They each had a cone and walked on for a good twenty minutes before Alex pointed to his right.
Charley saw a gate and a sign announcing Sun Valley Caravan Park.
‘That’s the entrance.’ He pulled a key from his pocket. ‘We should be safe here tonight. It’s quite empty at this time of year, apart from people coming to air out their vans. The season starts at Easter.’
‘Aren’t your parents going to worry about you?’ Charley asked as he let them in.
‘Naw. I told them I was stopping at my friend’s house tonight. They won’t be looking for me any time soon.’ Alex took out his phone and waggled it about. ‘Aren’t these things amazing? I can speak to them or text them from anywhere and they wouldn’t have a clue if I was in the next room or had caught a plane to America. Unless they wanted to check up, of course.’
Charley giggled. ‘I’ve never been to America. We could go there tomorrow,’ she joked.
‘Or maybe Australia.’
‘Or to the moon.’
Alex laughed too, as he closed the gate behind them. ‘You’re so cool, Charley Pellington.’
Charley felt herself blushing as he kissed her again. This time there was no one around to bother them. She wanted to stay there forever but soon after, Alex grabbed her hand and they ran to the caravan.
From first impressions, it seemed okay. It wasn’t one of those tiny four berth nightmares that she remembered loving when she was younger but didn’t want to go near now she was older. This caravan was more like a small flat; she reckoned it could sleep about eight people. It had two separate bedrooms, one with a fixed double bed, not something that had to be made up with cushions every night. The living area had a table with four chairs, a settee and armchair, a small flat-screen television and a gas fire, which they were going to need as it was freezing.
Alex pointed to the large bedroom with the double bed. ‘Put your bag down in there and we can go for a walk and get some food. There’s plenty of stuff like soup and pasta in the cupboards. And there’s always coffee and teabags so all we need is bread and milk and something to drink.’
Charley could hardly contain herself. Alex was so grown-up compared to most of her friends, as well as being gorgeous. If only Sophie could see her now, she would be green with envy!
As soon as she got home that evening, Louise shouted out to Charley. When there was no reply, she listened for music but couldn’t hear that either. She stomped up the stairs, expecting to find Charley with her earphones in, but the room was empty. She glanced around. Nothing seemed to be out of place – there was still lots of teenage detritus around the room and on the floor.
She went back downstairs and tried Charley’s phone again. Still no answer and there were no missed calls from her. Unsure what to do, she started to prepare something to eat. Charley would turn up soon, no doubt, and then she’d be in for it.
But when it came to half past seven and several phone calls were still unanswered, Louise decided she’d clock-watched enough and rang Sam in a panic.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said quickly, realising that they were hardly on the best of terms, ‘but Charley hasn’t come home yet and I don’t know want to do.’ She felt a lump in her throat. ‘Sam, I don’t know where she is.’
‘It’s probably something and nothing. Maybe she’s still annoyed about what happened yesterday. Have you contacted Sophie?’
‘No, they’re not speaking, remember?’
‘But all the same, she might be able to tell you what’s been going on with Charley lately. Do you have her number?’
‘Yes, it’s stored on my phone.’
‘Is Charley’s phone switched off?’
‘No, but it’s been ringing out for hours.’ Louise began to cry.
‘I’m on my way over. You try to reach Sophie and see if she can shed any light on it.’
‘What if anything’s happened to her? She’s all I’ve got, Sam.’
‘I’ll ring Matt. Don’t worry. We’ll find her.’
Sam was round at Louise’s house within fifteen minutes. Reece had joined her too. Neither of them were surprised when Matt answered the door.
‘She’s in bits,’ he told them. ‘Reckons it’s all her fault for being a bad mother. I can’t get any sense out of her.’
Sam went through to find Louise sunk in the settee, clutching her phone. Forgetting their recent argument, she rushed across to sit next to her.
‘She’s run away with a boy!’ Louise cried.
‘How do you know?’
‘Sophie told me. His name is Alex.’
Sam wrapped her arms around her. ‘Is he someone from school?’
‘No, much worse than that. It’s some boy she’s met on Facebook.’
Sam felt goosebumps break out all over her.
‘Sophie said Charley was obsessed with him. She was always emailing, texting him, messaging him through Facebook and something called WhatsApp, and that’s what they’d fallen out about. I had no idea.’
‘And she’s sure she’s with him?’
Louise shook her head. ‘She says they haven’t spoken to each other in a while. They used to be such good friends. But she says Charley might have gone to meet him.’
‘Do you think we should call the police?’ said Matt, who had stayed in the background with Reece, unsure what to do.
Sam didn’t know what to suggest. On the one hand, no one had seen or spoken to Charley since this morning – she could be anywhere by now. But she was a fifteen-year-old girl; she could easily be sulking, trying to teach Louise a lesson. They’d all look silly if she came rolling in as they were reporting her missing. But it was hard to know where to draw the line. And more so now that there was a boy involved. For all they knew, he could be someone older than he was making out to be. He could be a paedophile.
What would Sam do if it was her child that was missing? Charley was, after all, only fifteen.
