Man Down

Chapter Nine. Missing Person

Chapter Nine

Missing Person

The next day Kristen would not get out of bed. She did let Zoe out of the room in the morning, but she would not leave this room. She didn’t have the energy to go to school. She ignored Dawn and Patty’s calls, she also ignored Sky’s messages. For someone who had just rejected her he sure wasn’t leaving her alone. she stared at her ceiling for what felt like hours, drifting in and out of sleep. Every so often she could hear her mom walking down the hallway and opening the basement door. She had said she was moving the things her father had left behind in the basement, she also heard bits and pieces of her mother calling different divorce lawyers. She rolled over covering her face with the pillow trying to block the noise. She wished she would just wake up. She heard the doorbell ring and muffled voices; she then heard her mother and a few more footsteps stop at her door. the door flung open, Dawn and Patty entered her room.

“what’s going on?” Dawn asked, “you haven’t been answering any of our calls.”

“I didn’t have the energy to socialize.” Kristen responded.

“What did that i***t do?” Patty asked.

“It was a breakup talk I guess.” Kristen shrugged, “breaking something that wasn’t even a thing.”

“he’s such a moron.” Patty said rolling her eyes.

“I’m sorry Kristen I shouldn’t have made you go see him.” Dawn said, “I’m a little shocked if I’m going to be honest.”

Kristen looked up at them, curiosity filled her mind.

“Why are you shocked?” she asked.

“Well, he seemed really into you that night, couldn’t keep his hands off of you.” Dawn chuckled.

Kristen blushed.

“When he said he needed to talk to you I figured it was to confess his love to you or whatever.”

Kristen’s face fell. “Well, he’s with Elise, I don’t know why I thought it would go any different.”

Dawn and Patty sat on the edge of Kristen’s bed. They both stared at their phone for a few minutes before Patty got up and ripped the blankets off her. Kristen shot up in the bed and was in complete shock by the sudden movement.

“You need to get up.” Patty began, “you weren’t even with this boy, I get what you’re feeling but you’re so much better than air head Elise!”

Dawn nodded in agreement; Kristen just stared at patty, Hugging her knees to her chest.

“This is unhealthy for a stupid boy! I love sky like a brother, but he thinks with the wrong head!”

Kristen chuckled; Patty was right. Old Kristen would not have acted like this, she broke up with her previous boyfriend of two years prior to the move and felt absolutely nothing. She didn’t understand how this boy she had only known for two weeks had such a chokehold on her. Kristen sat beside them on the edge of the bed.

“So, what should we do?” Kristen asked.

“let’s go to the mall!” Dawn exclaimed.

“Yes! Perfect idea!” Patty began. “Let’s go make you hot for tomorrow, he’ll be sorry!”

Kristen quickly threw on a pair of cream sweatpants and a matching hoodie, she quickly threw her hair up in a bun with a black headband keeping her un-styled baby hairs out of her face. They all walked out of Kristen’s room and headed down the hallway towards the front door. Kristen’s mom looked up and was shocked to see Kristen up and dressed to go out so quickly.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“we’re going to the mall, is that ok?” Kristen responded.

“Yes, that’s fine, ill grab you some spending money.”

Kristen’s mom came back into the room and handed Kristen a few bills and turned to look at Dawn and Patty.

“I don’t know what you did but thank you!”

Patty, Dawn, and Kristen walked out the front door. Dawn and Patty stopped in their tracks and Kristen had almost bumped into them, she looked up to see what had caused the sudden break and saw Sky walking up her driveway. As if.

“What do you want?” Kristen raised her voice. She could not believe the nerve of him.

He stopped suddenly at the harsh tone, he stared for a moment.

“You weren’t answering me.” He spoke.

“On purpose.” She responded.

Sky looked down at his shoes and lightly kicked a little rock that was on her driveway.

“Can you walk with me?”

Kristen looked at Dawn and Patty and they both pushed her forward towards him. She walked down the steps of her house to stand in front of him.

“Why? you don’t feel as though you’ve hurt me enough?” she sneered.

He smirked.

“you’re cute when you’re mad.” He began walking towards the sidewalk.

Kristen rolled her eyes and followed. They walked for a moment in silence and then he began to speak.

