Octopus Lips

Fake People

     At sometime late last night Gordon Jones told his parents he was going out with friends. He stole his dad's credit card and took out six hundred dollars. When midnight rolled around and he didn't show up, his parents started looking for him. He didn't answer his phone, and his friends said they hadn't seen him. That's when they called the police, who immediately looked into it but nothing had been discovered yet. That's what Chase told me. The credit card had not been used since then, and nobody had seen him for a few days.

     I had gone through the texts he sent me the night he disappeared.

Gwen I'm so sorry

I wish I could tell you what's wrong but I can't

You'd hate me

You probably already hate me

I can't tell anyone

Everyone hates me

I shouldn't tell you this

I'm sorry

You're ignoring me, that's fair, I would too

If I go away no one will miss me

I don't know why I'm telling you this

I'm going

Far away, probably

I'm sorry I couldn't love you like you deserve

You deserve better

I hope you find it

bye

     It sent chills down my spine. Guilt racked my body the next day as I dragged myself to school. I considered calling in sick, I really did, but we were so close to the last says of school, there wasn't really a point. I knew it was all in my head.

     The real horror didn't settle in until I walked up to school that Monday, anyway. Overwhelming crowds of children filled the halls and I knew that Gordon was not one of them, because he was gone, and nobody knew what happened to him. He had texted me, and I had been too busy kissing Rosie to look. I had been to busy severing every tie we had.

     Could I have stopped this?

     "It's not fair to blame yourself," Rosie told me when I voiced these worries to her.

     "Really?" I frowned.

     "Of course, he's your ex, you didn't want to talk to him. It's not on you, it's on him," she squeezed my hand gently.

     "But I don't know if he's okay," I groaned. "I don't... if he's not okay... then the way we ended things is going to haunt me for the rest of life."

     Rosie could see I was struggling, she hugged me tightly, "he's going to be okay."

     "You think so?"

    "It's Gordon, you know he's resourceful."

     That was true. It calmed down the sick feeling in my stomach for a bit. I managed to make it through half of the school day, then lunch rolled around and I didn't want to eat anything. It only got worse from there on out.

     Chase was radiating a powerful energy, she sat on the bench this time instead of on the table. I noticed the heavy mascara she was wearing, and the dark blue highlights were back in her hair, which she was wearing up in a topknot. She looked scary, her eyebrows sat low on her face. Johnny was sitting next to her, he was quiet. They weren't touching each other. Ramon sat across from the two of them, picking at his awful cafeteria food and not making eye contact with anyone. Rosie silently sat down next to him and started sharing her food. I sat down next to Rosie.