Next week dragged on slower than any regular school week before. Not only was everyone waiting for holiday to begin, Theo and I waited for Naomi to show up at school. She didn’t. I hadn’t told anyone about what Theo had discovered last week and that Naomi was probably in some kind of trouble. Still, her missing from school for a second week in a row started raising questions and I could hear people talking about it more and more.

“Still nothing?” Harry asked and wrapped his arm casually over my shoulder as we walked to get lunch.

“Nothing. And no one seems to know anything either. All I hear is people speculating but no one is actually saying anything for sure. She has totally cut ties to this school.” I shook my head. “I guess I’m going to meet with Theo tonight and discuss about the upcoming weekend. I feel like I’m in some criminal TV series… this doesn’t feel real.” I tried to smile a little as I cracked a silly joke.

“You make a very beautiful detective.” Harry smiled back and planted a kiss to my hair.

Liam greeted us as he was already in queue waiting to get some food. We found a small table in the corner of the cafeteria and sat down with our trays. Liam looked both of us, like he was thinking about saying something but didn’t quite know if he should or not. Finally he opened his mouth.

“So… um. Naomi.” He blurted out. “I mean, where is she? Do you have any idea?” He asked me.

“Nope. No idea.” I replied and took a sip from my water bottle.

“Everyone just keeps talking about her. Wondering if everything’s alright, you know. I hope she’s okay. I feel really bad for not keeping in touch with her.” Liam opened up and looked down to his meal. I could see he was being sincere.

“Hey… it’s not your fault. Or anybody else’s either. She could have kept in touch as well. She didn’t want any of us around her.” I said, almost whispering and placed my hand over Liam’s.

“I know, I know. But still. I just hope to hear something soon. Let me know if anything comes up, okay?”

“Of course.” I said and quickly looked at Harry who had a worried look on his face because of Liam. He looked at me quickly as well, obviously thinking if I should say something already. I shook my head to him and turned to look at Liam again. “But hey, how’s it going with Sophia?” I smiled and tried to lighten up the mood.

“Oh, excellent. We’re really good. She met the family earlier this week. They just love her. Who wouldn’t? Harry, we’re just really lucky, right?” Liam’s face lit up and he smiled to Harry.

“Definitely.” Harry said smiling, his face looking cute as hell. He turned to look at me. “Definitely.” He said again. My heart beat faster.

“Movies this weekend? The four of us?” Liam asked us.

“Absolutely. Saturday would probably work the best.” I replied. Hopefully, I would have found Naomi by then.

---

Theo and I spent the rest of the day together at his house. Although we had been friends forever, I had never been in his room. Just the hallway a few times. His mom and dad had divorced way back and his dad never wanted him to throw parties. He was very strict and didn’t even like Theo bringing girls over, which was probably why I never visited his house properly.

“Is your dad finally accepting the fact that you have friends that are girls as well?” I laughed a little. His dad had been surprisingly friendly towards me and even made sandwiches to us. I had never seen him like that before.

“Haha, who knows? I just suspect he has a lady friend that I don’t know of. Good for him though.” He joined me laughing. His face had always looked cute when he was laughing. Suddenly, I felt a little weird being in his room. It was like someone was twisting my stomach upside down.

“So, anything new? Did you call Max today?” I tried to be normal and continue talking.

“Oh yeah, I did. He had talked with Naomi on Tuesday and she had talked about some party at some guy’s place where she wanted him to come. He gave me the address so we can go and check that place out. He’s not going though.” Theo explained hurriedly. “But wait, look what I found!” He suddenly said excitedly and got up from an armchair he was sitting in and got something from his desk.

He handed the picture to me. It was taken of him and me about three years ago, when we were around 14. In the picture I had my arms wrapped around his neck, his hands resting on my waist. We were both smiling from ear to ear and looking at the camera, obviously having a good time. I remembered that night and how we had danced together and how everything was innocent and sweet. I smiled at the picture but at the same time felt even more confused than a minute before.

“It was a good night. Look how cute and little we are.” I said and shook my head as I handed the picture back to Theo.

“You were very pretty, even back then. You haven’t changed that much actually!” He suddenly said as he was observing the picture. I could feel my cheeks blushing. I didn’t want this conversation to go there…

“Haha, well thanks! But hey, back to Naomi. When’s the party?” I changed the subject as quickly and innocently as possible. Gladly, it worked. Theo placed the picture back to his desk and sat to his armchair.

“Right. It’s tomorrow evening. This is the address.” He said and gave me a piece of paper with the address on it from his wallet.

“Got it. We’ll go tomorrow then. I’ll pick you up around eight?” I asked and Theo nodded.

I stayed for a little while longer as we talked about what we both had heard from others during the week at school. But none of it really gave us anything new to think about. It seemed like we were the only ones knowing as much about her current status as we were.

