*Syd POV*
What on earth is happening right now? We had had such a good night and now it has been ruined by some homophobic thugs. I didn't know what to do so I just ran and ran and did not look back. I've read in the news how these things go so I thought it best to run. I hoped Elena was following me. But I was too scared to look back just in case that group was following me. I ran until I reached Elena's mom's apartment building. I got to her door and then realised that Elena was not behind me. No. No. She could just be a bit further behind me. I waited and I waited even more. She didn't come running. I hoped even more that she had just run in a different direction and that she was taking longer to get here. How am I going to explain this to her mom? How am I going to explain this to Alex? How on Earth am I going to explain this to her Abuelita?
I walked up to apartment 402 and stared at the door. Imagining Penelope, Lydia and Alex sat innocently behind it, completely unaware that I was about to deliver bad news. I was still trying to catch my breath from running all the way here. How am I supposed to explain to my girlfriend's mother that I don't know where she is, and she could have potentially been attacked by a group of thugs and left for dead in the street? My rapid breathing quickly turns to hyperventilating and I couldn't bring myself to talk to anyone. I backed to the wall outside of the apartment and slowly slid down until I was curled up in a ball, rocking back and forth.
Schneider came running up to me.
"Hey, Elena's Syd-nificant Other, what's up?" he asked. I could not catch my breath to give him an answer.
"It's okay, you're okay, you're safe here, look at me and breathe, do you want me to go inside and get Elena?" he said.
I managed to slow my breathing enough to splutter out, "I don't know where she is,"
"What? What do you mean? She'd be in her apartment, right?" he laughed.
"We were out on a date. and now I don't know where she is,"
You could tell in his face that his heart sank in sync with his face. At that moment, Penelope and Lydia came out of their apartment.
"What is going on out here?" Penelope asked. "Syd? Are you okay? Where's Elena?"
"I don't know," I say quietly.
"You don't know? What do you mean? you 'don't know'? You go out with my daughter and you come back without her and you don't know where she is? What the hell happened?"
I didn't know where to start.
"There was this group of guys that started harassing us on the way home and I didn't know what to do so I started running. I thought Elena was following me, but then I got here and she wasn't with me. So I waited for a bit, now she's not here and I didn't know how to tell you and now I'm so scared because I don't know where she is," I blurted this out and as I did I watched everyone's face move to the same level of fear that mine was.
"Schneider?" Penelope gasped. "Call the police. Find my daughter,"
