What's Enough?

Chapter 167

Look After You- The Fray

Arcade- Duncan Laurence

*highly recommend listening to the second one, it's the theme of the whole chapter but the first one sets the tone

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Monophobia- the fear of being alone or lonely.

By the time I reach the classroom, the bell rings, and kids fill the hallways. I wait for Jayda to exit the room, but she doesn't; Ashely comes out, and I look behind her to see if Jayda is there, but she isn't. "Where is she?"

"She... I... she just went to the bathroom, but..."

"You let her leave!"

"I..."

I run down the hall to the nearest girls' bathroom and walk right in; the girls in there gasp and observe me, wondering why I am in here. I call her name, but no response; my eyes scan the whole place, she isn't in here.

The next twenty minutes are spent, with me searching the entire school for her, she isn't here. The time it took me to search the school was enough time for her to go jump off a bridge, or cut her wrist, or do something to harm herself.

I rush out of the school building and hop into my car, driving as fast as I can back to the bridge; when I arrive, I don't find her standing on the edge, which is a good thing, I guess. I get out of my car and walk over to the ledge, looking on the edge. Nothing but rushing water is all I can see, but who's to say her body hasn't already been consumed and covered by the waves.

Sharp pains shoot to my heart at the thought. Should I call the police? No. They probably won't do anything. She's not missing; it hasn't been twenty-four hours, just about an hour. Okay, okay, think. Maybe she just went back to my house; I get back into my car and sped in my home's direction.

Slamming the door shut, I walk to my house; I check the main house first. Running into Denita, I ask her if she has seen Jayda; she shakes her head. I exit the back doors leading to the pool house; she isn't in my bed, she isn't in my bathroom.

"Damnit," I take the lamp and throw it at the wall.

There's nowhere else to look but her house. Is she there? I can feel the burn in me slowly fueling out because I know that I'm already too late. I still, though, move with haste heading to her home. Her parent's cars are out front. Okay, maybe she just came here to see her parents. She could be okay.

After ringing the doorbell, her father appears, with a phone headset on; he tells whoever he is talking too, to hold on. He groans at my presence. "What are you doing here?"

"Is Jayda here?" I ask, looking behind him.

"Yes," he answers. Whew, okay, I can breathe again, "She said she doesn't want to see you,"

And then the heavyweight compressing my lungs comes back, "She said she doesn't want to see me? She actually said that, like out her mouth?"

"Uh yes,"

"I need to see her; where is she?" she knew I was going to come here.

"You can't come in!"

I rush past him and upstairs to her room; I hear her mother ask what's going on, they follow behind me. I try to open her room door, but it's locked; I jiggle the handle and the door. When did they put the locks back on the doors?

"It shouldn't be locked," her father says. His eyes go to the doorknob, there is no lock. It's her chair.

"What's going on?" her clueless mother asks again.