Not Just Another Cliché

^^^^Holly Collins^^^^

"But Emmmm. It's Saturday night." Holly complains.

"And I'm Emily." I laugh knowing well enough that that's pretty self explanatory.

She sighs and sits opposite me on my bed with a fake smile plastered on her face.

"You are head cheerleader. You are best friends with the quarterback. I think it's your responsibility to show up to this party."

"Holls I love you I really do but I have homework."

"And that's what Sunday's are for."

"Sunday's are for sleeping in."

"Emily I'm running out of excuses to make you come to this party. And patience."

"Holly. I'm Emily Hunter. Yes I may be head cheerleader and yes I may be best friends with Casey St. Cloud but no I do not have the responsibility of showing up to parties."

"Well if you're not going, I'm not going." She says falling on her back.

"No, don't ditch the party because of me. Like you said, it's Saturday night and you're 17. Have fun." I say.

She flips onto her belly and rests her chin in her hand and sighs.

"But Seth has gone to his dad's for the weekend and you won't come so I'm not going on my own. That's sad." She says making a funny face.

Seth has been Holly boyfriend since the 9th grade and he's one of Caseys best friends and he's a linebacker.

He's so sweet and if he wasn't with my best friend I would totally love him.

"Then maybe we can have a girls night." I suggest.

"Thought you had to do your homework." She smirks sitting up and crossing her legs.

"Who am I kidding? That's what Sunday's are for." I say and she laughs.

***

"How can she forget everything? Especially him?" Holly questions blowing her nose as we continue watching the movie.

"He's Channing Tatum! Who could forget him?" I ask.

"Me and every other guy out there." A familiar voice says from a distance.

I turn my head and freeze when I see the site before me.

It's Casey, no doubt, leaning on his window sill. Shirtless.

His hair is wet which shows he is just out of the shower.

"That's because he's a threat to you all." I explain.

"A major threat." Holl adds without taking her eyes off the screen.

"Whatever. Em, can I talk to you?"

"Sure." I say as I hand Holly the bowl of popcorn and climb the short distance between me and Caseys windows into his bedroom.

"If you ask me to cover for you and Amber tomorrow, I swear Case, we've been over this already. I will never do a favour for Amber Banks."

"It's not that and that's not happening anymore. It's Seth." He says and his expression is morse and I freeze from the tension and quickly look in my room to make sure Holly isn't listening.

"What's wrong?"

"He's had a fight with him mom and he's thinking about staying with his dad but then his dad rang me asking if I've heard from him, which I haven't, and when I was about to ring him, his mom called me asking the same thing."

"Your point?" I question.

"Seth loves his dad Emily. If he had a fight with his mom, he'd feel safe with his dad."

"Maybe he told his dad about the fight and his dad said something Seth didn't like and he needed to blow off some steam."

"There's more to it Em. That's why I'm going to go down to Houston to look for him." He says putting a shirt on.

"Casey you can't do that. That's a 4 hour drive. Wait until the morning and see if we hear news. Maybe he went out for food or he went to a party."

"He knows nobody there to go to a party Emily."

I walk up to him and take the keys out of his hand and hold them tightly in my hand.

"In the morning, if we don't hear news, we will both drive down and look for him but Holly cannot know about this." I say and he just nods stiffly.

"Good, now come watch the movie with us." I say taking his hand in mine.

We walk back into Holly and she hands us the popcorn and other candy.

I feel Caseys body still tense and uneasy beside me and I know he's not going to be able to relax until we find Seth.

I take his hand in mine and rest my head on his shoulder.

"Awh great. I'm a third wheel. Where's Seth when you need him." Holly says and me and Casey both look at each other which clearly wasn't a good idea because it causes confusion and uneasiness for Holly.

"What's going on guys?" She asks.

"Nothing. Just watch the movie. Look Channing Tatum topless total babe right?" I say pointing to the screen.

"Emily?" She questions.

"Nothing is going on Holl."

She looks at me and when she realises that she's not going to get a word out of me, she looks over my shoulder at Casey.

"Casey?"

I turn around and shake my head.

"I'm sorry Em."

"Seth is missing." Casey says.

