Mr. Grey

Chapter 21

***DANNI'S POV***

I was tired of looking at my app over and over again so I closed my laptop. I looked to my side and saw Lucas with his glasses on focusing on his book. He looked so cute with his glasses and serious face, I felt a smile creep up on my face. I caught myself staring for too long so I looked back at my closed laptop. All I ever did on it was work on my app so I opened the lid and added some personalization. I changed the default background to a picture of my code. When I went back to the homescreen it looked too cluttered with all my files and the text behind it. After multiple attempts at finding the perfect background, I settled for a landscape photo of the grand canyon. I've always wanted to try my hand at landscape photography but I've never had the money to buy myself a camera.

"That's a cool photo." Lucas' voice startled me. His head was tilted in my direction and he was looking at my background photo.

"Yeah it is pretty cool." My gaze remained focus on the screen but I could sense Lucas was looking at me. I couldn't help but blush. Lucas let out a small chuckle and we quickly exchanged glances.

The airport started to fill up since flights were being delayed and I was starting to get hot. I took my sweatshirt off leaving me just in a t-shirt. I noticed a few people looking at me only they weren't looking directly at me. I glanced behind me to see if there was anything going on but then I realized what they are really looking at: the scars on my arms. It had been only a week since the incident and I but already gotten used to them. The doctor had given me a special medication that helped the scars disappear so the words weren't readable but the scars were still there. I folded my arms to hide the scars and Lucas saw me tense up.

"Is everything okay?" He saw my sweatshirt on top of my laptop case, "I thought you were hot." His voice was so reassuring, it almost made me feel better. I was too embarrassed to tell him the truth.

"Yeah, just trying to get comfortable, these airport seats are so uncomfortable." I lied. He seemed to believe it and just shrugged then returned back to his book. It made me a little mad that he didn't persist but on the other hand, there was no reason to. I made a reasonable lie and even if he did ask me again, I would have lied anyways.

"Look, over there." I heard someone behind me whisper. I kept my head down and tried not to listen.

"Where?" I heard a younger woman ask.

"Right over there." It was an older man's voice. Must have been her father or colleague. "See the guy with the book?" There was a pause, "Right next to him."

"What about her?" The woman asked.

"That's the girl." When there was no response the man continued, "That's the girl that claimed she was attacked by someone and they slit her arms but everyone knows she did it herself," another pause, "I can't believe she has the nerve to wear short sleeves."

Do people think that? How did they hear about the incident? I didn't see it in the papers. Do people really think that I would slit my own arms AND blame it on someone else? Even if I did do it myself, I wouldn't have told anyone. I would have done anything in my power to make sure no one else knew about it. This made my blood boil. Even though they were whispering, I could still hear it from across the aisle.

I glanced over to Lucas to see if he could hear them but he was too focused on his book. I took a deep breath and tried to forget about it. So what? People think I cut myself and show it off, what do I care. If it doesn't harm me in any way, people can think or believe whatever they want.

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I checked my watch and it read 3:30. We should have already boarded by now and potentially be in the air. We still had about two and a half hours left until our new scheduled boarding time. Lucas had fallen asleep with his book still open in his hand. I giggled and took a picture. I took his glasses off and put them back in their case and slipped them into his backpack. I looked around and noticed that the two people that had been talking about me had already left.

My stomach reminded me that it had been a few hours since I last ate. I looked over to Lucas then slowly stood up, trying not to wake him. I grabbed my wallet and headed to a bookstore that sold snack food. I took a bag of chips from the rack and a gatorade. Before reaching the register, I saw a package of Kinder chocolates that I knew Lucas loved. I took them then got in line. There were at least seven people in front of me and the current person at the register was paying in quarters. You could hear several moans as people were lining up behind me.

"Quarters? Really? Quarters?" A lady exclaimed. She was a few spaces behind me, "They should at least have another register open." I heard some people agreeing with her, I did too. This was ridiculous. I checked my watch seeing that I had been gone for 10 minutes. Hopefully Lucas was still asleep. I felt my empty pocket and realized that I left my phone in my backpack.

After at least 15 minutes, it was finally my turn. I quickly paid and denied the plastic bag. I hurried back to our spot and only saw our bags. Where was Lucas? I looked around and didn't see any sign of him. My heart started racing and my stomach hurt. There was no plane at our gate so he couldn't be boarding. All of our luggage was right where I left it except his book was thrown onto the seat next to mine. I remembered my phone in my backpack and I nearly fell getting to it. I saw numerous calls from Lucas and a text message asking where I was. Shit, he's probably looking for me now or talking with the police. I quickly call him but it brings me right to his voicemail. You would think that he would keep his phone on when I'm "missing." I decided to text him in between calls.

I went to go get a snack--didn't think you would wake up. Call me.

I rang him one more time and he still didn't pick up. Now I was starting to panic. Did something happen to him? Is he hurt? Did he get into trouble? This was not a great start to my college trip....