It Should Have Been Him

Chapter 42

Then

I ran into my house.

"Where have you been?" my mom asked, as I grabbed my backpack and made my way to the kitchen.

"I spent the night at Katherine's," I grumbled, my voice was low and raspy, probably from the lack of sleep. I went into the pantry, and stuffed protein bars into my school bag.

"Why aren't you at school?" she asked. I shoved bottles of water into the bag and looked up at her, pulling the zipper.

"Because I have more important things to do right now," I said, walking towards the back-sliding door.

"This isn't because of your boyfriend is it? I told you not to let him get in the way of your school work," she said, arms crossed. I opened the back-sliding door.

"Some things are more important than school mom," I said, shutting the door tightly. I trotted against the sand, not looking back at her

I didn't know how long I'd be gone, but I knew I wasn't coming back until I found Tyler.

I spotted Bryan and Katherine whispering quietly to each other.

"Come on, into my car, quick," I said. I didn't stop to look back at them, I was on a mission.

"What about class?" Bryan asked. I scoffed.

"Screw it," I said firmly. I was trying to think of all the places Tyler had taken me in chronological order. The first place I had to find was that lake, the one he took me the night of the dance.

As soon as Katherine climbed into the passenger seat, I hit the gas and went as fast as I could.

I knew roughly where the lake was, but it was going to take a while to find it.

Katherine and Bryan kept asking me where I was taking them, but I tuned them out, I needed complete focus if I was going to find this place.

A half an hour later, after several wrong turns, I found the lake, I parked on the side of the highway, like Tyler did, and I jumped out of the car frantically, running through the trees until I found the lake. Sure enough it was there, the sun reflecting on it. But I didn't have time to take anything in.

I needed to find Tyler.

I looked around the entire premises of the lake for 20 minutes. Eventually, I knew I had to go; he wasn't there.

I tried not to let it bug me too much, I knew there were so many other places he could be. But stop after stop, I started giving up hope. I didn't eat the entire day, and I kept looking, knowing that he couldn't just disappear like that.

"He'll show up," Bryan said, putting an arm around me. I was on the verge of tears again. We waited outside the car at the gas station while Katherine used the bathroom. I didn't listen to him too closely. I didn't know where Tyler was, and it was killing me. He's dead. It kept looping in my mind, over and over again, like a song stuck on repeat.

Eventually Bryan took over the wheel and drove me home, forcing me to go inside and sleep.

I kept thinking of places he could have been, and I didn't sleep well that night, I kept waking up and walking over to my window, looking to see if maybe he was sitting on the sand, looking out at the ocean.

But he wasn't there,

Deep down I knew he wasn't in Buront.