TMI (2014 Collector's Dream Winner)

TMI - Chapter 40

The next morning, Bailey walked to school, unwilling to risk the whispers behind hands, the tweets, the giggles. She felt it throughout the day yesterday like a current of electricity humming under the classroom noise. She walked alone with her bitter thoughts, hardly aware of the car that pulled up beside her until the driver honked his horn.

“Bailey!”

She jolted out of her thoughts, saw Chase’s dad leaning over to shout through the passenger window. “Hey, Mr. Gallagher.”

“You seen Chase? He never came home last night.” His face was almost gray.

“What? No, not since school yesterday.”

“Ask around and call me if you hear anything, okay? Anything!” He drove off with a squeal of tires.

Bailey frowned after him.

Maybe he and Meg ran off to Vegas and got married. Like she cared. She stalked all the way to school, the fuel of her anger burning slow and strong. She shrugged a shoulder when anyone did find the guts to ask her if she knew what was going on. She turned her head away when the whispers reached her ears and only jerked once at the words, “missing since yesterday and “suspected in his disappearance.” As soon as the bell rang, Bailey ducked into the closest bathroom and checked her cell phone. She thumbed past the texts from her social network feeds, ignored the ones from minor acquaintances, and stopped to read one from Meg that arrived that morning.

Have you seen Chase?

Bailey rolled her eyes. Chase follows Meg around like a lost puppy and she’s asking her where he is? She continued scrolling through messages and bit back a curse when she saw none from Ryder. There was one from an unknown number, though. She opened it and covered her gaping mouth with a hand that shook.

UR dad’s name is Matthew Schor. He went to Madison High School, graduated in ‘96. I’m so sorry.

Ryder! It had to be. He always used text abbreviations like UR. She called the number but it just kept ringing. She ended the call and tried again. Nothing. Why was he doing this? She folded her arms around her body and folded up, swallowing back a sob that hitched on every breath. It wasn’t fair! She’d tried so hard, but all she’d done was wreck everything with Meg and with Chase. She wished she were home so she could throw herself on her bed and cry. Slowly, she sank to the toilet in the stall where she hid and forced herself to breathe deeply.

Matthew.

She put a hand over her heart. She had a name. Her father’s name. She started to text the news to Meg and then deleted the message. She couldn’t text Meg. Not anymore. She held her breath against the pain that slashed deep, rolled her shoulders and let it out. She didn’t need Meg. She was a big girl. She’d do this on her own. She’d do a ton of research when she got home and if Ryder’s message could be trusted, well she’d remember him without hating him.

Her nerves once again steely, Bailey left the girls’ bathroom and headed to her next class just as the bell rang. She’d just opened her notebook when a knock on the door called the whole class’s attention to the corridor. Mrs. Tyrell had a brief conversation with someone she couldn’t see and then turned to her. “Bailey. Collect your things. You’re wanted at the principal’s office.”

As she stood and left the class, the whispers escalated to murmurs that spread across the room at warp speed. She refused to lower her eyes or hang her head. She was the victim here, not the bad guy. She stepped out into the hall and was met by a security guard who took her elbow and marched her down the corridor.