‘Maybe we should leave it for another hour or so?’ Reece suggested. ‘I know it isn’t ideal but I think you can trust Charley. If she’s safe, she’ll let you know.’
‘But what if she isn’t safe?’ said Louise. ‘She could have been kidnapped and tortured. She could be in danger right now. I’d be responsible for that.’
‘I know it’s a risk but Reece is right, Louise.’ Sam got out her phone. ‘And I bet if the police know you and her were arguing yesterday, they’d tell you to wait a while longer too.’
‘You had a row?’ said Matt.
Louise said nothing.
Sam began to type out a message. ‘Let me send a text asking her to contact me, just to let us know she’s okay. Hopefully, she’ll text me back. At least if she does that, we’ll know she’s all right.’
‘But I need to know where she is now so that I can go and fetch her!’ Louise started to cry again. ‘I want her home with me, where I can see her.’
Sam held her while she cried. ‘She’ll be okay, Louise,’ she stroked her hair. ‘She’ll be okay.’
She looked up to see both Matt and Reece staring back at her. They wore the same worried expression that she did.
It was evening when Charley and Alex arrived back at the caravan, each carrying a shopping bag. After hanging around the centre of town for most of the afternoon, drinking coffee and window shopping, they’d bought a pizza to share and a bag of salad. They also had fresh bread and butter, and chocolate trifle for afterwards. Charley had added sweets and chocolate into their basket: Alex, a bottle of coke and a few cans of lager.
But Charley was getting increasingly more worried every time she looked at her phone. She was getting more and more phone calls. Oh, no, she was in so much trouble.
Seeing her apprehension as she checked it once more, after he’d put the bags down onto the table Alex stopped to give her a hug.
‘It’ll be okay,’ he reassured her. ‘You can go home tomorrow but you must make her worry about you. Do you want to check out what’s in the cupboards while I switch on the
gas? It’s just outside.’
Charley watched him disappear out of the door. She could have made a run for it quite a few times during the day. Even now, she’d only have to go back to the main road and flag down a taxi or something.
But she didn’t want to. She felt safe with Alex. She had nothing to prove to him: he liked her for who she was. It was just what she needed right now.
She opened kitchen cupboards and put away their little bit of shopping. Then she emptied her bag, placing things down on top of the fitted dressing table. Glancing at the double bed, she wondered about what would happen later. Would she be able to go all the way this time?
She picked up her phone. There were lots of missed calls from her mum – voice messages too. And text messages – including one from Sam.
‘Hi Charl. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, it’s okay. But you need to let your mum know you’re safe. Text me back. S x’
Charley typed a reply. She supposed she was okay with letting her mum know she was safe. Then she heard the caravan door open and Alex bounding up the steps, so she pressed send quickly, switched off the phone and shoved it back inside her bag.
Sam wasn’t sure what to think when she read the text message. Nor what she should tell Louise standing in front of her.
‘What does it say?’ asked Louise, apprehension clear in her voice.
‘She’s okay, for starters.’ Sam decided to tell her the good news first.
Louise cried with relief. ‘Oh, thank goodness.’ But then she panicked. ‘That text might have been sent by anyone! Someone could have her phone! Let me read it. What exactly does it say?’ Before Sam could stop her, she snatched the phone from her hand. The message from Charley read:
‘Tell Mum I’m ok but not coming home. Cx’.
‘She’s not coming home?’ Louise frowned as she looked up at everyone. ‘Do you think she’s with that Alex? Alex might not even be Alex, for all we know. He could be some sex fiend acting as a boy called Alex. I can’t stand around anymore. I’m calling the police.’
Sam shivered, her eyes filling with tears as she listened to Louise reporting Charley as a missing person.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Although Charley and Alex chatted quite amicably for most of the evening, by half past nine their conversation had more or less dried up. They’d enjoyed the pizza and Charley had had a can of lager but she didn’t want to get drunk. She needed to keep her head clear for what was about to happen.
If they had been on a first date, she’d be dying to go home now so that she could recall their first kiss in detail, think about what had happened, analyse everything Alex had said to her. She’d go to bed with a big grin as she looked forward to their next date. Now she was so nervous that her left leg kept shaking involuntarily.
She was worried about the night to come even more than she wished she’d never run away. The caravan was cold, despite the gas fire being on full so Alex fetched the double duvet from the bedroom, she made coffee and they settled down underneath it and watched television. It would have been great if there wasn’t an atmosphere. For her, it was an atmosphere of dread.
She wondered if Alex was nervous. He was only just sixteen. Was this the first time he’d slept with anyone? She wanted to ask him but didn’t dare. What if he’d been with lots of girls and she wasn’t good enough? She glanced over at him. He was checking his phone again. He’d been doing that regularly for the past couple of hours. Was he regretting letting things go so far, too?
She drifted off to sleep for a while and when she woke up, she and Alex began to fool around. She tried to enjoy it, hoping it would be over soon. There had been a bit of kissing and fumbling earlier but neither of them seemed to want more. And now Alex had stopped again.
‘I’m tired,’ he said, pulling back the duvet. ‘I’m going to brush my teeth and call it a night.’
