StellaHonestly, I'm beginning to get worried.
I've spent the last forty-five minutes of my lunch period running around the school, attempting to get at least some sort of idea to where Jaxon is. He wasn't at my locker this morning and although that's nothing, he didn't pick me up for lunch as he said he would. Last I saw him was a few hours ago, at four in the morning, when he claimed he 'needed me'. If that wasn't alarming enough.
I descend down the staircase, calling Jaxon for at least the tenth time in the past hour. It goes straight to voicemail, as if he's turned his phone off entirely. I begin to grow frustrated.
Licking the drop of sweat from the roof of my top lip, I shove my phone into my skirt pocket, and head for the library. There's only one person that would ever know Jaxon's whereabouts besides me: his best friend, Tyrone Williams.
I've only had a handful of encounters with the boy throughout our acquaintanceship, but from what I've been told, he's a truthfully nice one. Surprising that there are many of those left in this world.
I push through the double-door library entrance and offer the receptionist a quick smile and nod, before heading back to the lounge. I've been at this school for a good month and still, have no mental map of this space.
Promptly, I find him, curled up on the sofa with a textbook in his lap. He looks up at me and greets me with a soft grin as I approach.
"Ah, Stella, is it true? Are you and my boy finally one?" He teases, and gestures for me to take a seat next to him. I do.
I can't help but laugh lightly. I shrug. "As much as I'd love to answer that, we have bigger problems right now."
"Like?" He asks, closing his book and straightening.
I take a deep breath and fold my hands in my lap, my left foot bouncing against the floor. "Have you heard from Jaxon?"
"Not since yesterday. Why?"
I hush my voice, "He called me this morning around four. Told me he needed me and when I went to him, he started going off about his dad. Not anything else besides that he's been violent, but he was supposed to get me for lunch and didn't show. I'm worried, Tyrone."
He takes a deep breath, looking at me with troubled eyes. Tyrone knows something I don't. Just tell me, I want to push him. Tell me what you know. Please.
"I'd tell you if I knew anything, Stella," he whispers, shaking his head. "But I don't. And as someone who's known Jaxon forever, this isn't new. He'll be back tomorrow. He'll call you and apologize. Really. I'm sure he's just...lost in his own head right now."
I nod, swallowing the bile in my throat. What the hell is that supposed to mean? His response makes me want to half believe him, but the reasonable side of me knows he covering up for his best friend. I'd do the same, but what if he's just hurting the boy we care about even more?
I open my mouth to speak just as the first bell goes off. Tyrone quickly gathers his stuff, stopping to look at me before he goes. He places a hand on my shoulder and gives me a sympathetic smile. "I'll let you know if I hear anything, okay?"
"Okay," I stand, and watch him exit the library.
Jaxon
There's one on my cheekbone.
Another on my chest.
I watch my reflection in the steamed bathroom mirror and run my middle finger across the small cut placed above my eyebrow.
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YOU ARE READING
Before The Bad - Volume I
Teen Fiction"If I told you my secrets, you would never look at me the same." His fingertips graze my jaw, travelling up behind my ear and into my hair. I let out a soft sigh, unsure of how I feel about all of this. It's all sort of abrupt, but the way my stomac...