"No he's in Houston with his dad."

"His dad can't find him." I explain.

"And you know how much he loves his dad Holls. He never fights with him." Casey continues on.

"We have to go look for him." Holly says standing up.

"Holl we have to wait. He might just be out. We don't necessarily know he's missing." I say.

"What would you call 'not knowing where your child is even though you looked everywhere and his friends don't know where he is either' Emily?"

"Okay fair enough but we have to wait until the morning." I say.

"We need to go now Emily."

"Holly you need to calm down and see it from my point of view. We'll be driving for 4 hours. It'll be too late when we get there. It'll be 2am. We'll be no use at that hour."

"And you need to see if from my point of view Emily. He's my boyfriend. What if it was Casey?" She says.

I look behind me at my best friend that I have been crushing on since I laid my eyes on him.

"Please Em." Holly says making me turn my attention back to her.

"Get ready. Casey you start the car. We'll be down in 5 minutes." I say running to my closet to put on black leggings and one of Caseys baggy jumpers he left in my house that he never got back nor he'll ever get back. I throw on my converse and quickly wait for Holly then we both run downstairs.

My parents are still in the living room and look at us curiously as we leave.

"Change of plans. I'm staying in Holls tonight. I'll keep in touch. Love you." I say and don't even wait for their responses before leaving.

We get into Caseys car, me shotgun and Holly in the back.

"He's still not answering." Holly yells in frustration.

"Don't worry Holly. Give it time." I say.

I turn to Casey and whisper low enough so Holl can't hear.

"How long has he been gone?" I ask.

"Since 11:30."

"That's over 10 hours." I say.

"Now are you worried?" Casey asks me and I nod cautiously.

***

"This is his dad's house." Holly tells us and hops out of the car before Casey can even turn off the engine.

She knocks on the door viscously and repetitive.

"Hols calm down. It's 2am. Barry is probably in bed." I warn.

"How can he sleep when his son is missing?"

Before I can reply, the door opens to a hopeful middle aged man but his hopeful expression disappears when he sees its us but replaces it with a small smile.

He opens the door wider for us and we all walk in and he gives Holly a hug and shakes hands with Casey and gives me a short hug too.

"So what's the story?" Casey asks as we sit down on the sofa.

"I heard him talking on the phone with his mom and then next thing I hear is him slamming the front door. I thought he just went out to blow off some air but then he didn't come back and hours passed and still no show so that's when I rang Dawn." He explains and by the way, Dawn is Seths mom.

"Is their anyway he went to a party?" I question hesitantly.

"He doesn't know anyone here. He comes here once or twice a month."

"But you know Seth," I chuckle, "he's so friendly. He could make friends with anyone in a second."

They all chuckle knowing how true it is.

"Even if he did go to a party. He would have called." His dad says.

"But there's loads of possibilities that might have happened. His phone battery could have died, he probably can't hear you call him or maybe he lost it. Don't think the worst." I say.

Barry turns his head to Casey and smirks and nods his head in my direction.

"Where'd you find this one?" He chuckles.

Casey throws his arm over my shoulder and says, "she's an amazing best friend alright."

"Okay maybe we can drive around the town and see if theirs any parties? Or have you done that already?" Casey asks Barry.

"No I've stayed here all day so I'd be here if he hopefully came back."

"Well maybe we could drive around." Caseys says.

"If you wouldn't mind."

"Okay. We'll be back here in about an hour?"

"Okay. Cool."

We are about to stand up when I see Barry pulling Casey back gently by the wrist.

I stand at the door with my back to the boys and listen carefully.

"Please find my son." Barry says.

"We will."

Holly begins to pull me out the door and I almost forgot she was here because she wasn't talking much.

"We'll find him Hol." I reassure and she wipes away a fallen tear and nods.

We all quickly jump in the car and start driving.

"Okay so we're looking out for parties or drunk kids or absolutely anything that will lead us to Seth." Holly instructs.

We continue driving for about 35 minutes and then I see a house with red solo cups on the front porch and couples making out and girls wearing next to nothing.

"Eh Case, if you ask me, that looks like a party." I point to the house.

