Red Herring ✔️

27. Black Sheep

Christian POV

"Hey, sis."

"Chris, I miss you terribly." Her voice, as sweet as angel's, echoed inside his head. He pictured the way she used to sit at the kitchen island with her chin in her palm and her long, long blonde hair fanning out around her face.

Christian stretched out on the sectional couch in the basement where he was engaging in mindless video games before Mazie showed up on his front porch. He jokingly called her Holly Golightly, a movie he had once watched with his sister when she was sick and he felt bad for her. And then he stupidly called Mazie 'Audrey,' like Audrey Hepburn. The whole time he couldn't get his sister out of his head.

"Tell me more about how you miss me," he joked, tucking one hand behind his head and pressing the phone closer to his ear.

"Well," Audrey giggled. "I miss how horribly humble you are. You can never accept anyone's compliments."

His sister always put him in his place, and sometimes he needed that. If only she were here to do it in person. "You're so sweet," he teased. "I miss you too, Audrey."

"Though I do love to hear your voice, is there a reason you're blessing me with this phone call? It is almost dinner time after all, and you know how the Foster's are about dinner time," Audrey filled him in.

He hated that she was so far away, suffering through dinner with the Foster's when she could be home with him, his family, eating dinner as a Slater. "I just...wanted to catch up."

And Christian needed grounding. He needed to find a place of peace and solitude to clear his head, tamper down his emotions, and rid himself of the urgent desire to kiss Mazie Oliver. His sister, Audrey, was his best friend and he considered her family above everyone else in this home that didn't always feel like his home anymore. Amidst all the changes and the growing, he could always come back to Audrey.

"You sound...down. What's going on, big brother?" On the other side of the line, Christian heard rustling papers, typing keyboard clicks, and very distant voices.

"I guess I just have a lot going on," he admitted.

"Like what?" She questioned, prying the lid off of his thoughts to expose the truth.

He sighed. "Do you remember how I told you about that girl who had a sudden drug problem and it didn't make a lot of sense?"

Audrey hummed.

"It's Demi."

Audrey gasped. "Demi, the cheerleader?"

Christian closed his eyes and relaxed in the quiet dark basement. "Yes, that's her."

"Wow." Audrey was quiet for a long moment, soaking in this unexpected revelation. Though Audrey didn't attend Holden High anymore, she still knew all of the students and kept up fairly well on their lives. The only reason that Christian paid any attention to the gossip swirling around was for the sake of his sister so that she didn't feel so far away and left out. "That's such a shame. So sad."

Because Christian trusted Audrey more than anyone else, he often filled her in on what sort of predicaments he found himself in. From the beginning, Audrey attempted to dissuade him from uncovering the truth behind Demi's sudden addiction. She thought it wasn't his business to snoop, and he knew how that felt all too well, when he was trying to cover his sister's back about a year ago. Simultaneously, no one understood like Audrey that he couldn't let it be. Someone in pain, someone suffering, he couldn't stop himself from trying to help.

"Well, I found out today what happened to her," he said cautiously. Audrey used to be too delicate and fragile to hear these sorts of things. In the past year, she toughened up, found her spirit again, and she was brand new. The best version of Audrey he ever knew.