Fontaine Five

THREE

          IN THE MOMENT, of course, I'm unaware that I'm dreaming.

It plays out more like a slideshow of photos, of quick-fire shots, than the smooth running of a film or a memory. He's kissing my lips, my jaw, my neck. I can't bring him any closer to me, but that doesn't stop me from trying, my palms pressing into his back. My heart is hammering, both in the dream and in reality, I think. Rory, he whispers into the soft skin behind my ear.

I wake with a start, brought back to consciousness with an obnoxious, blaring alarm. I make a mental note to change it, because one of these days I'll end up throwing my phone against a wall.

It's Monday morning, school is the last place I want to be, and Ellis has been missing for over forty-eight hours.

Entering the bathroom, I splash water over my face at the exact second that flashbacks of the weekend intrude my mind. Daniel Grey calling me for the second time in a single day, indirectly blaming me for his son's disappearance; cops knocking on my door the following morning to ask questions; Blair calling me to say police had just grilled her, had they done the same to me yet? All three of them flooding the group chat; me ignoring the messages and sinking below bath water that went too cold too quick.

I only checked the chat to see if there were any 'read' receipts from Ellis. There weren't.

Anger and exhaustion is all I feel, so it's no surprise that I barely remember leaving home and driving to school. St. Fontaine High School, in white lettering on a grey post, is the first thing that I really see as I drive past it. How weird that I only notice the new school sign today. It must be because I'm in the driver's seat for once -

"Oh, shit," I mutter. Blair's picking me up. Like she always does, every week, every Monday through Friday. I'd never driven myself to school. How did I forget?

As if she'd heard her name in my thoughts, her car swerves into the parking space right next to mine.

"Would it have been so hard to just let me know you were driving yourself today?" she snaps, slamming her door shut. "I figured that's what was happening when I didn't see your car in the driveway. Jesus."

"I'm sorry. I forgot. I wasn't even thinking this morning." I feel my sincerity contort into something ugly. My next words come out sour. "You can understand why."

"Sure, fine. Whatever."

We don't see Jude or Lan waiting for us as we make our way into the building and to our lockers in silence. It's as if Ellis' short absence has already thrown the group off balance. Things are starting to stop flowing. The plug hole's clogged. Debris in the river. The whole school atmosphere has refracted too, in such a way that makes it a little harder to breathe, and there's a dull ache pressing against my skull from the inside out. Word had gotten round, of course, making Ellis' disappearance only the newest, juiciest topic of conversation in and amongst the student body. It's the perfect bang to start off the new school year, something that the people had unknowingly craved since the first day back.

10:49am is the moment it all becomes a flash flood. Muddy gushing water and gushing thoughts. I know this because I'm staring at the clock when the overhead intercom crackles from the corner of the classroom.

"Orlando Venturi, Aurora Clarksen, Nathaniel Jude, and Blair Flores to report to the principal's office immediately." The sentence is repeated once more before the speakers fall silent. My chair screeches as it scrapes against the shiny floor, and I rise to leave the room. Everyone's stares are drawn to me like magnets.

Jude meets me in the hallway on the way to Principal Davis' office. There's no one else out here. My thoughts feel hot but my body is cold all over, as he looks at me with sickening mutual understanding. We're both thinking the same thing. We both know why the four of us are being called. We just hope we're wrong. My name is on the tip of his tongue - I can sense it - but I keep walking, so he says nothing.