You Have 86,400 Seconds To Find Me

1:00am (64,800 Seconds Remaining)

   "I have to figure this out," I said, putting the car in drive and pulling out of The Book Bear parking lot. I think we have loitered long enough. 

   "Where are we going?" Kelly asked, pulling her seatbelt on with one hand as she balanced her, I mean my lunchable in the other. 

   "Somewhere quiet," I said, as I turned right onto the main road, not really sure where I was headed. "I need to think."

   Ten minutes later Kelly and I found ourselves sitting in the parking lot of The Salem Cross Inn, thinking that we could rent a room to just sit in and think over what to do next. However, seeing as how Salem Cross appeared to be closed, we decided once again, to just sit in the parking lot. At least now we were in the parking lot of an Inn, instead of just a random book store. 

   "All this driving around, sitting in random parking lots with no direction is driving me crazy," Kelly said, taking a swig of her coffee. "I'm overly aware of the seconds that are just ticking away."

   "I know," I said, looking over at her and trying to remain calm. "It's killing me, too. But, we don't know where to go so driving around aimlessly at the risk of driving in the wrong direction isn't helping Macy."

   "None of what we've done in the past two hours is helping Macy!" Kelly yelled, her voice practically shaking the car. "We're supposed to be driving toward her! We're supposed to be helping her, rescuing her! Not sitting in the parking lot of some Inn twiddling our thumbs!"

   "You don't think I realize that?!" I retorted, matching my volume to hers. If she could yell, so could I. "I'm the one who is supposed to find her, remember? You are just the tag-along! So don't you dare sit here and patronize me about what I'm supposed to be doing!"

   I slammed my hand hard against the steering wheel, trying to release whatever anger and frustration had been building up inside of me. I know that losing my temper wasn't going to bring me any closer to finding Macy. I knew that what I needed to do right now, no matter how difficult it was going to be, was to stay calm. 

   I leant forward and rested my forehead on the steering wheel, focusing on my breathing. There were hundreds of different places Macy and I had gone to together over the years. A thousand different memories, millions of conversations. The possibilities of where Macy could be headed, hell where she could be right this second, were endless. I knew over-thinking this wasn't going to help. So I tried to focus on the task at hand. Right now my task was to seperate the everyday memories from the important ones... The ones that stuck. The ones that I thought would have stuck with Macy just as they had stuck with me. 

   "I'm sorry," Kelly said, as she reached over and rested her hand on my shoulder. "Really, I am. I'm sure this is way more stressful for you than it is for me... And I know I'm doing a really shitty job of helping you so... I'm sorry."

   I took a deep breath and exhaled quickly. "It's okay," I looked over at Kelly and shook my head. "I just don't know where she would have gone. She could be anywhere."

   "Well, tell me about her," Kelly said, turning toward me, throwing my sweatshirt over her lap to keep her legs warm. I nodded and reached forward to turn the heat up in the car. 

   Kelly looked down at her lap. "That's why she liked you," Kelly said quietly, shaking her head, remembering. "You're always taking care of people, a total gentlemen. I didn't even have to tell you I was cold, you just paid attention to the signs and did something about it without being asked. Do you know how many girls would kill to date a guy like you?"