You Have 86,400 Seconds To Find Me

11:50pm (Dunkin' Run)

   Ten minutes before midnight, Kelly and I found ourselves sitting in the parking lot of a twenty-four hour Dunkin' Donuts, loading up on coffee and sugar. I wasn't even really sure where we were, to be honest.

   "I can't stop thinking about Sam," Kelly said, staring down at Jengo in her lap and taking a sip out of her now third cup of coffee. We had decided it was probably best to buy a big jug of coffee instead of two small cups... And judging by the way Kelly was chugging it down, I think it was a wise decision. 

   "I know," I said, thinking back to the amused look on Sam's face when he told me to tell Macy he said hello. What if I never got the chance to tell her? What if I never saw her again? How would I ever be able to cope with that? Why was Macy doing this to me? 

   I looked outside the window to see two teenagers, a boy and a girl, laughing as they walked back to their car. It made me sick to my stomach to think that Macy and I may never do anything like that again. It used to be us against the world. We had a pact, or so I thought. But, now I guess Macy had decided to bail on the plan, without informing me first. 

   "You okay, Maxwell?" Kelly asked, pulling me out of my daydream.

   "Not really," I said, because I was far from okay. 

   "It will all work out," Kelly, reassured me. "We'll follow all the clues, we'll find Macy in time for you to tell her how you feel, and then we'll bring her home safe."

   "What do you mean by that?" I asked, turning in my seat to face her. "In time for me to tell her how I feel?"

   "We'll find her in time for you to tell her you love her," Kelly answered, shrugging. "You do love her, don't you?" 

   "Maybe I do," I said, not wanting to talk to her about this. "And maybe I don't."

   "You do," Kelly said, not buying into my facade. "I can tell. There's no point in lying about it."

   "Whatever," I said, looking at the time on the dashboard and praying that our ten minutes of waiting was almost up.

   It was 11:59pm.

   "I remember the day you won this for her," Kelly said, squeezing Jengo tightly to her chest. "She is so lucky to have a friend like you. You always made her so happy."

   "Apparently not happy enough," I said, just as my cell phone binged.

   Kelly adjusted herself in her seat, and I hit play. 

   "I'm getting really tired, Max," Macy said, as the video came to life, and the first thing I saw were her piercing blue eyes and how they looked like they were struggling to stay open. It also looked like Macy had changed her clothes. Instead of the stripped cardigan she was wearing before, she was now wearing a black Rhode Island sweatshirt that read The Ocean State on it in fancy cursive lettering, and she had put her hair up in a pony-tail. "I just stopped to see Sam. You remember him, right? From Six Flags? I haven't seen him since last Christmas and I wanted to stop by and say hi, just in case... Anyway, after I left there, I even stopped by a Dunkin' Donuts to get some coffee but it isn't really helping me so I figured I would stop somewhere to walk around and stretch my legs."

   I turned to look at Kelly to find her sitting way up in her seat, looking around the parking lot. Macy had probably stopped at this exact Dunkin' Donuts on the way to her next destination. We were literally crossing paths, now. I wonder how many hours behind her we are. I took a moment to try and pay attention to what was behind Macy in the video. It looked as though she was in a car. Sitting in the drivers seat? Where the hell would she have gotten a car? Did she steal it? And what was that in the background? Some sort of sign? Was she in a parking lot?