I have no worthwhile information, is what I’m saying. Javier left early Thursday without saying goodbye. Not even a note. It’s fine. I, like everyone, assumed he was going back to Sprucevale.
So, like the Suspect Who Lies, my options are: one, tell everyone that he spent the night. Since I already lied about that they’ll all figure out what really happened, and everything will beawful for the rest of time, and it still won’t help find him. Or two, keep lying.
“You’re sure he didn’t say anything at all to you?” my dad asks. “He didn’t mention a friend? Maybe someone he’s seeing? Something he wanted to do?”
“Nothing at all,” I say and willfully ignore the fact that the Suspect Who Lies always gets caught.
Me:Hey, my dad said no one can find you? Is everything okay?
Me:I’m sure this is the 500th text you’ve gotten, but, you know.
Me:Anyway, everyone’s looking, so if you see this you might want to call your mom sooner rather than later? Sorry, I know you hate when she gets other people involved.
“Isthis a tea visit or a whiskey visit?” Ben asks as he lets me in.
“It’s three in the afternoon,” I point out.
“Five o’clock somewhere.”
“Not here.”
He’s already walking into the kitchen, talking over his shoulder. “Shoes off. I’ve still got that weird stuff you like.”
“Green tea isn’t weird. Everyone likes green tea. Literally millions of people all over the world drink and enjoy green tea. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”
“What? No.” He gives me a weird look as he pulls tea bags from a drawer that seems to also contain plastic wrap, tin foil, a stick of deodorant, and a travel-size chess board. Ben has two roommates, also surgical residents at Chesapeake UniversityHospital, and for an apartment with three dudes it’s actually pretty okay.
“Thanks for letting me come over,” I say, and he gives me the weird look again.
“Since when do I ‘let’ you? You text me and sayI’ll be there in fifteen, and it’s my job to make sure I’ve got pants on.”
“You might have been busy!”
“That hasneverstopped you before.”
It has, actually; he’s just never noticed. The thing is that Ben, who’s been my best friend since before either of us could talk, sometimes has a girlfriend. Sometimes the girlfriends are weird about me, his female bestie. I have zero romantic interest in Ben, but I have also grown up in a society that tells us women should fight over available men, so I get it. I hate it, but I get it.
Anyway, Ben has now been on three dates with this girl he’s really into and who seems really cool, so I don’t want her to be suspicious of me or anything before we even meet.
“Be nice—I came here with a crisis,” I say, only half kidding.
It wipes the smirk off his face, almost literally. “Shit. Sorry,” he says. “Your stepbrother’s missing? You want me to try calling hospitals to see if they’ll give me any info or something?”
Oh, god, I hadn’t even thought of that. Maybe Javier got into a car crash and he’s in an ER somewhere, or he’s dead, and they couldn’t identify him?—
“They’re not supposed to tell me anything because of HIPAA, but sometimes people slip in these kinds of situations.”
“It’s not that. Not yet…at least? Fuck. Okay. I am going toswearyou to secrecy.”
Ben raises one eyebrow and makes an X over his heart.
“Everyone is panicking because no one has heard from him since Wednesday afternoon,” I start. “Except. I did see him. He seemed like he was having a rough day, since he’d just fought with his parents, so he came back to my place to vent and havedinner. And then it got late, and it’s a long drive, so he slept over. On the air mattress. And then he left first thing Thursday morning.”
“Okay,” Ben says. We both pause for a moment. The water on the stove steams but isn’t boiling yet. “And you didn’t tell anyone this.”
I rub my hands over my face. “No.”
Another long pause. “Did something…happen?”
