Harrison Woods is a 17-year-old girl attending Arbor Coast High, a boarding school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her dark past including her rocky relationship with her parents and her esteemed older brother's suicide are the reasons she landed herself at...
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Jason hadn't been lying. All he knew about Otto was what he'd told me. He didn't know about the numbers or what they meant, and he made sure to convince me of that. It took awhile for him to do so, but after sitting in his car for almost another hour after leaving the apartment, I could tell that there was no way he could be lying. He had been just as in the dark as I had, but for him, it was even stranger since him and Otto were brothers. The fact that he had no idea about Otto's weird numerical fixation was unusual, considering they'd lived together for years on end.
For some reason, I trusted Jason. I actually trusted him a lot. He had opened up to me more than anyone ever had (besides West, of course) in all 17 years of my life.
Once I had returned to my dorm that night, I groaned at the idea of having to write my English essay. Let's just say, writing the essay didn't exactly go as planned. I got home at 2:20 in the morning and passed out in front of my laptop within minutes of opening it up. When I woke up, the only thing I had written was 'The difference between a short story and a novel, is ffffffffffffffffffggg'.
Thankfully, I didn't receive an F on my paper. We had a sub again, and he was so old, he wasn't able to read the lesson plan. And when some kid tried to mention turning in the essays, one of the soccer players smacked him over the head with The Odyssey.
I texted Otto a couple of times just to tell him that I wanted to talk. I wanted to let him know how things were, how his English class he seemingly forgot about was going, and I wanted to tell him that I was going to help him and be there for him. Jason suggested that maybe all he needed was for someone to love him. And I thought I would be a capable candidate.
It had become all too clear to me now: I was in love with Otto. Maybe even madly in love.
I also texted Jason a lot, even calling him a few times. Often, it was just to ask about where Otto was or if he even knew. He never did. Other times I would talk to him about his nursing degree. He'd started actually going to his classes, scoring a new internship and everything. He was incredibly serious when it came to his journey of getting better. West kept coming to my dorm room with stories about dates him and Jason went on. From going to bars (courtesy of West's very convincing fake ID) to watching movies at Jason's place. It seemed they were doing great. West loved the new, sober Jason, and I agreed that he was better. There were still ups and downs, as any relationship had. But I think that Jason's perfect remedy for decreased bipolar episodes was less alcohol and more West.
It had been just over two weeks since Otto's initial disappearance. He had obviously used up the entirety of his designated sick days and likely his holidays, if that was even possible. I wasn't sure if the school had fired him yet, but the Dean seemed to love him regardless. When we wouldn't have a substitute, the Dean would come in and teach the class. Any time anyone asked about Otto, the Dean would say nothing but good things. Things like, "Oh, he's just taking some time for himself. I'm sure he has a good reason. He's one of our best teachers to join the staff!" and then he would go on about The Odyssey as if he knew what it was about.
For the most part, things in my life were pretty good. Maybe they would be even better if Otto had been answering his texts. It would be significantly better if Otto were actually around. I knew he had his phone with him and I knew that because Jason had gone back to the apartment a few days after we visited and it wasn't there anymore. He said all of the lights were turned off, too, but the mess I made was still there. Jason said that Otto must've moved on to a different hideaway. One that was a little more remote, closer to Ohio than Michigan. He wouldn't let me (or himself, for that matter) go and check out any of Otto's other hideaways because of what happened at the apartment. I guess maybe he was helping me with that call since I almost went insane when I went on that 16-streak.
Nonetheless, I still couldn't help but think of Otto. Why had he moved to a different hideaway? Was he dissociated? Why couldn't he just come back or answer my stupid texts? I knew his problems were complicated, but I couldn't stand the silence. It was slowly driving me insane.
All I wanted was for the silence to end between the two of us, but I was starting to feel like it never would.
