Sorry

sixteen

mateo ardon

The school bell rung, expecting for all the students to now attend their first classes of the day. People brushed past me, rushing to their classes to be on time. Everyone passed me but the one person I was waiting to see. She was nowhere to be seen.

"Somethings wrong," I told Rowan who was too occupied by his phone to pay any attention to what I was saying. Most likely something to do with Hadlee since she's all he seems to care about these days.

"You're overthinking it. She's probably just feeling sick," Rowan made excuses but he didn't know her like I did. Regardless of how much she hates school, she makes her efforts to not miss a day. This was out of character for her and I had every reason to be worried.

"I just saw her last night. She's not sick. And she has an important exam today that I know she wouldn't skip." I was running by all the worst case scenarios through my mind. I just saw her. She was fine. I left her in her house safe. How could something have changed in the past 12 hours? "I'm gonna go to her house," I brought my bag over my shoulder before he stopped me from leaving. I looked at his hand on my shoulder like it was burning a hole through me.

"Listen to yourself. You show face at that house and you along with the rest of us are fucking dead. Because you've been selfish enough to fall in love with a Hyland witch, again." His eyes were filled with anger. For decades I had put my family in danger and we were now able to lay low and rebuild everything. "I'm not letting you fuck this all up because that stupid bond has you paranoid. I told you not to sleep with her but you seem to only care about yourself lately. No disregard for how your actions affect others."

I couldn't argue with anything he had to say. My brother has always looked out for me and been honest to me. He's the reason I'm still alive today. My irrational decisions are handled by him. But irrational or not, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to Abia. Whether I liked it or not, I have put her in danger by just being around her.

"I'm going," I forced my arm from his grip. Time felt like it was ticking. Maybe it was the protectiveness that comes with the bond, but something in my gut was telling me that something was wrong. She hadn't texted me this morning like she usually does. All the signs were pointing to something not being right.

I got into the truck, starting it up for me to go. But before I could, the passenger door opened. Rowan got into the car like someone was forcing him to come, but the invitation to come hadn't even been extended. Even then, I backed out of the parking spot to leave the school. The closer I got to her house, the more nervous I was. What if Rowan was right and this was all in my head? I would've risked everything for my paranoia.

I knocked on her house door, hoping that she'd open it and tell me she accidentally just slept in. I wanted to see her in her cute shorts and oversized t-shirt. Her adorable blue bonnet that makes her look like a baby. I just wanted to see her. But it was Luna. Clenching her jaw, she looked me up and down with distaste in her eyes. A look I have become numb to because of how often I've come across it.

"You have a lot of fucking nerve showing up here. Like I'm not the one thing standing between you and your entire family being slaughtered," she gritted her teeth, looking behind at Rowan. Listening in on the house, I searched for Abia's heartbeat that wasn't there.

"Is Abia here?"

The anger she felt quickly disappeared. Her body language alone gave me my answer. "I thought she was with you. We had a conversation about the bond this morning. She went for her run and I thought she went right to school." This is exactly what I didn't want to hear.  "She's not with you?"

"No," I gave a frustrated sigh. Abia wouldn't just disappear on her own. Someone must've taken her. "Can you locate her?" I stayed calm. She was frantic and having both of us like that would do us no good.