the disappearance of annie vern

Seen.

almost the entire school was there that night. everyone in gorgeous dresses or tuxes. halfway through the year, right after a football game. yeah, homecoming. annie and her date were late, almost halfway through the dance they decided to show up.

his tie was pink, by her dress was a dark green. her curly hair was half up, half down. she was dating such a scumbag, also know as miles ontara. he graduated last year, thank god.

annie half dragged him across the wooden floors of the gym over to me. she looked unhappy, just as he did. she let go of his hand to hug me, and do our handshake. her fingertips were dusted with spray paint.

"Hey, Everett. You look dapper," she was normally so quiet but she had to half yell at me.

"thanks annie. after party at daisy gonzalez's place. she said i could invite y'all." some notorious b.i.g song came on so annie hit the floor.

i didn't see her until we were at daisy's. she had changed into a pair of high waisted jeans, a white long sleeve and a forest green bowling shirt. i didn't pay attention to miles.

she mainly floated between me, miles, jasmine, and her other friend tilly. her and jasmine were screaming the lyrics to every song, before both of them headed to the kitchen.

miles walked up to me and asked where annie was, and so i told him she was in the kitchen, mistake one. he was headed in there and i just let him go, mistake two. he walked out of the kitchen dragging annie behind him and we all just watched, mistake three. he grabbed her by the arm and forcefully dragged her to the car, no one did a thing, mistake four.

after that night we didn't see annie after that night. saturday went by and so did sunday, all without word from annie vern. finally on monday i got a text from annie.

🎶annie🎶

Hey, I'm ok but I'm headed to
new york. I'm turning my
phone off.
November 17, 2019 11:54

R u ok tho? What happened
at the party annie? I though you weren't leaving until summer?
November 17, 2019 11:57

Seen.

now let me tell you why that's fishy, and why i began looking for annie.

-she never capitalizes any of her texts.
-she always signs her texts with ~adv
-she is never up past nine thirty on weekdays
-she wasn't supposed to go to new york until the end of junior year

and with a boyfriend like miles ontara you have to think the worst for annie. ive been doing it for years. she just refuses to believe.