Two Boys Healing (Book Two)

27. Looking

"Hey," came a quiet voice, hands shaking Riley's shoulder.

Riley groaned and rolled over. "shut, the fuck, up," he enunciated. He hated being woken up early more than anything else in the world.

"No, you shut up. Do you know where Tristan is? We usually throw rocks at wasp nests this early but he isn't in his cabin—" It was now clear to Riley that it was Chaol who was making the mistake of waking him up.

Riley groaned again, throwing an arm over his eyes. "Chaol. I couldn't care less. Shut up, please. Besides, how would I know where Tristan is? I've been asleep."

Chaol huffed. "...oh, yeah. Sorry." He stood, and Riley shot him a look, sensing something was a bit off.

Chaol blinked, and Riley quirked a brow.

"...it's just," Chaol said slowly, "he wasn't at dinner last night either."

Riley blinked. Mm, that might be something to consider.

He sighed heavily and dragged himself out of bed, glancing to where the Wish team was cuddled up together, Will's larger frame wrapped protectively around Ash. A twinge strikes his heart, only because they were still sleeping peacefully, and Riley had to get up.

He sighed and followed Chaol outside. "What the hell are we supposed to do? Maybe he, like, got stuck somewhere."

Chaol paused, frowning. "Maybe, I guess."

~ ~ ~

Seven hours later, and they still hadn't found him.

Chaol had been non-stop searching, and when Riley had tiredly asked him why he was so adamant about it, his only response was "I'm not losing another person close to me."

Riley hadn't asked again.

The counselors had been informed by now, and they were all searching for Tristan. He wasn't in his cabin, all of the canoes were there— the last place anyone had seen him was at the fire pit the night before, and he'd told Chaol he was heading back to his cabin, which was the one on the opposite side of Will and Ash's. They had to go down the same path to get there, and yet, Ash and Will had only gone down that path a few minutes before Tristan and neither of them had come across anything strange. Ash had mentioned hearing something in the bushes, but it turned out to just be Will.

But something wasn't right with that. Riley couldn't figure out what.

Riley could see that Will was incredibly stressed out, probably because of the whole thing with his dad, and the thing with Tristan clearly wasn't helping. The Wish team was currently inside the cabin, Chaol still out looking, and Riley sitting in the front porch, staring out into the forest with furrowed brows, thinking hard.

Where could Tristan have gone?

- - - - - - -

Haha so I know I said I had a big chapter planned and I do :) but I can already feel my motivation plummeting and writers block surfacing so I'm giving you a filler chapter while I can :,) I'm sorry y'all tnsjfnsjnfjs

Q: what type of day/night is it rn?

A: so sunny it hurts my eyes :,)