A Mother's Bond

73

"Sarayah? Oh, I just spoke to her maybe five minutes ago. She was looking for Nevaeh."

I scrunched my eyebrows together. "Looking for Nevaeh? Still?"

"Yeah, what's the problem?" Jay asked, confused.

"Nothing," I mumbled, still thinking about it. It was weird. Sarayah had left me on the rink 30 minutes ago to go find Nevaeh. How could she not have found her by now? Was she lying to Jay? But why? Or had Nevaeh left? But why would she leave? She'd barely left Sarayah's side all night, and the only reason she'd made herself scarce was because I'd practically forced her to. So, that wasn't likely. Or maybe—

Jay waved his hand in front of my face, bringing me out of my thoughts. I shook my head.

"You good?" Jay asked, looking concerned.

"Sorry, I was overthinking," I apologized with a rueful smile.

Jay nodded slowly. "Okay. You sure you're good? I wanna talk to you about something important, but not if something else is bothering you."

I worried at my bottom lip, my feelings of unease growing despite my best efforts. Something felt off.

"Actually, I gotta go check on something real quick. I'll be back soon, okay? Then we can talk," I assured him.

I gave him a quick kiss, before skating out of the rink. I immediately went to the skating booth. Nevaeh would have been waiting for Sarayah there. She wasn't the type to go party without her.

I pulled out my phone on the way and called Sarayah, but it went straight to voicemail. I sent her a text telling her to call me back as soon as she got my message.

I put my phone away once I got to the booth. Thankfully, the same guy was working the counter. I exchanged my skates with my heels, watching the employee.

"Hey, do you remember seeing my daughter by any chance? She would've been with another girl dressed in red."

His eyes widened. "Oh. The girl in red again. Second time someone's mentioned her. No, your daughter wasn't with her, but she was looking for her. Don't know if she found her though."

"Thanks," I said softly. So, she hadn't found her. It was possible she'd found her after, but to get separated again within such a short period of time? That wouldn't make any sense. What the hell was going on?

"Heeeeey, Mrs. Carter!"

I paused, realizing I'd been walking around aimlessly. I blinked a few times. Kai was waving at me from the 'Friday' porch. I walked over to him. He sat up straighter, clearly surprised. He'd probably been expecting me to walk right past him, not approach him. He quickly slid the joint he'd been rolling to the side, out of sight. Normally, I would've given him shit, but as it was, I had other more pressing matters on my mind.

"Kai, you seen my daughter? Or Nevaeh, for that matter?" I asked, cutting straight to the point.

He nodded, relieved I wasn't yelling at him. "Yeah. Ray was looking for Nevaeh a while ago. Haven't seen her since."

I rubbed my hands on my thighs, feeling more and more anxious by the second. I looked around the large room, not knowing what to do. Was I overreacting? Maybe I was overreacting. They were two teenagers after all. For all I knew, Nevaeh could've snuck off to plan something special for Sarayah.

I pulled out my phone again, but Sarayah hadn't tried to contact me. I dialed her number, but it went to voicemail right away, same as before. I scrolled down to Nevaeh's number. It went straight to voicemail. Overreacting. I was overreacting. Neither of them was answering me. So what? They were probably together. Screening my calls. They'd done that before. This was normal.