After The Bet

11

She may be lost, but she does not want to be found.

Cole

It's been weeks since Kristie told me that Charlotte went missing. It's also been weeks since I saw that my video was leaked online. Charlotte never reported it, all that was heard from her was radio silence.

I went to the school to show them what was sent to everyone's phones. The incident was then turned over to the police, who found out one of Ian's nerd friends hacked into my laptop to steal the video and then spread it like wildfire across campus. The guy is now in custody, but that didn't really matter. Everyone had already seen the video. The school never found out that I was the one who initially recorded it.

I expected to hear from her, maybe even see her pop up on my social media feed at some point. She hadn't updated her Instagram or Twitter since she left, and her Snapchat had basically gone silent.

She wanted to disappear, and I can understand why. I ruined her. I loved her, and I thought I could bury this. My stupid mistake tainted every pure thing about her. All I could hope for was that I hadn't lost her completely, or that she hadn't lost herself.

Kristie and Dylan teamed up to start a two-man search party for Charlotte. They stalked her social media, they tried contacting her friends that didn't go to NYU, and they even went as far to walk the streets to find her sometimes.

Kristie still didn't speak to me unless she absolutely had to. Cierra heard the news of Charlotte's disappearance and dropout a few weeks ago, and I got screamed at for hours. Dylan didn't really speak to me much either, all he did was shoot me a dirty look every time I walked in a room he was in.

I just wanted to know that she was safe somewhere. Her mother didn't seem to be too concerned, and she continued to hide her worries in booze. Her mom and sister didn't know what I had done to Charlotte, or why she dropped out of school. Her sister actually reached out a few times to ask if I had heard from her. She was worried sick for Charlotte.

All I was looking for was some kind of lead. Something to help me find her. Anything at all.

I knew she didn't want to be found. Charlotte was like that. Very quiet and reserved when we first met. She liked to have her space and be alone. And when she wanted to be alone, she was hard to find.

I was scrolling through my Instagram feed on my phone as Andy came back from getting groceries. He placed the plastic bags on the countertop before taking any notice of me.

"How's your search going?" Andy asked, his blue eyes glazing over me quickly before he began to put away our groceries.

"Not well, hows Charlotte's Search Party Team going?"

"Kristie is aggravated." Andy heaved a sigh. "She's exhausted from searching. Charlotte was her best friend, and she thought she knew her better than anyone. She thought she'd know where she would hide, but it turns out Charlotte is too good at hiding."

I didn't say anything in response. I just continued to scroll further down in my feed. My eyes glanced over the photos people were posting. Some of them were selfies, some of them were pictures of inductions into sororities or fraternities, and some of them were just straight partying shots.

The photos from parties always made me stop to stare. I used to be able to picture myself in photos like these. Wasted on someone's random couch in someone's random house.

Andy left the room to go check on Kristie shortly after he arrived. I didn't move though, I was too invested in scrolling through my feed to care. There was just this small hope in me that maybe I'd come across her in one of these photos.