Learning A Lake ✔

- Forty -

♢ Laura ♢

Ryan didn't come back within a few minutes, and I originally I thought nothing of it.

But when an hour and a half passed and Oscar and Katie had said their goodbyes before heading back to his for the night, I began to worry about him. 

"Where could they be?" I asked Rachel with urgency. We both remained at the patio area, the camp fires were beginning to die out and my eyelids felt quite heavy. The dancing from earlier had tired me out. 
"I don't know, maybe we should go and have a look around camp?" Rachel suggested with confusion clouding her expression but she didn't seem as worried as me about their disappearance. 

"I think i'll try and phone him first." I said and got my phone out of my bag and dialed his number. It went straight to voicemail.

"Hey, It's Ryan. Sorry I can't get to the phone right now, I'm probably either asleep or playing rugby right now, leave a message!"

I left a short message.
"Ryan, me and Rachel are getting worried, can you call me back please?"

I hung up and sighed. "Let's go and have a look... but where to start?"
"Their cabin might be a good place to begin?" Rachel suggested the obvious and we made our way to the boy's cabin.

When we arrived I tried the door, it didn't budge.  "Damn, I should have known it would be locked. They are obviously not here." I sat down on the steps and sulked in frustration. 

"Good thing Oscar gave me his key when he left then isn't it!" Rachel waved a small key in my face.
"What's the point of going in if they are obviously aren't in there?"
"Maybe we can find something which will tell us where they are." Rachel walked up to the door and turned the key in the door. It unlocked and she opened the door.

We both entered and I couldn't believe what I saw when we turned the light on. The whole place was trashed.

I took a few steps forward towards Ryan's part of the room.
"What the fuck." I whispered.
"They are gone Laura." Rachel spoke sternly as she sat on Matt's bed with a note in her hand.

I noticed all of Ryan's draws were left open and their contents were missing. They left in a hurry.

"What does the note say?" I asked and sat down on his bed. Rachel cleared her throat before reading the note to me.

"I'm sorry, we've gone home. I'll call you. Matt."

"It doesn't make sense, why were they rushing to get home this late at night!" I started to panic a little. What had happened.

Rachel stood up and noticed my increased breathing. She held my shoulders and spoke "Calm down, they have had to go home and we will find out why in time, but right now we need to accept it and trust that they are safe."

A tear fell down my face. What if they were both being cowards and didn't want us anymore. Taking the easy way out. It was a selfish thought and I put it to the back of my mind when I realised that Rhi wanted to speak to them. It can't be anything to do with me and Rachel.

I took a deep breath and laid down on Ryan's bed, pulling the pillow towards me for comfort. I froze when I felt something under his pillow. It was a purple velvet drawstring bag. I picked it up with a frown.

Curiosity got the better of me and I opened it, letting the contents fall onto the bed.

Two envelopes were among the belongings in the bag. I recognised one of them instantly as it was the letter I gave Ryan on his birthday from his sister. The other envelope had similar handwriting on it and was also addressed to Ryan, number 1 written on the corner.