Eighteen year-old Zach Curtis has lost everything: his girlfriend, his job and his scholarship. Nothing in the world matters anymore, until he receives a rude awakening from a stranger.
Petite and awkward, Terra Quinn is living the life with her bes...
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– Zach –
Terra was absent, and no one had heard from her since last night.
I spent almost an hour trying to reach her phone, only to go to voicemail time and time again. I had assumed she just took the day off to rest in her room, but I realize I was wrong when Abby didn't even have a clue herself.
The sky is turning darker with each minute. Abby and I sit on the couch of her apartment while Luke restlessly brainstorms the potential places that we haven't looked yet.
"Maybe she went to the movies." He suggests.
"By herself?" Abby frowns.
"Yeah, I know, that hardly sounds right." Luke depletes. "Alright, I feel like I've named every single place in the city. Do you think she took a train to visit home or something?"
"Then why didn't she tell us?" she asks worriedly. "She could at least give us a call or drop us a message. It is so unlike her to disappear without notice. Could she have...ran away?"
"That's impossible. Her belongings are still here." I say factually. "She'll come back."
"I'm praying that she will. She has to." Abby says while clasping her hands together anxiously. "I'm just afraid that something bad happened to her, that's all."
Luke sighs wearily, bothered by the adverse energy in the room. This is our first time seeing Abby display a negative emotion after all.
"I'm so mad at myself." She says angrily. "Terra always had my back. She always listened to me when I cried and would make sure that I am doing okay, even though I probably annoy her most of the time. I never did realize that she had problems of her own. I thought that she would talk to me, but I'm suddenly aware now that she never did."
"This isn't your fault." Luke says.
"But I was too busy with Student Council and all that useless gossip that I never did pay attention to her." She says remorsefully. "I always thought being a friend meant talking to her, keeping her company, but all this time, I never did know what was on her mind. I never even asked."
Me too.
"I think what I regret the most is not being able to be the friend who she could confide in." she says, tears welling in her eyes. She wipes them with her hands, sniffing quietly.
"What do we do?" Luke turns to me helplessly, expecting a plan.
At this point, I am barely at a good state. From the restless hours in the morning completing the final project to dealing with James, combined with an endless series of sleepless nights, I've never felt the limitations of my mind quite as strongly before.
This is the most tired I have ever been in a while.
I shut my eyes for a brief moment, using my remaining energy to think. I can physically feel the ache in my head by just doing that, but I'm not ready to rest just yet. I knew from the start that Terra was hiding things of her own, but I never asked. This makes me a worse person than Abby since she never did have a clue.