“I’m sorry if I hurt you Kristen, that wasn’t my intention.” He said.

Kristen said nothing.

“I know I have been flirty with you, and I shouldn’t have, I couldn’t help it, but I led you on and I’m sorry.” He stared at her waiting for her response, but it never came.

He sighed, “I care for Elise, and we have been together for about a year now. I don’t want to hurt her. If I did she’d probably ruin my life. I do like you; I don’t think Elise is the one but I also can’t hurt her. I still want to be your friend because I really like you and your company.”

Kristen didn’t know what to say to him. From what Dawn and patty claimed Elise did seem like a drama queen and a little spoiled. She was starting to wonder why the sudden interest into the son of a middle-class family considering she was part of the one percent. She walked beside him while she thought about what to say.

“Fine, we can be friends.” She began, “but I’m not one to let things go, so don’t think it will go back to normal. I still moderately hate you at the moment.”

“Seems fair.” He said.

They stopped and Sky hugged her. It was one sided, it was true what Kristen said. She’s always held grudges and she really did hate him right now. She began to walk back, and she saw Patty and Dawn hiding in some hedges spying on Kristen and Sky. Kristen chuckled and began walking with them to the mall. The walk to the mall was a long one, about half an hour. Kristen thought about wanting to take the city bus back home. Her talk with Sky was fresh in her mind, she was confused, he didn’t seem to know what he wanted. It was annoying, and only made things worse for himself. She could tell that Dawn and Patty had some questions but that they were trying to put it off in case she was still emotional. Good call on their part because she was feeling quite red. Once they arrived at the mall, they stopped at the ice cream shop inside and sipped on milkshakes while they gossiped before going to the shops.

“So, are you going to tell us what Sky wanted to talk to you about?” asked Patty while stirring her milkshake with the straw.

“Oh, like you didn’t hear.” Chuckled Kristen.

“We heard bits and pieces.” Said Dawn.

“He basically said that he cares for Elise, and she’d probably ruin his life if he left her.” Kristen said looking down.

“Well, he’s right about that.” Patty laughed.

“What did you say?” Dawn asked.

“Nothing, he asked me if we could still be friends and I said fine but that I hated him.”

“Oh, you do not hate him.” Dawn said raising an eyebrow at Kristen.

“No seriously right now I do, I shouldn’t because what did I think was going to happen?” Kristen began. “But I really do right now, it really hurt for some reason.”

“Well, no s**t,” Patty said taking a sip of her milkshake. “You lost your dad and were rejected by your crush all in the same day.”

Sometimes Patty was almost a little too blunt and straight to the point. Any other time Kristen loved this about her but right now she had wished that she was a little bit more sensitive to these situations. They walked into a few clothing stores, in each one both Dawn and Patty picked different outfits for Kristen to try on. Dawn picked out a white lace top with a black bralette to go under it, a pink pleated skirt, and a pair of silver strappy sandals. Patty picked out a pair of dark wash ripped jeans, white fishnets for underneath, and a white crop top.

“I think Patty is winning this one.” Kristen called from the dressing room.

She walked out of the change room and looked in the large mirror that was next to two black leather chairs that Patty and Dawn was sitting on. She did like the top but hated the skirt and the strappy sandals. She looked over at Dawn who had seemed disappointed she didn’t like her choices.

“The top is to die for, but the bottom is just not me.” She said to Dawn.

She walked back into the dressing room and tried on the outfit Patty had chosen for her. She hated wearing jeans, but these were actually cute and the fish nets poking through the large rips in the jeans added the edgy look that Patty usually sported. Kristen changed back into her clothes and handed the skirt and the strappy sandals to the young woman working the fitting rooms. She walked to the register and paid for the items and the girls made their way to the bus stop to go home. The bus ride was long but shorter than walking, the bus stop was about two blocks away from Kristen’s house. They walked side by side laughing and chatting, they turned the corner on the street that Kristen lived on and saw two cop cars on the road in front of Kristen’s house. Kristen stopped in her tracks and an overwhelming feeling of worry crawled through her body, she looked at Dawn and Patty who also had pale expressions.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow, ok?” Kristen said running home as fast as her legs could take her.

