Invictus

Chapter 8: Vanish

Donnie's parents let me crash at their place. It was a nice little house in the suburbs far away from Tia.

She had already texted, telling me that she was at the hospital and that I shouldn't come back.

I had cooled off by that point and surprise, I knew I needed to apologize to her. It wasn't like the kid in the hall or the boy I killed on the field though. Tia deserved what had happened to her, but again, our relationship was complicated. As much as I couldn't stand her, there was a small part of me that needed her. She was the only family I had.

I slipped into Donnie's bed as opposed to the air mattress his parents blew up for me. It felt like I was sleeping on a cloud. It was infinitely better than the slab of concrete that had somehow broke four years prior.

The second my head hit the pillow I was out.

When I woke that night, It was not of my own doing. I turned over on the bed to see Donnie's mother Karen, sporting a worried face. She stared down at me in a white silky nightgown, her brunette hair hanging over her ivory skinned shoulders. She took a seat on the edge of the bed.

"Sorry to wake you sweetie but —" She whispered. Her voice trailed off and she looked back at the door as though she was doing something she shouldn't have been.

"Sorry, it's probably nothing... You haven't heard from Donnie have you?"

"No." I said groggily while blinking to get the sleep out of my eyes.

Karen looked out the window and then back to me. She was wearing a forced smile to mask her concern.

"Okay... Yeah, you know what, I'm sure he's fine. Sorry to wake you." She closed her eyes and shook her head as she stood to rise, then forced out another smile.

It took me a minute to register that I was still in Donnie's bed. He hadn't come home to kick me out of it.

Karen walked to the door and was almost out of the room before I was able to catch her.

"Karen." I said, a bit louder than I intended.

She turned back around.

"Sorry, Mrs. Fowler I mean." I said, correcting myself, "He ain't got back to you?" I wasn't concerned because I knew who he was with, that girl, Kya.

"No, but I'm sure it's fine. Get some sleep." Karen slipped off, closing the door behind her quietly.

I dismissed Donnie's absence as careless adolescence and prepared to drift back to sleep, crawling again beneath the warm sheets.

I took one last look out the cold dark window before turning to bury my face back in the pillow.

Where was he?