Deadly Silence (complete) Chapter 95

It’d been a couple weeks since Theo sat with the group for lunch and Laurent was tired of hearing Abby complain about it. At first he hadn’t given it much thought, as they were all allowed to eat wherever and with whomever they wanted — let Theo do as he pleased and shut up about it. But then he realized it was to sit with Vivian and the girl no-one seemed to like for whatever reason.

Something in Laurent had changed when he saw his classmate chatting with his little sister — a girl he hadn’t really thought much of from the get go. She was too… weird. Too closed off. He couldn’t get a read on her at all. What did Theo see in her that was so interesting?

Today was different somehow, and Laurent couldn’t quite put his finger on what the change was until Adriana joined them with a smirk on her face. “I think Theo will sit with us today.”

*Abby hasn’t complained about Theo ditching us,* he realized with a start. The guy hadn’t shown up yet so how did Adriana know he’d finally be joining them again? Laurent knew Theo had gone to the amusement park with Vivian that Saturday and expected them to basically be a thing now; there was no way he’d join them for lunch any time soon unless Vivian came, too.

“Any luck with the thing?” Adriana asked, bumping shoulders with Abby as they shared this annoying look, like they were in on some secret.

“I’m locked out for twenty hours,” the blond complained with a heavy sigh. “Too many bad attempts.”

“What about the other one?”

“Called but no one picked up.”

“What are you two going on about?” Anthony interjected, looking annoyed that they were having a full conversation no one but they understood.

“Just a pet project,” Abby replied with a beaming smile. “Nothing for you to worry about.”

Laurent couldn’t help but roll his eyes. This was how they acted when they wanted attention; talking about something without saying anything until someone got annoyed enough to demand more information.

“Theo!” Adriana cried out, her face lighting up as the guy in question approached their table. “Eating with us today? I’m so excited.”

“Hey Theo, you can sit next to me,” Abby giggled, motioning to a chair on her right.

“Maybe another time,” Theo told them with a smile that disappeared when he turned to face Laurent. “Can we talk?”

Laurent raised his brow, surprised. “No thanks. I don’t have anything to say to you.”

An odd expression, almost like a mixture of worry and frustration, emotions Theo never seemed to feel, crossed his face. Digging into a pocket, Theo pulled out his phone and showed it to Laurent. “It’s important.”

When Laurent looked at the screen being shoved in his face he wasn’t sure what to expect, but it wasn’t this. It was a selfie of Theo and Vivian, and she looked happy. Legitimately *happy*.

*What the actual fuck?*

He’d figured the two of them would do the usual couple of dates before Theo dumped her for whatever reason, but Laurent hadn’t thought his sister would find some kind of happiness with this guy.

Anger surged through him as he pushed his chair back, its legs loudly scrapping across the floor. “Let’s go then,” he managed to say through gritted teeth as he walked past Theo and out of the cafeteria.

A few steps down the hall Miriam stood looking worried. She perked up when she caught sight of Laurent, causing him to question what was going on even more. “You got him to come?!” She sounded relieved.

“Yeah,” Theo nodded.

“What’s this about?” Laurent demanded, crossing his arms as annoyance replaced his anger.

“We can’t find Vivian,” Miriam explained without missing a beat. “She didn’t show up for first period, and her teachers all say she missed her morning classes.”

“So?” Laurent sighed. “She decided to play hooky. She pushed herself pretty hard in practice so maybe she just went home with sore muscles.”

“She’s not responding to our texts or calls,” Theo explained, hands in his pockets.

That was interesting. Why would she be ignoring them like that? “So? Maybe she finally found out how annoying you can be.”

A look of anger flashed across Theo’s face, but it was gone in a second. Laurent blinked once, wondering for the first time if the guy was hiding more than just anger behind the smile he always wore.

“That’s not it,” Miriam snapped, taking a step closer to Laurent as she jabbed a finger into his chest. “She had a great time Saturday and now it’s like she doesn’t exist. First to just us two, but now she’s literally nowhere to be found.”

Laurent let out another, deeper sigh as he pulled out his phone and tapped away on it before turning the screen so the girl could see it. “Here. Her GPS location says she’s still at school.”

“You track her phone?” Theo frowned.

“Of course I can,” Laurent retorted, putting it away. “Dad has it in his head we all need to keep an eye on her so nothing bad happens. All of us can track her phone if we need to. She knows this and doesn’t care.”

“How do you know she doesn’t care?” Theo shot back.

“Because Dad told her about it to her face and she was basically like whatever, makes sense, and let it go,” Laurent explained, throwing his hands in the air as if he couldn’t believe these people were asking such stupid questions. “You don’t know anything about her at all.”

“I know she’s not the type to just ghost us,” Miriam told him, stomping her foot like a child. “She’s kind in a quiet way. She never looks for a fight and shuts it down if someone tries to start something. She doesn’t judge others. Ever. And she’s never said a bad word about anyone, even after everything others put her through. Maybe *you* don’t know her, Laurent. Have you ever had an actual conversation with her before? Or are you judging her based on what you see from your high horse.”

He hadn’t expected the girl, who normally let people say whatever they wanted, to speak up and fight for Vivian like that. Miriam was right, though. Laurent didn’t really know his sister at all. He knew what was in her file, to an extent, but that was all analytical information coming from professionals; none of it pertained to who she was as a real, three dimensional person, did it?

“Did something happen on Saturday, around three fifteen in the afternoon?” Theo asked after a moment of tense silence passed.

“No,” Laurent replied automatically, but his mind was reeling. How would he know if something happened? His family knew he didn’t care enough to ask so why bother keeping him in the loop unless it was something serious?

It was no wonder Vivian pushed him away when he tried to talk to her about any of it. She’d have figured out he didn’t care enough to step in, so when he did she probably believed it was because their father had pushed for it and not Laurent taking the initiative.

He sighed for a third time. “Alright, tell me what’s going on.”