Existence

Chapter 3

           

"Well?"

Sarah stopped in her tracks and glanced over her shoulder at Casey, who was casually leaning against the lockers with his arms crossed.

"Well what?" Sarah asked.

Casey rolled his eyes and jogged over to her. "Well, have you decided to come with us?"

Sarah turned away from him and continued down the hallway, speeding up slightly. "I, uh, haven't spoken to Jed yet." Her mom had given the go signal last night, but she didn't want to tell Casey that just yet.

"Where's Alex?"

"Out looking for Jared," Casey replied, matching her pace easily. "He didn't come home this morning?"

Sarah shook her head, a frown forming on her face. Jed was nowhere to be seen when she had left earlier this morning. "He stayed the night at the clinic then went straight back to work, I guess. Otherwise, he got called off to a seminar of sorts out of town."

"And he didn't call to let your folks know?" Casey raised his eyebrows skeptically.

Sarah remained silent. He had a point there. As much as Jared loved to take off on short notice and not come home for weeks at a time, he never failed to tell the family of his current whereabouts.

"Probably got too busy and forgot," Sarah said. After all, there was a first time for everything.

Casey cleared his throat. "But back to our earlier topic, you have to come with us, Sar. Believe me, you'll love it."

Sarah sighed, her will to protest waning. "I don't know, Casey... I can't just—," She cut herself off. How could she explain that she was nervous about hanging out with the cousin she barely remembered? Or that she didn't completely trust the tall guy, Azazel, who admitted to knocking her out once before? She didn't want Casey to let them know...

"It's just the weekend! And Jared will be there. Er, if Alex finds him, that is."

Sarah rolled her eyes at that. Spotting the chem lab up ahead, she said, "Bye, Casey. I've got to get to class."

"Speaking of chemistry," Casey said, still walking alongside her, "you remember my notebook yesterday? The one you found in the grass?"

"Yeah," Sarah said slowly, trying not to give away any emotion. The notebook was currently sitting at the bottom of her backpack in her locker. What if Casey had gone through her things and found it? No, he wasn't like that.

"Well, when I got home last night, I realized that it wasn't in my bag anymore. I had lost it... again." He gave me a questioning look. "You don't happen to know where it is, do you?"

Sarah shrugged, trying her best to remain nonchalant. "Are you sure it isn't in your bag? Maybe you just didn't look hard enough. Or perhaps you lost it over at Jake's."

"Hm, maybe..." Casey said, slowing down. His next class was somewhere down the next hallway.

As Sarah entered the lab, she heard him mutter, "Probably went back home."

Sarah turned towards him in confusion, but he had already set off down the hall to his next class.

~

By the time school was over, Sarah had finally made up her mind about camping. She only needed to tell Casey... or rather, find Casey.

Sarah hadn't seen him since her chemistry class. She had lingered by her locker after her last class, waiting. Casey's locker was just across from hers. But he had either dropped by his locker early or decided not to leave school just yet.