Free The Boy Next Door by Katy Baker

want?
    Melissa leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. No, she was definitely not going to call him. He’d turn up soon, she knew he would.
    She spent a restless morning busying herself about the house. She vacuumed the carpets. She did a load of laundry. Heck, she even took the net and cleaned the leaves from the pool—a job she hated.
    Lunchtime came and went with no word from Rory and Melissa found herself working up into a fury. At last, her restraint snapped. She grabbed her cell phone and called Rory’s house, planning on giving him a piece of her mind.
    But it wasn’t Rory who answered. Instead, his mom’s voice said, “Hello?”
    “Hi, Mrs Thompson,” Melissa said. “It’s Melissa Smyth. Is Rory there?”
    “No. Sorry, Melissa. He’s gone into town to pick up his airline tickets.”
    Melissa frowned. “What airline tickets?”
    “Didn’t he tell you? He’s off back to Thailand at the end of the week. I can’t figure that boy out, I really can’t. One minute he’s going on about how happy he is to be home, the next he comes storming in here announcing he’s leaving again. And does he spare a thought for me and his dad? Of course not!”
    Melissa’s heart thudded.
    Rory was leaving.
    Cold panic flashed through her.
    Rory was leaving.
    Dizziness made her head swim and she leaned against the wall, trying to calm her whirling emotions.
    Rory was leaving and he hadn’t told her. She might never see him again.
    No. She pushed that thought away. She couldn’t deal with that. Not now. Not ever.
    She tried to speak but her voice came out as a dry croak. She pinched the bridge of her nose, took a deep breath and tried again. “Did he…did he say where he was going?”
    “Sure. Tyler’s on the high street.”
    “Thanks.”
    Melissa hung up and closed her eyes as she tried to still the wild beating of her heart. For one horrifying second she imagined a future without Rory in it. Colorless. Dull. The last few weeks had been the most exhilarating of her life. She couldn’t go back to how it was before. It wasn’t an option.
    Grabbing her keys from the table, Melissa ran from the house, climbed into her mom’s car and sped into town. She had to catch Rory. Make him understand. Perhaps if she talked to him she could stop him buying those tickets.
    But when she arrived at Tyler’s Rory was nowhere in sight. Melissa sank onto a bench outside the store, desolation filling her heart. The summer sun hung high overhead but to Melissa the day seemed dark and cold. She considered calling Rory’s cell phone but knew he wouldn’t answer.
    Where might he be? She had to find him. Had to. Where would he go if he was upset? It would have to be somewhere he felt safe. Somewhere with meaning.
    Then she had it.
    She scrambled back into the car and sped off. Close to Rory’s house she turned off the main road and left the car where the road became a track that curled up a wooded hillside.
    Melissa scrambled up the hill and, as she neared the top, spotted the hollow pine trunk she remembered from childhood. She swung off the trail and pushed through the thick screen of vegetation at the trunk’s base. After scouting around for a moment she found what she was looking for: a thin, overgrown path that wound through the trees.
    Heedless of the branches that tugged at her clothes and hair, Melissa plowed ahead, tearing free of brambles, dashing buzzing insects away from her face. Finally, the vegetation receded and Melissa found herself on a broad hillside dotted with tiny yellow flowers. The town twinkled in the valley below, sweltering in the summer heat.
    Melissa looked around, taking in the scene. It was exactly as she remembered although it seemed smaller somehow. Ten paces away lay a sparkling pond. Dragonflies skimmed across its surface and bees droned in and out of the flowers growing round its edge.
    Rory sat by the pond, looking out over the hillside.
    All of a sudden Melissa was eleven years old again, up to