Looking for Something

Chapter 15

I am bound to you

I am bound to you

So much, so young, I've faced on my own

Walls I built up became my home

I'm strong and I'm sure there's a fire in us

Sweet love, so pure

I catch my breath with just one beating heart

And I embrace myself, please don't tear this apart.

-Christina Aguilera

~~Sydney~~

"Come on ladies! How many times do we have to do this dance before you get it right?" Caroline badgers the poor freshmen that are coming in this year.

We are practicing and teaching the girls the small stuff. Caroline made me co-captain this year. Last year's co-cap was a senior and now I take her place. Now, we don't let just anyone on the team, so there was something special about each one of these ten girls, but I can see that getting up early is going to take a lot of time to adjust to.

"Oh my gosh, Syd, take over. I have to go talk to Mrs. Freeman before classes start." She walks over and grabs her purse off the table.

"Okay." Mrs. Freeman is basically our sponsor. She is over the entire team, and gets our uniforms, water, places to practice, competitions, and anything else you can think of. One thing she does not do is sleep." Alright ladies, I'm not going to hold my tongue. You guys are sucking ass right now. What happened to what you showed us at tryouts?"

"Well, if your girl would slow down some in teaching us this stuff maybe we would do better!" A few anonymous "yeas" come from the group. I look at Ashley. By far she is my favorite freshie, just because of her personality, but she still has a lot to learn about life. I am willing to teach her if she is willing to listen.

I walk over and stand beside her. "Ashley. Do the dance with me."

"Didn't you just hear me? Carol---whatever is moving too fast."

"Her name is Caroline." I look over at where some of the other upper classmen are surrounding the radio. "Kelsie, start the music." She nods and then presses play. "Do what you know! Mock your stunts...alright? 5, 6, 7, 8!" We start and she stays with me. To my satisfaction she does the whole dance, every move and that helps me prove my point. When we finish all you hear is us breathing and the clapping of everyone with us. "Now see, you know the dance. You just think you don't." I walk over to the bleachers and get my water bottle. "Stop doubting yourselves. I bet if I went with each of you one by one, more than half of you would have it down, if not all. Stop watching each other and trust in the fact that you know the steps. If a person in the front row messes up and everyone in the next row is watching the person in front of them, you all will mess up."

"Okay, so I have a question though." A girl named Kaitlyn says this.

"Okay, shoot."

"How long did it take your group of freshmen to learn the routine. Do they stay the same?"

"It took us individually longer, but that is because, we didn't have somebody talking to you, like I am now. You got this. Just be more confident."

"Okay, so is this the same routine from when you were a freshman?"

"No ma'am. Someone makes a new one every year. And it is made complicating on purpose. To make you see what you can really do."

"Well, who made this one, because this s**t hard as hell." I laugh and walk back over towards them.

"I did. Now Kaitlyn and Kirklynn. You two come stand beside me." They are twins and I swear, I only know which is which because Kirklynn has a birthmark under her eye. "Alright. Again, do up to what you know and mock your stunts." Kelsie starts the music from the beginning and we do the routine. I do this with every single girl, and I had to correct a few moves for a small amount, but for the most part, they knew more than they thought.

After practice I decide to head to my dorm for a shower, then I will work on my paper due in English next Wednesday. Maybe I can also start on my art composition too.

"Sydney, Sydney." I look behind me and Ashley from the team runs to catch up with me. "I just wanted to say thank you."

"For what?"

"For actually working with us. You know? I know that being captain is very stressful for Caroline, but co-captain is just as stressful and you still took the time and paid attention to us as individuals. Something we all needed."

"It's my role. I just have a different approach from her. That's all."

"So, why aren't you captain this year?"

"Before I answer your question, why do you think I should be captain?"

"I mean, you're a great dancer, you have the patience, and you seem much better than Carol...what's her name?"

"Caroline and thank you. I actually got offered the position before she did, but I declined."

"Why?"

"Well I--"

"Babe, where are you headed?" Mickie pops up out of nowhere. The smile I always have for him immediately shows.

