Lost

Justin grins and shakes his head. "If you do call, yell at the answering machine. I'm a heavy sleeper."

Yawning again, his body really didn't want to get up. The couch was warm and sitting here for two hours had made him a little bit drowsy. Beth's thanks makes him shrug. "No thanks needed. I had fun, and hey, I got your cooking out of it."

His eyes search hers for a moment in the dim lighting. And for a moment, he got lost.

Blinking, he looks away and retracts his arm, heat crawling up the back of his neck. "I gotta go get these girls home." He stands a little quickly and trudges around the living room to find his sneakers. Slipping them on and tying them, he finds the dogs leashes and calls them over, getting ready to go.

He pauses at the door though and looks back at Beth once more. "Thanks... I'll see you soon."


Susanne bites her lip to keep from laughing at Chuck's second answer. It wasn't that she was making fun of him - she just hadn't expected it. Her eyes danced with humor, showing that she was beginning to relax. "You must still be a child at heart," she muses. "Why does that not surprise me?"

As the waiter comes back to the table with their food and isn't sure where to put the plates, Susanne puts as hand on Chuck's arm to keep him there. She rather liked him right next to her.

After a prayer and beginning the meal, Susanne does her best to contribute to at least a little bit of small talk, though it's hard for her to come up with much that was interesting - in her opinion anyway. By the time the food was gone, the restaurant was even quieter as it became late. Leaning back against the wall, almost sideways in the booth, she cocks her head and just studies Chuck. "I should have gone to bed an hour ago," she comments wryly. "I'm so dead at work tomorrow and if I'm not, Reese will kill me anyway."


Monday. Erik was pacing the floor while the rest of the band hung out for lunch at Phil and Kyle's place.

"Dude, settle down," Theo chides. "He'll be here."

Erik doesn't stop pacing around the kitchen. "We should have heard something. He was supposed to be back last night."

"Look, he's fine." Theo takes another bite of his sandwich. "You gotta give him his own space sometimes."

"But-"

"I know you're like his big brother but you can't always protect him." Theo looks to Erik with seriousness. "I'm worried about him, too. But there are just some things we can't fix." He finishes his sandwich then sighs. He might chide Erik, but he was just as concerned. "Did you try calling him again?"

"Yeah. Same thing. Voicemail. I know he took his charger with him because he mentioned almost forgetting it. So either he shut it off, or it's broken."

"Or there's no service at the cabin." Twila intervenes from her place by the counter and looks at him knowingly. They couldn't jump to any conclusions, nor did she want to in front of Karla who was probably more worried than anyone.

"He said he'd be back last night," Erik states flatly.

Phil sips his coke and looks around at the group. He didn't know them all that well, other than Kyle and Alice and he didn't know Kip's background either. "Maybe they had a great time and they decided to stay an extra day," he suggests.

Russ smirks. "Wishful thinking. His dad's a-"

"So what do you want to do?" Theo asks Erik, cutting off Russ from saying something he shouldn't. His eyes glance over to Karla for a moment, then back to his other friend. "What can you do?"

"I don't know I just..."

"Got a bad feeling?"

"Yeah." Erik sighs. "Kip left Thursday morning to get to the cabin that night. He was gonna stay Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning, then come home."

"Let's say they wanted an extra day. Maybe he'll show up tonight."

"Why would they want an extra day?"

"Father/son bonding?"

Erik gives Theo a withering look. Neither believed that theory.

"So we wait," Kyle suggests. "Just relax and let the time roll by. It's all we can do."