• A WATTPAD FEATURED STORY •
• highest rank | #92 in mystery/thriller •
Having two business partners for parents meant they worked extra long shifts, and possibly, an addition of night shifts. Therefore, being alone at home in the middle of the nigh...
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Minutes have passed and Mia was most definitely going to be late to class. She was waiting by Kiki's locker, anxiously bouncing her knee, and chewing on her fingernails; which, yeah, was gross as hell, but inevitable. Mia was just too nervous to stand still. One minute her hand was running through her hair, the next she was on her phone, the other she was close to tears and stomping her foot like an idiot. She knew it was time to get to class when a teacher walked out of his classroom across where she was standing.
"Haven't you got class?" Was all that he said, sending Mia an annoyed and impatient look, watching as she kicked off the wall of lockers and turned to the corner of the hallway. Mia spent the rest of her day deep in thoughts of worry that it just seemed to speed by afterward. She looked out for a glimpse of long, straight hair and a toothy grin, paired with Kiki's gym bag that was decorated with colorful pins that read things like GRL PWR! or #BLM! but there was nothing.
Needless to say, Kiki hadn't come to school that day. She hadn't come to school nor answered her texts and phone calls. She was completely AWOL and even Saida hadn't had a clue why she wasn't in or where she was. Mia was practically pulling her hair out the next morning as she waited for Kiki by her locker again. She hadn't slept a wink. She couldn't think of anything else and she had decided — if Kiki didn't show up by the first period, Mia was calling the police. There was no way she was going to let another person disappear on her watch.
Mia checked the time on her phone and watched the seconds tick by as a nervous sweat began pooling the back of her shirt. She stared, long and hard, until the world around her blurred and became a fuzzy white noise. She needed to do the right thing. God, for once, she needed to stop making so many mistakes, and she needed to do the right thing by Jeffrey, by Kiki... she had to, she just couldn't will her fingers right then and there to dial those three numbers and spill everything that haunted Mia during the day, during the night, and in between. The world had stopped when she pressed dial and held the phone to her ear.
But then, there she was. Everything about her was the same. She had a smile on her face, big and reaching her eyes, and she had a certain hop to her toes. It all seemed fake. It all seemed forced. Everything about her was the same. Except, instead of reaching past her shoulders, her hair was now cropped short; like a boy cut. And it was then that Mia realized that, no, nothing was as okay as she was making it out to be. And, yes, that was Kiki's hair in her bedroom yesterday morning.
"Nine-one-one, what's your emergency?" The speaker on the other side of the phone chimed, and for a good minute, watching Kiki make her way down the hall, Mia wasn't sure what to do. She couldn't exactly report a missing person if said person was right in front of her.
Mia swallowed. "Sorry, this was a mistake," she stammered quietly, breaking the call, and digging her phone into the back pocket of her jeans as Kiki approached her.
