Goodbye Henry

Next day

April 13th.
Undeniably one of the worst days of my life. I waked into school in my normal tired and irritable mood. My normal blonde hair thrown in my normal messy ponytail. I expectedly waiting in the common area like every morning for Henry. I waited for his always surprising but familiar poke to my back. His adorable signal that he had arrived and we should get going. I put my head in my hands knowing full well what I would be greeted with when he saw me.
"You look good" he would say in his sarcastic tone
"As always" I would reply and possibly add a wink depending on the day.
"Math?" He'd ask
"Ughhh" I would groan as I always do, again been doing math in the mornings for I don't know how long and it depresses me more each time.
"Come on" he'd lend out a hand to pull me up and we would trudge down the hall to our least favourite class. Mine anyway.

April 13th wasn't like that though. I waited and waited for Henry but he never showed. A normal person would think they had a day off but not me. Henry would always tell me if he wasn't coming in or was running late. I paced to math not thinking about the misery today. My only thoughts were Henry. His voice spiralled in my head. I had to calm down, he was obviously fine. Except he wasn't.

After 40 minutes our head teacher knocked. My eyes shot to her entrance and followed her as she made her way to our teacher. Her usual blazer and long pencil skirt combo moved in slow motion as she moved 3 steps into our class. I couldn't stop myself being obvious. She turned and met my eyes.
"Miss Clark, if you would follow me please" She said in a monotone voice
I gripped my papers together and regular purple kanken bag. All the possible thoughts raced in my mind. My trail through the halls after Mrs Hunt was slow. I kept my head down not looking at passing students or any walls. I still only thought of Henry.

I hated every second of this.

We soon reached the light brown door labelled Mrs Hunt. It creaked open and I trod inside. I ignored a gesture for me to sit and did so myself, I sat upright in the small chair in front of the desk.

"Miss Clark" I was addressed once more in the same monotone voice.
"Yes" I replied without hesitation
"Your friend, a Mr Henry Rogers. Have you seen him lately?" She leant on her desk and clasped her hands together.
It took me a moment as I processed what I had been asked.
"Not since our normal walk home yesterday. Why?" I tried to sound calm
"He hasn't come in yet." She stated the obvious.
"I know" I looked at my hands
"I'm afraid I have some unfortunate news" she made some expression in her voice this time.
My eyes met hers for the first time as panic rose up again.
"What?" I pushed
"His parents have set out a search" she sighed "he didn't return home last night" she continued as the information sank in.
"No, not...not Henry....not my Henry" I couldn't process what I had been told. I only thought the worst. My Henry. Not my Henry. Those are the only words that's repeated in my head.
"I'm afraid so Miss Clark" the returned monotone voice broke my silence.
I didn't say another word.
Not my Henry.
Henry has to to be okay. It was Henry. He was always okay.
I tried to forget it for the rest of the day and focus on classes but it didn't work. Nothing did. Being on my own at break and lunch didn't help. Henry has to be okay. I told myself that anyway.