Together

Two

By middle of the night, my father went to my dim room. When I saw his silhouette figure on the door, my heart rose, I thought about the mysterious guy in our town that stab and shot people to death. Some said he lived in our neighbourhoods. But when dad spoke, the beat of my heart returned to normal.

                "Paige," his deep voice said. I sat up, rubbing my eyes full of discharged. "Courtney's mom called me. She said that Courtney isn't home yet."

                I began to be terrified again. I wanted to explain that maybe she went somewhere with someone and got late so she stayed over. But still my mind was surmounted by angst that something happened to my best friend.

                "I told her to stop bothering. Her voice sounded really apprehensive. Maybe you should go to their house tomorrow and ask your classmates and friends."

                "Sure, dad,"

                "Go back to sleep and don't be so over thinking about Courtney. Just hope she's fine."

                Dad closed the door and said good night. I lied down back on my bed. I made ocean of reasons to let myself go to sleep. After long narrative images in my head, I managed to fall asleep.  

"I wasn't with her yesterday." Kent said. I asked all of our friends about Courtney. Nobody answered that they were with her. "Maybe she's with her other friends, right? I mean, she has few aside from us."

                "Who do you think they are?"

                "Hmm . . ." he murmured.

                I also think of someone that Courtney used to hang out every dismissal. Kent's wrong. She doesn't have few. She has lots. Courtney was sociable. She knew how to talk to different kinds of people.

                "Ask Hale," Kent recommended. "When Courtney was obsessed with this freshman guy, she and Hale stalked that boy every lunch or end of class."

                "I know. Do you think Courtney is still has a crush on that ninth grader?"

                "That's not what I mean." He folded his arms. "Courtney is still friends with Hale even though she doesn't like him anymore."

...

Courtney and I began with slight awkwardness in our friendship. We're sophomores then, even though she and friends allowed me to join them in lunch, Courtney became comfortable easier with Hale than me.

                Whenever I saw them together, I could easily distinguish that Courtney was really happy. A girl like Hale would certainly remove your bad mood. It's just a piece of cake for her.

I don't know if Courtney was telling stuffs with Hale that she never told me or any of our friends. Or she ever knew the reason why our dear friend disappeared.

This freshman guy that Kent had mentioned, his name was Alex—Courtney's sweetheart Alex Moore . . . well, only for her.  In senior year, Kent, Courtney and Chris went to join a religious youth club, which totally, out of their personality. Alex and his friends had no options to go, so, they met in that organization. At first, to conceal her infatuation, Courtney used to tell the org that Kent has a crush on Alex. The way Courtney had always denied her feelings were barely audible.

"Hey, Courtney," Hale approached us one time during the day of absence of Mr. Gordon. "Do you have the copy of notes in English?"

"Yeah," Courtney answered.