Black Waters (Frank Ocean Love Story)

Chapter 二十一

Christopher's View

Things felt strange being with Mia. Based on our last conversation, my whole view of her changed. She went from being a nice, pleasant girl to someone I thought I didn’t know. I was almost kind of scared of her.

Mia was straight-forward with me, though. She was just strictly focused on our mission: locating Forrest. I didn’t mind that. At least now, I didn’t have the distraction of lust and relationships. All I had to do was get things done and move on with my life.

Or, whatever my life would become after I find Forrest.

“First of all, what do we even know about him? Do you have any idea where he could be?” Mia asked. She seemed to be refraining from saying Forrest’s name. I sighed and looked down at my dilapidated loafers. They were dressy when I bought them, but now they look more than just casual.

“I had a hunch that he would be here, in New York. That’s why I came.” I replied truthfully. I thought back to Darcelle revealing to me what she found about Forrest being here. I still don’t understand what he could possibly be doing here. He was more likely to be in Portland in my opinion, since he liked areas like that. Forrest wouldn’t live in New York for the world.

But that’s where Ajahni came from. This is the place that wouldn’t give her a chance.

“Was it just a hunch, or did you have valid evidence?” Mia asked. She sounded like a real professional at this type of thing, especially with the way her glasses sat comfortably on the bridge of her nose. We were in a Barnes & Noble on Broadway, sitting near a shelf of books and looking out the window. I was skimming through a book by Eckhart Tolle called, “The Power of Now”. I’d have to read this soon. I’d heard a lot about it.

“I had somebody do a search on Roshon for me,” I said as I read Oprah’s praise for the book, “and she told me that he was here.”

Was I like New York City, too? Ajahni was desperately searching for a chance to show her skills here, but all she got was negativity and sabotage. No one would give her the time of day. Am I like that? Am I not giving Ajahni a chance? A chance at what, anyway? Maybe a chance to be with me in my mind.

But I’d searched for Ajahni long and hard, and it was now Forrest’s turn. I’m not a bad person for doing what I’m doing.

“Oh, okay. That’s good. At least we have something solid to go off of. Now we just have to figure out where in this big city he could be.” Mia said, almost to herself. She seemed to be in deep thought as she gazed out the window, her reflection showing on the glass. I scrambled up to my feet and set the book down. I walked over to Mia and stared out the window with her, trying to see what she was seeing.

“It’s hard to have hope like this.” She said, releasing the words from her lips hesitantly. I wanted to reply with something that sounded like a virtue, something that would make her feel a little better. Because making her feel better would make me feel better. But nothing profound came to mind.

“You can make it easy.” I said. By the look on Mia’s face, I could tell she wasn’t moved. I was so bent on reassuring her because I felt the same way she did. Her reassurance was essentially mine.

“How?”

“By ignoring the fact that it’s so hard and focusing on reaching our goal.”

Mia looked thoughtful, and then gave me a small smile. “I have an idea.”

                                                 * * *

It was kind of silly how Mia was the one to think of this first. It should’ve been my first idea. But either way, we were getting much closer to our goal. And all it took was the click of a button.

Facebook.

“I don’t know, but there’s no Roshon Solomon on here.” Mia said as she scrolled through the website. There were Roshon Solomons, but none of them were who we were looking for. I could tell Mia was losing enthusiasm as we went along. Surprisingly, though, I wasn’t. I just knew for a fact that we would get to Forrest soon. I don’t know how, but I knew.

“I got an idea. Do you have a picture of him on here?” I asked Mia as an idea clicked into my brain suddenly. She nodded with a confused expression, trying to figure out what my idea was. “Open it up,” I told her. She went to her pictures and found one of Forrest in the summertime, posing nonchalantly on a tree. I cringed at the sight of him, feeling wistfulness and sadness. This was painful just as it was beneficial.

“Okay,” I swallowed, “so drag that picture to Google Images. A match to it should come up if he’s anywhere on Facebook, or online.”

Mia didn’t seem to note the change in my mood. She just dragged the picture to Google Images and dropped it in the search box. Instantly, several links came up. They all contained Forrest’s photo. Mia smiled, but I was a little confused. How could Forrest’s picture be so common online? Is he popular for something?

Mia clicked on one of the websites, with a title of ‘Reagan Manor’. It seemed to be a website for a club of some sort. I clicked on a subsection of the website called ‘Upcoming Events’. There, at the top, were four of Forrest’s photos—one of them being the picture that Mia chose. We looked at each other and then eagerly read on, though the words of the article didn’t make much sense.

“Here! Right here, look. It says he goes to Columbia University,” Mia said, pointing to the middle of the article. I wanted to read the top, where it said he was going to be somewhere, but I went straight to the college information.

“Good. So we’ll visit the campus. He has to be there.” I whispered to Mia, but mostly to myself. We were getting warmer, and closer, to finding my long-lost other half.

The Next Day…

The campus was huge. I could only tell by looking at its map. But instead of taking a tour of the entire campus, Mia and I walked to the part of the campus where information on students could be found. When we entered the sub-building, we had to wait on a long line. Finally after getting to the front, Mia began talking.

“Hi,” she said to the woman behind the counter. “How are you?”

The woman smiled a fake smile, but didn’t answer Mia’s question.

“I’m looking for Roshon Solomon. He’s supposed to be attending this school.” Mia continued. The woman punched the keys of a keyboard in front of an ancient computer and peered at the screen. Then she looked back at Mia with a funny expression.

“Roshon Solomon doesn’t attend this university anymore.” She simply said. Mia looked at me worriedly, but I gave her an encouraging nudge.

“Why not? He switched schools?” She asked. The woman again typed on the keyboard, and shook her head.

“There’s no record of him being in any other schools after ours. He dropped out of Columbia recently.”

“When did he drop out?” I asked the dismissive woman.

“He hasn’t been attending any classes for…two weeks now.” She replied.

Then, when Mia gave me another worried look, I couldn’t blame her. I couldn’t reassure her, either. Because I was worried too.

It was as if he’s running away from us.