Is he really a bad boy? [English]

~Chapter 73~

MAXIM POV

Now I had already agreed to go to school on the last school day before the holidays(!) and Veronica was still not there. Everyone was already sitting in the classroom waiting for the teacher. Only Veronica wasn't there yet, although it was her stupid idea. I would still be sleeping now.
"I am already on my way.", she had written 10 minutes ago. If she had left immediately after sending this message, she would have been here by now. The journey from her house to school took roughly 6 minutes. From the parking lot to the class she needed at most one minute. So she was already five minutes late and it made me unbelievably angry. I had already called her, but the mailbox immediately contacted me. Also, Mia was already there. The little snitch sat as always in the other corner of the room and looked at me as if I had kicked her puppy or something. When the door opened, I looked up and hoped to see the face of Veronica, but unfortunately, it was only Pauline who had apparently experienced something earth-shattering. At least that was what her face looked like.
"You won't believe who I just saw!", she started telling excitedly after putting her much too pink bag on the table.
"Who?", asked one blonde, whose name I could never remember.
"James!" As if we had agreed beforehand, Mia, who was just as disinterested in Pauline as I was, and I looked at her first and then at each other.
"James? That James?", the blonde inquired.
"Yes, he was in front of the school and then went away with her. I thought that was funny, after all, they are no longer together."
"With who?"
"Oh, didn't I mention that?", she asked in surprise and giggled, "He was with Nica!", as soon as she had pronounced her name, I had already jumped up.
"With Veronica?", Mia asked angrily; she had already jumped from her seat, just like me, and stood next to Pauline.
"Ehm yes.", she said and seemed nervous and surprised at the same time.
"Are you sure it was her?", I asked her and tried to hold back my anger.
"Yes, one hundred percent she was and it was James too. I couldn't miss him!", she said, and somehow admiration wavered in her voice, she even raved about him, causing me to throw up.
"Fucking shit!", I said, just the thought of that son of a bitch having my girl made me tremble. "Where did they go? In which direction?"
"Ehh...why is that important?"
"PAULINE, IN WHICH DIRECTION DID THEY DRIVE?", I shouted now and had lost my last nerve. Why did I have to pull every word out of her nose? Didn't she notice that it was important?
"Towards the supermarket, I think.", she finally replied.
"Are you sure?", I already ran back to my seat, took my jacket and wanted to run out of the room.
"Yes, yes I think so!"
"Wait, I'm coming with you!", Mia called and ran after me. I felt all the looks from the others on me as we left the room and could hear them start talking about us.
"Do you want to go after them?", Mia asked while she walked beside me.
"What else can I do? Sit and wait?"
"We have to tell Jacob. Or take him with us."
"We don't have time!"
"Max, he's going to freak out. And besides, there's a couple more eyes looking for her."
"Ugh", I got annoyed, "where has he now? In which room?" I asked her.
"107. Here in the hallway!" Fortunately not at the other end of the building, I thought to myself. We couldn't lose any more time. I headed towards the room and thought about knocking before I opened the door. As usual all heads wandered to me and Mia and stared at me. I looked around and discovered Jake in the back row. What did the 3 have with the back row?
"How can I help you?" the teacher asked us.
"Jake!", I shouted.
"It's about Nica!", Mia said and immediately Jacob's facial expression changed to stone. Like Mia and me, he immediately jumped up from his seat and ran towards us.
"I have to go, Mrs. Wolf!"
"Mr Norris immediately sit back down on your seat!", she shouted. Her eyebrows pulled together and her lips were pressed together.
"I can't. Sorry!", he said and left the room.
"Jacob Norris!", you could still hear her calling but the door was already closed.
"What happened?", Jake asked while we were finally on our way out.
"James is back!", Mia replied.
"He's got Veronica!" I added.
"I had been hoping it was just fun to hear that he was back," he said.
"What message?" I asked him. We had already left the building and were now in the parking lot, "We're taking my car. That's faster than yours." Actually I had expected some protests or discussion, I was sure there would have been under other circumstances, but now the most important thing was to find my girl.
"What message?", I asked again, since the two had not answered me the last time. As soon as we sat down in my car, I drove as fast as I could.
"Pauline saw James on the street a few days ago.", Mia replied.
"That means you knew he was outside and didn't tell Veronica?"
"Nica knew about it. Pauline wrote it in the group chat."
"Veronica knew about it?", I asked, although I had understood it correctly the first time. That also explained her lack of appetite. Jade had even noticed how Veronica reacted strangely to a message and I asshole didn't think anything of it. How could I be so stupid?
"Mia, call Veronica as often as you can!", I ordered her and she did exactly what I told her.
"Do you know where he lives? Which street or something?", I asked the two. We needed some starting point.
"Back then he lived on Miami Beach. In one of the beach houses. When I see it, I know which one it is.", Mia said, "I'll get the mailbox immediately.", she said and dialed the number again. I turned around in the middle of the road and drove towards Miami Beach. Behind me I could hear some cars honking, but at that moment I didn't care.
"You can't just turn around!", it came next to me from Jake.
"I can. You saw it. Besides, the next possibility to turn was ages away. We can't lose any time."
"You could have caused an accident!"
"But I didn't."
"But it could have happened, you could have injured somebody or even killed them!" Why did he always have to exaggerate?
"I'll kill you immediately if you don't stop bothering me!", I threatened annoyed, "Which life is more important to you now? A stranger's life or Veronica's?", I looked at him directly while asking the question to see his reaction.
"We shouldn't think like that.", Jacob replied.
"But that's how we have to think now. It's about Veronica. If traffic rules and strangers are more important to you than Veronica's life, then you can get out now. I'll keep looking for them myself." He said nothing more about that. Apparently I finally got him to shut the fuck up. Generally nobody said anything; there was an unpleasant silence that left me alone with my thoughts. I tried not to think about what this psychopath did to Veronica. But no matter how hard I tried, it didn't work; scenarios were constantly appearing in my head that would make me throw up and possibly become a murderer if I really did the things I was thinking about.
"Do you really think he would kill her?", Mia interrupted the silence and asked the question that no one had dared to ask before.
"He is a psychopath; he is capable of anything. And that's exactly what I'm afraid of.", I confessed.
Unfortunately, it turned out James wasn't at his house. We had briefly feared that he might have moved, but the last name on the mailbox was the same. The three of us had looked in every window, checked every corner in front of the house and we were in the basement - the door was open; we hadn't broken in - but nothing indicated that someone was in the house. Now we were back at the beginning.
"What now?", Jacob asked when we were sitting in my car again.
"I have no idea.", I replied and ran desperately through my hair.

Do you like this trio? What do you think will happen next?