"To my dorm, why?"

"Can you take this and I will just get it later on today?" He hands me his backpack and I put it on my back. It is actually kind of light today.

"Of course, handsome."

"Thanks, I have to go. I'm already late." He pecks me on the lips then takes off in the direction of the football field. His ass is almost always late. And he always has to pay for it in practice.

"Damn, good job girl?" Ashley looks back at him running towards the field. I just laugh.

"Thank you."

"How long you been with him?" I half hear her question because my phone buzzes and I see I have a text from that same unknown number. Yes, Mickie knows about every text I get and then he gets angrier every day. We don't know what to do about it, because all I get are texts and anonymous gifts. Nothing more, nothing less. We both are leaning towards it just being Chantelle messing with us, and really? This is the best she's got?

Unknown: Why'd you do that?! I'm so sick of this. I'm getting very tired of your bullshit Sydney and now I am about to just take care of it. Remember, you made me do this and I never intended for us to meet this way...

Okay, that one scares me a little. This is the first time this person has ever said anything about us meeting. Only hopes and dreams about it, but now they sound too sure.

"Hello? Sydney?" My head snaps up and I see Ashley is looking at me with a concerned look.

"Oh um, what did you say? I'm sorry."

"How long have you been with your boyfriend?"

"Oh, it will be four years in two weeks."

"Damn, y'all are so cute together. Well, I have to go. Class in an hour. Y'all and this three in the morning stuff is going to murder me. For real!" I just laugh as she sort of jogs off. I take a right towards my dorm too lost in my thoughts. I move out of the way for a couple jogging and get back on the path.

Unknown: Ugh...God, I love you. Hopefully you realize that you feel the same.

What the----s**t! What the hell was that? Something hits my head with such a force that my vision instantly goes blurry. A fat figure is standing over me and I cannot see who the f**k it is. s**t, let me stay up, ooo Lord, please let me stay awake! Once I go out, no telling what's going to happen next.

I feel myself being dragged across the concrete. Whoever it is pulls my body off a sidewalk, and that is the last thing I remember when my head drops off, hits the street, and I am out cold.

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~~Dominic~~

"Dee, you wanna go get something to eat with us?" Chance, Ken, and Craig are standing by Ken's car when I walk by.

"Uh, yea sure."

"Alright, we are heading home first though." I nod my head and throw my stuff into the backseat of my truck. I dial Syd's number and put it on speaker phone. I start my truck and take off towards the house.

"Hi, this is Sydney, sorry I was not here to take your call. Pl---" I press end. She must be busy doing some homework. Ugh, once she starts working with music on, she cannot hear a thing. I park in the driveway of our house since I am the first one back. Five minutes later Chance and them pulled up in front of the house. We all went in and went to our separate rooms. I dial Syd one more time, still no answer so I just get into the shower. I wonder what she is doing though.

I put some comfortable clothes on, grab my phone and wallet, then I go and wait for the rest of them. Ken is sitting on the couch when I come out so I just sit down and watch TV with him. I send Syd a text that says 'call me' then I just leave it at that. She will get back to me when she can.

"Aye, everyone ready to go?"

"Yea bruh, I'm starving!" Ken hops up off the couch and I follow him and Craig out with Chance behind me. We all climb into Ken's car and take off.

"Y'all ready for this game Friday though? We're going against Kentucky!"

"Hell yea man! We are going to bone their asses! Especially since we got the home advantage. Oooowweee!"

"Y'all know if we lose this one coach is going to bone OUR asses right?" I look over at Ken and back up at Chance and Craig. They know I am not lying.

"That's why we are not going to lose. We have never lost against Kentucky before, why start now?" We ride for about ten minutes and then we pull up to the place we like to go eat after practice some days. We get out the car and go in, taking our place at the bar.

"Aaayyeee, it's my favorite group of fellas. What's been going on?" Jack comes out from the back and comes over to us. He is the owner and knows us and more than half of Barry University students by memory. This place is known, and if you don't stop here at least once during your time at Barry, you really just weren't trying to live at all.

