Dreamer ~ A Daniel Seavey Fanfiction

Chapter 10

DANIEL'S POV

After a few weeks, it's like nothing had ever changed. Corbyn is back in school with us, talking and running his mouth just like he used to. Everything is back to normal.

Well, almost everything.

Every day I look for Harper in AP History, and every day she's absent. And the worst part is, it feels like I'm the only one who notices. It's like she never existed in the first place.

As far as I've heard, I'm the only one who knows about her family and what happened to her, and I'm not about to tell anyone - except the boys, and I've already made them all swear on their lives not to tell a single soul. The last thing I want is for her to come back to school with all these rumors and stories being spread about her.

If she comes back.

I wonder if she's okay. I wonder if she woke up or not, and I wonder what happened to her if she didn't. It's not like her family was around.

Meanwhile, the boys are doing everything they can to distract me and make me feel better, and I'm grateful for it.

"Did you guys hear that Kaylee Evers is coming back?" Jack asks one day at lunch.

"Who told you that?" asks Jonah, opening his water bottle.

"Gabbie."

"Uh huh. And did you get this information before or after you guys kissed in the gym after school on Tuesday?" Jonah says, smirking.

"After," Jack replies smartly. "I'm a classy guy."

We all laugh. Then Zach says, "Wasn't she, like, best friends with-?"

Jonah shuts him up with a quick glance. The table goes silent, and I seem to be the only one who's confused about what just happened.

"What was that about?" I say.

"Nothing," Jonah answers. "It just wasn't important."

"Yeah, right," I retort. "You always give someone that look when they're about to say something that they're not supposed to say. So spill it."

Jonah sighs and looks at Zach, who finishes his sentence from earlier. "Wasn't Kaylee, like, best friends with Harper? I remember them being together all the time."

Corbyn slides his phone over to me. He has Kaylee's Instagram page pulled up, and there are pictures upon pictures of her and Harper together. I scroll through the page as the conversation continues around me.

"Apparently she's coming back at the beginning of next month," Jack says. "Moving back into her old house and everything."

"And how did Gabbie know all of this?" Zach asks.

"Well, since Gabbie's class president, she helps every new student in our grade. She told me that Mrs. Bennett was talking to her about Kaylee, and that's how Gabbie knew that Kaylee was coming back," Jack explains. "Plus, she lives a few streets up from Kaylee's old house. Gabbie knew that Kaylee moved, but said her house never went up for sale. It was like they expected to come back."

I'm still scrolling through Kaylee's page, not saying a word. "Dani, you okay?" Jonah asks me.

"Who's going to tell her?" I ask quietly.

"What?"

I look up at the boys. "Harper still hasn't come back to school. I don't know if she's even alive, and no one else seems to care. It's like she never existed. So let's say she never comes back. Let's say-" I stop. I can't bring myself to think about that. "Let's just say something really, really bad happens to her. Who's going to tell Kaylee that her best friend is...?"

They all exchange a look before Corbyn speaks. "Daniel, you can't think about that right now. It isn't your fault."

"I know it's not. But..." I sigh. "I just feel so...so..."

"We know."

There's a minute of silence, and no one breaks it. Then, Corbyn gently changes the topic, and I'm grateful to have yet another distraction.

But I end up spending the rest of lunch in my own head, thinking about where Harper is - it's simply a matter of life or death.

~