Chasing Euphoria

Chapter Twenty One

Landon

Reaching over the bed, I woke to find that Cassie was already up and out of bed. My head lifted from the pillow to look around the room, where her fuzzy socks were still by the bed but her phone was missing from the nightstand. Reluctantly, I stood up into the cold to search for her. It was almost noon; I was surprised that she hadn't woke me up yet.

After searching the whole apartment, I still didn't find her. There was a used mug in the sink and when I checked the guest room, the clothes that she went to sleep in were thrown carelessly on the floor inside out. It wasn't like her to make a mess here, she never wanted me to clean up after her. Whenever I left any clutter, she would lecture me saying that it's so much easier to clean as I go, that way there would be no opportunity for the mess to build. I had rolled my eyes and agreed to keep her happy and as it turns out, it did make life easier.

By the door, her shoes were gone and her keys were no longer on the sideboard.

Where on earth has she gone in such a hurry?

There was no trace of her leaving, no notes, no nothing. Perhaps she was covering an early shift at Caruso's, she mentioned that she might since I was out with the guys.

I went back to my bedroom and checked my phone, which I should've done before anything else, to see that she had in fact sent me a text at a stupidly early hour in the morning.

Cassie Pierce: I'm sorry for leaving you. I'll call you in a couple of days, I've got something to take care of at home.

That... didn't clear anything up. She had gone home? As in back to Vancouver? The confusion was too much after waking up. Did I just have to wait days for her to call, not knowing what was going on? Fuck that, things were dreadful if she had to suddenly pack up and leave in the middle of the night.

I dialled Cassie's number, but immediately got her answering machine. Once I lost count I the number of times I listened to the same robotic woman telling me the phone was out of service, I gave up. I could wait a couple of days. I wasn't that hung up on her. So long as I kept myself preoccupied, it wouldn't be a big deal.

Minutes passed and the wait had already become too much.

Okay, maybe I was that hung up on her. Sue me.

Before I could stop myself, I was calling Elle to find out if she knew anything.

"I'm so glad you called." Were her first worrisome words, picking up after the second ring.

"Have you heard from Cassie?" I asked, gripping my hands on the back of the sofa until my knuckles turned white.

Elle took a breath and I could guess how uneasy she was on the other end of the line. My guess, they had already spoken and something was going down. It was all too strange; Cassie had left and Elle was more on edge before I had even mentioned her. On top of that, she was glad that I called.

"She came down to the dorm at around four in the morning. She said she had to take care of some things back home and she'd be back soon so I didn't need to worry." She sighed, her voice shaky and full of doubt. "She never said exactly what was happening, but if we needed her, we could still call. Landon, it looked like she had been crying."

How did she expect us to call when her phone was powered off? What happened that made her go home without any prewarning to anyone? Even if she didn't want to tell me, I thought she could at least tell Elle, she's her best friend after all. As far as I was aware, she had no intention of ever going back.

What Elle was telling me made me more and more concerned for Cassie and there was nothing I could even do to help her. I didn't know whereabouts in Vancouver she lived, the calls weren't going through and nobody had any idea what had occurred.