"Nothing, just got out of practice. Hungry as hell man."

"Well, I can fix that for you. What will it be? Four burgers with fries, then two cokes, one sprite, and one root beer?" He's good. Exactly correct.

"You already know man."

"I gotcha!" He walks away and I just shake my head and laugh. Man, Jack's Place will probably be one of the things I will miss the most about staying at Barry. I mean, I can still come here with Syd, and we can bring our kids here one day, but...there is nothing like knowing you can come here after practice and hang with your homies after a s**t load of work at practice. Man, I have been reminiscing on so much s**t since we got back. I cannot believe I will be graduating in nine months. I'm getting old as hell. Draft picks for the NFL are coming soon. I could have signed a year ago but I wanted to finish my education. That was something very important to my mom. She always supported my dreams of playing football, but she always held a special place in her heart for when I did good in school. She always told me she didn't  want me to be some dumb jock stereotype. And although I hate school, she never pushed harder than she needed to. For that, I feel like she deserves to watch me receive my college degree from heaven.

Either way though. I am going to live with Syd in our beach house, well HER beach house, that her grandmother left her and we will take off from there. s**t, never thought life would go this good. For real.

"Dee, our team is playing. s**t, lets see if they have any game." I look up at the TV and the Dolphins are playing against the Ravens. Alright, let's see what they got! Chance is trying to go with the Dolphins too. He is from here and the Dolphins are his home team. So he is trying to stay.

I pull my phone out of my pocket to see if Sydney has called back, and she has not. I turn my phone up so that I will hear when she does.

We have to wait five more minutes and then our food finally comes. The waitress here named Ally brings it out. I remember when Chance had a crush on her, but then we found out she was interested in girls. My boy was crushed, but he soon got over it, because after all she was only a crush.

"Alright boys, here you go." She lays it out in front of us. I think he still secretly likes her, just a little bit. His ass is probably hoping that she changes her mind about being gay and chooses to be straight. Keep dreaming kid. "Hi Chance." She smiles at him and waves. He just nods back. You can tell she loves teasing him, and he falls for it every time.

"Dee, she is trying to kill me." He says this to me as he watches her walk back into the kitchen.

"I know man. You seriously need to stop daydreaming about her ass and catch up with one of these other girls staring you down." He turns to see what I am talking about and we see a table with a group of girls straight drooling over him. They not hiding it either. Chance and his pretty boy s**t always has me rolling. Girls of every race cling to him like white on rice. No lie.

"Eh, maybe. You know I like girls that don't like me though. Just my nature."

"Yea, I know dumb ass." He laughs and we continue to eat some more.

"Hey." We both turn and two of the girls from the table are standing by our seats at the bar grinning from ear to ear.

"Hello ladies." Chance turns around to give them a full greeting, but I keep my chair at the angle I am already sitting in and try to focus on my food.

"So, um...look I'm just going to get straight to the point. You are cute as f**k and I want to get to know you a little better. I was wondering if you would let me." One of the girls shoots her shot towards Chance and he starts beaming.

"What's your name?"

"Christa. And you are?"

"Chance. Who's your friend?"

"Oh, I'm Shelby. But I was wondering about him. His actions are telling me he's not interested though." I turn around to see who she is talking about and I see her looking at me. This is why I kept my back turned.

"Sorry darling, happily taken. My man down at the very end is available though." I point at Craig down at the end and she does not seem as interested.

"Oh, okay." She walks away looking disappointed and I just shake my head. Anyways, Chance ends up getting Christa's number or whatever and she goes back and sits down at the table with her squealing friends.

"You and this jinxing s**t is getting really old." I just laugh and sip my Sprite.

"You will believe me one day when I tell you that I am a genius."

"Whatever man! Speaking of you being happily taken, I have not seen you pick up your phone and call your girl once. You two arguing or something?"

"No, actually I am waiting on her to call me back. I called her after practice and before I took a shower and she still has not called me back. So I just texted her to call me before we came here and she still has not called me. I'm starting to worry just a little bit. Because, sometimes Syd does too much s**t for her own good that she does not check her phone for hours at a time. I'm just hoping this is one of those times and nothing bad has happened."

