ADOLESCENCE - The Unfortunate Disappearance of Autumn Usher

Chapter Five

    Tate and Benji sat alone during lunch in the noisy school cafeteria at their special table. The table they had sat at together ever since the beginning of high school when the two of them first met on the soccer team. They didn't care about sitting or talking with the rest of the team too much, they'd much rather just be together.

    "Even if Autumn is still alive," Benji said while devouring his packed lunch, "Is there even a way that we could find out more about him? It's not like we can just waltz up to a private eye and ask what he knows."

    "Yeah," Tate said while picking through the nasty stuff that the cafeteria called food. "But like I said yesterday, nobody really cares about him anymore. I guess we'd have to find somebody who actually knew the guy."

    "Right. Uhhhh, how do we do that?"

    "Well lets start with what we do know," Tate said while putting down her fork and sitting back in her chair. "We know he was fifteen years old when he was last seen."

    "Right," Benji agreed. "So assuming that he is still alive he'd be like, seventeen now."

"So he's still a minor," Tate said while squinting her eyes.

    "Mhm. This is all common knowledge though," Benji murmured while fiddling with the zipper on his backpack.

    "Well I don't see you helping me," Tate said in response to that remark.

    "No," Benji huffed. "What I meant is that information like that isn't going to help us. Like," he sighed, "Who were his connections? When was he last seen? Who was he last seen with?

"Do you think I know those things, Benji? I'm trying my best here," she sighed. "Around the time when he first disappeared we were both freshman, and all I cared about was my grades. You think I had time to worry about some kid I didn't even know?"

"Yeah, that's true..." Benji trailed off, while resting his head in his folded arms on the table. "I still wanna know what happened, though," he said through his squished face.

"You more than me, Benj," Tate said, as she stood up and collected their trash from the table. She left to go throw it out.

Benji watched Tate walk away from his comfortable position as he slowly began to doze off. His eyes slowly blinked closed and his breathing became steady and shallow. He wasn't allowed peace for very long, however. Someone with a deep, smooth voice had come over to the table and began to interrupt his dreams.

"Hey you," he said while shaking his shoulder.

"Ugh, I can never catch a break," Benji thought, before looking up to see who was ruining the five minutes he had to recharge.

The guy was tall and muscular, and definitely much older than Benji. His hair was a medium/dark brown which was buzzed all around, and he wore diamond earrings on both ears. His hazel eyes were deep set into his face, and they glinted with a mischievous charm. He certainly wasn't the type that would come over to strike up a conversation with a sandy-haired boy from the soccer team.

"Hey," he smiled, when he saw that he had finally caught Benji's attention. He sat down in the chair next to him.

"Hey man," Benji said while looking the guy up and down and scooting back in his chair a little.

"So, can I ask you question?"

"Uhhh, sure."

"Who's the girl with the brown hair and the pretty smile you're always with? Your girlfriend?"

"Who, Tate?!" Benji asked. "Ew, no! And why do you care," he asked accusingly.

"Hmm, Tate," he said while pondering her name. "It fits her," he said.

Just as Benji was about to tell the guy to get lost, Tate came back from throwing away their trash. She looked at the the guy that had come and sat at their table with wide eyes.

    "Hey!" the guy said with a smirk while standing up and walking over to Tate.

    "Uh, hi!" she said, smiling as he approached her.

    "How're you, girl?" he said while looking her up and down. Benji watched in disgust from his chair. He was NOT impressed.

    "Haha, I'm good," Tate said, while nervously tucking her hair behind her ear. Her face flushed pink.

    "You look good today," he said, as he took her hair and placed it behind her shoulder.

    Benji stood up and interrupted the conversation. He did NOT like the direction it was heading in.

    "Actually, WE were in the middle of a conversation. You can talk to her some other time," he said with his arms crossed.

    "Benji, it's fine," she snapped while keeping a smile on her face. "We were talking about Autumn Usher," she said, completely ignoring Benji's existence.

    "Oh, really? I didn't think that anybody talked about that anymore," the guy replied, as he shot Benji a dirty look over his shoulder before turning back to Tate with a smile. "I'd love to talk about it with you."

    "ACTUALLY," Benji intruded, "We have to leave! We have practice! Come on, Tate," he said while gathering their stuff to get out of there.

    "Benji, practice isn't until 3:30. It's only like 12:00." she said with an eye roll.

    "Well, I can meet you after that!" the guy responded. "I'll meet you by behind the bleachers towards the parking lot, how's that sound?" he asked while looking Tate in the eyes and smiling.

    Benji was NOT about to give his blessing for this.

    "THAT DOES NOT SOUND G—"

    "—That sounds amazing," Tate interrupted while taking her backpack from Benji who was watching the event in horror. "We'll meet behind the bleachers."

    "Alright girl, see you then. I'll count the minutes," he said with a sparkle in his eye before walking away and disappearing into the crowd.

    Tate waited until he was completely out of sight before turning to Benji.

    "Benji, did you SEE HIM?!"

    "Yeah I saw him!" he said in surprise. "I saw a no good girl chaser who's just about to play your heart like a Nintendo DS!"

    "Oh come on, be serious," she said, visibly annoyed that Benji wasn't seeing what she was seeing. "Oh my goodness... Did you see his eyes?"

    "Yeah! And the center of them were the same color of his heart. BLACK."

    "How do you know that?!"

    "Cause... I just know..." Benji said while messing with the hem of his hoodie.

    "AND," Tate continued. "He seemed like he knew some stuff about Autumn, he might be able to help us out!"

    "What?! No! He isn't helping us."

    "Benji, we aren't getting anywhere with our search anyways. This is a chance to find some more clues!"

    "I am NOT happy about this, Tate," he said while pulling on the straps of his backpack.

    "That's okay," she smiled. "You'll thank me later."

    "And you have no idea what the heck you're doing," Benji panicked to himself.