“She better not have puked in there,” the girl next in line rolls her eyes as she starts for the door. I grab her arm to get her attention, and she tries unsuccessfully to yank it back and glares at me. “Hey, watch it.”
“Have you seen Fallon Blake or Jade Callaway?” I ask her as calmly as I can. I won’t pretend like my insides aren’t quaking.
“Who?” she asks as she scrunches up her nose. She’s pretending like she doesn’t know them. It’s one of a few tactics I’ve seen girls use to get to the top of the food chain. They either try to be Jade’s—and now Fallon’s—best friend or they try to act like they are better than them, like their existence doesn’t matter. But it fucking matters, and I don’t have patience for petty ways of high school girls.
“Have you fucking seen them? Don’t pretend like you don’t know who they are. Everyone knows who they are,” I say through a clenched jaw, trying to keep my hand from squeezing her arm off.
She rolls her eyes again. “No, I haven’t seen them.”
I let go of her arm and walk away without so much as a thanks. When I ask a question, I expect an answer, and that girl is no longer necessary to me. I need to find Fallon.
I circle back around checking every corner or hole I can find. By the time I make it back to the double doors Cason is already there waiting on me. I don’t like the look on his face. He’s starting to look as nervous as I feel. He shifts his feet and then turns to pace with his hands on his head. This is not good.
“You find her?” I ask as soon as I’m within speaking distance
“Nah. I guess you didn’t either?” he asks, worry lining his face.
“No.”
“Hey.” Jade comes bouncing up at the perfect time. “I’ve been looking for y’all…”
She looks from me to Cason and then asks, “Where’s Fallon?”
“She’s not with you?” I ask, some subconscious part of me already knowing her answer isn’t going to be the one I want. It’s obvious she’s not with Jade since Jade is standing in front of me. Alone. But my logic is gone. I need to make sure.
“No, I’ve been with Adam. I left her with you guys,” she says confused.
I look to Cason. The panic is gurgling its way up my throat now. Cason and I both jump into action, pushing people out of our way as we start calling Fallon’s name.
“What are you doing? What is happening?” Jade yells as she follows me back into the party. “Why are you screaming for Fallon? Did something happen to her?”
“I don’t know,” I say as I stop in the middle of the barn and turn around in circles looking for Fallon. My hands fist in my hair. “We can’t find her.”
“What do you mean you can’t find her? She was with you!” Jade yells over the music.
“Yeah, and now she’s not. Fuck! This isn’t good,” I growl out.
We continue searching the place from top to bottom and at some point, someone cuts the music as people join in to help us search. I ask as many people I can if they have seen her and all of their answers are the same: they haven’t. If I said I wasn’t frantic, I’d be lying. That feeling of something not being right is starting to consume me. The fact that Fallon doesn’t appear to be at this party anymore is making me downright fucking crazy.
I stand at the entrance of the barn, looking around as I grab my hair again. I don’t know where she could be. Where she could have gone.
Cason and the others appear in front of me.
“Anyone find anything?” Cason asks the group.
“Nah, man. Nothing,” Jordan says.
“She ain’t here, bro,” Jones says.
Goose and Crank both shake their heads. Jade just stares at me, her own panic evident in the way her eyes are bulging.
Cason turns back to me with the fear from earlier now haunting his face.
“We don’t know what happened to her.” He grabs my shoulder. “She could’ve left.”
I turn to Cason, “What are you trying to say?”
“We knew she was a flight risk from day one. We’ve found nothing telling us anything different, man. Nothing.”
Cason drops his truth out like she isn’t a sister to him. Like they hadn’t gotten close in the last few months. As if she didn’t know more about him that his own blood did. And just like that, I explode. I feel it in my chest, like each muscle shreds apart, like each rib cracks and breaks, like each layer of my skin peels back so my whole chest rips wide fucking open to the point I can’t hold back anymore.
Cason doesn’t understand what he just did, but he’s about to.
“This is how you treat family? Fallon was family. Is family. You really think she’d walk away from us? From her mother? From me?” I step into his face and grab his collar tight. I’ve never stepped up to my cousin, my brother, but I won’t take this bullshit from him. He knows she’s not a flight risk. He knows when she ran, she ran for her life. The fact that he can say this to me right now is fucked up. He’ll get right, or I’ll make him right. He might be my brother, but I won’t hesitate to set him straight. His stare bores into my eyes; his are hardened and cold. Instantly, I know he’s not letting himself feel anything right now. Because he’s scared?
When did that happen?
“Jesse!” Jade screams as she grabs onto my arms and tries desperately to get me to let go. “Get off of him.”
Cason stands straighter, matching me for everything that I am. I see the calculating
