peaches • daniel gillies

xiii

I didn't know what to do. Daniel was not picking up his phone, so first I decided to call Nina.

"Yes India?"

"Daniel is not picking up his phone and I don't know what to do!"

"What?"

"We were texting and I was like love you and he did not reply so I'm like Daniel? And nothing but the messages are all seen!"

"Where is he?"

"I don't know probably at home or he stayed at Joe's!"

"Try to call Joseph I'll call Charles."

"Thanks, Nina."

I hung up this call and called Joseph. He answered immediately.

"Please tell me you're with Daniel and you call me because you want to say he is okay and you two just had a long beautiful kiss and everything is ok."

"I wish Joseph!" I yelled. "But he is not answering me either! Did he spend the night at your place?"

"No, he went home by 9."

"Oh no. No, no, no, no!" I repeated myself.

"Where are you, India?"

"At home."

"I'm going to pick you up and we will go to Daniel's house."

"Thank you."

I hung up and waited outside my apartment for Joseph. Tears were falling on my cheeks and my face was burning. I was so scared something bad happened to Daniel that I couldn't even breathe slowly.

"India!" I heard my name and familiar voices. Phoebe, Nina and Claire were running towards me. They hugged me so hard and Phoebe wiped my tears.

"It's gonna be okay," she kept saying. "He is okay."

"Yes, Phoebe is right." Claire said and grabbed my hand.

"But Joseph tried to call him - he didn't answer. Nina tried to call him - he didn't answer. I tried to call him - he didn't answer!" I started crying even more.

"It's probably just something with his phone, India."

While we were talking, or I should rather say while Nina, Phoebe and Claire tried to cheer me up a bit, Joseph came on his brown matte Range Rover. We sat inside, all four of us and went straight to Daniel's house.

Nothing mysterious outside the house. His dogs were sleeping under a huge white oak tree and everything was just so calm.

Joseph opened the gates with a remote control he owns in case Daniel forgets his keys. We ran inside, he unlocked the door and the silence inside was creeping me out.

"Daniel?" Joe shouted a few times, but no one responded.

"Daniel!" I tried, but nothing. He wasn't here.
We checked his bedroom, bathroom, garden and kitchen but the house was empty.

"Does he have some place he goes often like, I don't know, some park or coffeeshop?" Claire asked while we were checking the kitchen.

"I... don't know." I found out that I didn't ask Daniel anything like this. I wouldn't think that he would just vanish one day.

"Call Nate." Charles said. "Maybe Nate will know, they were going often out to some secret spots. Maybe he is with him."

I dialed Nate. He wasn't picking up his phone either. I was so scared I couldn't hang up even after his voicemail went off.

"Nothing." I whispered. "He is not picking up."

"Yeah. That's totally Nate. He is on his phone like never." Joe rolled his eyes and tried to call Daniel again. 

"Well, maybe we can wait and he will show up."  Phoebe said and hugged me again for the hundredth time.

"But what if something happened to him and he is somewhere alone or what if he is-"
I just couldnt finish the sentence without crying.

"Daniel is not dead." Charles said and hugged me really hard. "Daniel wouldn't die knowing he has a beautiful girlfriend like you. Trust me sweetie."

"I want him back." I whispered and grabbed Charles's hand. "We need to find him."

"We don't have to look for him. He will come back soon, don't worry India. He will call you." Charles told me and we decided to go home.

We went to Charles's place, he made us cookies and we watched a movie. It was clear they were trying to cheer me up and I was happy, but I just couldn't focus on anything because I was thinking only about Daniel. I was scared that something happened to him and on the other side I was mad at him. If he knew he is going somewhere he could call me. Or just reply on WhatsApp.