Don't Tell My Brother

Chapter 57 - Coincidences

It was the end of the day and things were decidedly not fine, because Lucas hadn't heard from Damien.

"This is actually a good sign," Alex said, trying to haul an armful of theatre props out of her locker, "if you think about it."

"I have thought about it." Lucas said, resting his forehead against the cool metal of the locker beside Alex's. "All I'm doing is thinking about it." He glanced sidelong at her, eyes wide behind his glasses. "Tell me I'm overthinking it."

"You're overthinking it." Mona said, standing between the two, fiddling with the strings of her hoodie.

"Thanks, Mona."

"Anytime."

"But seriously," Alex continued, finally stepped back from her locker, nearly hidden behind the stack of costumes in her arms, "you are. He said he'd text if something bad happened, right? Maybe everything's just going really, really well."

"Maybe." Lucas stared into the steely grey surface of the locker. "Or maybe it's because everything's gone horribly wrong, and he's too distraught to even open his phone."

Mona paused, having wound the string all around her finger. "Alex's version makes a little more sense."

"I know that logically," Lucas said, still slumped against the stranger's locker, "but I just can't be sure." It was the not-knowing that was killing him, eating away at him like he'd swallowed acid. He couldn't put it out of his mind, no matter how hard he tried.

"So let's find out."

"What?"

"Let's find out. I can totally make up some fake excuse to go to his school, since we're doing this whole musical with Mountbank. I was going to store this all in the Drama office, but I guess I could go and visit the costuming people first, most of them are Mountbank students anyway..."

Lucas checked his phone. It was practically a reflex by now. The crowd of students was thinning as everyone trickled towards the exits in twos and threes, out into the bright sunshine of the afternoon. It was loud enough, with all the talking and laughing, that Lucas thought he could've easily missed the sound of a new notification amidst all that noise. But his screen stayed infuriatingly blank.

"Mona, is he checking his phone?" Alex asked, trying and failing to peer over the large black witch's hat perched on top of her armful of fabric.

Mona nodded. "Yep."

"No," said Lucas, just a second too late.

"You suck at lying." Alex lifted her leg high into the air to kick her locker door. It slammed shut with a loud bang, only to fly open a second later. "A little help?"

Mona stared at her nonplussed for a moment, before reaching out to slowly shut Alex's locker and fasten the lock. "It helps if you use your hands. Maybe you should get someone else to help you carry that stuff."

"Maybe I should. Hey, Mona?"

"Yes?"

"Can you please carry some of my stuff?"

Mona obliged, taking a blue and white checked dress, the witch's hat and a pair of ruby slippers from Alex's arms, giving her a free hand which she promptly used to snatch Lucas' phone away. Ignoring his cry of anguish, she slipped it into her pocket.

"We're going. Otherwise you'll get so anxious waiting for that text that you'll be sick, and I bet even if he did text you wouldn't be sure he was okay. You'll feel better if we go and track him down, so you can see him properly."