People You May Know

Chapter 5: Lost and Found

Chapter 5: Lost and Found

Riley

I glanced down at my phone. It was almost 4:00pm. Where was he? I had been sitting in our usual spot in the library for half an hour. Lucas had never been late to one of our tutoring sessions before. I had texted him asking where he was, but had gotten nothing in response. There could have been a number of reasons why he wasn't there yet. He could have been talking to one of the guys on the lacrosse team. He could have been with Merritt. Or he could have gotten caught up talking about a paper or test with one of his teachers. Either way, he wasn't blowing you off Riley. I rolled my eyes, took a deep breath, and pressed the call button next to his contact information on my phone.

Of course it was his voicemail.

"Uh, hey Lucas. It's me. I mean, it's Riley. Riley Matthews. Which you know already because my number is saved in your phone. Duh. Anyway... I was just wondering where you were? I thought we had a tutoring session after school today? But... Maybe you misunderstood what I meant by 'see you after school?' Wait I didn't mean that in a sarcastic, snarky way, I just meant... God. I'm going to stop talking now. I'll be here until 4:30, but then I have newspaper, so just call me, or text me back if you can. Hopefully I'll see you soon, but if not, I'll talk to you later I guess. Bye." I hung up the phone and rested my head on the table in front of me. Why was I such as spaz?

I took out the latest book I was reading, The Old Man and the Sea by Earnest Hemingway. I turned to the page I left off on and stared at the words. The longer I stared, the more the words started to look like a jumbled mess of letters. I shut the book and gathered my backpack from the floor. If he doesn't want to show up, then I don't have to wait for him. I pushed in my chair and headed towards the front entrance of the library. As I was heading out, Merritt Haynes, Lucas' girlfriend was walking in.

"Oh. Hey. The girl from the bakery. You're Lucas' tutor right?" Merritt asked, her tone polite and just a tad too chipper. Merritt was wearing a much-too-nice dress for a public high school and her hair was perfectly straight and shiny.

"Yeah, I am," I muttered, trying not to sound as annoyed as I felt by that 'girl from the bakery' comment.

"Sorry, remind me of your name again? Reagan?"

You have go to be kidding me.

"Riley."

"Riley, right! Sorry! There's this girl on the cheerleading squad named Reagan who kinda looks like you. Anyway, where's Lucas? I need to ask him something," she informed me, looking around the library for a nonexistent Lucas Friar.

"I thought that he might be with you actually. He never showed up for our session today. I tried calling him, but he didn't answer," I told her. She was doing a really good job of avoiding my gaze.

She removed her phone from her purse and started scrolling through it to what I was assuming was Lucas' contact page.

"Huh. Well, maybe he's just not used to you calling him. Let me try," she insisted, tapping the call button on her phone screen.

A few seconds passed before she looked at me and then turned away.

"Hey, sweetie. Just wondering where you are. I'm here with your tutor and she says you missed a session today. What's going on? Call me back. I love you," she said into the phone and then put it back in her purse.

"Well, I'm gonna go. If you see him, just tell him we can try again tomorrow and to text me if he needs anything," I told her, turning to walk out of the library.

"I'm sure he won't need anything, but thanks for offering. And thanks for sticking around waiting for him. You take your job very seriously." Was is just me or was her tone sort of... Hostile. Sarcastic. Unfriendly...