No.
I march to the closet and halt halfway in. It's empty. She's… she's gone.
The thought is difficult for me to accept. I barge out of the room, dialing her phone number. It doesn't connect. Did she turn her phone off?
My twitching eye gets worse, and I rub it as I hurry over to Richard's room. Before I get there, his door opens, and he steps out, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Jason, did you fix it yet?"
"Where's Fiona?" I say, attempting to speak in a low tune.
His face scrunches up.
"What do you mean? She's in her room."
"She's not! Her closet's empty. How did she leave when you were here? How?"
His eyes go wide, and he dashes past me toward her room. He comes out almost immediately, a distraught look on his face.
I sink to the floor, my mind racing faster than I can catch up. Where in the world did she go? She surely couldn't have gone home; that's the last place she'd want to go. Not that I know her house anyway.
I run my hands through my hair, shuffling it. She can't just go around like that. People will recognize her. What if she falls into the hands of the wrong person?
Richard walks toward me and stops in front of me.
"What are we going to do now?"
I wish I knew.
Chapter 19
Fiona
OneofthethingsI've always despised is how slow my life's been going since high school. As I walk into Eleanor's comfortable apartment, I'm reminded again that I haven't done much for myself in almost ten years. To crown it all up, I ended up getting pregnant. At this point, I think that in my past life, I must've been a really cruel person. That's the only way to explain why things always go south for me. After high school, my parent's finances started to dwindle, so they couldn't afford college for me. I tried all kinds of scholarships, but none worked. I even tried one a couple of weeks ago, and still nothing. Then, there's this pregnancy that could've been avoided.
I scoff as the tears pour uninhibited.
"Hey, c'mon. Your life's not over." Eleanor says, but it's difficult to believe.
I mean, look at her apartment— white walls with fancy colorful lights hanging from the ceiling, her tasteful mustard yellow sofa, and a reddish brown center carpet with an abstract image. She doesn't have a TV yet, but I'm sure she will soon. Her apartment isn't fancy or high-end, but it's beautiful, a signal that she's headed somewhere.
Unlike me.
I sigh.
"People stared at me on my way here. I almost thought their eyes were going to fall off. I know they were trying to figure out if it was me in the magazine. I guess my bulging tummy made it easier to guess."
Eleanor presses her lips together and stands from the floor, where she was seated beside me.
"You should eat something before heading to your parent's place."
I shake my head.
"I don't think I can eat anything right now."
She plops back down to the floor on the center carpet.
"Has Jason called you yet?"