He quickly turns into a parking space and we all jump out of the car instantly.

We all separate and look around individually.

Moving past all the horny teenagers, I head into the kitchen and search around.

I tap a guy on the shoulder who is drinking water and I assumed he was in his common sense.

"Excuse me?" I say.

He turns around and smiles.

He was good looking with his big brown eyes and bright blonde hair that gives him a hot surfer look.

"You okay?" He questions.

"Um yeah I'm just looking for my friend. I don't know if he's here or not but I need to know if you've seen him." I ask holding up my phone and a picture of Seth and Holly together.

"I'm not really sure. I just got here so haven't been around to see who's here but I can help look if you want."

"That would be great. Thank you." I smile.

He puts his water down and begins walking with me.

"I'm Alex." He says holding his hand out to me.

"Emily."

"That's a beautiful name."

"Yeah my parents were on vacation in Emily Coast when my mom went into labour." I explain.

"So is it your boyfriend we're looking for?" Alex questions.

"Best friends boyfriend."

"Oh does she think he's doing the dirt on her?"

"No he had a fight with his mom and went missing. His girlfriend his going crazy." I explain.

"Well what's his name?"

"Seth Mitchell."

"Okay maybe go upstairs and look. Let's go." And we went upstairs.

We both went into bedrooms individually and I didn't find anything and neither did Alex.

"Anything?" I ask.

"Nope."

"Seth where are you?" I ask myself.

I feel my phone vibrate and the screen lights up with a picture of Casey.

"Did you find him?" I ask instantly.

"No but I think I might know where he is. Meet me out back." He says and before I can say anything he hangs up.

"Did your friend find him?" Alex asks.

"No but we're going out back."

We go downstairs and pound our way through the crowds of people and outside to the huge back yard where I see a trampoline.

"Found him." I hear Casey yell.

"Of course you did Case, there's a trampoline here." I laugh knowing how much Seth loves jumping.

I walk over to the trampoline and see Seth lying down on the black surface.

I take my phone out and call Holly to let her know we found her boyfriend.

"You found him?" She exclaims.

"Oh my god you found him. I-I'll be right out. You found him ahhh." She squeals and I chuckle.

"Seth." I say shaking my friend.

He's asleep. I hope.

I see him opening his eyes a little bit and then sit up.

He doesn't seem too drunk but maybe his intentions were to get drunk instead he fell asleep. Typical Seth.

"Where's Holl?" He asks almost instantly after he sobers up.

"She's coming now." Casey says.

He jumps up but someone knocks him back down.

"I'm so happy we found you." Hols says in her boyfriends arm then steps back and hits his arm.

"You jerk." She says.

"I was worried sick."

He takes her hands and kisses her knuckles.

"I know I'm sorry I shouldn't have left and I should have answered my phone. Why did you come all the way here?"

"I'd go to hell and back to find you." Holly says.

They both stare at each other for a while and smile but Casey being Casey has to ruin the moment.

"Barf."

I hit him on the back of the head.

I feel someone's presence come closer to me and then someone whispers in my ear.

"Now that you found your friend, I'll let you all be. It was nice meeting you Emily. Maybe we could meet up some time, that is if you don't have a boyfriend." He says.

I'm about to speak when someone slips their arm around my shoulder and begins to speak.

"No, but she does have a best friend." Casey says.

"Ignore him. I'd love to. Here, give me your number." I say handing him my phone and him giving me his and once we exchanged numbers, we give them back to each other.

"Guys this is Alex. He helped me look for Seth." I introduce and Alex gives a brief wave.

"I'll see you later Emily." He says and then walks away.

"Okay Seth if your finished your deep staring into your girlfriends soul, will we bring you back to Dallas or do you wanna go to yours dad?" Casey asks.

"I think I should go to my dads now for a second to say bye and apologise but go back to Dallas for my mom. We didn't really end things on a good note." Seth explains.

"Sure. We'll bring you to your dads first." I say.

"Thanks for coming out guys. At least I know who my true friends are."

"Yeah but don't expect this reaction every time you go missing." Casey says slinging an arm around Seths shoulder and giving him a nougie.

***

A few new characters!

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~Maddie!