What's Enough?

Chapter 157

Ryder POV

"Your call has been forwarded to an automatic voice messages system..." Oh, course it has, ten times I have called her and nothing, "Please leave a message at the beep,"

Beep

"Could you please call me, okay? It's not fucking funny! You were right. I can't go a day without talking to you. Now just call me back and tell me where you are,"

"Mr.Adams. Get to class," a teacher says, minding my business and not theirs.

"I have a pass,"

"To stand in the hallway? He counters.

God, I hate teachers. They act as if they didn't do the same shit while in school. I slip my phone into my jeans pocket and walk down the hall. Toni and Kahlil turn the corner; they glance over at me, and then sneaky smirks appear on their face.

If my brain weren't so occupied thinking about where Jayda is at, I would question what the fuck is funny? She isn't here; I know that; I checked her classes, I checked the library, I walked around the whole damn school. She's gone.

Did someone say something to her? Did Ashley fucking mess with her? If she did, if anyone did say something to her, she's probably somewhere crying, feeling horrible about herself.

Every fiber in my body is telling me that something is wrong. Jayda and I are one. And because we are one, my stomach turns inside me because I know something is very wrong.

I return to class, the last ten minutes of it seem like ten hours, the bell rings, and I am the first one out of the door. I rush to my locker to gather my things, my bookbag. I laugh to myself because out of my four years in high school, this is my first time ever bringing a bookbag to school.

The halls fill with people, and it feels like all eyes are on me: whispers and laughter. I honestly don't care, but it's weird and demeaning. This must be how Jayda felt every day at school. How did she endure this for so long?

I close my locker and walk down the hallway. James and that girl that dresses weird (I honestly don't know her name) is standing at the locker. When I walk up, their conversation ceases.

"Uhm," I clear my throat. "Hi,"

James looks at the girl; the girl looks everywhere but at me. Is she scared of me? Why?

I've never done anything to her; I don't think I have. No, no, I haven't. I'm sure.

"James, have you seen Jayda?" Maybe he saw something or heard something; he knows everything.

He grabs his jacket and then closes the locker, "She left," he answers.

"You saw her leave?"

"Yup. She and Ashley, they left together,"

"Ashely and Jayda?" I need clarification because that makes no sense.

He nods, verifying, but I can tell he is withholding information. "What else happened?"

"I don't know what else happened, shit, I don't know what happened, I just, was down the hall. She and Ashely came from the basement; she didn't look too good,"

"Jayda?" my beating heart pounds even faster.

"Yes, and then a few minutes later Jessica and Matt came up,"

Everything explodes, my insides shake a thousand times at max speed, everything around me fades away, all the voices, where I am at. James says something else, but I don't hear him, either, because I'm walking away or because something in me changing, and anger that I have never felt before, takes over my body. Would you even call this anger? Whatever it is, it's controlling me; I couldn't stop even if I wanted to. It's putting thoughts into my head that I can't control, that I don't want to control.