She flung the door open and, in the Livingroom, sat her mother on the couch, two police officers sitting on the two accent chairs, and a tall blonde woman. her mother kept shooting glares at the woman. everyone in the room shifted their attention to Kristen as she entered the room.

“Mom what is going on?” Kristen asked.

“Hello Kristen,” the first officer stood up “I’m officer Hale, would you mind leaving us to talk to your mom for a few minutes? We have a few questions for you as well.”

Kristen looked from her mom, to the blonde woman, and then back to the officer.

“I guess.” She said.

She walked down the hallway to her room. She went into her room and sat by the door, she kept it open a crack so she could eavesdrop on what was being said in the living room. The voices were muffled but she made out a few words. Colourful words like “homewrecking tramp” coming from the mouth of her mother. It clued in for Kristen, the tall blonde must have been the girl that her father cheated on her mom with. She had so many questions for her, she’d probably rip her a new one if she got close enough though. She then heard heavy footsteps coming towards her room, she quickly got up and raced onto her bed. The two officers entered her room.

“Hi Kristen.” The female officer said, “I’ve already introduced myself and this is officer Thompson, we just have a few questions for you if that’s ok with you?”

“I guess.” Kristen replied.

The male officer took out a note pad and took a seat in Kristen’s desk chair.

“Can you please tell us what you were doing two nights ago?” officer Hale asked.

“Umm well I had been waiting for my dad to come home for family game night with my mom and my brother for about an hour or two and he ditched us.”

“Ok and what happened after that? Did you go to bed after?” this was the first-time officer Thompson had spoken.

“Well, I did go into my room, but it was only nine o’clock and I wasn’t ready for the night to be over, so I packed an overnight bag and decided I was going to go to my friend’s house for a sleepover.”

“What friend?” asked officer Hale.

“Um Dawn Henderson.” Kristen responded.

“Ok can you walk us through the events of that night?” officer Thompson asked.

“Well, I walked out of my room to go tell my mom that I was going out, but she was asleep, and she had been crying so I kind of got mad at my dad.” Kristen continued “I stole my dad’s beer out of the fridge, and I walked to my friend Sky’s house, picked him up and then we walked across the street to Dawn’s. we also left to go pick up my other friend Patty.”

“What are Sky and Patty’s last names?” asked officer Thompson.

“Why? Are we in trouble?” Kristen asked.

“No, you’re not in trouble, but your father has been reported missing, so we are just covering our bases.” Said officer Hale.

“What my father isn’t missing? He ran off with the woman he cheated on my mom with.” Kristen said tears brimming her eyes.

“Well, the woman with us was the mistress Kristen, and she is the one that reported him missing.” Officer Hale responded sympathetically.

“What?!” Kristen responded. “Why would you bring her here?”

“She insisted.”

“Can you please give us your friends full names?” asked officer Thompson.

“Sky White and Patty Leever.” Kristen responded looking down at her hands.

“Ok what happened after you picked up your friend Patty?” officer Hale asked.

“Well, we went back to Dawn’s, and we drank the beer and a bottle of tequila, we talked and danced and then I guess I blacked out and fell asleep on Dawn’s bedroom floor, I snook out the window the next morning.” She finished.

“Why did you leave through the window?” asked officer Thompson.

Kristen sighed “I woke up in the arms of Sky, but he has a girlfriend…” she continued “I was ashamed, so I left before everyone woke up and Dawn’s parents didn’t know we had all slept over.”

“I see,” officer Hale responded, “one last question and then we will be out of your hair, when did you discover your father was gone?”

“When I got home, my mom was acting strange, and she had told me that my dad came home late after I had left and packed his things and ran off with another woman.” Kristen responded.

“Ok thank you Kristen that is all.” Said officer Thompson standing up and closing his notebook.

“Can I ask you a favour?” asked Kristen before they exited her room.

“Sure.” Replied officer Hale.

“If you go to talk to my friends, can you, do it when their parents aren’t around, I don’t want to get them in trouble.”

“Sure thing, thank you for your time, Kristen.” Officer Hale left her room and shut the door behind her.

How could her dad be missing? Her world really was crumbling below her. Despite all the hurt he had caused these past couple of days she hoped he was ok wherever he was.