guys to eat? Fee, do you want your normal?”

“Yep! I love the baked garlicky shrimp alfredo here.”

“Ok, what about you twins?”

“Grilled halibut for me and pan-fried Tilapia for Justin” ah they switched it up for once.

“Ok and Remus?”

“I’ll get the seafood spaghetti please and can I get extra shrimp, little sis?” Rose paused for a second before writing it down.

“It’s going to take a little while before I get used to that.. What about you Nico? What can I get you?”

"I’ll have the garlicky lemon Mahi Mahi” she nodded before turning to me.

“And for you Drake? What do you want to eat?”

“I’ll have the Tuscan butter salmon and you Rose.” I smiled when she gasped before blushing slightly.

“You’re such a flirt I swear..”

“Only for you babe” Before she could say something else, Michael came over looking pissed for some reason as he stopped behind Rose and turned her around forcefully. 

“Rose. Why are you just standing around chatting when you’re supposed to be doing you job? The one I pay you for!?” I saw Rose clench her fist like she was going to punch him which in all honesty I would love to see but she took a deep breath and stared at him instead; pity...

“I am doing my job, Michael or at least I’m trying to. I can’t when you keep bothering me every two minutes.”

“You…” I stood up and stood next to Rose before putting my arm around her waist, pulling her to me as I glared at Michael. 

“M-Mr. Stokes?” I saw all the guys stand up, they were about to walk over and stand next to us but Rose lifted her hand before stepping in front of me.

“Let’s get some things straight, Michael. The only reason I’m still here and that you haven’t fired me like you keep saying you will is because you know that the customers, the people who come here regularly, like me and would be very upset if they found out that you fired me. I’m one of the best workers here and you know this but you hate it. You worked your ass off for almost 10 years to get the position of manager and you’re afraid that since I’m good that I’ll take your position…” she stepped back a bit and I laid a hand her waist, giving it a light squeeze before she continued. “I get that you’re angry that I do a better job but I’m already having a crappy day and you being rude is just making it worse. So if you want me to stay on shift and not walk out right now then I suggest you go watch some of the other employee’s that are just standing around on their phones and chatting and make them do their job instead of making everyone think that I never do mine. I clean up everyone messes because they never do, especially yours. I stay after my shift ends to make sure everything is ready for the next day and I somehow end up staying a couple hours after everyone else does. I help the kitchen when they are low-staffed, I make all the drinks whether they are alcoholic or not. So please, tell me what reasons you think that I don’t do my job because I’m all ears.” she leaned back against me as I tightened my grip on her waist. I looked at Phoebe and she was smirking as well as the guys. I looked back at Michael and it looked like he was about say something most likely to bad mouth her again but I leaned down and kissed her cheek, looking at him to try anything. I felt Rose tense and then relax but Michael had other ideas. We heard a lot of people walk in before Michael looked down and walked away but not before glaring at Rose first. Looks like I’ll need to have a chat with him with how he treats and looks after the employees here.

Rose turned around, looking behind me at everyone before wrapping her arms around me while I did the same; you know, in case Michael is still watching or something.

“Sorry about that you guys. Let me go put your orders in for your food. Enjoy the drinks and appetizers. I need to go take care of my other tables.” she hugged me once more before looking at Phoebe as they both did a two-finger kiss to each other and walked away. I sat back down and watched her type some stuff into a computer before walking over to her other tables, taking their orders and getting them drinks. She took orders from 3 tables and got them drinks before walking to the bar and grabbing a bunch of ingredients. I saw her grab some strawberries, mangoes, ice, a bottle of alcohol but I can’t see what it is from here, a lime and another bottle of something before grabbing a blender. 

We all watched as she sliced and put the strawberries, ice, alcohol, and what I’m guessing is syrup into the blender before cutting the lime in half and squeezing some of it into the blender to. She blended it together until splitting it into 2 glasses before rinsing the blender. She cut up 3 mangoes, putting them into the blender as well as ice, alcohol, lime juice and syrup. After it was blended, she added it to the glasses before swirling it to make a pattern and put some strawberries that were on a pick across the glasses before putting them on a tray and taking them to one of the tables. Amazing… 

“Pretty good isn’t she?” I looked at Phoebe as she was smiling at Rose who looked over and waved at us which we all returned.

“Yeah she is, I wonder what that drink was”

“Mango and Strawberry Daiquiri. Rose loves making it so whenever someone orders it, she gets really happy. Well any drink her customers order, she loves making. She says that whenever someone is down whether it’s about work, school, life; she tries her best to make them happy and reminds them that no matter how hard life can get, you should never stop smiling or give up. Like I said before… she’s an amazing person.” we all looked over at Rose again as she talked and laughed with everyone before walking away to what I think is the kitchen. After a few minutes she walked out with a huge tray of food and walked over to us. She stopped a couple tables before us, grabbed a pitcher off of a cart and stopped to refill a couples glasses of water before walking again.

