During the excitement of the previous night, Tom had not heard or checked his phone. The house phone had rung a couple of times but everybody had ignored it as the entire family had tried to make sense of everything that had happened and had been said that night. Tom was lying in bed and he couldn’t be bothered to move. He just wanted to hide away for the day. He closed his eyes when he heard his text message ringtone on his phone sound. He picked up his phone and saw that he had seven missed calls and four unread text messages. He read the text messages in times order as they were all from Melanie. “Hey Tom just wondered if Amelia was still with you as she is not answering her phone. Mel x”. He closed the message and then flicked onto the other one. “Hi again it’s getting late and not heard from you or Amelia, is everything okay?” Tom’s heart began to race; he dreaded what the next message from Mel would say. “Please answer your phone Amelia’s not home and its gone midnight ring me please when you get this. Mel x”. Tom hoped that the final message said that Amelia had gotten home safely. “Tom pick up phone now! Amelia not been home all night! Help?” Tom got dressed hurriedly, looking rather dishevelled but he knew that he had to be with Melanie and her family right now.
Tom pulled up outside Amelia’s house and Melanie came running out of the front door towards him. “Have you got her, is she okay?” Melanie panicked, with slight hope in her voice. Tom shook his head. “What happened, where did she go?” Melanie started to quiz Tom. She had clearly been awake all night. Her eyeliner and mascara had smudged and her hair was messy. She looked like she could do with a good long sleep. She invited Tom into her sitting room, where her mum and dad were also sat. “Oh Tom why did you not text us to say Amelia had left?” Trevor asked. Catherine, Trevor and Melanie looked shattered, worried and were filled with panic. Tom took a deep breath and began to explain. “Well she was with me. We began to have an argument and my brother tried to intervene. I saw all the cuts on her body. I knew something was wrong. She shouted in front of both of us that Lewis had raped her. There was a bigger scuffle and I was confused. I told everyone to get out and leave me alone. I needed time and some space. My girlfriend and my brother. I was shocked. I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. I am so sorry”. Tom began to break down in tears. “How come you didn’t answer your phone Tom? We really needed you last night!” Melanie shouted.
“I’m, I’m sorry. I tried to stick up for Amelia when Lewis came to plead his innocence. He attacked me and got arrested. My mum needed me. They know about Lewis. Dad believes Amelia. I think mum does too but won’t admit it. I had to be at home last night. I am so, so sorry. All of this is my fault!” Tom wept.
Catherine and Melanie both put their arms around Tom and comforted him. “You had your own things going on Tom. Don’t blame yourself for any of this; none of this is your fault. We just need to find Amelia and we need your help to tell us where she might have gone. Places where you go together, anywhere you can think of so we can try to find her? We have called the police and they told us to call back if she is still missing after twenty four hours which will be soon.” Catherine tried to comfort Tom and encourage information out of Tom at the same time. “Er well there’s the woods five minutes away from here, we go there a lot. Have you tried calling Katie and Sam? There’s Lily too you could try calling. Has she gone to uni and is hiding up in the computer room or library? I can’t think of anything else”, Tom said. Melanie grabbed him and exclaimed,
“Right, we will go to uni and look for Amelia”.
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