Charley fought back tears. What was wrong with her? First Aaron and Connor made up rumours and now Alex didn’t want to sleep with her? Was she – what was the word they used at school – frigid? Did she give off ‘keep away’ signals?
Then she gasped, all of a sudden understanding that he wanted to get into bed with her. Maybe he felt it would be more comfortable, or more romantic? Either way, it sent her into a complete panic. How would she take off her clothes?
Charley cleaned her teeth after Alex. With dread, she came out of the bathroom. Alex stood in the kitchen area waiting for her.
‘I don’t know about you,’ he said, hardly able to look at her, ‘but I think it’s too cold to get undressed. I’m going to sleep in my clothes.’
The relief must have shown on Charley’s face, because Alex grinned.
‘You obviously don’t mind then?’ he asked.
‘I – I’m not sure.’ Charley gulped. ‘Don’t you want to sleep with me?’
‘Of course I do!’ Alex looked sheepish. ‘I mean – well, I think you’re gorgeous but it’s just that … I’ve never done it before.’ He smiled awkwardly. ‘I think I’m more scared than you are.’
‘I’m not scared,’ retorted Charley.
‘It was your leg that shook every time I came near you.’
It was Charley’s turn to grin. There really was no point in getting mad at Alex. She didn’t want to sleep with him either.
‘You can take the double bed,’ he told her as they stood there awkwardly. ‘I’ll have one of the smaller beds.’
A few minutes later, Charley lay in the dark, fully clothed underneath the double duvet. Even though Alex was only a few feet away, part of her wished he was here with her. He could warm her up and cuddle into her, even if they didn’t want to do anything else. She pulled the duvet closer around her neck and tried to get to sleep. The quicker she did, the quicker the morning would arrive and she could go home.
Alex knocked on the bedroom door a minute later. He got into the bed beside her.
‘Don’t panic,’ he said. ‘I’m not going to do anything. It’s just warmer under the duvet.’
It was so quiet that Charley could hear the silence ringing in her ears. She could feel her heart beating wildly inside her chest. She didn’t dare move a muscle and she knew she wouldn’t be able to sleep.
Again, she wished she was at home. She couldn’t wait for the morning.
Louise never went to bed that night. Reece went home about ten and, despite Matt sleeping over in the spare room, Sam had insisted on staying downstairs with her – a fact that she was grateful for.
It was five a.m. Both she and Sam had stayed awake until the early hours but she was the only one awake again now. While Sam dozed, Louise thought about Charley. She prayed she’d be okay and that this was some kind of schoolgirl prank that she’d thought up to wound her mum. If it was, it had definitely done the trick. Louise was hurting so much there were no words to describe her pain.
She thought back to the first time she’d seen her daughter. She’d been at the hospital with her mum and Sam, trying to make out that she was brave at eighteen when really she didn’t have a clue what to do and when. The nurse had put Charley into her arms and she’d fallen in love with her, forgetting all the pain of the birth. A few days later, she’d taken her home to her parents as a six pound bundle of screams and baby powder. If it wasn’t for her mum and dad helping out, she wouldn’t have coped as well as she did. But despite her downfalls, Louise always did the best she could for her daughter.
She remembered Charley’s first steps, her first day at school. When she learned how to tell the time. The first width she swam in the pool, after she’d seemed to swim but get nowhere for ages. The time she’d dressed up as a rat in the school play, The Pied Piper of Hamlyn. When she won a prize from the school for the best written essay.
She recalled what a stubborn minx she’d always been but what a lovely warm character Charley was too. And over the years, she’d turned into a beautiful young lady, one Louise was proud to call her daughter. She felt so ashamed that she hadn’t le
t Charley know that, because she’d been too wrapped up in herself.
If she came home – no, when she came home – Louise was going to put that right. She’d start by telling her all the things she should have said. She’d stop messing around and act like a parent should. And she would make it known that she had the best daughter in the world.
She started to cry again. Please don’t let memories be all that I have left of her. Please let her be okay.
Despite her anxiousness, Charley managed to get a little sleep, but she still woke up early. In the dark, she could just about make out the shape of Alex sleeping next to her. She couldn’t see his features, just his shadow, but she knew he had his back towards her. She turned on her side and squeezed her eyes shut to stem the tears threatening to fall.
Last night had been one of the worst nights of her life. She remembered tossing and turning, thinking about how mad her mum would be when she finally got home. She remembered scooting across to the other side of the bed when Alex turned over. More than anything, she remembered wishing she was back in her own bed the whole night through.
‘Morning,’ Alex said, making her jump. She hadn’t realised he was awake.
‘Morning,’ she replied.
‘What time is it?’
She shrugged then realised he couldn’t see her. She reached over for her phone and illuminated the screen.
‘It’s quarter past six.’ Charley saw an icon indicating another voice message. She hoped it was from her mum. She went through to the kitchen and called it up.
‘Charley, it’s Mum. I know you might not be able to hear this message or even respond to it in any way but I just want you to know that I’ve called the police and they’ll find you soon. And if this isn’t Charley answering this phone … if this is Alex I’m talking to and you hurt my little girl, I … I … I’ll fucking kill you!’
There were a few sobs and then the call ended.
That's What Friends Are For Page 21
