Sleepy Bois Turnabout?

Sally Salmon

Sally was going to kill her boyfriend. She really was. What was wrong with him? Just completely ghosting when they had plans? Important plans where she was going to meet his family? He knew- ugh- he knew how antsy she got when suddenly left in the dark, he knew how she spiraled, he knew better than to scare her. As she determinedly knocked on the door Sally felt her eyes begin to water, she bit them back with a fierce scowl. Why couldn't he just answer his phone? Texts? Or email? From anyone? Fundy said he'd even reached out to Wilbur's boss who said he hadn't seen him all day. That's what really got to her, his absence from work. He'd said he had an early meeting last night... he wasn't just ignoring his friends he was straight up missing.

Why the fuck would he do that to them?

She stubbornly refused to acknowledge the answer hissing in the back of her mind, the little voice snickering 'he wouldn't.' No, it was easier to assume he was just being a dumb jackass. It was easier to be angry. She banged on the door once more before huffing and kicking the ground. After a brief moment of complete frustration, a memory dawned in her head and she began digging through her bag pocket in search of her own pair of keys. She'd forgotten she had. She, nearly frantically, dug the key into the lock but halfway through turning it she stopped.

What... what was wrong with her?

She knew she was entirely overreacting, she couldn't hold her decision to drop everything and run over against him. It was reasonable to be worried about the sudden radio silence. Besides, he'd given her a copy of keys for a reason, so why- even consciously NOT planning on blowing up at him- did she feel like a criminal doing this? Maybe she shouldn't. Maybe she should just drive back home and pretend none of this ever happened before she got a 'crazy ex-girlfriend' title slapped over her face. She gritted her teeth. Whatever. If that's what happens (which it wouldn't, this was Wilbur, her boyfriend who wrote her cheesy love songs and would never hold a single well-intentioned mistake over her) that's what happens. She'd rather get this over with than remain with that awful feeling psyching her out. Besides... what if it was correct? What if there WAS something wrong and just nobody had noticed yet. What if he was sick or passed out or hurt or trapped in some other way but couldn't call for help because—

She twisted the key and slammed the door open, too busy listening to her heart pound to stop and cringe at the loud bang it made as she rushed inside, eager to prove herself wrong. As soon as she stepped in, the normality of the house possessed her. Behind her, the door fell shut with a click and she was overtaken by the absolute stillness of the scene. It was just a house. No torn walls or burn marks or trashing or threat or danger of any kind, it was simply a home that had been left as it was. Blinking, Sally came to her senses. There was no need to continue with her attack, her heart should calm down, she should breathe. It was fine... it was all completely fine. Why was that worse? She hadn't hoped for there to be some kind of a mess here. She was glad she found no fire that might explain his absence or letter saying he'd ditched his life— but finding nothing also meant she had no answers.

She tentatively made her way through the house, still feeling as though she had broken in or something, but becoming more and more relaxed as it grew clear it didn't matter if she was in the wrong or not as no one would be upset with her; there was no one here. No clues, no heads up, and no Wilbur.

Sally fell onto the couch, sick of being at square one. She'd come down here for no reason. She stared at the ceiling in bored dismay, running a hand through her coily hair. She hadn't actually been over all that often. Maybe she should have. They lived close enough together now, they could just hang out at each other's houses if they wanted. For hell's sake, they'd given each other keys and everything! Although... she guessed they had made plans to spend more time together in person. That was the whole reason she was here in the first place, wasn't it? She sighed and sat up, tapping her finger against her leg, unsure where to go from here. Maybe she should just leave. Leave and... just wait.