Sweet Thing

Found

Quan

Lupe wasn't home although we were s'posed to arrive at about the same time. Her mom had invited me in kindly, but my stomach was feeling uneasy out of nowhere. As I sat on the couch and waited, Luz and Carmina ran up to me to give me details of Lupe's outfit for the evening. A cornflower blue ensemble with silver accents in her makeup. I nodded and listened attentively, but what was cornflower blue? I looked it up on my phone and it looked pretty similar to periwinkle or baby blue. But what did I know about it?

Five minutes had passed after Lupe was s'posed to be home. My right leg was jumping and I rubbed my hands together over and over. I had to have checked my watch at least once every fifteen seconds.

It'd been ten minutes. I texted her, but no reply. My message didn't even say opened or read. Lupe's family was starting to wonder aloud where she was, too, but not yet with any sense of worry in their voices. Just polite and cordial remarks along the lines of 'where could she be?' and 'can't rush perfection.'

I called Lupe once she didn't show after twenty minutes. It was to no avail. It rang, but I got no answer, so I stepped onto the back porch and left a voicemail. "Lupe, call me back. Or call somebody. Where are you? It doesn't matter, just call me back, baby."

When I stepped back inside, all eyes were on me. I only shook my head and they understood. Señora Castillo threw down her magazine and scurried upstairs. Lupe's aunt followed, but Maria only approached me and stood close. By now, Carmina and Luz were in the basement, largely shielded from the worrying.

"Quandra," she pleaded, "I need you to tell me everything you know. What's the last thing you heard from Lupe? Last text? Anything?"

"She told me she was around the corner, and that she'd already left from Alexis' house. That description meant that she was right on the intersection of Meadowlark Lane and Robin's Way. We were supposed to be here at the same time."

Maria wandered back over to the couch and sat, thinking with her head down in her hands. I wanted to just sit and think, but I knew that wouldn't help to find Lupe. The best I could do was pace back and forth in the front hall until I could think of a plan of action. My eyes started to water when no ideas came and I remembered how urgent it was to find my girlfriend. Lupe wouldn't miss any of this prom chaos for the world.

"I'm calling the police," Maria declared once the clock had struck two p.m. Lupe's mother was in her room wailing inconsolably while her Aunt Marta tried to sooth her.

"That won't do anything," I explained. "She hasn't been gone long enough, she's brown, and she's trans*. They wouldn't look for her anyway."

"What else can we do then?"

"Split up and look for her individually. Ten eyes are better than the blind one a cop would give us."

"I'll call Andres and Papi home. They don't know anything yet." Maria went to make the other phone calls back in the den, and I sat on the steps, trying to remember or think of something that would give us a hint to where Lupe was. I got nothing.

All of this was too much. First, I wake up to find that my moms was planning a birthday party without me being invited, then I get a weird phone call from Rico asking if I still thought I was going to prom, and then my love goes missing without a trace. My whole body seemed to be on edge.

I jumped into my car and cut the engine on. Someone had to begin the search for Lupe, and no one else had the time yet. Her father and brother wouldn't be home for another ten minutes, Maria told me, but ten minutes meant a world of difference when someone like Lupe was missing. I told Maria that I'd go past Alexis' house and her job first, so that they could scour the neighborhood later on. They knew it better and they knew places within the vicinity that she could possibly be.