As I walked past every door on this condominium floor, the noise coming from Unit 469 gets all the more thunderous to my ears… I presume Riley is jamming with Connor again, like they always do.
My feet forced itself to move from a walk to a jog as my heart felt excited to see Riley again. Once I set foot on their “Welcome” mat, I smelled the fragrance of their newly-painted, white door and felt its glossy surface, and then I knocked thrice.
There was no answer.
I thumped harder until my knuckles caught a crimson tint. I felt weary as I desperately tried to kick open the door.
I had called both Riley and Connor but their cell phones were turned off. I’d already spent more than ten minutes outside their condominium unit, and as odd as it may sound, I sensed inexorable panic.
Then I remembered a trick Braiden taught me: opening a locked door with a credit card. Once I had retained information, I quickly reached into my bag and grabbed a card.
I pushed the card inside, while forcefully twisting the knob until it pried open.
The attempt of opening the locked door was a success. I entered the room and leaned on the wall as I exhaled both a sigh of relief and exhaustion.
As I looked around, I noticed Riley and Connor’s absence in the room. The music came from the stereo and I felt like an awful dumb ass.
In that very moment, I almost collapsed out of terror that something bad has happened to them. Suddenly, my phone rang and my heart raced even more. It was Thomas.
“Hello!” I shrieked. I felt his heart skip after I hysterically answered the phone.
“Hey! Damn, you scared the hell out of me! What’s the matter?” he said, his voice stuttering as I took in a deep breath.
“Well, Connor and Riley aren’t here. Riley told me to come by his place and I was greeted by a locked door and a loud stereo,” I spoke as swiftly as I could, “D-d-do you know where they are?”
I heard him snort. “Hey, calm down. They’re with me and Braiden,” he replied.
This greatly alleviated the situation, but I began to wonder, “I was supposed to see him. We were supposed to hang out here. Uhm… Can I please talk to him?” I scratched my head in thought.
“Oh, sure,” he said, and I heard the passing of the cell phone to someone else.
“Mica? I’m sorry I—“
“I thought I was supposed to drop by,” I cut him off, “you scared the crap out of me.”
“I’m so, so, sorry. My phone’s battery died so I wasn’t able to tell you that I slept over at Thomas’s house,” he uttered quickly, perhaps frightened that I would get mad. “I’ll make it up to you, I swear.”
I didn’t feel angry at all, but I was totally terrified with what my mind was assuming regarding their absence. Using my shirt, I wiped the beads of sweat off my face and pursed my lips tight.
“It’s alright, Ri,” I managed to say after a long moment of silence. “I’ll go take a cab now. I’ll see you in fifteen minutes, then?”
“Are you sure?” he responded. I sensed the bashfulness in his voice.
“I am certain,” I said, with a huge smile on my face, “bye!”
“Bye, Mica,” he whispered as he hung up.
I pressed the red button and looked in the mirror. My eyes were glimmering with joy. I am gratified to find out that they’re still alive, although that sudden nonappearance almost gave me a heart attack.
Anticipating a vacant taxi was a hard task. It took me almost ten minutes just standing outside the condominium and waving at random cabs that passed by, occupied or not.
My mind was set to seeing Riley again. It has just been a week since I last saw him but, undeniably, I have missed the glistening of his eyes and his soft hair swept to the right, just like mine.
Finally, a yellow cab pulled up on the sidewalk and I sat inside. I instructed the driver the directions to Thomas’s house. It took about twenty minutes to get there, much more than I had promised Riley. But I knew he wouldn’t mind.
I stepped down the concrete path and paid for the fee. As I tilted my head to the side, there he was, wearing his plaid shirt and Vans, waving at me.
