Spectrum 》Chris Evans

seventy-seven

REAL LIFE

Chris checked his watch and had noticed it had been about ten minutes since River left to go to the restroom. He furrowed his brow, not sure what would take her so long. He decided to go check on her.

"Hey, I'm gonna go find River," he said (shouted) to Sebastian, who gave him a funny look.

"Where'd she go?" he asked.

"Bathroom, but she's been gone a while," Chris replied, worry evident in his voice. Sebastian could tell he was starting to get worked up, so he tried to calm Chris down a little.

"Alright, man, calm down. I'm sure she's fine. There's a lot of people here, maybe she got swept up in conversation. Or she could be in the bathroom, just touching up her makeup or something," Sebastian said, trying to ease Chris' mind. Chris nodded, knowing Sebastian was right.

"Yeah, you're probably right. I'm just gonna go check, though," Chris said, walking away before Sebastian could try and talk him out of it. 

Chris made his way towards the bathroom, where a small line had formed in front of the women's restroom. He made his way towards the front and knocked on the door.

"Hey," one of the girls in line shouted at him. "The men's room is over there." She pointed to where a small group of men had gathered to wait their turn to use the restroom.

"I know," he replied, giving her an apologetic look. "I'm just looking for my girlfriend. She went to the bathroom about ten minutes ago and hasn't come back."

"Oh. Well, who is it? I could go in and check for you, if you'd like?" the girl offered.

"That'd be great, thank you. I'm looking for River. River Kane," Chris said. The girl frowned and shook her head.

"She's not in there. I saw her come out like, five minutes ago. She looked kind of frazzled. I didn't see where she went, though. Sorry," the girl responded, giving Chris a small smile and shrug. Chris sighed and nodded, walking away and saying a quick 'thank you' to the girl.

Chris began to look all over the venue for her, asking if anybody had seen her. Nobody had. Chris was beginning to get extremely worried, and he made his way back to the group. Sebastian noticed the worried look and his face and raised an eyebrow.

"She alright?" he asked as Chris came up to him. Chris shook his head a bit frantically.

"I don't know, I can't find her. She's not in the bathroom, and she's not around here," Chris said in a rush.

"Maybe she went outside? I know this isn't her usual setting, so she might've gone out to get some air," Sebastian suggested.

"Yeah, yeah, that makes sense," Chris responded, rubbing his hand over his face. "Will you come with me to look?"

"Yeah, of course, man."

Together, Chris and Sebastian made their way to the back exit and stepped outside. They noticed a pair of people at the end of the alley way, backed up against the wall. Not even two seconds after noticing them, the one closest against the wall let out an ear-piercing scream. Chris immediately recognized it as River's voice.

"River!" he shouted in a panic as he ran over to them, Sebastian following alongside him. The other person turned around, and when Chris recognized him as Danny, River's ex-boyfriend, all he saw was red.

Danny took off in a sprint towards Chris and Sebastian, thinking he could somehow get past them, but Sebastian tackled him as soon as he was close enough. Chris didn't have any time to even think about Danny; all he knew was that he needed to get to River.