Someone Else's Fairytale

Seventeen: Matthew

That night, after Matthew left, I saw I had a text from Jason. “Everything okay?” he asked.

“Matthew and I are together now,” I replied.

The answer came half an hour later, as I was brushing my teeth. “Ok.” And that was it.

***

The next day, when I didn't see Matthew in class, I called him and got voicemail. “Hey,” I said. “It's me. Just, call me whenever, all right?”

Afternoon rolled on into evening, and he didn't call back. At first I panicked, but then I reasoned that he must've gotten really sick or something. He wasn't the kind of guy to bail on me. I tried calling again, got voicemail, and resolved to go visit him the following day. In the meantime, I ordered flowers for Doug and Steve. It seemed like a pathetic thank you, given all they'd done for me, but it was better than nothing. I wasn't sure what to do for Officer Baca, but decided I'd send him a thank you note in a graduation announcement once I got those in.

***

Matthew's truck wasn't in his apartment complex parking lot the next day. I wondered if there had been a family emergency that had called him home. I called Lori.

“Hmmm?” she answered her phone.

“Do you know where Matthew is?”

“Um, I haven't seen him since math class.”

“What? He was in class?”

“Uh-huh.”

“He wasn't in Media Studies.”

“Weird. Well, I dunno. I'm sure you'll see him tomorrow.” Her tone was light.

“Did he say anything to you about me?” I said.

“No... why?” she asked.

“We kind of hooked up.”

“Oh...”

“What?” I said. “Why do you sound like that?”

“I'm sure it's nothing.”

“What's nothing?”

“Give him space, Chloe. See if he comes around.”

“It wasn't like it was a bad thing.”

“Sure, right-”

“He said he wanted-”

“Deep breath. Breathe. Just calm down. I'm sure it'll be fine. You want to go to dinner tonight or something?”

I shook my head, even though she couldn't see that. She had to be wrong. She hadn't been there. She was making assumptions on incomplete information. “Nah, thanks. I'm busy tonight.”

“Okay. I'm sure it'll all be fine,” she repeated.

I said a quick good-bye and hung up.

***

A few days later, Officer Baca called my cell phone late in the evening, a gleeful tone in his voice. “So, Miss Chloe,” he said, “guess who's back in the Big House?”

“Chris?” I said.

“You gave me a picture of him driving. He doesn't have a license, so we went over to his house to confront him about it and he let us search his room without a warrant. He's not the brightest bulb. We even checked with Ms. Garcia first, but she told us she no longer represented him.”

“What did you find?”

“Drugs, and a firearm.”

“He had a gun?”