Crystal laughed as she made Riley's mocha. "So, why the long face?"
Riley watched her. He could tell she truly didn't understand why he was so sad. "I miss you."
She hesitated for a second and stopped laughing. She finished making the salted caramel mocha (which was out of season, but Crystal brought it back because she knew Riley liked it), and stared at Riley with her large green eyes.
"I'm right here, Riley."
"But you're not. I don't know where you are."
Crystal leaned across the counter and kissed him. It was like their first kiss. He realized she was wearing a new flavor of lip balm. Watermelon, maybe.
Crystal pulled back. "Do you still think I'm not here?"
Riley considered. "What if this is just all happening inside my head?"
Crystal winked and slid his mocha across the counter to him. "Of course it is happening inside your head, Riley, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?"
"Quoting J.K. Rowling, huh?"
"Of course," she said as a Boys Like Girls song came on the radio.
"I remember what you wore on that first day. You came into my life and I though, hey, you know, this could be something." She sang along as she smiled at Riley.
Her blush looked so real.
"'Cause everything you do and words you say, you know that it all takes my breath away. And now I'm left with nothing." He sang back to her and touched her cheek. "Let's dance."
"It's kind of weird, you know?"
Riley tried to remember what Thomas was talking to him about, but he truly couldn't find his way through the fog in his mind. He could still hear Two Is Better Than One echoing in his ears.
Was he going crazy? He was still in his house. He was lying on his couch. Thomas was sitting on the recliner across from him with his feet up on the coffee table. He wasn't in Starbucks, and Crystal was still gone.
"Of course it is happening inside your head, Riley, but why on earth should that mean it is not real?"
Was it real? Was Crystal still here?
No. She wasn't. His mind was just playing tricks on him.
He just nodded to Thomas in order to look like he had been paying attention. Thomas believed his act and kept talking.
"I mean, I love going on vacation, but this is so sudden. Wanna come with us?"
Riley shook his head. He wasn't quite up for a vacation. "Have a good time, bro."
Thomas said his goodbyes and went home to pack. Riley went back to bed.
He woke up a few hours later, when he could see the sun setting outside his window. His room felt empty. He felt like he needed to get out of the house.
So he got up, changed into a plaid shirt and jeans, and walked around the neighborhood.He had never noticed how quiet the place could be. The houses were filled with people who were talking quietly among themselves, unwilling to come outside and breathe in the air that hinted at an early Summer.
He found himself standing outside Crystal's gate, just gazing at the lonely house in the distance. He almost didn't notice the weeded lawn and the cleared out mailbox.
Wait.
He could barely believe his eyes. He glanced at the gate and noticed the lock.
It was Crystal's lock. She had taken down the one she would've hated.
The mailbox was lit up by her Christmas lights, even though it was almost April.
The whole property seemed alive with her presence, the way it had been when he fed a letter to her mailbox. He almost expected to see her perched on the wall.
Was she back? Could she be back?
"Crystal!" He yelled.
The burst of sound echoed through the landscape. It bounced off the walls, the ground, the dead tree, and the house.
But he heard no answer.
He walked up to the gate and put his hands around the bars. She had to be back. No one could imitate her style this well. She wasn't that well-known.
He waited for a few minutes, waiting for something.
But nothing came.
He bowed his head, feeling a tear fight its way out of his eye.
"So you're Crystal's gentleman."
Riley looked up and saw a man leaning on Crystal's mailbox.
"Huh?"
"I suppose she could've picked a boy with more intelligence than you." He shrugged. "Opposites attract, or so I've heard."
The dusk didn't do his aged face any favors. He looked older than Riley's grandfather. Something about his raspy voice and the way he looked down his nose at Riley made him a little... well, Riley wasn't exactly inclined to trust him.
"What do you want?" Riley asked.
"I thought you would've figured that out by now, my boy." The man pulled a letter out of his pocket. "I want to find Crystal, just like you. I think we can find her if we work together."
"Why should I help you find her?"
"Because I have what is needed to find her, but I don't know what it means. It's written in code."
"And you think I can crack it?"
The man smiled, but he looked like a snake. "Yes. Now you're catching on."
"But why do you want to find her? What do you want from her?" Riley still wasn't too comfortable with the idea of leading this man to Crystal.
"We're... old friends, I guess you could say."
Riley wasn't buying that. But the more he thought about it, he could see something in the man's face that reminded him of Crystal: the nose, the facial structure, the shape of the eyes, though everything about the man was sharper and much more exaggerated than Crystal's gentle symmetry.
"You're her father." Riley blurted.
The man seemed taken aback. "Perhaps you're smarter than I believed. I am her father, yes."
"You sent her here by herself. You abandoned her."
"I was not part of the decision--"
"And now you want me to help you find her? You, the man who left her alone? She probably wouldn't be missing if you had just been a man and been there for her when she needed you."
Riley hadn't realized how angry he was with this man until he started talking. Confrontational wasn't a word that could describe Riley on any given day. But today, in front of this man, it was the only adjective for Riley.
The man thought about Riley's words. "Perhaps you are right," he conceded softly.
Riley was surprised by that. He had pegged this man as proud and stubborn.
"However," he went on. "You could've been there for her as well. She is now lost because of both of our mistakes."
Was that true? Could Riley have saved her from whatever fate awaited her if he had just taken the time to walk her home?
"You can still save her." The man held the letter out to Riley. "Just crack the code. We could find her."
Riley thought about how much he hated this man. He thought about the voice in his head that was screaming "DON'T TRUST HIM". He thought about getting the chance to see Crystal again.
He took the letter and left without another word.
"Showtime," the man whispered darkly under his breath, knowing Riley couldn't hear him. "You won't live to see her again, you insolent boy."