The Vanishing of Brandyn Taylor

Mind in overide.

My mind was, by that point, feeling totally frazzled. I was so mixed up, I had no idea what might have happened to my best friend, but I knew that something had happened to him. He was too responsible to just gallivant off somewhere and not let somebody know. Of course, that somebody could be his mum, but i was certain he would have let me know something. My brain didn't always think logically at the best of times, but right then it was all over the place. At that moment I fully understood what people meant when they used the phrase "I couldn't think straight." If you could picture what was inside my head it would look like a pile of tangled up string, or noodles: one huge knotted and tangled mess.
I tried to sleep that night, but after several hours I grabbed a notebook and pen, and instead tried making lists to calm my brain. I made one list of places to try looking for him, one for people to try and trace, and one of ideas for what may have happened to him. (Well, I say I made lists, they were more like a list title header, and nothing written underneath.) I stared at the blank pages trying to will my mind to come up with some ideas, the more I tried the more my brain refused to cooperate.
By the time it had started getting light outside I had a few ideas written down:

Try and find his mum, or even his step mom. (Although his dad had died he might still talk to his step mum.)

Go backwards trying to trace out his life, start with all schools in the area (in case I had got the name wrong of the one he worked at.) Then try the university he had gained his teachers degree from, his college before that.
There seemed little point going back any farther than that, because we had gone to the same schools as each other. It was only when it came to further education that we went our different ways.

My list of possibilities that might have made him vanish had become more unbelievably ridiculous the longer the list became. It started off with completely feasible things, such as was he in hospital somewhere, was a family member unwell so he had taken off to visit them, things like that. Then it seemed like I was writing down unimaginable ideas: he had been kidnapped, by spies, or the government. He had become involved with a drug ring and they had kidnapped him, he had gone on a trip somewhere and got mistaken for someone else, such as a ruthless gang leader. (I did mention that my ideas were totally ridiculous, I mean, things like that don't happen to normal people. Do they?)
Logical ideas just didn't explain the total disappearance of his social media accounts, so extravagant ideas seemed the only possibility at that point. I would have to wait another four hours before the schools would be open, that would be the first task I would do. Until then all I could do was sleep, or try trawling the internet again. Even a basic search of him on one of the many search engines I tried hadn't got any results for him. As far as the information on the internet (or lack of it) was concerned, there was no Brandyn Taylor. Well, not my Brandyn Taylor anyway. I had even looked at electoral role information, which wasn't much, searched his address details, there was no names listed, looked up telephone numbers I'd had for him, that I could remember, and even done searches on how to search for people. The frustration inside me kept on growing, frustration and worry. I stared at the laptop screen, not really seeing it, and started thinking it was time to contact the police. I wasn't sure if they were open twenty four hours, for non-emergencies. So I had to search the internet for that too. I decided, after several minutes, that I would call the other schools in the area first, if nothing came from that I would then call the police. They would have more sophisticated computers, and better ways of searching for people than I had.

Seven phone calls later, (I had called junior schools too in the end, even though I knew he said he'd worked at a senior school, but I decided it was best to check them out in case,) I slammed the phone down once more, with my seventh "No sorry we don't have any teachers by that name here." I'm not sure if I was more worried or annoyed by that point. He was a teacher, and he had taught at a local school. I'd even waited outside his house once, while he walked home after a school day. We were going to the library together to search for a book I wanted. I was getting more and more wound up, stress wasn't good for my mental health at all, I had to calm down inside or I risked another break down.
I heard noise coming from Rachel's room, she was waking up. Maybe I should ask her before I called the police? She might have come up with some more ideas over night. I went to the kitchen, filled the kettle, and flicked it on. After I had made two cups of tea I went to Rachel's door, and knocked softly on it, in case she wasn't actually awake yet.