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“What? Who reported me?”

“Your parents,” the first patrolman replied. “We’d like to make this easy. You’re under eighteen. You’re coming with us either voluntarily or otherwise. Considering who your parents are, we recommend it be voluntarily.”

“This is bullshit. I’m not missing. I’ll go home when I’m good and ready to.”

“That’s a bad choice, son,” the second patrolman said, and moved in on Ryder.

“DON’T!” I cried.

Ryder tried to resist, but the second patrolman was on him as well, and in moments, they had his hands behind his back and his wrists cuffed. I pressed my fist against my mouth to contain another scream. Tears filled my eyes when Ryder looked at me with a desperate expression of helplessness.

“Let’s go, son,” the first patrolman said. They practically lifted him to move him forward.

I followed them out the door. When they reached the stairway, another motel guest was coming up. He moved quickly to get by them. Ryder looked back at me. He shook his head. Did he think this was somehow my fault?

“Ryder!” I called, but they moved him quickly down the stairs. I ran after them.

Their patrol car was just at the foot of the stairway. Ryder could see that there was no point in resisting. Before I could say another word to him, they stuffed him into the rear of the car. He seemed to collapse in there. I stood watching as they drove off. He never looked back.

I felt my legs soften beneath me and sat hard on the first step.

It was as if some invisible evil spirit had put his hands on my shoulders and pushed me down.

I felt as helpless as I had been walking behind my mother in the darkness on the beach, looking for the safety of a home.

16

A Ruined Weekend

I was still sitting on the step when Kiera drove into the motel parking lot. She got out slowly and stopped when she saw me. I imagined she couldn’t believe her eyes. I saw her look about with confusion. Ryder’s car was still in the parking space he had taken. She raised her hands to ask what was happening. When I didn’t respond, she started toward me.

“What’s going on? Where’s Ryder?”

“His parents called the police. They came to the suite and put him in handcuffs and dragged him off.”

“Handcuffs?”

“They said he was considered a missing person, and because he was only seventeen, they could do it.”

“Bummer,” she said.

“It was horrible.”

“Well, there’s nothing you can do about it now. Let’s go upstairs and get ready to go out. We can still have a good time.”

“What? Didn’t you hear what I said? They put him in a police car like some sort of criminal and dragged him away.”

“I heard you, Sasha. So what are you going to do, mope in the room all weekend?”

I looked up at her. She turned away for a few moments and then turned back to me.

“They’ll take him home. That’s all. He’s not going to jail or anything. Famous movie stars can get the police to do lots of things for them to cover up their family problems. It’s the way it is. Maybe he’ll run away again and call you from someplace else.”

“You didn’t see his face. He was devastated. I’m worried for him.”

“So distract yourself, otherwise you’ll go nuts,” she said. She started up the stairs.

I stood up. Something occurred to me.