They Can't Protect Me From Loving You

“Where the fuck is she?” Brian yelled pressing the redial button on his phone.

“Brian calm down man, she’s gotta be around here somewhere.” Zack said trying to reassure one of his best friends.

“She went to take a piss Zack! Fifteen fucking minutes ago! Val went up to check on her and said there was no sign of her! And now she’s not answering her phone.” He yelled back as he listened to the phone ring through to the answer phone again.

“Fuck!” he yelled as Jimmy and Leana appeared at his side.

“She’s definitely not up there dude. I stood at the top of the stairs to make sure she couldn’t get back down without me seeing her and Lea and Gena checked all the rooms, including the en-suite.” Jimmy said defeated.

“She’s not down here either dude, we’ve check everywhere.” Matt said as the others joined them.

“So where the fuck is she? She can’t have fucking disappeared off the face of the earth?” Brian yelled in frustration.

“Is the Escalade still out front?” Lacey asked quietly. Brian glared at her as if she had ten heads.

“Why wouldn’t it? She wouldn’t have left without telling me and she wouldn’t have driven anyway, she’d had too much to drink!” he stated, still yelling.

“Hey, there’s no need to yell at her Gates, it was only a suggestion.” Johnny yelled back defending his girlfriend.

“Pretty dumb fucking suggestion!” Brian retorted as he dialled Eloise’s number again.

“Not that dumb Bri. You’re car’s not out there.” Zack said, standing in the front widow, peering out into the night.

Brian turned around quickly in disbelief and walked quickly over to where Zack was stood to see for himself. His heart leapt to his throat as he stared at the road where his Escalade had been parked up.

“Fuck! I need a car!” he yelled turning back to face his group of friends.

“Come on, I’ll drive” Jimmy said stepping forward and taking his keys out of his pockets.

Pinkly yelped loudly as Brian tripped over him as he slammed the front door open and stormed into his house.

“Eloise!” he yelled glancing around the living room before sprinting up the stairs. Jimmy followed him slowly into the house and headed towards the kitchen.
Brian ran into his bedroom to find drawers open and cleared of their clothes. The closet door was open and he noticed the carry all bag that he’d been using for the first part of the tour was missing along with some more of Eloise's belongings.

“Brian! Down here dude!” Jimmy’s urgent voice called from downstairs. Brian turned and sprinted back out of the door and down the stairs. Jimmy was stood in the doorway that led into the kitchen holding out a sheet of paper. He snatched it out of Jimmy’s hands and began to frantically read the words Eloise had written.

“Shit! No! What is she on about? We weren’t in danger! Fuck, they thought they’d killed her in Sacramento! I’ve got to find her, get her back!” he yelled, his eyes blazing at the paper in his hands.

“But where would she have gone?” Jimmy asked quietly. Brian was silent for a moment, thinking.

“Back to Sacramento, back to her family!” he yelled, pushing past Jimmy to get into the kitchen.

“But she knows that would be the first place you’d look. I think it’s the last place she’d go.” Jimmy replied. Brian sighed deeply as he grabbed the keys to his BMW and pushed back past Jimmy.

“It’s the only place I know to look Jim, it’s my only chance.” He said walking back out through the door.

“Brian, wait, I’m coming with you, I’ll drive, you’re too wound up.” Jimmy yelled running after him.

“We’ll take my car, but do me a favour call Lea for me, we better tell the other guys what’s going on.” Jimmy said, getting into his car. As he drove off Brian dialled Leana’s number and explained what had happened and what they were doing.

“Ok, but just be careful driving Jimmy, call me when you get there.” Leana warned cautiously once he’d finished explaining.

“We will honey, I’ll call you soon, love you.” Jimmy replied sombrely.

“Love you too babe, bring Eloise back soon.” She ordered before hanging up. There was a long moment of silence as Jimmy drove and Brian stared blankly out of the window into the dark night sky.

“Jimmy, what if you’re right? What if she doesn’t go back to Sacramento? What if she knows that’s the first place I’ll look and decided to go somewhere else? She could be anywhere.” He said quietly, not taking his eyes away from the window.

“I might be wrong Bri, she could have gone back to her mom’s. I mean where else would she go? We’ll find her Bri, even if we have to report the Escalade stolen and get her arrested.” He said with a smile. Brian took his eyes from the window and smiled a weak smile.

“We’ll call that plan B.” he said before turning his attention back to the dark window.

“I just don’t understand why she’s freaked out and run? We were happy. She’d settled back in Huntington, had a job, and was surrounded by her friends and people who loved her. She wasn’t in any danger, the Owens thought that they’d taken care of her back in Sacramento, so why does she think that she was putting people in danger again?” he sighed, defeated. Neither he nor Jimmy knew the answers to his questions.

“I wish I knew Bri, I really do. But there’s got to be something that made her run; something that’s happened or been said.” Jimmy replied.

“There hasn’t been anything. She was happy. We were happy. One minute we were getting ready to count down to the New Year together, the next she’s packing her things and leaving. We haven’t even argued.” Brian sighed heavily as Jimmy drove along the dark, empty highway.

They remained silent for a long while. Neither of them had anything to say. Brian was silently trying to figure out what went wrong while Jimmy preferred to remain silent, not knowing what to say to reassure him.

The silence was broken about three hours into the drive when Brian offered to take over the driving, an offer Jimmy took, but insisted that they stop off at the services first and stock up on coffee. It was half three in the morning and neither of them wanted to be falling asleep behind the wheel.

****

Tears streamed down Eloise's face every mile of the drive up to Sacramento. She didn’t want to go there, knowing that if Brian did try to find her it would be the first place he’d look, but there was nowhere else she could go, other than her friends in Huntington the only people she had in her life were her family and friends in Sacramento.

As she drove through Stockton she decided that she wouldn’t go to her parents, she didn’t want to burden them with her troubles, not today, they’d been through enough. She decided that she’d head first to Hannah's place.

She pulled up into the driveway, glad to see Hannah’s car there. She wiped her tired, tear strained face and took a deep breath as she made her way to the front door and ran the doorbell.

She instantly heard murmurings of profanities and movement from the other side of the door, which was understanding considering it was just after six in the morning, on New Years Day.

The door opened and Eloise was faced with Craig, Hannah’s boyfriend.

“Can I help you?” he said through a yawn as he rubbed his tired eyes. At Eloise's guess they’d either had a house party or everyone had ended up crashing here.

“Craig. It’s me, Eloise.” She said quietly. Craig froze, staring at her.

“Eloise? Hey! What are you doing here?” he said with a smile.

“Who is it babe?” Hannah’s voice called from somewhere inside.

“Babe, its Eloise!” he called back, indicating for Eloise to follow him back into the house.

“Eloise? Oh my God honey, what are you doing here?” she yelled appearing in the hallway.

“Honey? What’s the matter?” she asked, taking Eloise into a hug as she broke down in tears.