To Have and To Hold

Chapitre Onze

 "Well?"

I had my cell phone pressed up against my ear, pacing back and forth. Jasmine was sitting on my now neatly made bed, legs crossed underneath her, her own phone gripped in her fingertips. A voice crooned from over the other line of my phone, robotic and discouraging. "You've reached the voicemail box of—"

My thumb jabbed the end button, and my feet paced faster on the wooden floor. I'd changed out of the ruined dress into a pair of sweatpants and a simple t-shirt, and Jasmine had helped me bandage my feet. The bandages slipped against the smooth surface. "Voicemail. Again."

"It's the first real day of her honeymoon," Jasmine levelled her eyes on me, one eyebrow raised. "I don't blame her."

I gripped my phone in my hand. "Anything?"

She glanced down at her phone, thumbing through. "There's a Jeremiah Skelton who lives seventeen miles away, but he's forty with bright orange hair. Not our guy." She scrolled some more. "Jeremiah Wallace, lives two miles away, looks to be barely fourteen and has an obsession with brown guitars."

There was this sense of panic that was coming over me, because here was this boy that I finally found who made me feel normal and knowable, and I let him slip through my fingers, like water from the creek bed. "If only Annabeth would answer her phone," I said, glaring at my own cell phone. "Then I could ask her what the photography company was called."

"Jeremy Silverling, obviously dyed black hair and a lip ring. Next."

"I can't believe I'm such an idiot," I moaned. "How could I not ask for his phone number?"

Jasmine's eyes lifted from her phone, her mouth twitching. "Because you were sleep-deprived and love-supplied."

My eyes were daggers on hers. "Keep looking."

"Fine, fine." Jasmine looked back down at her phone. "You know, if you had a social media account of your own, he'd probably be able to find you by now. Alice isn't a common name."

I detested social media, with a passion born from the fiery pits called high school. I deleted my account senior year, when everyone was boo-hooing over graduating. Besides, I never had time to maintain one, what with being a full-time college student and a part-time worker. "It doesn't matter if he doesn't have a social media account either."

She frowned down at her screen. "What kind of weirdo doesn't have a social media account?"

"Jasmine."

"Sorry. Looking."

I took in a breath, trying to calm my nerves. I just had to wait, to be patient. After Annabeth finally picked up her phone, told me who the photographer was she hired, I could call the company and ask to speak to Jeremiah. Easy. I just had to be patient. And Annabeth had to just answer the dang phone.

Annabeth gave a little laugh from my bed. "You know, it's kind of romantic."

"What is?"

"The fact that you can't find him. You're like Prince Charming looking for Cinderella."

I weighed my phone in my hand, debating on throwing it at her. It'd leave a nice little goose egg on her forehead if I got my aim right.

But she raised her hands, up like a defensive stay away. "Sorry, sorry. I don't see any Jeremiah's that look like our guy, Alice."

Patience, Alice, patience. It's only a matter of time. "It's fine," I conceded, gingerly walking over to her and sitting down on my bed. It jerked under my sudden weight. "Thanks for checking."