Page 68 of Crazy for this Girl

LAYNEE: No planes crashed, and the flight you booked left and landed okay, but you never came out.

LAYNEE: Cal, are you mad at me? What did I do?

LAYNEE: Call me back.

LAYNEE: I need to know that you’re okay.

LAYNEE: Cal, seriously?! What’s happening, it’s been a week.

LAYNEE: I’m going to book a flight to Cali if you don’t call me back. I’m really worried about you.

LAYNEE: You have to be charging your phone because it rings, so you’re alive.

LAYNEE: CAL, TALK TO ME. PLEASE.

LAYNEE: If this was all a joke to you, tell me, so I can stop messaging you.

LAYNEE: I seriously hate you for this. If this is a prank you pulled on me for months…

LAYNEE: I don’t know what I did to make you do this to me.

LAYNEE: I thought you cared about me. Why are you doing this?

LAYNEE: I want you to stay away from me. I’m done.

Thirteen weeks later…

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Laynee, I need you to meet me.

LAYNEE: Who is this?

UNKNOWN NUMBER: It’s Cal.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Laynee?

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Please talk to me.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I know you’re upset, but I need to see you.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Please.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I’m coming to see you. Meet me in Charlotte. I’ll send you the address.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Please come. I need to talk to you. It’s important.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: I’m coming to see you. Meet me in Charlotte. I’ll send you the address.

UNKNOWN NUMBER: Please come. I need to talk to you. It’s important.

I sent those two text messages yesterday from a buddy’s phone the moment I stepped out of graduation, harassing him ever since to see if he’s heard back from her.

It’s been over thirteen weeks and two days since I’ve spoken to Laynee. My heart is cracked in so many fucking places that I’ll never be able to breathe right again until I see her. How the hell I’m officially a Marine is fucking beyond me.

From the U.S. Recruit Depot in San Diego, I immediately booked a flight to North Carolina, buying a phone on my way there so I could pull up all my social media accounts to find her.

Her MySpace was gone.

I couldn’t find her on Facebook, and her email address came back as unsendable. I’d go home to grab my cell phone and look up Jonah’s number to ask him where she is, but that would mean running into Dad and I’m going to kill him the first chance I get for doing this to me. For betraying my trust in the worst way he ever could, which was keeping me from Laynee.

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