Small Stories

(#5) Excerpt (2)

Background: Hello! This is a tiny excerpt from a writing project I'm hoping to do. The writing project will most likely be called "Dockett's Cove", and will be featuring characters that I don't normally use like Todd, Elizabeth, Piper, and Eric..with a bunch of others! Anyway, hope you all enjoy!

~

It was exactly four o' clock in the evening when I realized she was gone.

I had gone to school, just like any other day. Went through all my classes. Turned in assignments and homework..the normal stuff. However, underneath all the normality there was something different. I realized that there wasn't anyone to tell me my shoe was untied again, or to remind me to relax before a presentation. This meant that my girlfriend Elizabeth, who I normally called "Lizzie", wasn't around.

I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion. Usually she would text me if she was sick or something else came up. To double check, I picked up my phone and clicked it on. The home screen came up, but no messages. Worry began to creep up from my chest to my throat, almost choking me, but I forced it back down. There was no need to freak out. Not yet anyway.

After school, I walked outside to where my friends Cade, Emmeline, Steven, Joseph, and Jody were waiting. Usually whenever Elizabeth was around it would be the seven of us, but today it was only us six. I had met them all shortly after my sister Piper and I moved to Dockett's Cove. They had stood up for me when I had gotten into a pretty bad situation with bullies and we've been friends ever since. There had been another girl, Allison Murphy, but something happened between she and Elizabeth and she hasn't come back since.

"Ey, where's Lizzie?" Joseph asked immediately.

"Not sure..I haven't seen her all day. Have you guys heard anything?" I asked, beginning to get worried again.

They all shook their heads, looking as concerned as I was.

"Maybe there's something going on at home?.." Steven said.

I pursed my lips and looked at the ground in thought. Lizzie's mom had been battling health issues for quite awhile, and some days she couldn't even get out of bed. So it was usually her older brother, Adam, and Lizzie who helped out since their dad was never home. I had tried asking her about it but she always got upset, so I had stopped.

"Yeah, it could be." I responded, starting to feel a little more hopeful. "I'll go see if I can find her..see you all later."

They all said goodbye, with Emmeline waving, as I jumped into my beat up truck. Pulling out of the High school's parking lot, I began the longer drive to Maple Lane. As I drove by, I looked around for any signs of my girlfriend, but she wasn't out walking either. I desperately tried to keep my worried mind at rest, holding on to the hope that she was just home helping her mother. I was about ten minutes away from Lizzie's house when the worry I had tried to keep down started creeping back up. Reaching into my jeans pocket, I used my left hand to drive while I fished out a small metal object with my right. The object was something Lizzie had created for me. It was a small padlock, which you had to figure out the combination until you heard a click. The thing was, the combination never stayed the same, so it was great if you wanted to focus on something else other than yourself or your problems. There were also small buttons and tiny levers to flip and press, but my favorite had always been the lock. I guess it was mainly because figuring out a combination was a great distraction if you were about to have a panic attack, which had been the reason why Lizzie had made it for me. She had made one for herself too, mainly because she had trouble sitting still without something in her hand. Which I suppose was the reason she had started inventing in the first place.