amaranth (on hold)

chapter 3

Bracing myself for impact, I did not see anything nor feel anything-

"Hey, are you okay?", I heard a voice, sounded like... Deti? Nonononono, not him. The voice was much much deeper. He also sounded older too. I finally opened my eyes to find not Jessica (Anna), but an e-boy in the flesh.

He ruffled his hand through his messy black hair, looking at me with his dark brown eyes- Oh how great, now this looks like a boy who's gonna fall in love with the main character in every single romance story. I'm gonna bet, he's probably a bit mean too.

I spaced out, "Oh- Yeah, I'm okay."

"Good." He adjusted his backpack strap on his shoulder, he silently walked away as nothing happened.

I blinked, what was that? What just happened? What did he even do to Jessica? She just straight up disappeared. I looked around, the students outside the front gate didn't look phased by what just happened. Is this a normal thing- No, wait, that can't be-

"lySTRIA- Oh my, voice crack," Deti called from behind. I whipped my head around to see this blue idiot running towards me.

I sighed, "Took you long enough. Where were you anyway?"

"Sorry," He scratched the back of his head, "um... my teacher held me in for a few minutes..?"

"Yeah right, well. Wanna walk home together?"

"Sure." He nodded.

As we walked along the sidewalk, it was too awkward for me to bear. So I decided to break the silence, "How was your day?"

"Pretty boring," He responded, "nothing interesting happened today. Except for you of course."

"Aww. How sweet." I sarcastically said. He rolled his eyes at me,

"How about you?"

"Same old boring stuff I already learned from my old school. I'm basically an expert at everything, so I don't pay attention in class that often."

"You must be smart then." He assumed,

"Haha, that's a funny joke."

We both exchanged sarcastically laughs. I paused to think of another conversation starter.

"So, what's up with Abby?"

"Nothing..." He shifted his gaze away, again.

"Come' on... you can tell me." I looked up at him with a smile.

"We literally just met, do you think I can trust you?" He stated. I then looked down.

"Well, that's true..." I frowned, "But there must be something up with her, why do you always want me to meet her-"

"I'm worried." He said,

"Wait, come again?"

"I'm just ...worried, about her." We stopped in the middle of the sidewalk, "You didn't know this before, but before you came, Abby was absent for 2 weeks in a row."

"Wait, do you know what happened?" I wondered,

"That's the thing, no one knows." He shifted his weight to his other leg, "Abby is never absent, if she is, she always has a reason for it. But this time, she disappeared without a trace. No note, no text message, nothing"

"Oh..."

"I've been trying to contact her for a while but she never answers. I tried asking Mrs. Monroe, but she always keeps avoiding the question. It's like she forgot about her own daughter, that she never existed." He took a big sigh, "It's probably nothing, maybe she's on vacation or something." He would shake his head, "I'm just overthinking stuff. Sorry about that-"

"Let's head over to her house," I said,

"Wait- what? Like, right now?"

"Yeah, I mean what I said. Now let's go." I would walk off, but a hand stopped me from doing so.

"Hold on! Do you even know where you're going?"

"Nope, that's why you have to lead me to it," I demanded,

"I-" He'd sigh once more, "I really appreciate your help, but I don't think this is necessary-"

"I don't think this is necessary either, but I'm worried about her too, and I don't think being absent for 2 weeks is normal. Speaking from personal experience, I already know Abby is going through a tough time right now. I want to check up on her, to see if she's okay or not. Don't you want to too?

"Well- what if she's just on vacation?"

"Then she's on vacation and everything's fine."

"And are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, now lead the way," I said.

We stopped right in front of a two-story modern house.

"Wait- So Abby's one of those rich kids?" I asked,

"Yeah, I got invited over for a birthday party. And I'm telling you, don't be deceived by how small it looks." Deti said,

"It doesn't even look small..."

"Just follow me," Deti grabbed my arm and pulled me in front of the door.

"Deti, you have to do the speaking or she'll think I'm a burglar or something."

"Yes, ma'am." He said as he reached for the doorbell.

A girl's voice came on the doorbell's speaker, "N-No one's home."

He sighed, "I'm pretty sure someone's home."

"Just go away." The girl ordered,

"We can't just go away, we need to know if you're safe or not."He responded,

"I said no one's home." The girl said in a serious tone.

Deti wasn't phased, "Abby, we need to know what happened to you. Everyone's been worried sick about you. Why are you in this state, what happened in the past few weeks?"

We heard a sniffle through the speaker, "It's n-none of your business." She sounded tired like she just cried her heart out.

"You can tell us, we're here for you-"

"I said it's none of your business!" She snapped at us.

"Deti, I don't think she's going to tell us anything at this rate." I placed my hand on his shoulder, "I don't even think she has the energy to talk to us right now."

"Fine. But we're coming back here soon." He said,

We were walking back on the sidewalks again,

"Dang, I feel bad," Deti said,

"Feel bad for Abby?" I responded,

"Yeah, she sounded like she's done with everything."

"We don't know what happened, but it's possible she may be suffering from depression," I said.

"Suffering from depression? How?"

"How dumb are you? You heard her voice," I punched Deti,

"Ow..."

"Just use your brain once in a while, it's there for a reason ya know."

"Yeah yeah, whatever..."

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Thanks for reading this far into the book, I'm actually planning on finishing this book one of these days

Well, maybe I'll forget about it,

then come back for a really long chapter...

hehe well anyways

love y'all!

mwah