She still isn't here. The teacher is taking attendance now. Where is she?
Damon : "Hey, is our joey gonna come?"
Me: "I don't know, she should be here by now. She's never late"
Damon: "Well let's wait and see"
Me: "Yeah,we cannot do anything besides that"
"Joey March"
The teacher called her name.
"Joey, are you here?"
I raised my hand to grab her attention.
"Yes, laurie?"
"Miss, she's absent."
"I see, do you know the reason why she's absent."
"I'm sorry,miss I don't know"
"It's fine.Anyways,class moving forward"
Where's joey? She told me that she'll come today.
The bell rang. Everyone got up from their seats to go to the cafeteria.
Damon: Chill laurie. Don't stress yourself too much, teddy. She might have just slept through.
Me: No she never does this. There must be something wrong.
Jasmine: Teddy, I know you're worried. We all will look for her together after school today,okay? Now eat your lunch.
Damon : Yeah,she's right.
Me: Okay, fine. I trust you guys.
I couldn't stop getting paranoid about Joey the entire time. I kept wondering what happened to my joey. I couldn't concentrate on anything. I was desperately waiting for the classes to end.
*The school bell rang*
Finally, school's over.
Damon : "Hey teddy, c'mon indicating we have to go."
Me : "yeah, yeah I'm coming guys."
Damon : "Okay we're waiting."
I grabbed my bag,packed my things and left the classroom.
Jasmine: "So where should we go first?"
Damon : "Before that check if she's online."
I brought out my phone and pulled out our chat only to see that she was last online yesterday.
Jasmine: "Well, she might have been busy or something I guess."
Me:"Can we please go to her house?"
Damon: "Yeah sure my dude."
We reached her house. Knocked at the door. I was expecting her to open the door but her mom did. Her mom had a sullen look on her face. She tried to hide it with a rictus but I could see right through it.
"Joey's in her room,kids. Come on in."
"Thank you,ma'am."
We hurried to her room and found her in her bed reading a book.
Jasmine threw her bag towards her.
"Why didn't you come today,idiot?"
"Woww, I love you too, jas"
"Answer me"
"Nothing, I just woke up late. That's it."
Me: "No that's not it. Something happened. You never miss school and you're definitely not the girl to sleep through the entire morning. Tell us what happened?"
Joey: "Stop being so paranoid. I'm telling you nothing happened. It was just one day."
Damon: "Joey,why are you getting so mad? Did something happen?"
Joey: "Omygod, nothing happened guys. I'm perfectly fine."
Jasmine: "Fine, then answer us why have you not been eating lunch with us in the cafeteria?"
Joey: "What? What kind of question is that? I just don't feel hungry during afternoon that's it"
Jasmine : "Is that so? Then why have you been running out of breath when you just walk through one or two floors? You always have been very energetic. But I've been observing you for a while and I think that you've been hiding something from us."
Joey couldn't control herself anymore. She broke down and tears started to form in her eyes. She just hid her face with her hands, trying not to show us her swollen face from crying. God, did we pressure her too much? My heart literally ripped apart seeing her like this. I can't take it anymore. We were devastated and sat on her bed to hug her tightly, so tightly to let her feel our complete presence and make her feel safe.
Jasmine : "You know, you can tell us anything Joey. We're always here for you. We won't ditch you no matter what. Now tell us what happened."
Joey tried to wipe away her tears with her hand. Her eyes were still red and watery.
Joey: "Fine, I'll tell you what happened,guys"