Seven Devils

Making Calls

1 YEAR AGO

I awake to find Dallas still sound asleep. I spend a moment looking at her, trying to push out the events of last night. She doesn't deserve this. Doesn't deserve to be involved in whatever we are going to have to deal with. I wish we would've just never gone to that stupid party. Wish that we could've avoided all of it. Avoided what I still cannot fully wrap my head around. The idea that someone I called a friend, no, someone I called a best friend is capable of doing something like this.

I turn and look over at my phone and see that I have 3 missed calls all from Dallas' mom. I feel a knot form in my throat, thinking about how much emotional turmoil everyone around me is going to be in, before looking over to her phone to see missed calls and texts from her parents as well. I take a deep breath, still unsure of what I'm doing exactly, and exit the room. After calming down a bit, I find myself in the dining room. I sigh as I walk to the table and sit. I contemplate my next steps before I pull out my phone and call Dallas' mom back.

"Hey Mrs. Hayes, I just wanted to call you back and let you know Dallas came over last night after the party. It was getting a bit late and I didn't want either of us driving too far." I force out, trying to hide to panic in my voice. I find, as every second ticks on that I don't hear her voice, myself panicking, hoping that I've done a good enough job at hiding what I'm truly feeling.

"No problem love," She eventually says sweetly, most likely just happy to hear that her daughter was okay and not out lost somewhere, "I'm glad she has friends like you to look out for her." I sit there like a fish out of water, trying to figure out what to say next, when she says, "Have you heard from Hayden? We haven't heard from him yet, but you know that kid, always so secretive." I knew the question would've came eventually, but even then, it still takes me more than a few seconds to come up with an answer.

I force a fake laugh before saying, "No, I haven't. I think he might've left the party early or something, because we didn't see him when we left. I could ask Dallas to give him a call though and see if she can get ahold of him." She sighs into the phone, "Don't worry yourself with that. I'm sure he'll show up sooner or later. The kid thinks that just because he turned 18 that he knows everything in life and can do whatever he wants." I give her a half-laugh and then say, "Well I'm gonna go wake up Dallas and let her know that we called so she doesn't have to worry." We say our goodbye's and then I hang up the phone.

I sit in silence for a moment, trying to figure out my next steps. I look over to the fridge before deciding that I'm not hungry, then to the living room before deciding that watching tv just didn't sound appealing to me at the moment, and I finally looked towards the steps, realizing that I would, in fact, need to tell Dallas that I called her mom and what her mom had said to me. I would have to ask her to call her dead brother and act like she knew nothing of what was happening. 

I walk back upstairs slowly, trying to avoid the inevitable and once I make it to my room, I find Dallas awake and shaking with sobs. I run over to her and hug her tightly. "It's gonna be okay Dallas." I say. We sit in silence for a bit until Dallas calms down a smidge. "I talked to your mom. Let her know you were safe. She wants you to uhm..." I go quiet, trying to not upset her any more, "She wants you to uh, call Hayden to see if you can get ahold of him." 

We sit in an uncomfortable silence for a bit before she breaks it by saying, "You know what, you were right. We just need to get through this year, graduate, then we can get the fuck out of this town and never look back again." She gets up and picks up her phone, dialing a number, then throwing herself onto the bed. "Hey Hayden, it's me D, give mom a call when you get this, she's looking for us." She says into it before ending the call, leaving a voicemail. 

"There. Now all we have to do is hope that the others don't do anything stupid." She says, trying to make light of the situation at hand, "But knowing Garret, he's probably already found 15 different ways of doing something stupid." I try to laugh along with her, but it feels wrong and I can't help but sigh. I look down at my hands and say, "This seems very inappropriate to say right now, but last night, before everything happened, I was trying to work up the courage to ask you out. I know that with everything going on it would probably be th-" I was cut off by a pair of lips. 

"Thank you." Dallas says, laughing, once the kiss ended, "I need some sense of normalcy right now and I've been waiting for you to ask me for forever." She sniffles a bit, then wipes her eyes, hiding her sadness behind a smile. "Everything is gonna be okay. It has to be." I smile at her and hold her even closer, letting her words be the last spoken before we are engulfed in a comfortable silence. I sit and think about all that was about to happen. No one knew that Hayden was murdered. No one but the 7 of us. At most, he'd be searched for and deemed a missing person. 

I sat in my thoughts. Something didn't feel right. This didn't feel finished. I kissed the side of Dallas' head and leaned back, hoping that my life wouldn't be anywhere near as crazy as the past 24 hours were from here on out.