Falling

53

I didn't want to think about that. I didn't want to think about him at all.

It was only a little while later that Hadley, Dana, and Archie showed up to my house. Hadley looked like she had been crying, but she wore a brave face when she stood in front of me, her shoulders squared and straightening her posture. She didn't need to say it but, she was ready to face Darren.

We carefully avoided the topic of Darren when Hadley arrived. She had no doubt been talking about him all afternoon with Dana. She didn't need to listen to us talk about him just before she was going to face him for the last time.

"Has anyone heard from Logan?" Dana asked, sitting down beside me with her hand resting on her stomach. She wasn't even showing yet, but it was like ever since she decided to keep the baby, she would place her hand there as if to remind herself that she would be having a child.

I shook my head. "I thought he would be coming over here with you."

She let out a sigh. "I texted him an hour ago and haven't gotten a response yet."

That wasn't like Logan at all. He would keep any of us waiting on a response from him, but never Dana.

"I'll give him a call," I told her, pulling my phone from my pocket.

The phone rang and rang before ultimately going to voicemail. I didn't bother leaving one. He would never listen to it.

"We gotta get going," Archie said, standing up from the couch. "Hopefully this goes smoothly and I don't have to beat the shit out of Darren. Or hopefully not. I kinda want an excuse to pummel him."

Isaac rolled his eyes, standing beside him. "Don't get too confident. He could probably take both of us."

Archie lightly shoved him in response and then looked to Hadley. She let out a deep breath and then heaved herself off the couch.

"Wish us luck," Hadley said in a dull tone.

"Good luck," Dana and I said in unison

"We'll be here when you get back," Dana told her, standing up to give her a hug before the three of them left the house and it was just the two of us.

"You want me to try Logan again?" I asked her, though I knew she was the person with the best chance of getting him to answer. Dana looked conflicted. It was like she was worried, but felt crazy for feeling that way.

"No," she said, shaking her head. "He's probably just busy."

He was never too busy to answer her. She knew that.

"I'll try Vinny," I said. "They're probably together."

She nodded and I took my phone out again to call Vinny.

His phone went straight to voicemail.

"I'm just being paranoid," Dana said, waving her hand.

I shrugged. "He'll call eventually."

I said that, fully believing it.

That was until we went hours without hearing from him.

***

Vinny Taylor

Logan was annoying the shit out of me, but that wasn't anything new.

"You can go, Logan," I told him with a look of irritation from my place on the couch.

He was standing over me, blocking my view of the TV and telling me how he was supposed to be going to Carson's house but didn't want to leave me home alone. I much preferred not being home alone, and he knew that, but he was being so annoying that it didn't even matter.