Together

Three

Chris frowned. "What do you mean she's gone?"

                Every one of my friends gathered in lunch table which was peculiar these times. We got very busy in different school stuffs and we certainly meet new people that became another set of friends.

                It's been four days since Courtney's vanished and four days since I was disturbed.

                "Gone like missing?" Rosie echoed. "Maybe she just went off somewhere and enjoyed a lot that's why she doesn't want to go home for a while."

                "We couldn't just make a scenario. Of course there are lot of reason why. Good or not it wouldn't help to search Courtney." I told them.

                "So what you suggest we do?" Skye asked.

                "I don' know. I think a lot but I can't make a conclusion. Why don't we create a summary of Courtney's story? Everything she told each of us."

                "Do we really need to do it? Is it required? Will it help? Really?" Rosie sounded annoyance.

                "Shut up. You're not helping." Kent exclaimed.

                "I'll start." Chris suggested.

...

As far as Chris remembered, she's friends with Courtney since the first grade, and then became strangers, until seventh grade wherein they started to grow to be best friends.

                "You're so insane." Courtney nearly died from laughter. 

                Chris didn't have that good sense of humor but whenever she acted crazy and funny, we all looked at it as a comedic play, especially Courtney. Her dark skin and big belly were counted as one of her wittiness. Although she said it was just a baby fat and she would be thinner one day, Courtney believed that it would never happen, well all of us don't believe either.

                "Courtney doesn't have profound problems." Chris said. "I know one. She's scared that maybe Ben would spread their top secret."

                Yes, Ben, I clearly remember him as well.

                Since freshman year, Courtney had a crush on Ben Parsley. Ben was just newbie that time and they shared two classes together. Although he never noticed Courtney once, summer before tenth grade changed everything. 

                For a month, they were chatting, texting, and sending mail always but they didn't have the guts to see each other personally. Chris and Kent were so happy about them because finally Courtney had succeeded. But it didn't look like an achievement. Things just became worse for her.

                We weren't still close friends that time so I never ask Courtney about her relationship.

                Until one day, a rumor spread that they had sex during Thanksgiving that year and had broken up. I knew they separated but I never knew such things.

                Courtney was desperate to return the bond back but few days later she found out that Ben was already dating a new girl from his Biology class.

                Two years had just passed. Courtney was surely got over it. She's cheerful   and could move on that easily. She knows that there are lots of things in the world to enjoy so you shouldn't be stuck at one place. It's like thinking of a diet in a buffet. Courtney used to joke about that sometimes. Example of it was she narrated how they did it and how bad Ben was.

                Kent didn't like the idea at first especially the school knew about it because of Ben. Courtney told him about what'd happened the next day. He thought she was just kidding, but he got a little worried when he saw her serious face.

                Maybe Ben wasn't the reason after all. The memories may. But it's been two years, I remind.

...

"Ben is now dating this girl that leads the school's decathlon team." Rosie said while separating the sliced cabbages in her taco. Kind of Courtney, she doesn't want vegetables.

                "We all know." I muttered. Kent was right. Rosie wasn't helping to fix the situation.

                "I just narrated it. I thought it would help." Chris declared and then chewed. "Would it?"

                "Besides," Skye interrupted. "Courtney's definitely in love with this basketball guy right now. She already uprooted about her experiences with Ben for God sake."

                "What basketball guy? JB or Miles?" Kent gave an option. "She loved watching JB, too."

                "Duh, of course it's Miles," Skye said.

                "Just like Ben, Miles never notice Courtney. I mean, he occasionally did before he found out that she had a crush on him. Why are there guys like that?" I suddenly thought of it.

                "Doesn't matter," Chris spoke.

                "I'm sure that if ever Courtney had hanged out with him, she would indeed tell us."

                After Kent had talked, we were silent for a while. Chris was slowly eating her corndog while my cheesy nachos were untouched. I also thought of something about Miles. He's a popular guy but very humble. He kept in touch with different people, even the lower batches. As I ended thinking of it, late that I realized that Skye was eating my food.

                "Why do you think Courtney has hid something from us? We never do it to her." Chris suspended the peace.

                "I ask that question to myself every night." I said.

                A group of guys made their way beside our table. At a distant their voices were over heard in our place. When they had their seats, I glanced each of them as if I felt someone's presence. They were the tallest guys in school so they're easy to distinguish. Then I found myself staring at this boy whose laughter surmounted the cafeteria.

                Miles.

                Fortunately he didn't perceive that my eyes were stuck on him. I've been close to him once, sometime last year, but that doesn't matter to him anymore.

                "Mrs. Ernst and I had reached out to a detective yesterday. She said that if ever they heard something, she would call Amanda. Do you think we just let the police do their job? I mean, will we just continue our lives?"

                "There are a lot of things that Amanda doesn't know about her daughter. Courtney said that she's closer to us than her mother." Kent said.

                "Right, Amanda wouldn't easily help to answer questions to the police. I guess we should join her." Skye recommended.

                "Or we may just continue suspecting some of our classmates about our friend's lost?" Rosie requested.

                "Yeah, maybe, although Courtney has shared more things to us, Amanda knows her daughter well more than friends. Let's just give her some space." Chris brought to close.

                Lunchtime turned out to be a conversation about Courtney rather than giving our stomach delicious foods to eat. There are lots of times to have this discussion again. We'll do it over and over again not until Courtney has returned.

                The bell rang and the cafeteria boomed by students who were rushing back to their respective classrooms. While all of them were hurried, running, and having distinctive chatters, I walked down, at a snail's pace, thinking about my friend persistently, and created a plan. I should find time and talk to Miles.