Robbers

four

// four //

When Ella returned to school Monday morning, she still wasn't quite sure what she was going to say to Ryan.

She had come home from her run on Saturday feeling dazed and her mind impossibly jumbled, and then she'd sat with Rosie watching a film all afternoon without paying the slightest attention to the television. Sunday had gone somewhat of the same way for Ella, spending the entirety of the day shut inside her bedroom and turning over the events from the Hunter's house over in her mind. Despite her endless ability to spend hours thinking it over, she was still at loss for what to do.

Ella had her mom drop her off at school early that morning, and she met Nina in the cafeteria before first period to buy cheap coffee that was much too watery for her taste. As Ella stirred in mountains of cream and sugar, Nina asked how her weekend had gone.

"Oh, you know," Ella shrugged, staring down into the swirling brown coffee to avoid eye contact, "the usual. How was yours?"

And then Nina had launched into an explanation of how her cousins had stayed over Saturday night, and how unbelievably inconsiderate they'd been while going through the contents of her closet. Ella had listened with only half of her attention on the conversation, the other half busy thinking of what she should say to Ryan when she finally saw him again.

She wanted to know how he was planning to get the money. Ryan had to be stealing it from somewhere else, but how on earth was he going to manage that by himself? And why did he even owe money in the first place? The people he needed to pay back had to be intimidating or at least somewhat dangerous, considering how desperate Ryan was to get the money in time. What had he done to get himself mixed up with people like that?

Ella scarcely paid attention to any of her lessons throughout the day. She stared up at the blackboards blankly, seeing the chalked words and numbers without registering them or copying a single thing down for notes. There were more important things than calculus and chemistry for Ella to be thinking about. 

Ryan wasn't sitting at his friends' table for lunch. Ella had spent at least ten minutes trying to inconspicuously scan the cafeteria for him, but she'd come up empty. Slightly anxious, she wondered if Ryan had even come to school today.

She had psychology last on Mondays, and the teacher returned their graded exams from the past Friday. Ella was strangely relieved to find that she'd gotten a solid C, since she had previously been expecting to receive a D at best. The rest of the period dragged on slowly, Ella's eyes drifting back and forth between the classroom window and the sluggish moving of the clock's minute hand. In the same moment the bell finally rang, Ella was slinging her backpack over one shoulder and standing from her desk.

Ella made her way through the hallways towards the exit doors, hoping to get to the parking lot as quickly as possible to see if Ryan's truck was there. She waved goodbye to Mindy as her friend leaned against the scratched blue lockers, talking to Talia while she got out her textbooks. Ella continued on without attempting to make her way over to them, not wanting to miss Ryan if he was here. She'd have to figure out how she was getting home later.

Once outside, Ella's eyes immediately fell upon the matte blue paint of Ryan's truck, parked in the exact same spot as it had been on Friday. She had hurried out of the school so quickly that not many people were in the parking lot yet, but she knew Ryan had to be making his way outside soon.

Ella was too determined to even think about changing her mind. She headed straight across the school's driveway, weaving her way around yellow buses and students towards the lot. Coming to a stop beside Ryan's truck, she exhaled nervously and cautiously leaned against the driver's side door. There was nothing to do but wait for him to come out of the school and find her.