Page 97 of Ours
“No, but we figured that’s who he was with.” Derek indicated to Nic. “Guess that’s a second person to keep an eye out for.”
“Done. There he is.” Nic nodded his head behind Derek, who turned to see Jackson walking in with some of his basketball teammates but with no sign of Cory. “Where’s Cory?”
“I dunno.” Derek slid out of the booth. “Let’s find out.”
Stephanie scooted out to let Nic pass and followed the two over to Jackson, who was greeting some other students already sitting down. She stood a few feet back when they reached him. She wanted to watch this but from a distance.
“Hey, Jackson.” Derek tapped him on the shoulder. “We need to talk.”
Jackson turned around and then seemed to size Derek up. “Do we?”
Derek rolled his eyes. He didnothave time for a dick measuring contest right now. “Where’s Cory?”
“Why would I know?” Jackson responded. “It’s not like I’m hisowneror something.”
“What the fu—” Derek wasn’t able to finish his thought because Nic pushed past him to grab Jackson by the collar and slam him into the diner wall.
“Listen up, you piece of shit. I figure I already owe you some trouble for talking to my buddy,Steve.” Jackson’s eyes widened as he realized what Nic meant. “Yeah. Found out about that. Now, because of whatyoudid, Cory went out into the woods tonight, with you. So, I will ask you this once: where the fuck is he?” Nic growled the question through his gritted teeth, punctuating his sentence by pushing Jackson against the wall again.
Derek almost thought he would have to separate the two, but Jackson quickly spit out an answer at Nic’s implied threat.
“He was in the woods,” Jackson stammered. “We were out in the trees, I went back to the campsite without him, and then everyone was packing up. I figured he’d be behind me a few minutes later. That was the last I saw of him. I swear.”
“So what? He’s still out there?” Derek jumped in, ignoring all the people at nearby tables who were eavesdropping. Stephanie remained silent from her perch a few feet away, though she noticed that the boys were beginning to draw a crowd. A lot of eyes were watching this “conversation” unfold.
“I dunno. Maybe. He was supposed meet me back at the campsite, but I waited for him, and then everyone started to leave…” Jackson trailed off, knowing how the end of that sentence made him look.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Nic slammed him into the wall again.
“Nic, stop.” Derek put his hand on Nic’s shoulder. “He doesn’t know anything else.”
Nic let go of Jackson’s shoulders and fought the urge to punch the wall. Didn’t need to hurt his handagain. Especially without Cory here to…
“We gotta go find him.” Nic turned to Derek, determined.
“Yeah. Let’s go.” Derek wasn’t going to argue.
“Wait!” Stephanie finally said something. “I… I feel like I’m supposed to say something here to be responsible and stop you … but I’m really scared for my friend.”
The three stood in a small circle near the front door, formulating their plan.
“Okay, the party was at the same place it always is, right?” Derek took the lead. “Nic and I will head out and start looking there.” Derek turned to Jackson who was still standingsheepishly nearby. “Hey, asshat, do you remember where in the woods you were?”
“Uhhh…” Jackson looked lost. He wasn’t exactly a boy scout.
“The river,” Stephanie interjected. “If you were facing the party site, where was the river?”
“To our right,” Jackson responded.
“Okay, so we’ll start there and head north along the river. If we can find him, we can get to my family’s cabin nearby and ride out the rest of the storm,” Derek planned. “Dad made sure the trees on the hill were trimmed after the last hurricane almost took out the roof.”
“Okay.Pleasebe safe,” Stephanie pleaded. “I’ll stay here and call Cory’s mom. Text me your parents’ numbers too. You know they are probably going to kill all of us for this, right?”
Nic nodded in agreement, but he was still determined to get out there and find Cory.
“Don’t worry about calling mine. Not sure they’d even answer,” Derek added. He wasn’t beingentirelycynical.
“Okay.” Yeah, Stephanie was still gonna get the number from Julia and call them. “Be safe, guys.” She somewhat awkwardly hugged the both of them and then returned to the booth before someone else swooped in to steal it.
