A Night To Remember

One: Tardy again, Huh?

     My throat felt unnecessarily dry as I gazed upon my classmates. All eyes were on me, and I wasn't the biggest fan of it. "I, uhm," I began, but it came out more like a desperate plea than a confident start. My teacher looked at me disapprovingly as I tried to muster a full sentence. "My p-presentation is about," I stuttered. Dammit, Indiana, why did I always do this?

     The looks from my classmates didn't help either. I was mostly out of luck. I looked over at my friends Allen and Asher, who were the only ones paying attention. The other people who were focusing on me were mainly doing so out of amusement. Wouldn't be the first time I was the butt of everyone's joke. As I tried not to start sobbing mid-presentation, my teacher cleared his throat, urging me to continue. "Right," I restated, glancing at the board where my half-assed presentation was waiting.

~~~

     "Hello? Earth to Indiana?" Sho's voice snapped me out of my daze; snapping his fingers in front of my face once. "Thought we lost you for a second there," he continued with an amused smirk on his face.

     Raymond chimed in, toying with a plastic fork absentmindedly; "Yeah, what's your deal?" They dropped the fork onto their tray, looking at me. "You've been totally out of it. What, still not over this morning?" I cringed internally as soon as those words left their smirking lips. No doubt I wasn't over this morning. and my nightmare of a presentation. The whole thing was shoved together on Google Slides about 5 hours prior; my poor eyes didn't deserve that all-nighter.
"Come on, it wasn't that bad." My eyes shifted to Allan as he commented. He tried to be reassuring, but he tended to sugarcoat things. Raymond just shrugged, grabbing their mostly empty tray and standing up.

      "Hm, whatever you say~" Raymond taunted, leaving the table to dump their tray. I couldn't help but roll my eyes in irritation. Raymond may have been my sibling, but that also meant they weren't afraid to point out anything and everything I did wrong. It was 'entertaining' to them, in their own words.

      "You didn't even see it!" I called out to them irritably, but they just ignored my comment. I scoffed and glanced back at the others. Asher nudged my shoulder softly, giving a reassuring smile. Usually, their cute expressions would make me feel better, but I just couldn't today.

     "Anyone seen Anne?" Asher asked, breaking the awkward silence. We all gave a slight shrug in response. My girlfriend, Anne, hadn't shown up yet. I texted her this morning, but she never answered.

     "I texted her today," I commented, "she never replied." Sho sighed, glancing at us. Raymond made their way back to the table. They looked at us, puzzled.

     "What happened?" they asked, confused at the sudden shift in demeanor. Allen gestured toward the empty seat next to me.

     "Oh yeah," Raymond commented with a slight nod, sitting down. "Wasn't she here this morning?"

     "I thought so," I added with a slight shrug, "I could've sworn I saw her in the hallway." Despite my calm demeanor, I was concerned.

     "Aww, is little Indie worried about her girlfriend?" Raymond teased. My face heated up and I gave them a sharp glare. That only seemed to heighten their behavior. "Indie and Annie sitting in a tree~ K-I-S-S-I-N-G!"

       I rolled my eyes, Raymond was always like this... "At least I have a girlfriend," I said irritably, glancing at them. "You and your single ass could never."

     There was a small dinging sound from Sho's phone, sitting on the table. He glanced at the device before picking it up. "Oh, Anne just texted," he commented matter-of-factly.

     "She texted you?" I asked, a little puzzled that Anne chose to text him before me, her girlfriend. I assumed that she was just in a rush and told the first person in her contacts. "What'd she say?"

      Sho held out the phone for me to read. 'Running L8, sry, b there in a sec' I read the text aloud, everyone else exchanging glances. "Nice to see she still can't spell," Sho added with a shrug.

      "Wasn't she in the hall two seconds ago?" Asher asked, gesturing to the double doors leading to the eighth-grade hall.

      As if on command, the doors swung open, the familiar figure of Anne showing up. She sat down with us, panting as if she'd run a marathon. "Hey," she said breathlessly. Raymond gave her a wave as they glanced at her. "Sorry, I took so long, must've been worried about not hearing from me." I was about to speak but she continued. "Left my phone at home today."

     Sho glanced at me with an alarmed look. "Left... your phone?" I asked, looking at Anne. She simply nodded in reply, busy straightening out her hair. "But didn't you just-"
"Okay then!" Sho said quickly, cutting me off. "Uhm, we better get back to class. Lunch ends in a minute." I didn't understand why he was so freaked. I mean, yeah, the fact Anne texted him and then claimed she didn't have her phone was...odd. But, when is there not something odd happening?"

     Raymond gave me a concerned look as everyone began leaving; which was new for them. Sure, Raymond wasn't totally heartless, but at the same time, they weren't really the worrying type. As I was about to follow everyone out, Raymond grabbed my sleeve and stopped me.

     "I can't be the only one who finds that weird," they said, releasing their grip on me. "Anne never forgets her phone; she lives on that thing."

     "Uhm, I mean I guess," I replied, straightening out my top before speaking again. "But just because she lives on it doesn't mean it's impossible. She left it at a friend's house a few days ago."

     "That's different," they replied quickly, a little too quick not to be alarming, "she KNEW where she left it at; Katherine's house. She didn't LOSE it, she LEFT it."

     I sighed, glancing at the others who were far enough away down the hall by now. I shrugged, grabbing my bag. I slung it over my shoulder and started walking. "Listen, I don't get why this is such a big deal to you-."

     They grabbed my wrist and pulled me back, speaking in a hushed tone; as if they were worried someone was listening. "She didn't just text Sho, okay? I got a text too."
I glanced at them like they'd grown an extra head. "Why didn't you mention that at lunch-" They cut me off, glancing around as if to check no one was watching.

     "Because I was scared, okay?" They said sharply. I looked at them in concern. They never acted like this before...

    "Scared of what?" I replied quietly, looking at them. They reluctantly let go of my wrist, sighing. "What'd she text you?"

    "I- I don't know," they finally said, ignoring my question. Their voice was always clear and concise as if each sentence was practiced and performed thousands of times. To hear them stutter was to hear a dog meow.

    I nodded, looking them over again. "Well, if you're really this worried, what do you want me to do?" I asked. There wasn't much I could do to help them, because I had very little idea what was even going on. Why didn't they answer my question about the text?

      They sighed, thinking it over for a second. "I don't know," they said again, avoiding eye contact, "I don't know."

     I nodded, trying to be reassuring. "Let's just get to class, okay? I'm sure it's nothing," I replied gently.

     Hesitant, Raymond nodded. They sighed, regaining their composure. "Right," they replied.