He glanced at the map Then at the notebook
Then at the dozens of crossed out locations His shoulders dropped Max No I didn't even say anything You were going to He rubbed his face
Maybe Exactly I folded the map Dustin watched me carefully Like I might break People did that a lot now I got another lead His eyes closed immediately Of course they did Max This one feels different You say that every time I hated that he was right The silence stretched Finally he asked the question everyone always asked The one I never had an answer for Why I froze Dustin looked genuinely confused Not annoyed Not angry Just confused Why are you still looking
I stared out the window Snow drifted across the parking lot.
Cars passed by People moved on with their lives
Normal lives that didn't revolve around ghosts I don't know It wasn't entirely a lie I didn't know
Not really Not yet Dustin studied me Then quietly said Mike stopped looking I looked back at him
Mike moved He and Will are happy Good They deserved to be After everything they'd been through Dustin nodded Lucas stopped looking too That one hurt more Lucas had searched for almost two years Longer than anyone else Longer than he admits He said she wanted a new life
Maybe she did Maybe she left because she wanted to Maybe she never planned on coming back Maybe she'd forgotten all about us All about me
The thought made my chest ache Dustin noticed
His expression softened And suddenly I hated it.
Because I didn't want pity I wanted answers
The diner door opened again Neither of us paid attention Not until someone sat down at the counter A woman Maybe in her forties The waitress greeted her They started talking
Normal conversation Background noise Until girl with dark hair My head snapped up The woman continued I swear she looked familiar My pulse quickened Dustin noticed immediately No Don't do this Not again But I couldn't stop listening The woman laughed She rented the cabin near Pine Ridge Everything inside me went still Pine Ridge Three states away The waitress smiled The one by the lake Yeah The woman nodded Quiet girl Kept to herself.
Dark hair Quiet Alone My hands tightened around the photograph Dustin saw it happen
Max I wasn't listening Max Not listening
Because for the first time in months Maybe years
Something felt different And deep down, in the part of me that had never stopped believing I knew I was going to find her I just didn't know that finding Eleven would change everything.