UNEDITED: Our Forbidden Love

15: Alexander

My heart starts to beat a million miles an hour. I should've stayed with her, or ignored Madison. Maybe a bit of both was required. I'd done a great job of that before Starley and I got together but now here I was, standing at my car where I told my girl to wait and now she wasn't there. I should've paid more attention to the screams when I heard them. That must've been her, doing what I got mad at her for not doing yesterday; calling out to me when she was in trouble. I'm so stupid. How could I be this close to losing her again? The bell rings and for once, I actually hate its presence. It forces me into the school building and into class, regardless of whether Starley is with me or not.

A few minutes pass with me staring intently out the windows and through the glass panel in the door, praying and hoping that Starley will magically arrive through the door. The second bell rings sinking my hopes further into the precipice. The two desks beside me are empty. The one to my right usually has Starley sitting in it, her blonde and purple curly hair sitting atop her head or at the nape of her neck in a messy bun, her hand secretly interwoven with mine underneath the desk (a definite plus of being left handed). The desk to my left usually has Peter sitting in it, an open Rick Riordan novel smuggled under the desk instead of his non-existent girlfriend's hand. It takes me a moment to realise my thought process, but as soon as the pathways join and my memories connect I stand up. My chair is thrown backwards against the desk behind me. I abandon my stationery and my notebook. Various calls come from my classmates and my teacher, but I barely hear them, my brain too focussed on getting back my girl.

I run through the corridor, the doors of classrooms flying past me and into the carpark. I throw open my car door, nearly throwing it off its hinges and sit down behind the wheel. I instinctively drive myself to Peter's house. We'd been best friends since kindergarten, and I had been to his house approximately one million times. We used to surf together until Peter decided he was more of a 'I'll-stay-home-and-not-have-to-socialise' kind of person. Nowadays, he just sits on his bed reading or on a facetime call with some of our other guy friends, playing video games. Occasionally he'll text his crush of five months, Veronica, but I've seen the messages and she is a lot more involved in the conversation than he is.

I pull into his driveway. The garage is closed. So far, it isn't looking good. I get out of my car and walk up to the front door. There's a message stuck onto the wood of the door, written in Peter's messy hand. I take down the paper and scan my eyes across it. There's random capital letters where there doesn't need to be, but the intention is still there.
Well Done, Buddy. She's nearby. Don't worry I'm taking good care of her.
Your next clue: Where you live is where you'll find, a way to leave this world behind. Just think of where your girl is from. I've worked it out, come get her, Scum.

I take the message and get back into my car. Don't worry, I'm coming Starley.