When I don’t get a reply, I walk down the short hallway and see that the master bedroom window is open, the screen pushed out. My mind immediately switches to the worst possible scenario and then my stomach bottoms out. I grab onto my phone and with shaking fingers text out a message.
Me:Em, where are you?
Me:Did you leave?
Me:Em, please.
Emery:I heard you.
Me:?
Emery:I’m not nothing.
Fuck, I don’t want to do this over text. I try calling, but he answers and then hangs up. I call again, but he just lets it ring.
“Fuck, mom, he’s not answering,” I say and my mom tugs on her ponytail and shakes her head.
“This is all my fault. I should have knocked.”
“No, this is mine. I should have told you weeks ago. Should have told him how I felt. And now he’s gone. I need to find him. He’s going to think the worst after he heard what I said.”
She eyes me, “Where would he go?”
My mind pulls up every single thing I know about him, and I feel my stomach drop.
Goddammit. Of course he’ll go there. Why wouldn’t he? But maybe he hasn’t called an Uber yet or maybe a car is too far away and he’ll have to wait.
Maybe if I leave now, I can catch him and bring him home and explain it all. Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. He’ll listen. He has to.
“Mom, I’ve got to see if I can find him. I’ve got to get him before he gets to Lex’s.”
“Wait, Lex?”
But I don’t answer her, I just jump into my car and peel out onto the street. I drive up and down the neighborhood, looking for him, but it seems like he managed to find the one Uber that was close by and snagged it.
Just my luck.
I punch the steering wheel and flip a U-turn to head to the other side of town––toward the apartment complex where this whole thing started.
But when I arrive, it goes just as I expected.
My fist bangs on the door and a shirtless Lex answers a minute later.
“Where is he?” I ask, my breath coming out in pants. I ran the entire way up the stairs, and compounded with anxiety, my heart is beating out of my chest. Is this what a panic attack feels like? Because I feel like I’m having a heart attack.
Lex eyeballs me as if my world isn’t imploding, and blows smoke from his cigarette right into my face. Then he holds up a taser and presses the button. The electric current sparks through the sides and I stare at it warily.
“He’s in here. With me.”
“Please, let me see him. He misunderstood. He didn’t hear it all.” I raise my voice and yell, “You didn’t hear it all, Em!”
“He heard enough to know what you think of him. Go away, asshole. You may be pretty, but I can mess you up. And not in a sexy way.”
He pushes the taser button a few more times and holds it toward me.
“Em!” I shout and Lex sighs.
“He has earphones in. He’s in my bed listening to music. He can’t fucking hear you.”