"Are you sure you're okay?" Lorraine was uncertain seeing how he was behaving strangely.
He had just regained consciousness but all he did was ask her name and start laughing. Did she miss something? Well, Xavier knew something Lorraine didn't. And the truth of it was so unbelievable he could only laugh.
Lorraine was startled when he suddenly sat, bridging the space between them and leaving a few inches between his face and hers. Her eyes were so intriguing and beautiful, he and never seen something like that. She looked down unable to take his stare.
"I'm fine. Thank you", he said sincerely.
She stood up and he followed suit after picking up his camera. He looked at her wet clothes, his gaze lingered on her chest before he took in the rest of her outfit. An oversized shirt and shorts again, was it her style? There was no sign of makeup on her face. He didn't think it was washed off by the water. She's a natural beauty, he concluded.
"Is it still working?" She referred to his camera as they started walking along the beach.
He looked at it and saw it was still displaying the picture of ducks he had been looking at earlier. He pressed a few buttons and nodded. "Still alive."
"It's water proof", she realized and he hummed in response.
He run a hand through his wet hair and finally felt an ache at the back of his head. It was now he remembered that he had actually fallen unconscious earlier.
"Did something hit me?" He asked, giving her a curious gaze.
"Uh.... Y-you hit a rock", she replied hastily, looking everywhere but in his direction.
A rock? But he was about to swim up to reach the surface so how? Unless he was swimming up legs first or..... a rock magically appeared above him. 'So strange', he mused.
Lorraine on the other hand, was drowning in guilt. When she jumped in to save him, it could have been a seaweed or some water plant that touched her arm that made her fall into panic thinking it was a water snake. She thrashed around to get it off and ended up kicking him in the head hard.
"Well then", Xavier said when they reached the tarmac at the same time she said, "This way."
"Huh?" He was confused.
"My place. It's this way", she gestured in the opposite direction of where his home was.
He didn't want to have anything to do with females but for some reason, he didn't have the heart to say no to her. Lorraine stood there waiting for his response. She had her reasons for not wanting to leave him out of her sight. Xavier responded by placing the camera in her hands before he started unbuttoning his wet shirt.
"What are you doing?" She whisper shouted in panic, as she looked around to make sure no one would pass by them.
He quietly removed his shirt and put it over her shoulders. It was big enough to cover her fully and satisfied with this, he took the camera back and started to walk ahead in the direction she had pointed.
She was confused until she looked down at her chest. Her hard nipples had been protesting against the wet fabric of her shirt. So he saw all of that just now?
"I don't know my way around", he said, as though he was oblivious to her embarrassment.
"Right! Right!" She hurried on and clutched the shirt to shield her chest further.
So what would they be doing at her place? Coffee. That's what she served him after offering him her shirt and shorts to change into. Xavier was seated on a stool by the kitchen counter enjoying the hot stuff warming up his insides. He looked around her place.
It wasn't so different from his place, except there were two bedrooms. One for the boy he figured. Looking around, there were a lot of pictures of them together. The kid resembled her quite strongly. One picture on the fridge got his attention.
She was in a security uniform kneeling beside the little boy as they both smiled at the camera. Lorraine walked back in after hanging their clothes on the liner to find Xavier staring at a picture on their fridge.
"You're a security officer?" He asked.
"Airport immigration officer to be specific", she said with evident pride as she walked over to make her coffee.
"Nice!" He found her to be cool. But why would she live in a place like this? Don't they get paid a lot? Since he didn't know, he decided not to dwell on the matter.
When she was done making her coffee, she opened a drawer to get a small and round table mat. As she closed it, something caught his eye.
"You're the one distributing those?"
She opened it to look at the thick stash of flyers that had the missing girls' pictures on them and closed it. She went to settle opposite him and held the mug to warm her hands.
"Yes."
"Are you related to them?" He was curious after detecting the graveness in her tone.
She sipped on her coffee and briefly fell quiet as her face reflected the sad memory she recalled. "We've been best friends since high school."
"I'm sorry", he truly felt bad for her. What more their families?
"Don't say that", she said with a chuckle though her eyes shone with tears. It was something sad to see for Xavier. "They're still out there. We'll find them."
He nodded. They could only hope for the best. They silently sipped on their coffee again and a curious thought came to her.
"How did you... Did you see this somewhere?"
"One of the marts, I had to buy something. What exactly happened if you don't mind me asking? It's... strange that they just disappeared after leaving for the city."
He had been curious about this. Was there some sort of evil he was unaware of in the Albany? Then a beauty like Lorraine was not safe either.
"They.... They told me that they had signed up for a clinical trial on some medicine a big pharmaceutical company had newly developed. Things in this part of the town are not so easy so I want surprised that they jumped on this opportunity. It was easy and quick money. Lots of money. I almost quit my job to join them when I heard this", she chuckled at the silly memory. "But I couldn't leave Oliver alone."
"Oliver?"
"My brother", she pointed at the picture on the fridge.
He nodded in understanding. "So they're still in the city?"
"With my job, I would know if they left or were smuggled out. I've been keeping a look out and my colleagues have been helpful too. Nothing can get past me."
She was Officer May after all. These were moments she was proud of her job although there was a limit to how much she could do. That's why it was frustratingly taking a long time to find her friends. However, unbeknownst to her, the wheels in Xavier's head were spinning. Clinical trial. Big pharmaceutical company. Drugs. It can't be?
At Zach and Amy's
The latter was doing yoga with Stella keeping her company when her phone chimed. As it was connected to the sound system, it made quite a loud noise. The maide assigned to her was quick to pass the phone to her.
"Thank you", Amy breathed out heavily as she unlocked it with her fingerprint to read the messages.
Xavier: Could you check this for me? Their names are Savanna White, Nadia White and Annie Macbeth. They have been missing for over three months.....
He went to brief her on everything that Lorraine said in a long paragraph. Amy was patient enough to read it all. Attached to the message was a picture of the flyer.
Xavier: I don't know if it's connected to your case and I dontt want to give you false hope. But I hoped you could look into it. I just found it strange. Clinical trials are normal but their family and friends haven't heard from them for that long. They're worried.
Amy smirked when she saw the last message he sent and she composed a reply.
Amy: 'Family and Friends' must be very beautiful too.
Xavier: I don't know what you're talking about.
Amy: You'll have your answer by tonight.
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