"I'm sure she's fine man. Have you seen her at all today?"

"Yea, before practice. I asked her to take my bag to her room and that I would get it later today or tomorrow. I think I am going to run by there tonight though, just to make sure she is doing okay."

"Alright. Want me to come with you?"

"You don't have to."

"Eh, I will come anyways."

"Alright bruh." When we are all done eating and the Dolphins vs. Ravens game ends, we head back to the house. Dolphins won 53-40. Kicked ass though, for real. We pull up in front of the house and I immediately hop into my truck with Chance and we head over to Syd's dorm. I park out front and we head in. I think she said she got moved to the seventh floor. We get on the elevator and ride up. As we step off, Rose is coming down the hall towards us. "Aye! Is Syd in y'all room?"

"We're not roommates anymore, but you can check her room. It is right across from mine." She then presses the button for the elevator. She seems to be in a hurry.

We walk down the hall towards Syd's room. "Man, she is growing."

"Yea, I know, that stomach is getting big." Rose is still pregnant and is not due until November. Baby is getting big though. I think Syd told me that she is having a boy. Maybe, I don't know. I knock on the door and there is no answer. I knock a second time, then the door swings open. Kelsie opens the door and lets me in.

"Hey Dominic, hey Chance. What are you doing here?"

"Is Syd here?"

"Nope, I thought she was with you. I'm sure she will be in soon though. It is getting dark. I'll be sure to make her call you once she gets in though. She is probably at the library or something."

"God, okay. Um, thanks Kelsie."

"No problemo." We leave and I get back in the truck with Chance.

"So, are we going to the library now?"

"That's a dumb ass question, of course we're going to the library!" I pull off and head for it. He just laughs beside me. He knows I don't play when it comes to knowing where Syd is at all times. Especially since this stalker mess has started. Her not answering my calls or calling me back is very out of character. I park in a handicap spot outside the library and hop out. I go inside not waiting on Chance I start looking around. I walk up to the desk and ask the librarian about her.

"Hey Dominic, come to get some studying done? Where's Sydney?"

"You mean, she's not here?"

"Nope, I have not seen her all day. Is something wrong?"

"Just she won't return my calls, and I have not seen her since this morning. Her roommate said she might be here, but I guess not."

"Oh I am sure she is fine. But, you can talk to the campus officers if you want to." I nod my head, say thank you, and get back into my truck.

"She wasn't in there either."

"Man, well. I would love to search until all hours of the morning with you, but we have to get to our meeting today with coach. Miss this one, and we will wish we were dead at next practice."

"Yea, you are right. I'm sure she's fine. This stalker s**t just always has me on edge, but he hasn't made a move so far. He's probably too scared to ever make a move." We hop back in my truck and drive across campus back to the football field. I almost forgot we even had a meeting tonight. To be honest I couldn't care less about this meeting since I don't know where my baby is and I want to keep looking for her. We go in and sit down with the rest of our teammates. Ten minutes later, five minutes late, coach walks in and stands in front of us all.

"Alright ladies, I see you all managed to be here on time." He eyes Chance and me. Whatever! Last time I made us late because I was messing with Syd. He'll get over it eventually.

"Coach why are you sweating us? That was so last week!" Chance says this and everybody in the locker room starts laughing.

"Because asshole, I don't care how good you two are, you can't make it to my locker room on time, how are you going to make it in life?" Lord, a life speech. Please don't start. Fortunately, he doesn't  and gets on with some more important things. Apparently he has created some new plays we are going to practice before Friday, and he has gotten some new varsity jackets for the seniors. Hell yea! I can give Syd my old one then since she wears it more than me anyways. She never wants to give it back whenever I let her wear it.

I look down at my phone and she still has not called or text me. Lord knows I'm giving her ass an earful. She cannot be doing this s**t.

