Deviants

Chapter 6

Clint

"Jesse," I call. He turns towards me. Considering he's the first friend of mine that I spotted he'll have to do. Besides, I can trust Jesse. I've known him for years. He won't ask too many questions.

"All right?" He says, studying me. "You don't look so good."

"It's Gracie," I say, rubbing my jaw line, "she's been missing all night. I was supposed to meet her at that gas station on Orange Avenue at eight last night. You know, the one on the turn off to Stonegate Lake?"

"She never showed up?" He asks, his brogue thick.

"No. I need your help, but you can't ask any questions," I say, and he gives me a strange look.

"A'right. But this isn't anything dodgy, right?"

"If it were would you change your mind?" I ask. He almost looks as if he thinks about it a moment.

"Suppose not. We'll need to call one of the guys to tell them that we won't make it to that breakfast that Clarity planned," he says, following me out of our building and across the campus, calling Johnny while we do. "So, by 'no questions', do you mean absolutely none?"

"Well, it's just Gracie has been driving me insane these past few days. She met this man about a week ago. Dean Curtly or something. She's been talking about him none stop. This is the third time she's met with him," I explain.

"Maybe she's bent. Have you ever thought that she's sleeping with him?" He asks.

"Yeah, but that doesn't seem like Gracie, let alone he's twice her age," I say.

"That never stopped... well, a lot of people," he says. I don't bother to mention that the thought of Gracie sleeping with an older man doesn't seem to bother me as much as it should. But we've grown some kind of love for each other over the past two years, wouldn't she have the decency to tell me she's sleeping with a grandpa instead of just playing with me like this? We got to know each other a lot over the years, if she doesn't want to be with me than I want her to be with someone better for her, not with someone that could be her father.

"Have you tried her apartment?" He asks.

"Yes, a million times," I say.

"So, where do you think she is?" Jesse asks when we reach my vehicle.

"I honestly have no idea."

"Well, think about all she's talked about with this Dan Curtly bloke," he says,

"Dean Curtis," I say.

"I thought you said Curtly."

"Well, I remember now, and it was Curtis."

"Whatever, mate. Where would he be?" He asks, and I try to remember everything that Gracie has been blabbering about this past week.

"I don't know, she said that she met him at the lake," I say, and rub my beard. "Wait, she did say that he likes to go to some nightclub... son of a- what did she call it?"

"Do you want me to start naming off nightclubs now?" Jesse asks.

"That would help," I say. He looks at me a bit irritated.

"Why don't we just look up his name? Do ya know who's famous for that?" He asks.

"I don't know. Johnny just found that emailer who can give him details about his mom and sister. I don't want to bother him about it," I say.

"Well, the next place I would go is the library. But we have no idea how to do this type of stuff. Johnny's the computer whiz," he says. I don't reply. Gracie met Dean Curtis by mistake when she went to the lake. He was watching her use her ability; that's why I don't trust him at all. If Dean is different like her and I, then I don't think we'd find much on him. Besides if we did, I don't want to explain anything we find to Jesse. I think harder about the nightclub that Gracie said Dean likes to go to.