. you here with your folks?’ I asked. Oh, please, oh, please don’t let Ian be here! Erin shook her head, then leaned close, giving me a look as if... she was sharing a secret. ‘Nah. I’m here on a date,’ she said, making her eyebrows dance. I felt a moment of dread. A date? Ohmigod . . . is Erin an escort? Holy shit, if her own father is pimping her out . . . . ‘We’ve been dating for a while,’ she continued, smiling to herself. ‘He’s a great guy. My dad likes him.’ I breathed in inward sigh of. We hoped that this would discourage them, and I guess that it did, because the rate of kidnapping fell off significantly. At least, I hope that we had something to do with that!Well, I wondered how long it was going to take. Mom developed a raging case of cabin fever! She felt that she just had to get out and about among some regular people. She said that she loved us all very much, but too long spent with us was boring, so she wanted to visit some place new all by herself. Naturally, we all. Of course, I would manage to miss lunch at the cafeteria. I bet the well-dressed man didn’t hang around when he found out that I was going to be out of the room all day long having tests. At least I can have some fruit and pudding. That is better than nothing.It seems we weren’t the only ones that missed a hot lunch. There were some kids over at another table that came over to give us crap for no reason at all. I recognized two of them from 8th grade last year at my school. First, it was them. Later on that night, as with every weekend, we had a party. And like clockwork, my buddy took her out and away from the drunkin guys in the house. This time when they came back I was waiting outside when his mom walked to her car. I mentioned it was too early and that she really enjoy the night instead of going to her motel. She said she was tired from the drive and she wanted to go back and relax. So being that I was a little braver from the alcohol, I asked her if she would some company.