What You're Missing

Chapter 15

The bells attached to the door jingled as Charlotte walked into Junk 'N Stuff. She was slightly out of breath, having barely moved all week. She glanced throughout the small store looking for a blond head, then furrowed her eyebrows when she couldn't.

Approaching the cashier at the front desk, she asked, "Hi, is Henry Hart here today?" She was sure he'd be working, since that's what he always seemed to be doing when they weren't together and not at school.

The tall man behind the desk cocked an eyebrow at her. He had been reading a newspaper before Charlotte had interrupted. He was tan and had a long but thin beard reaching down to his chest. His outfit was strange, but nonetheless not very out of the ordinary to see in Swellview.

"Who are you?" he asked in a thick middle-eastern accent.

"I'm Charlotte," she answered slowly, slightly confused. "I'm Henry's... friend." The man eyed her suspiciously, not used to having visitors. After a few moments of intense eye contact, he finally spoke.

"Henry doesn't work here anymore." He released his suspenseful stare on the short girl in front of him and picked back up his newspaper. Charlotte furrowed her eyebrows, stepping forward to place her fists on the counter.

"What do you mean?" She asked. "When did he stop working here?"

"Almost a week ago," he responded nonchalantly, not looking up from his paper. After that night, Charlotte thought.

"Can you tell me why he stopped working?" Charlotte questioned further.

"I really shouldn't say," he replied casually, flipping a page. Then, leaning forward, "he was fired."

"What?" Charlotte was baffled. "Why?"

"Maybe you should ask him that," he answered. Charlotte sighed. He was bound to stop answering her questions at some point.

Why would he get fired? She wondered to herself. He saved me.

Charlotte reluctantly replayed the events from that night in her head once more. She passed through the gunshots and the shrieks of terror, to the part where she was in Henry's arms. Well, Kid Danger's, until she removed his mask.

Charlotte gasped. That's when it hit her.

"Thank you," she told the cashier before dashing out the door. He barely nodded in her direction.

Soon enough, she was at Henry's front door. She gulped, her fist inches away from knocking on the smooth wooden surface. Suddenly she was nervous. She was so determined to see him on her walk over, and now, realizing it was going to be her first time seeing him knowing his secret, she was nervous.

She was about to talk to Kid Danger.

She began to pace his front porch, shaking her now clammy hands to relieve her nerves. She was about to knock again when she heard a familiar voice.

"Charlotte?" She looked up to meet the voice of the boy she was anticipating. He was looking at her through his bedroom window. "Why- what are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you," she answered. "Can I come in?"

"Oh, yeah, of course, I'll be right there." He hastily rushed out of his room and down the stairs. Charlotte could hear his heavy footsteps outside the door as he fiddled with the lock. And then it was opened and he was standing in front of her.

He was just as she remembered. His hair was messy and his eyes were sad but not dull. He wore a blue long-sleeved tee, plaid pajama pants and slippers on his feet. After witnessing Charlotte study him he suddenly grew self-conscious, scratching the back of his neck.