Robbers

twenty - one

// twenty - one //

An angry buzzing in Ella's ear was what woke her at 3:02 that Saturday morning.

She had been snuggled deep underneath a heavy layer of warm bed-sheets and colorfully stitched quilts, sleeping peacefully on her stomach with her face practically smashed into the mattress before her pillow. Before she had fallen asleep earlier, Ella had forgotten to place her cell phone back on the nightstand and it had somehow ended up beneath her pillow; now, it was vibrating against her forehead with an incoming call from Ryan.

Blindly, she untangled her arms from the sheets and grasped for the phone. The bright glow of the screen seared against her half-lidded eyes, so Ella kept her eyes squeezed shut as she put the phone to one ear.

"Hello?" Her voice cracked when she spoke, the tone worn out and thin from the late hour.

"Ella?"

Ella's mind was still fuzzy with sleep, so it took her half a second to realize the voice hadn't been Ryan's. Her eyebrows drew together and she rubbed one eye with the heel of her free hand, asking slowly, "Who is this?"

"Ella, it's Julie." As Ella gradually began to recognize the voice of Ryan's mother, she felt an icy sort of anxiety form in the pit of her stomach. She opened her mouth to ask why she was calling Ella on Ryan's cell phone, but Julie was already continuing hastily, "Are you with Ryan?"

"What? No, I haven't seen him since...I think since before Thanksgiving. Last Wednesday. But I – "

"Do you know where he is right now?" Julie interrupted, and it was only then that Ella heard the panicked note in her voice. "He left the house around 6 p.m. and hasn't come back. He left his phone here."

Ella sat up in bed. Her mind had started to clear, and she could keep her eyes open now without feeling the tired, burning sensation beneath the lids whenever she blinked. "I have no idea where he is. Did he say where he was going?"

"No." Julie's voice had nearly risen to a wail, the panic filtering through the phone as clear as day. "He didn't say anything. I wanted to go out looking for him but my car is in the shop getting fixed and my husband – he's not here either. I didn't know who else to call, Ella. Ryan took his truck and his wallet but not his phone and I can't – "

"It's okay," Ella cut her off, throwing back the quilt and disentangling her legs from the sheets. An odd sort of calm had settled inside of her chest, and her tone of voice didn't match the frantic one of Julie's. "Please don't worry. I'm going to go look for him."

"Ella." She was fumbling in the dark for her warmest pair of sweatpants, hearing the barely disguised note of relief in Julie's voice. Ella held the phone in place between her ear and shoulder as she tugged on the sweatpants, stumbling slightly in her haste. "You don't have to do that, Ella. I...I'll wait until his father comes home and then I'll go out to look."

With one hand, Ella tore through the pile of clothes she'd worn yesterday. She finally fished out a thick sweater, catching her cell phone before she could drop it and repeating calmly, "It's okay. I'm already dressed, anyway. I'll call you as soon as I find him."

She could hear Julie beginning a second protest, so Ella quickly cut her off again. "Really, Mrs. Hunter. I'll find him."

Ella hung up before Ryan's mom could try again, and she hastily tugged on the sweatshirt. Quietly, she scooped her pair of fleece-lined boots up off the carpet and practically tip-toed out of her bedroom into the hallway.

The house was still pitch-black, but Ella made it downstairs without any casualties. She scribbled a vague note to her parents and placed it on the kitchen stove, hoping she would be back in time to throw the note out before her parents woke. Ella softly grabbed the car keys from the glass dish by the door, taking her jacket off the hook as well and struggling to put it on over the thick sweatshirt. Bundled tightly in the warmest clothing she owned, Ella eased open the front door and stepped out into the freezing night air.