“I just posted it—” Auggie began. “Hey, what’s wrong?”
“Can we come in?”
“Um, sure. Ethan—”
“No, not Ethan. Billie, come on.”
A girl sauntered into view. She was clearly Orlando’s sister—the same dark, curly hair, the same strong jaw—and Auggie imagined that only ferocious waxings kept her unibrow-free. She moved with a casual grace, shaking out her hair, turning her head to wink at someone down the hall. A moment later, Ethan came into sight, practically drooling. The button on her white polo was undone, and she wasn’t wearing a bra. Her shorts left about a mile of tan thigh exposed. Auggie wondered if there was anyone normal in Orlando Reese’s whole clan.
Moving to one side, he waved for them to step into his room, and then when Orlando looked at him, he shut the door.
“No roommate?” Billie asked, flopping onto the unmade bed. “Lucky duck.”
“This is my sister Billie,” Orlando said. “She doesn’t want me to do this, ok? So just ignore her.”
“What’s going on? I just saw you a couple of hours ago for the video, and you seemed fine. You—have you been crying?”
“I guess so,” Orlando said, pressing the heels of his hands to his eyes.
“He’s overreacting,” Billie said. She worked a scrunchy off her wrist and put her long curls into a ponytail while she talked. “He’s always been a crybaby. That’s because he’s spoiled.”
“Sit down,” Auggie said, guiding Orlando to one of the desk chairs. Orlando dropped into it heavily, still covering his eyes. “Why don’t you tell me what this is all about?”
“It’s Cal,” Orlando said, and then he started to cry.
“Oh Lord,” Billie said, rolling her eyes while she adjusted the scrunchy. “I have not missed this, I can tell you that much.”
“Who’s Cal?”
“Our brother.”
“He’s missing,” Orlando said, his voice rising with anger. “And nobody told me!”
“We don’t know that he’s missing,” Billie said. “You need some posters and stuff. Oh, you know what you should get? You should get a hookah. That’s such a frat boy thing to have.”
“I don’t understand,” Auggie said. “Your brother is missing?”
“Yes,” Orlando said, wiping his eyes.
“No,” Billie said.
“And they’ve been lying about it for almost a week.”
“Orlando, you are such a baby about things. We weren’t lying to you. We just didn’t tell you. Honestly, it’s because we didn’t want to deal with this. You’re a total drama queen, and it’s exhausting.”
“He’s really upset,” Auggie said. “Maybe you should go easy on him.”
“Go easy?” Billie tugged on the polo, studying her boobs. “Everybody goes easy on him. He’s the youngest. That’s the whole problem.”
Orlando sniffled, and Auggie found a tissue in his backpack and passed it over. After blowing his nose and wadding up the tissue in one hand, Orlando said, “Augs, I want you to find Cal.”
“Oh my God,” Billie said.
“I know you can do it, Augs. I know you can.”
“Orlando told us about you solving that murder last year.” Billie shrugged like she could have done it herself if she hadn’t been busy with something else. “But it’s not like this is your job or anything. I think it’s silly to ask someone like you. No offense.”
“I thought he wasn’t missing,” Auggie said. “Why do you care if I look?”
“Well, he’s not missing missing. He’s just not, you know, where anyone can find him.” She must have recognized some of what Auggie was thinking in his expression because she blushed slightly and said, “I mean, it’s not like we need the police or anything. Cal’s probably on a bender again. He’ll come back and clean up. That’s all.”
“On a bender?”
“Oh my God, you’re almost as bad as Orlando.”
“We’ll pay you,” Orlando said, snuffling into the back of his hand. “Two thousand dollars.”
“Jeez,” Billie said. She threw him a dirty look. “Mom and Dad are going to shit bricks, Orlando.”
“Butt out,” Orlando said. “Just go away, Billie.”
“He’s probably having his period,” Billie said with a smile for Auggie.
“Get out!”
Stretching as she rose, Billie said, “This is a waste of your time, Auggie. Cal will come back; he always does.” She tugged on the polo one more time, considering her boobs, and then she flashed a Miss America smile and headed out the door.
Auggie heard Ethan and Orlando’s door open, and then Ethan saying, like it was a magical coincidence, “Oh hey, you must be Orlando’s sister.”
Orlando groaned and covered his eyes again.
“My brother Fer would call Ethan a dripping dick with legs or something like that,” Auggie said.
Orlando gave a wet laugh. “I’m sorry, Augs. I shouldn’t have bothered you.”
“You didn’t bother me.” Auggie dragged out the other desk chair and sat. “Why are you so worried, but she’s not?”
“Because she’s a bitch.”
Auggie leaned back.
Wiping his face, Orlando said, “Ok, she’s right. Cal goes on benders. He’s got . . . he’s got problems. But he’s never been gone like this before. I mean, a day, tops. And we could find him because he was always somewhere in town—one of the bars he likes, with one of his dumb friends, that kind of thing.”
“Your family lives in Wahredua?”
“Just outside the city limits, so it’s technically just Dore County.”
“So you grew up here?”
“Oh yeah. Wahredua High.”
“Why didn’t I know that?”
“Well, we didn’t really talk about that kind of stuff last year.”
And Auggie was surprised to realize that Orlando was right: they hadn’t talked about that kind of stuff.
“You really think this is different?” Auggie said. “Serious, I mean?”
Orlando nodded. He was still trying to dry his cheeks.
“Don’t you think you should go to the cops?”
Blowing out a breath, Orlando nodded again. But he said, “Augs, it’s not just, you know, alcohol.”
“Oh.”
“So if they pick him up, I mean, he’d probably get charged with possession at the minimum. And he’s got a business. And my parents would honestly shit bricks, like, a whole stack of them. All they care about is what people think, and this would be awful.”
“We should still go to the police.”
“Augs, please. I will do whatever you want. I will—I will find a way to get you more money if that’s what it is. I’ll be your wingman. I’ll get you the hottest ass in town. I will do your homework for the rest of college.”