I felt good about trying to help Naomi out and felt like I owed this to her and to our friendship. But I wasn’t so sure about doing all of this with Theo. As I left his house and started walking back home, I realised how he had been a little too excited about me being there. The picture and everything. I got a bad feeling he still had some feelings towards me. I just had to keep my mouth shut and not worry Harry about it.

---

Friday went even slower than the previous days during the week. I guess it was because I was waiting so anxiously to find out how Naomi was doing and just how bad things were with her.

I was leaning against the hallway wall, deep in my thoughts and not really taking part in a conversation others seemed to have about something. Suddenly, my phone started vibrating in my jeans’ back pocket. I took a quick look at all the people that were surrounding me and had a hard time figuring out who it could be. Maybe it was mom.

As I was finally facing my phone, I saw a very unfamiliar caller jumping on my screen. I hadn’t heard from her for a very, very long time. Like usual, my heart was first to react as it started to pound hard in my chest, adrenaline flowing through my veins trying to protect me from something I didn’t quite register myself.

Why was she calling me in the middle of a school day? I was terrified to answer the phone. I was almost sure it was bad news.

“Hello?” I answered and started walking away from the crowd so it wasn’t so loud.

“Hi Grace, how are you love?” I heard Naomi’s mom’s voice. It had been so long. I could feel shivers taking over my arms.

“Oh hi. Hi Mrs. Watson. At school, the usual. And you?” I tried to sound as normal as possible although it felt like I was about to throw up my entire heart.

“Yes, of course, sorry for bothering you. Not doing so good these days. You know, lots of trouble with Naomi. From what I’ve understood, you two are still not talking?”

“Um, yes. That’s right.” I didn’t know what to say. It sounded like she wasn’t exactly mad at me though which was a relief.

“So I thought. I’m calling to check in for her. I mean, I got a call from the school on Wednesday, saying she hasn’t been there for three straight days and that she’s been skipping school. First of all, I don’t understand why it took so long for the school to inform us. Unbelievable. But Naomi’s been home the whole week and she promised on Wednesday she was actually going to school yesterday. Was she there?” Mrs. Watson talked and sounded angry and disappointed at her daughter.

“I’m afraid not… not yesterday nor today. I’m sorry.” I said quietly and felt horrible for Naomi’s mom. Why was she doing this to everyone?

“I knew it! I just knew she was lying to my face. I guess I need to have a really serious conversation with her this weekend if only I can make her stay at home for one night. Well, I’m sorry Grace. This is not your problem obviously. How’s you mom?” She continued and I could hear from her voice she was trying to smile through the worry.

“No need to apologise… I just… I wish we could go back to normal with her.” I said and looked down to my sneakers. I could feel two hands wrapping around my waistline and noticed from the rings on the long fingers it was Harry. “Mom’s good, she’s really happy with this Johnny –guy.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful! I’m happy for her. Listen, come over sometime next week. Would be lovely to see you and talk a little. We miss seeing you around Gracie.” Mrs. Watson said with a warm voice. Her kind words brought a few tears to my eyes.

“I definitely will, thanks. Hope everything works out. Talk to you later. Bye.” I ended the conversation with her and placed the phone back to my back pocket. I finally lifted my face so I could see Harry’s eyes looking straight through me. He didn’t need to ask what was up; he could always read me like an open book when I was upset.

“Oh god, I feel so bad for her parents. She is treating them like shit as well, not just us. I can’t believe this is all happening. I was so afraid, when I saw her mother calling. I seriously feared for the worst.” I said, still a little shocked. From what I had heard about her, it wouldn’t even be totally impossible to hear something way worse than she was skipping school.

“I bet Gracie. So good to know, it wasn’t anything like that though. Can’t imagine what was going through your head when you realised it was her calling.” Harry whispered so no one could hear what we were talking about. “Alright, two more hours. Let’s get going.” He said and took my hand to his and started walking us to our next classroom.

Finally, school was over. It meant we only had five more days. Last school days were always a little boring, since nothing exactly happened. Everyone was just waiting for the holiday to begin at that point. Maybe Naomi could still do some of the exams she had missed this and last week. Maybe.

“So, you and Theo will go to that party tonight?” Harry asked as we were driving home in his car. His voice was again a little colder. He was not trying to hide the fact that he didn’t like me and Theo spending time together. And he had every right to not like it.

“Yep. I just hope to get some sense to her and get her to go home. But that’s all… I don’t think we will ever be friends.”

“I want you to keep me posted, okay? If I call you, you answer. No bullshit, okay? Oh… Fuck, I hate this.” He shook his head and looked pissed off.

“It’s going to go fine. It will. And I will keep you posted, of course. If we can get out of there early enough, we can even spend tonight together!” I said cheerfully and raised my voice a little. “Oh c’mon! Please don’t pout babe. I love you.” I tilted my head, looked at Harry for a bit and then leaned in to give him a big kiss.

I really, really hoped I was right.

Notes

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