He cast a playful roll of his eyes. “Well, not everything I want, because…” He motioned to me.
Duh, Tatiana. “Right. Sorry.”
“That’s okay.” He nodded as if he was finally accepting what was happening. “Well, I guess that’s it, huh?”
“Do you need a ride home?” he asked.
I shook my head. He was taking it oddly well for how bizarre he’d been behaving, but I didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. It’d be just as cold a walk home as it was a walk there, but then I’d be able to crawl back into Colin’s warm and waiting arms, tell him we could finally be together for good, and put all of the muck of the past five years behind me.
“I’m okay. I like the walk.”
He nodded. “Yeah. A whole car ride with your ex wouldn’t be comfy. I get it.”
“Thank you for everything, Val,” I finished. “I’ll go.”
I stood up, taking one final look at Val’s frame, slumped and defeated against the neon blue diner seat, and then turned around and left. When the cold air hit my face again, I took a deep inhale of it, smelling the sweet autumn leaves mingle with the smells from the diner. I’d have to come up with some excuse why shopping didn’t work out, but I had a whole twenty minute walk to figure it out.
I pulled out my phone and shot Billy a quick text that I was done and it went better than expected and I was headed home. He was relieved and promised to call me later after running errands with his mom to get the details. I pulled out my headphones and was setting them into my ears when I felt something slam against my head, rocking it with a searing sting. I flew forward, my phone flinging out of my hand onto the concrete as I landed hard on the sidewalk. I groaned as I rolled over to investigate and Val was standing over me with a huge stick in his hand.
His image looming over me blurred and shaked from my daze, but I could see that his eyes were wild and frantic. An evil smile bled across his face. “I told you already, you’re mine.”
The last thing I saw was him lifting the stick above his head and bringing it down again before completely blacking out.
25
Colin
I felt unsettled. It was almost 4:00pm and Tatiana still hadn’t come home. She left me a note saying that she was going shopping with Billy for my birthday present, but the only gift we’d discussed her getting me was ending things with Val. If she was with Billy, I had to assume she was okay, but the idea of her being around Val made me nervous. She’d been tight-lipped about it, but it was obvious Val had been threatening her more recently. She looked terrified whenever she had to go and see him and I knew that was what was keeping her from breaking up with him sooner. I wished she’d let me go with her; hell if I knew where they were I’d go myself.
I tried calling and texting Tatiana several times, but she hadn’t responded so I’d spent the last hour trying and failing to find Billy on social media. He was an odd duck, so I assumed he was probably listed under a pseudonym, which was his prerogative, but it was annoying as shit when I was trying to get in touch with him.
A knock on my door dragged me up from my phone and by the time I’d looked up, Kya was standing in the doorway and Cristiano was already a few feet in. It felt like a bad omen. They never entered without making sure it was okay.
“Hi.” I could tell on both their faces that they were perturbed and it scared me. “What’s going on?”
“Do you know where Tatiana is?” Cristano asked.
I looked over at the note on my dresser. “She told me she was going shopping with Billy.” I looked back up at them and that didn’t appear to be the answer they were looking for.
Kya already looked on the verge of tears. “That’s what she told us too, but we just saw Billy with his mother getting into the car at the grocery store.”
My heart fell like a lead brick into my stomach. She’d gone to see Val, and she went alone. “What?”
“Do you have any way to get in touch with Billy?” Cristiano asked.
“Yeah.” It was a lie, but I had a hail-mary that I was hoping would work. “You guys head downstairs and take a breather. I’m sure she’s okay. I’ll call Billy right now.” I wanted more than anything to be right, but I had a deadly suspicion that I wasn’t.
Cristiano turned and took Kya by the hand. “Come on. I’m sure he’s right.”
As they walked away, I regretted lying. I should have told them what I knew, but if they’d mistaken something and Tatiana really was fine, I didn’t want to panic them or make things hard for Tatiana.
I closed the bedroom door again and then called Coach Nash. He was an administrator at school, the counselor no less, so he had to have access to student records.
“Hey Undinger, is everything okay? You never call on Sundays?”
“No.” My heart was pounding and sweat was pooling around my head. “I need you to get Billy Benton’s number for me.”
He groaned. “Listen, kid, I like ya, but I can’t just go giving out student information. I could--”
“I think Tatiana went to break up with Val and she went by herself,” I blurted out. “She left early this morning and isn’t responding to anyone’s calls or texts. She told me and her parents she was going to hang out with Billy, but they just saw him at the grocery store with his mom.”
“Fuck.” Coach Nash let out a huge, heavy sigh. “Alright, give me five minutes, I’ll text you.”
“Thank you.”
I hung up my phone, and as promised, Billy’s number came a few seconds later. I clicked it and sent a text.
Hey, it’s Colin Undinger
Is Tatiana with you?
My phone was ringing in my hand a few seconds later; it was Billy. “Hello?”
“Is Tatiana not home?” His voice was an octave higher than normal and distraught.
“No, she told us she was going shopping with you.”
Billy’s breathing picked up speed. “Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh my god.”
It was horrifying me. “What? What’s wrong?”
“Tatiana went to go break up with Val this morning. She met him at a diner, a public place to be safe, and then she sent me a text at like 9 telling me it was done and she was headed home.”
“Nine this morning?!” My whole life was flashing before my eyes. Her beautiful smile, the touch of her hands on my skin, her joyous laugh. “Where is she?!”
“I don’t know!” Billy was next to hyperventilating on the other end of the phone. “Oh my god. You have to go tell her parents. You have to call the police.”
“Do you know where she was meeting him?”
“Yes! I’ll text it to you.”
I didn’t respond and just hung up the phone. I jumped up and bolted down the stairs and Kya and Cristiano must have sensed the urgency in my movements because they were already rushing to the bottom of the stairs when I was clamoring down them.
Kya already had tears streaming down her face. She could see the panic in mine. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I started, my own emotions welling up.