Lost in the Game {Brollins}

| Chapter 51 |

When Jonathan made it to school, he saw Joseph waiting at his locker. He wearily made his way over, knowing the way their last conversation ended was tense.

However, Joseph seemed fairly normal and laid back when he noticed Jonathan, "How'd it go?"

"Good." He nodded, not wanting to go into detail.

Joseph just answered with a nod of his own as Jonathan sorted his stuff out. The moment he closed his locker door, he saw Colby standing on the other side. "Where's Rebecca?"

"Jeez, nice to see you too." Jonathan laughed, "I promise I didn't lose her or ship her off to some other country."

Colby just sighed, holding in the urge to roll his eyes, "Where is she?"

"Holy dude, I don't have a camera on her twenty-four seven. Stop acting like she's supposed to be under lock and key and you're her prison guard." Jonathan stared at him in disbelief, "What the hell is wrong with you?"

"Nothing. I'm just asking." Colby clenched his jaw, holding back the countless snappy remarks running through his mind.

"Is this your way of saying I'm out and she's in?" Jonathan questioned, "Because you really should've told me that before I went out and bought you that engagement ring man. Where have your morals gone?"

Jonathan stared at Colby as seriously as he could before he broke into a smile, purposely trying to defuse the situation. He quickly heard Joseph chuckle and watched Colby's gaze soften a bit. Jonathan knew he needed to reassure Colby that he wasn't mad at what had happened the other day, but just worried about the situation itself.

He swiftly sent a text to Rebecca, making sure she was okay before the group walked off and separated to go to their respective classes.

It was only when all morning classes passed, and Rebecca was nowhere to be seen, that Jonathan started to become anxious.

He walked into the cafeteria, seeing Mercedes and Pamela chatting with Joseph. Before heading over, he checked his phone to see no answer from Rebecca.

"Hey." He sat down next to Joseph as they greeted him and continued their small talk.

He didn't want to stress over Rebecca's absence in case it was minuscule, or didn't mean anything, so he tried to distract himself with other things.

He didn't know the girls well, but he did know how to observe, and with inside information from Rebecca, he had grown closer with all of them as their groups eventually merged into one.

He noticed Pamela was quieter than usual, and she was evidently ignoring the text chimes on her phone that seemed to be from Alexis. He knew she wasn't friends with Alexis, and he also knew that Alexis had a knack for bullying those she didn't like, and from the quick glances he took at Pamela's screen, the texts were far from nice.

He knew Pamela probably wouldn't want him in her business so he ignored it, but when their eyes connected he shot her a smile and the one he revived back seemed smaller than one he'd get when she was in her typical bubbly state.

Mercedes on the other hand looked like she was actually better than the day she came to Joseph's house and had a talk with Rebecca. He still didn't know what it was about or why it seemed to affect Rebecca, but he knew the two were talking so he left it be.

Jonathan was also aware that Ashley was sick, but that was all Rebecca told him, so he wasn't surprised when she didn't show up.

"Has anyone seen Rebecca?" The question and the person suddenly standing at the head of the table caught Jonathan's attention.

He saw Colby and everyone quickly began glancing towards one another for an answer. As they all looked around, noticing no one had an answer, they sat there confused.

"What do you mean?" Mercedes looked around, "Nobody has seen her?"

"I dropped her off at her house this morning." Jonathan spoke up, his response gaining strange looks from everyone, "But that was the last time I saw her today."

"This morning?" Colby furrowed his eyebrows, "But-"

"Did she text anyone?" Pamela interrupted, scrolling through her phone, and Jonathan caught a glimpse of her deleting Alexis's messages.

"I've got nothing." Joseph stated quickly.

Pamela tilted her head slightly, "Maybe she's just skipping? Or got sick? Or has a presentation and doesn't want to do it today?"

"Yeah, but it's not like her to not let at least one of us know." Mercedes pointed out, "What about you Colby?"

"I, uh, don't have her number." He shoved his hands into his pockets.

"What?!" Mercedes slapped her hand to her mouth to stifle a laugh. "You've been pestering her for all this time and you didn't even manage to get her number?"

Jonathan and Joseph both had to quickly hide their laughs, so Jonathan hid his face in his arm, and Joseph tried to cover it up with a cough.

"Knock it off." Pamela tried to whisper, elbowing Mercedes in the side. "You know she makes it her mission to be... unapproachable."

"Please." Mercedes cackled, "This guy here, is allegedly the school's biggest heartthrob, and you're telling me he can't manage to get Becky's number?!"

"Don't listen to her." Pamela rolled her eyes, at a hysterical Mercedes. "I think it's endearing."

"Oh man, if Ashley were here she'd been on the floor crying from laughter right now." Mercedes laughed and took a deep breath, "Fine, y'all are no fun."

"Here," Joseph reached his hand out towards Colby, "I'll do you a solid, just tell her I gave it to you because you're sending her important notes from chem or something like that."

"Actually, you might wanna say I gave it to you." Pamela shrugged with a smile, "She has a soft spot for me."