Page 10 of The Forever Play

Sprinting to Sienna’s front door, I knocked three times and held my breath as I listened to the shuffle of steps behind the wood.

My heart started to race, my insides jumping as the door creaked open and an unfamiliar face greeted me.

“Yes?” The old man gave me a confused frown. “Can I help you?”

“Oh, uh… hi, sir. You must be Sienna’s grandfather?” She’d told me about him, but I couldn’t remember his name.

“Who?”

“Sienna.” I could feel my forehead wrinkling. “She lives here.”

“Sorry, son. You must have the wrong house.”

My head jolted back, and I took a few steps away from the house to gaze up at it. “No, this is where she lives. I… I used to come over here all the time.”

“Oh.” The man nodded, his lips rising into a half smile. “You must mean the people who lived here before I moved in. I never met them. The house was empty when it came on the market.”

“What?” I rasped, stumbling back toward him. “You just bought this house?”

“Moved in about three weeks ago.”

“But…” I blinked. “She…” Stumbling away from him, I didn’t even bother saying goodbye as I ran down the path like a drunk ostrich and wrestled the phone out of my pocket.

Finding Sienna’s number, I immediately called her and waited as it rang and rang, then went to voicemail. With an annoyed huff, I texted her.

Me: You’ve moved? What’s going on? Please call me. We need to talk. It’s really important.

She never responded, so I texted every hour until midnight.

And nothing.

Had she changed her number too?

Fuck. I didn’t know what the hell was going on.

After a sleepless night, staying up to the early hours,scouring social media and finding all of Sienna’s accounts closed, I ducked out of the house before Christmas breakfast and hit up each of my friends. Noah and Emily were stoked to see me but ended up being no help at all.

“She just left. Started the school year a little miserable but nothing red flag-ish, and then one day she just didn’t show. I thought she was out sick, but then Olivia told me she’d moved.”

“What the fuck?”

“I know.” Emily bulged her eyes in agreement with me. “I tried texting her, but she just ghosted me. She didn’t say goodbye to any of us.”

“Why didn’t someone tell me!”

“Why would we, dude?” Noah scoffed. “You made me swear not to mention her name around you. When Emily told me what happened, I wanted to let you know, but you seemed preoccupied with all your stuff, and I didn’t want to bother you with it. I thought you were over her, man.”

“I’m not.” I shook my head, walking out of their living room with more questions than answers.

Trudging home with my shoulders hunched, I fought various waves of pain, annoyance, and confusion. Why the fuck would she just take off without saying anything? It didn’t make any sense.

My phone started buzzing as I stepped back into the house.

“There you are!” Mom bustled into the entrance while I shrugged off my jacket and held up my phone. “Okay, but after that call, you’re telling me exactly where you’ve been.” She huffed and stormed back into the kitchen while I answered a call from Olivia.

“Hey.”

“Emily just texted and told me you’re looking for Sienna. Why?”

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