[Teen and New Adult Romance]
"Life as a trailer trash kid is nothing short of shitty, especially when the love of my life pretends that I don't exist."
River wants two things: to get out of Gladstone and to be with the boy from her childhood. With h...
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Me: Where are you?
I stared at those three unanswered words multiple times over the second day he was missing. I began to wonder if Kaleb was coming back to school at all. From his mother's track record, she probably did something horrible to him. I cried myself to sleep that night, feeling more alone than ever, missing how we instinctively held one another when we fell asleep together.
When Kaleb was a no-show on Friday, I knew something major had happened, but I still couldn't figure out what it was. He'd been put in a boarding school when we were in sixth grade to keep us apart, but by the time ninth grade rolled around, he'd gotten himself kicked out due to excessive bad conduct. I couldn't help but question what boarding school his mother had sent him to this time. My stomach grumbled in fear as I wondered if his mom sent him to military school.
He obviously didn't have his phone because he never answered my text or anyone else's. A bunch of guys from the football team asked me if I heard anything from Kaleb. From what I could gather, the coach hadn't spoken with his parents yet. I told everyone who asked that I hadn't heard from him as my worry escalated.
Without Kaleb, the team was going to lose the game tonight, and everyone knew it. He was one of the biggest reasons they won so many games. Me, being the team's lucky charm, was sweet for Kaleb to say, but we all knew who really won the games.
Feeling strange about going to the football game without Kaleb as the quarterback, I found Jordan at lunch with his regular group of guy friends. I told him I didn't feel like going to the game.
"That's okay. I didn't want to go to the game anyway. I was just gonna hang out with you. My mom's going out with some dude, so she'll be out late. If you want, you can come over to my place around eight so we can start getting our drink on before we head to Landon's party." Jordan gazed into my eyes with an excited smile. His gaze swept over my lips and face as he blushed.
I looked away immediately, not wanting to give him the wrong idea. There was no way in hell I was going to ruin my friendship with Jordan. "I have a shitload of homework I need to catch up on. I can show up at your place around nine. Sound good?"
Jordan grinned and nodded before he invited me to sit with him and his buddies for lunch, which turned out to be a lot more comfortable than I anticipated. While I was laughing at one of their impersonations of their boring history teacher, Chester walked toward me and gestured for me to talk privately with him.
"I'll be right back." I picked up my sack lunch and threw it in the garbage before I walked over to Chester. "Hey. What's up?"
Chester chagrined. "I think I found out who your secret admirer is. Sorry it took me so long to find out."
With Kaleb gone, I'd completely forgotten about the note. I stuck my hands in the back pockets of my shorts, not really caring who it was, but I didn't want Chester to think I was ungrateful. I smiled. "You don't have to be sorry. I should be thanking you. Who wrote it?"
