Whispers In The Dark

Jessiah

Jessiah

We'd been texting each other non-stop since Saturday.

It was great, being able to talk to her outside of school. Sometimes it was hard to think of what to say, but either she knew or I did.

I texted her: Robin's here too.

Okay. The bus is pulling in now.

Sure enough, a bus pulled up to the curb and spewed students, one of them being Anna. She constantly insisted that I didn't have to wait for her, and she even asked what I would do when it got cold. To that, I merely replied, "Wear a jacket.”

She walked over with a smile on her face. "Hey," she greeted. She looked around, confused. "Where's Robin?"

I looked to my side where Robin had been standing and was surprised to discover that he had disappeared.

"I--"

"Gah!" Robin jumped out from behind me and put his hands up. It was the most I had seen out of him, ever.

Anna jumped nearly a foot into the air, her hand on her chest. "Oh my God! I think my heart just stopped."

I was preoccupied with the thought of how Robin, who was about two inches taller than me, although skinny, could hide behind me so well.

He grinned and stuck his hands in his pockets, chuckling, something he also didn't do often. "Hey, Anna."

I noticed that he looked different. His eyes were wider and there were dark circles beneath them.

"Robin," I asked tentatively, "are you okay?"

He nodded his head, but his eyes were flickering from one thing to another. "Yeah, I'm fine, why?"

"You look different," I said doubtfully.

Anna didn't say anything about the subject. "Are we going inside?" she asked.

I nodded and the three of us headed into the school. Immediately, it was obvious that something was happening.

A crowd had gathered at the end of the hall. Students were herded together like animals, leaning over each other to get a closer look at the commotion. Phones were whipped out faster than lightning and suddenly the scene was being recorded; most likely a fight.

I averted my eyes and found that Robin seemed transfixed on the crowd, quiet and unmoving.

"You okay, dude?" I asked.

His eyes flickered to me. "Yeah. I think I'm gonna go see what's going on over there. I'll catch up with you guys later."

I nodded my head distractedly. "Okay."

Soon, he disappeared into the horde of students and I lost track of his hooded head. I tried not to be worried.

"You think he's really gonna be okay?" Anna asked, looking at me, her eyes wide.

I nodded my head, but even I knew that it was hardly convincing. "Yeah, of course." I looked to the staircase nearest to us. "C'mon, let's go upstairs."

My eyes didn't leave the crowd until the walls blocked my view.