Norman's pov
~~~
"That fucking asshole!" Emma yelled when we got into my room, "Tell me exactly what fucking happened." she grabbed my shoulders and we both sat down.
Gilda, Don, and Nat followed behind Emma.
"Well he just said he's leaving and that I have to stay here. He said he'll be back though." I said back quietly.
"Where is he going?" Nat asked, "When will he be back? Why did he leave?"
I sighed, "He said he wants to go to Oregon, he never said anything about when he'll come back, and he left because everything was too much."
Emma kicked the couch leaving a dirt mark on it, she started pacing around the living room. Then she suddenly stopped and turned towards us, "He's...been planning this."
"What?" Gilda asked.
"Think about it." Emma said, "Has Ray ever been the type of person to just randomly decide he wants to do something?" everyone shook their heads 'no', "He does research, he takes notes, he looks at the pros and cons, etcetera etcetera. And out of nowhere he just decides to go on a trip to Oregon for who knows how long, and expects Norman to just wait for him."
I sat there awkwardly, "It's fine, really Emma, I don't care."
Emma's head turned so fast I'm surprised she didn't get whiplash, "Maybe you don't care, but I fucking do. He-he can't just do this to you or to us!"
Gilda put a hand on Emma's shoulder.
"Emma, please stay calm." Gilda said, "You'll make it worse if your emotions take over."
Emma looked and Gilda and nodded, Emma sat on the couch and sighed.
"Well, the best we can do is hope he'll show up soon, maybe he'll send postcards or something. Or we could hire someone to find him for us. Maybe his parents will know where he's going." Gilda said.
Everyone nodded and then Don spoke up, "Yeah! Maybe he'll leave clues for us or something, Ray's not cold-hearted he wouldn't make us worry about him on purpose."
A small smile appeared on everyone's face as we all nodded. We all knew Ray for years at this point and we thought he wouldn't make us worry.
We were wrong.
The first week we were all still hopeful that he'd at least text one of us but he didn't, there were small signs he was still checking messages but it wasn't enough.
The next month his parents had good news, a letter was sent to their house, it had no return address but we recognized the handwriting.
Five months later we still hoped he'd be back soon, he ought to have been, right?
A year later we all received a package with an included letter, however everyone's souvenirs were from a different place. Emma got one from a national park in California, Gilda got something from a theme park in California, Don's was from the Seattle Space Needle, Nat got something from a gas station in Oregon where apparently the gas stations restroom smelled like flowers, Anna's gift was a box of rocks that the letter said Ray picked up one rock from every place he visited.
And my present was a box of pictures, pictures of Ray, my letter said Ray took a picture of himself at every place he visited.
That couldn't be right though. Anna's box of rocks had 57 rocks, and my box of pictures had 89 pictures.
The second year of Ray being gone no one received anything and any signs of Ray checking his messages were gone. We were all worried but what could we do?