When she got to us, she put a chair thing down and set the tray down on it before putting our food in front of us.

“Ok guys. Shrimp alfredo for Phoebe, grilled halibut for Alex, pan-fried Tilapia for Justin, seafood spaghetti with extra shrimp for Remus, Mahi Mahi for Nico and salmon for Drake. Anything else for you guys besides refills on the drinks?” 

“Oh! Can I get…”

“Extra sauce? I got you Fee, I’ll go grab that. Anything else?” 

“A kiss?”

“Drake..”

“Please? I did help with Michael and if he sees it, then he won’t mess with you anymore.” I’m not entirely sure if that would work since Michael is a suck-up and a jerk but let’s see what happens.

“I highly doubt that but since you’ve helped me a lot today, why not?” I smirked as she leaned down before kissing my cheek and stepping away. 

“That’s it?”

“Yep.” she smiled at me and although I’m sad that I didn’t get a better or longer one, her smile is something I can never ever be mad at. She picked up the tray and chair thing, put it away before taking more orders and making more drinks. By now it was almost 6:30 and people were pouring in, some with their families and some by themselves with bags of work to do while enjoying time alone. About a minute passed and Rose came rushing over with a small dish, putting down in front of Phoebe, giving her a fist bump and walking away quickly to take care of her other tables. After we finished eating, Rose came over and asked us if we wanted dessert and of course, Alex said yes as she handed each of us a dessert menu.

“Ok Alex, what can I get you for dessert?” 

“I’ll get a raspberry sorbet and the orange crush pound cake.”

“Ok anyone else want anything? Phoebe? We have a shortcut version of strawberry shortcake, do you want some?” Phoebe looked like a kid in a candy store and I’m not kidding about that.

“Yes! I want strawberry shortcake!”

“What do you mean by shortcut version, sis?”

“Well instead of it being the traditional cake version, it’s strawberries and whipped cream between two buttery and flaky biscuits. The filling goes great with the biscuits and it’s just plain delicious.”

“Oh gotcha. I’ll have... oh I’ll have the key lime cheesecake parfait.”

“Sure thing, Nico. Remus? What about you? Do you want anything?”

“I’m not sure, what do you recommended?”

“Since you had shrimp with your meal, you could try our lime bars? They’re perfect for eating after you’ve had shrimp or lobster. Or we also have a lemon sour cream cake, the lemon glaze is a perfect balance for the cake.”

“Hmm I’ll take the lime bars, thanks little sis.”

“Justin? Do you want anything? You strike me as a simple dessert kind of guy. Let’s see, something simple… If you like bananas, we have a dessert called bananas foster. The bananas are caramelized in brown sugar and butter and it’s even better with rum. It’s served on top of vanilla ice cream. Or we have just normal cheesecake and pies.”

“I’ll take the banana dessert.”

I leaned my chin on my hand and looked at her. I already knew what dessert I wanted and the name suits her more than it does the dessert.

“And for you, Drake?”

“I’ll have the heaven on earth cake please.”

“Ooo what’s that?”

“It’s like angel food cake, custard and cherry pie all rolled up into one. Add the whipped cream on top and that’s why it’s called heaven on earth. It combines both sweet and tangy while also combining light and creamy.”

“That sounds so good…” we all laughed as we could see Phoebe starting to drool a little. Rose walked away and came back a few minutes later with a desserts and a black bill holder. She set everything in front of everyone before putting the bill on the table.

“You guys don’t have to worry about the bill. It’s already been taken care off.” all of us froze as we stared at her.

“Rose.. you didn’t..”

“What? No! It wasn’t me, it was Michael! Do you honestly think I would get away with that? You guys would be yelling at me if I even did do it.” well she’s not lying… 

“Damn right we would!”

“Ok well here’s a copy of the receipt and enjoy your day guys.” she started to walk away but I grabbed her hand and pulled her back making her fall and sit on my lap. She tensed and tried to get off but I wrapped my arms around her, holding her in place. 

“Drake let me go. I’m at work and need to get back to it.”

“I’ll let you go but I need to tell you something first ok?” she stayed tense for a while before relaxing and leaning against me.

“What do you need to tell me that I can’t stand up for?”

“Well… when we tell you, you aren’t going to be happy and this is just a precaution so that you don’t run away is all..” that’s not going to make her want to stay either.

“You do know hearing that just makes me want to leave more, right Phoebe?” 

“Oh well whatever. We’re worried about you Rose, ok? So we’re going to be staying until you get off work. Where are you staying by the way?” good question, Phoeb’s..

“Somewhere” 

“Rose. You can tell us now or we can follow you after you get off. Your choice.” I leaned forward to see her face and saw that she was biting the side of the lip that wasn’t split open. 

“Well… I was going to get a hotel room at first but as I left the house, I decided to get an apartment instead.. That way what I would pay at a hotel for a couple nights, I would pay that same amount for the apartment every month..”