Gone (Ianthony)

Two Months, Two Weeks, One Day, and Ten Hours Before

Anthony:    

The day after I graduated high school, I vowed I would never step back into that building again. Especially while school was in session.

But, as usual, I was breaking promises to myself. For Ian.

Because as I walked down the crowded hallways, ignoring looks from fourteen to eighteen year-olds that read "why the hell is this super tall creepy guy casually walking down the hallway?" I remembered this quote from John Green in The Fault in Our Stars (which, for the record, I never read; I just happened to look over when she was reading it and this one line stuck out to me.)

Hazel had said: "Some people don't understand the promises they're making when they make them."

And Gus had said: "Right, of course. But you keep the promise anyway. That's what love is. Love is keeping the promise anyway."    

And now I wasn't only the freakishly tall creepy guy who snuck in the side door and was now approaching some random kid he had never seen before in the slight chance he had any idea where his best friend was, but I was also the freakishly tall creepy guy who snuck in the side door and was now approaching some random kid he had never seen before in the slight chance he had any idea where his best friend was and was deeply contemplating every promise he had ever made.

Specifically, the silent promise I had made after I found the note with the capital letters. Because I was going to keep that promise. Even though I had no idea at first what I was getting myself into and I still didn't, I made the promise anyway. And I was going to keep that promise.

I was so caught up in my thoughts that I hadn't even realized the kid at Ian's locker was staring at me. His face read "who the hell are you?"

And that's exactly what he said.

"Who the hell are you?"

"Uh, hi," I stuttered, instantly forgetting everything I had planned to say. 

The kid just squinted his eyes at me. He looked pretty young - sophomore, maybe? - and his long-ish swoopy hair and strong build said that he was the kind of kid that could easily be popular if he tried, but didn't necessarily want to. He was making the right choice.

"I don't know who you are or what you want, but I gotta get to-"

"Look, this is probably gonna sound crazy and you're probably gonna think I'm absolutely insane and that's okay, but my best friend is missing and this was his old locker and he left a clue with the combination on it and there was nothing in the locker itself and last night I was thinking and just thought maybe the current owner of the locker new something."

The kid stared blankly at me. His eyes were bright blue. Not as bright as Ian's, but close.

I sighed. "Alright. It's fine. Sorry for wasting your time."

I turned around, the kid-count dying down, luckily. 

"Hey, wait."

The kid closed his locker. When I faced him, he leaned closer to me, like he was about to share explicit infortmation only I could know.

"Anthony?"

My breath caught in my throat. I nodded hastily.

The kid bit his lip and took a deep breath.

"Look, I'm only gonna say this once because I gotta get to class and your friend didn't pay me nearly enough for this."

He leaned even closer. I couldn't look away from his eyes. Maybe that locker was reserved specifically for people with blue eyes so electrifying they were impossible to not lose yourself in.

"June 29th, 2003."

And then he left.