A few more words about blah blah blah, then I head to the house with Chance. I am so tired. No word from her in the morning and I am going straight to security. They always tell us that they cannot do anything until twenty-four hours pass, but I am not waiting that long. First thing in the morning I better have my phone blown up with messages, voice mails, explanations, and everything else when I wake up. Right now I am about to crash.

I go into my room, plug up my phone and change into something more comfortable. I get in the bed and change my TV to the game. I don't watch it for more than two minutes when I fall out cold.

~

"Dee, get up!" I feel my bed start to shake roughly and I groan. "Come on man, GET UP!"

"Syd, is that you?"

"No man, come on!" I finally open my eyes and I see Chance looking over me with a sort of scared, frightened look on his face.

"Chance, what's wrong man? You look like you've seen a ghost." I yawn and pick up my phone to check the time. It's three in the morning! What's wrong with him?

"Dee, some cops are here to see you."

"What?" I climb out of my bed and I follow him into the living room. I instantly wake up as I see all the uniforms walking through our living room. The house is full of cops walking around searching things. A man dressed in all black comes over to me.

"Hey son, are you Dominic Adams?"

"Yes sir, why?"

"It has come to my understanding that you are close with Sydney Williams?" It comes out as more of a question. Why does he need to know about her?

"Yes, I'm her boyfriend. Is something wrong, has something happened?"

"When was the last time you talked to her son?"

"Uh, this morning right before football practice. She was walking back to her dorm with another girl and I asked her to take my backpack to her dorm and I would get it later."

"Alright, do you know who the girl was with her?"

"Um, I think it was a girl on her dance team, but I think she is new here because this is the first time I have seen her. Why is any of this relevant?"

"Son, I think you better come with me." Without another word he heads out the door and without another word I follow him. We get into his car and he drives off in the direction of the football field. When we get to the secluded part beside it he stops and gets out. I notice all the officers standing around outside, a few ambulances, and people wearing masks. What the hell is going on? "Come on kid!" He hits the front of his car and I jump out. I follow him over to the tape and step over it. He stands over by another cop and starts talking and I look at the scene. I recognize Syd's two bags and my bag instantly.

What really shocks me is the line of blood leading from the middle of the path to the street. I walk over to the cop.

"Are you going to tell me what's going on?" He glances at me then looks back down at his paper.

"Look son, this is only because you are close to the girl and we need your help in finding her. Your girlfriend has gone missing. Luckily, no dead bodies have been called in anywhere so she is most likely still alive. As of her whereabouts, we do not know. She was walking, and someone snuck up on her with an object, something that could knock her out long enough to get her into the car and out. It is a secluded area, but we were informed that it is usually always students passing through it. Except for early in the morning. Right now we have found you, so now we need to find the young lady she was with, any roommates, former roommates, all of her teammates, and anyone else who has interacted with her throughout the day."

After 'your girlfriend has gone missing' everything else he said flew right over my head. I cannot believe this s**t right now. I refuse to believe that someone has taken her and I refuse to believe that any of this is real. Maybe this is one of those dreams that feel real, and then I wake up and everything goes back to normal.

"Hey, Dominic, I need you to focus!" The detective is shaking me, but I'm not registering.

"She's gone?"

"We can find her son. We can find her. I promise I will bring her back to you!"

I feel my eyes start to sting.

"I told her I would protect her. I swore on my life that no one would take her from me."

"Dominic you can't blame---"

"NO, that's the thing! I can blame myself! I said I would protect her!!! Now she is gone..."

"Wait, do you know something we don't?" I can't focus. My throat is closing and I am trying to clear my breathing. I...I...I need to hit something.

I grab my head because the world is spinning...I said I would protect her. This is all my fault. I catch myself on a tree. Shit...I hear that man calling my name, but I'm not paying attention. s**t, I got to get rid of my anger...I can't DO this. I can't DEAL with this. Before I know it, I take my hand and punch the tree...it leaves a good sized dent, and even though my hand hurts, I finally feel myself calming down.

"Damn boy, can I get a nurse over here?" He calls this to someone and they reply and then whatever.

Trust and believe.

I will find her.