When I turned to find our server, I jumped with a squeak. “Oh, shit!” I gasped, clutching my chest.
“I’m so sorry, honey. I didn’t mean to scare you.” The waitress frowned apologetically. “Here, I can take your payment over at the counter.”
I gestured to the mess of a booth. “I was just cleaning this up. My… friend had an emergency at home.”
She smiled, a slight dimple indenting her cheek. “Don’t worry about it. I’ve got it. I’ve seen him out at the park pretty often—wasn’t sure he even had a home.”
We shuffled our way through other tables and customers, coming to a stop at the steel counter at the front.She took my card, swiping it. “You seem kind, though. I’m glad he has you.”
I shifted awkwardly on my feet. “Yeah, we’ve been friends for a long time. Thanks.”
“I’m Sarah, by the way.”
Half smiling, I took the receipt she handed me. “Crescent. I gotta run, but it was nice meeting you. Sorry about the mess.”
Sarah waved me off, yelling after me, “Come by any time, honey! No worries about the mess. Hope your friend is okay.”
Stepping out onto the pavement, I checked both ways for any signs of Elio. I’d taken too long inside, though, and I had no idea which direction he’d gone. Rolling my shoulders forward, I silently cursed myself.
I should’ve admitted defeat, but the haunting look in Elio’s eyes kept me stuck. My apron was still on, my plain work clothes hiding underneath. I looked like a mess, and I was starting to get hot from the crazy summer temperatures.
Thinking back to the first night I’d seen him, I tried to remember which direction he’d started walking home. We were on the bridge a few miles from here, and he went back toward town…
It was no use. I didn’t know if his home was before town or after. Even if I did, I wouldn’t know which street or what his house even looked like. Fuck, I didn’t have his number, so I couldn’t call him. But if I was right, and something was going on with Jude, calling Elio might get him into even more shit.
I growled under my breath and headed for my car. Unease laced with doom swirled in the pit of my stomach, knocking on the walls of my intestines. Sarah said he was at the park often enough for her to recognize him, so maybe I’d get lucky and run into him there.
Yeah. Tomorrow, I’ll wait there for him. If he wasn’t hurt too badly.
Morning came,and so did the shadows. They raced across my periphery, taunting me, calling my name, and making a mockery of me. I wasn’t on shift today, but I couldn’t will my body to sleep in, and I couldn’t bring myself to forgo my morning coffee.
Pouring it into a thermos, I grabbed my keys, a Tupperware with a breakfast sandwich in it, and a light jacket for the few hours of chilly morning we’d have. The drive to the park wasn’t long—only ten minutes from my apartment. It made my commute easy.
I pulled into the side parking, grabbing all of my stuff to take a seat on the bench. I’d sit here from morning until night if I had to. I needed to know Elio was okay, and if he wasn’t, I needed to find a way to help him. Or maybe it was all my imagination, and I was overreacting. But I’d rather overreact than underreact and be wrong.
The park was quiet in the morning. One or two people jogged along the paved track, an elderly couple sat on the bench at the other end, and birds kept the world alive with their chirps. A song of their own, carried through the wind, through my ears, and out toward the world ahead. Peaceful. That’s what it was. I watched the early sunrise, casting dozens of colors along the horizon. They reminded me of a painting I’d seen once. One of Elio’s, actually. Oh, what I’d give to see him paint again.
I watched the sun rise high, welcoming everyone withgorgeous orange and yellow rays. They practically tickled my skin, warming it with their touch.
Eventually, I was out of food. I was close to being out of daylight, too.
If I thought early morning was quiet, nighttime was even more so. Not even the crickets wanted to sing, leaving me with the soft roar of the wind and the rustling of grass in it. I’d walked the circular trail around the park five times. My phone was clinging on for dear life, with barely ten percent battery left. All of the shops and restaurants were closed, and my stomach growled ferociously.
Around ten at night, I’d almost given up. Elio hadn’t shown up. I became increasingly more worried, running through disastrous possibilities in my mind while I waited.
My phone chimed twice, two new messages from Moon waiting unanswered. Bugs crawled along my skin, creeping through every vein, every cell in my body. They weren’t real, simply the manifestation of how on edge I was, but I still wanted to peel back every layer and jump out of my skeleton. Too much. It was too much.
Taking a hair tie, I pulled my hair into a ponytail and slumped against the front of the bench. I put my head in my hands, gasping in a deep breath to try to circulate oxygen through my body. Too much.
Where the fuck could he be? Logically, I knew he could be sleeping. He didn’t come here every day, or I would’ve seen him before now. Everything could be perfectly fine, and it could be my mind playing tricks on me again. This wasn’t high school—Elio wasn’t going to just disappear from my life. For the second time. Right?
Oh, fuck. Was I slipping?
I couldn’t trust myself all the time. Where others could feel confident in their decisions, or memories, or everyday experiences, I couldn’t do that. I had to question everything.
Gripping my scalp, I breathed through gritted teeth. I pulled myself up from the ground, slowly lifting my head, ready to turn on my heel and go home. I was exhausted, and perhaps delusional.
But then I saw him. The moon illuminated his brown hair and sleek frame. Elio sat at the same tree, just ahead of me, his pale hands drifting over the grass and flowers surrounding him. It made me smile. He used to hate being outside, often refusing to sit in the grass at recess when we were kids, or protesting when Mom and Dad wanted to do yoga outside. The only time he agreed willingly to being outside was when we’d get drunk in that private field we found once.
