Rooming With Ash

Rooming With Ash: Chapter 10

Ash didn't return to the house for the next eight days.

He hadn't been kidding when he told me not to wait up for him. My stubborn self had stayed up until almost 4 AM that first night, only to end up passing out on top of my covers and waking up the next morning to find him still gone. Nothing on his side of the room had moved, and more so than anything else, I was worried. Where could he have been staying? We were in Maui, not Maryland – Ash didn't have people that he was all buddy-buddy with out here. And I knew that he didn't have the kind of money laying around to be buying himself random hotel rooms. So where could he have gone? Was he back at wherever he got his bruises from?

All throughout the long week and a day that he was gone, my worries got worse and worse. And by the third day of him not showing back up to the house, other people were starting to get worried too. The first day, they had just shrugged it off, knowing that Ash liked to do his own thing and could take care of himself. Three days in a row though...that was a bit much, even for him.

We had a house meeting the fourth day that Ash was gone to discuss whether or not calling the police was the best option. Brian was strongly pro-reporting Ash as a missing person, and after he told the rest of the group about the injuries he had seen on Ash's face the day he'd gone missing, many of them agreed with him. I wasn't too loud in that conversation, I sat back with my arms wrapped around my legs as Asia, Brian, and Jack took control of discourse, suddenly all experts of the life of Ash Moretti.

The only other members of the group that didn't seem adamant about calling the police immediately were Tonya and Mackenzie. I watched them, confused as to why they wouldn't think that that was the best option. Tonya sat with a frown on her face, biting the insides of her cheeks as she looked from the arguing group to Mackenzie. And Mackenzie, in turn, was seated next to Tonya with her arms folded over her chest, and the deadest expression I'd ever seen on her face. It was as if she was having an internal debate in her mind, trying to decide whether or not to speak up while Tonya watched it all happen, hoping Mackenzie would make the right decision.

She knew something about Ash. Something that Tonya seemed to know too, but that Mackenzie was clearly the source of. And even though I knew it wasn't my business, I wanted to know what it was too. I wanted to do anything that I could to help Ash because the fear that was eating away at my chest was becoming paralyzing enough to bring my mind to places that I had hoped it would never go again.

Feeling my stare on her, Mackenzie's eyes snapped up and met mine, the flatness of her expression not wavering even a little as she looked at me. I averted my gaze. I didn't like the eerie feeling that her stare swept over my body.

"Oh my gosh, how do none of us have his number?" Asia exclaimed, digging both hands into her head of hair.

"Why don't we give him another day or two," Phoebe's voice came, piercing through the myriad of shouts that were spiraling through the room. Her voice was tranquil as per usual, but it held a firmness that even the loudest of shouts couldn't match. A gentle firmness that she seemed to hold in almost everything she did. When she spoke, people listened. "Arguing over this won't do anything right now but worry us all more," she said. "I'm not sure what Ash is doing right now, but mixing with police may not be something he needs at the moment. I trust that he knows how to handle himself even in a place as foreign as this, so let's give him another day. Let's wait, but if he doesn't come back tomorrow night, then we'll call the police the next morning and that's that."

Everyone seemed to let out a collective sigh, relieved that the decision had been taken out of their hands. Even I agreed that that was a good idea since Ash did go missing more than your average person. He liked to do his own thing and not tell anyone about it, so being gone for just three nights wasn't the biggest worry from a guy like him. After a few more nights though, the police seemed like a reasonable option. Five nights was a long time to be missing.