Considered Missing

Chapter 10 - Lola Perez

"Why do you like this place so much? They really skimp on the dumpling meat." The dark haired man dangled a half eaten dumpling from his fork.

"Their chicken noodle soup tastes exactly like how my mom used to make it," Jenny muttered quietly, smelling the last spoonful she could scoop from her bowl. "It's the little things in life."

"Like taking a selfie in the city at night?"

Jenny rolled her eyes and huffed.

"Why are you so hung up on it?" She was beyond annoyed at this point, the man could easily see. But he insisted on at least trying to pry something out of her after letting it be a mystery for so many months.

"I see that picture of you two on your desk every day," he replied. "And she looks familiar. If you tell me about her, maybe it'll ring a bell."

She sighed. He'd learn eventually, it was only a matter of time.

"Lola Perez," she started. "Gorgeous human being, kind of an ass but a real sweetheart once you got to know her. We were both finalists for a photography internship and that's how we really got connected. We were both in geometry class together one year during high school but she was two years older than I was. Super long story short, we had a crazy night in the city while babysitting and took a picture together."

"That's the one on your desk," the guy concluded.

"Yep. In an effort to get me to see a boy I liked at the time, she gave away her most prized possession so we could get into a concert we didn't have tickets for. Then she undressed me so I could look cooler or something, we hung out together later that night, had a few glasses of wine, and started dating for about a year."

"Woah, plot twist! I didn't realize you were gay–"

"Shut up. So then she left for college a few months before I graduated, we broke up, and I haven't seen her since." Jenny took a deep breath, squeezing her shoulders up to the sides of her neck before relaxing her posture.

"You don't like Mario's because..."

"We were there together on that crazy night and now I can't go in without having a mental breakdown."

"You said she took a senior geometry class?" Suddenly the man before her was onto something, or so he thought. There was one person he knew who had failed geometry their senior year and who couldn't live with themselves if they never officially graduated high school.

"Yeah and I don't know what other classes she took. I never saw her around school during any of my years there until we had that class together."

The brown eyed man took out his cell phone and scrolled through the thousands of pictures he had.

"Is this her?" He showed her a picture of a blue-haired girl he knew once, though he hadn't seen her in probably three years at that point.

"What the hell?" Jenny grabbed the phone and studied the image. "Where did you get this picture, when is this from, how do you know her?"

"That was my best friend, Evie," he pointed to the screen.

"The missing girl?"

"I knew her for years until..." He stopped. He and Jenny were close, yes, but he hadn't explained it all. He held his mouth shut.

"Until..." Jenny repeated. He sat mute. "Josh?"

Josh let out a sigh and closed his eyes momentarily.

"We're leaving," he stated abruptly and stood from the table. "Waiter!"