Chapter 46: Chapter 46

"I have to find him so we can discuss the article, we can't be the first to write and flop." I say smugly.

My friends chuckle at my dad attempt to hide that fact that I was going to topple over in excitement.

"You can call him, that's what cell phones were made for." Sophie told me as she pointed to her phone for emphasis.

I chuckle nervously,

"We kind of never exchanged contacts." I tell them.

They look at me like I fell from another planet.

"What planet are you from?"

Aha! I knew they were going ask that.

"Well we talked every time I wanted, plus we live so close it didn't occur to me to exchange phone numbers." I tell them.

"Oh you thought you would just crawl into his window each time you wanted to talk huh?" Sophie asked rhetorically.

I groan out loud.

"Let's just find him okay?"

I suspected he would be in Lucy's office, since he considered there as his classroom.

I knocked on her door slightly, when I heard no response, I open it to peek inside.

"Hello? Lucy?" I called.

It was empty, but she shouldn't be too far from the club room since it was not locked. But the human I was looking for, he was not there.

"To the parking lot." I tell them.

When we got there, only a few students were there, and none of them was Joseph Wilson. I wanted to cry.

"Hey hey, you can still crawl through his window right?" Andrina asked.

I looked at them through teary eyes.

"He blocked me there... When I woke up there was this wooden board there... It meant stay out." I say through the tears.

"Let's get you home. Sophie find his social media, his phone number should be on one of them." Andrina ordered.

Andrina drove the car, Sophie searched for him on the all the social media platforms, me? I sulked. The first guy to ever hold my attention when it wasn't an academic competition, the first guy that made my heart race... I didn't mean anything to him.. if I did... It didn't mean so much seeing as he was going out of his way to avoid me at all costs.

"Found his Facebook!" Sophie screeched.

Andrina braked so hard my neck fell forward, and it hurt.

"Sorry." She apologized sincerely.

I rubbed it but my mind was not any where close to my neck. It was on the Facebook of the boy I had fallen in love with for the first time in my life.

"God, doesn't he post anything?" Sophie said scrolling down his time line.

I was itching to see what she was seeing. But I couldn't since I was riding shotgun.

"Here, take a look." Sophie passed me the phone.

I scrolled through, the place was unfamiliar, full of unfamiliar faces. I could only recognize two faces, Lucy and Joseph.

Sophie was right, he didn't post much, once every few months was enough for him. He looked young in most of them, even when he was just a little boy, he was beautiful.

I found one of the old pictures. It was a group photograph. There were six people in the photo. I could recognize two. But one glance at the woman that was glaring harshly at the camera, you would know, that was his mother.

"Stop scrolling, we need his phone number." Sophie said snatching the phone from my hand.

"Here it is, hopefully he hasn't changed numbers, i just have to copy it and here." She said producing the number. I dialed it on my own phone, it rang, now we were waiting for him to pick up.

"Hello?" I heard his voice ask in confusion.

My throat ran dry immediately, I didn't know how to string words properly.

"Hello?" He repeated himself.

My friends were urging me to say something, I was urging my brain to say something. But it only spluttered.

"Hi..." I started.

Then it was complete silence. I'd think he dropped the call but it was still reading.

"Hello?" It was my turn to ask. I was glad my voice didn't come out squeaky.

"Carolyn?" He asked.. his voice sounded like a mixture of confusion and excitement, I wasn't sure those two emotions mixed.

"Yes. I was calling because I didn't see you in school." I tell him while smiling.

"I already left, what's up?" He asked.

"The duty roaster came out.. and guess which team is first?" I asked relaxing into my seat again.

Andrina took it as a good sign and started to drive towards my house.

He chuckled, "not us?"

I laughed too hard, because it wasn't that funny, but the laugh was more of a relief than anything.

"Is that your final answer?" I asked going along with the joke.

He laughed.

"I guess we'll meet in school tomorrow and decide on the topic, and several ways we could maim my sister for making us first, we don't deserve to be the first with only a few days to prepare."

Now I laughed sincerely.

"Yeah it's totally unfair to us, look at the pressure, we have to lead them into bringing good articles." I tell him.

"Well, we have to do something serious tommorow, library tomorrow? After school?"

"Yeah that's fine."

"You have to bring your sample head lines okay? So we'll pick one."

"Sure.. uhm Joseph, are you okay?" I asked because I really wanted to know.

"Yeah of course, listen I gotta go now. See ya tomorrow."

The line went dead, I knew instantly that he wasn't fine at all. He couldn't be.. and I couldn't help.

"Sounds like you have another date tomorrow." Andrina teased.

"And it's in your comfort zone too." Sophie squealed.

Their excitement was contagious. I too got infected.

We were already in front of my house. I got down and waved as they left. I rushed inside the house and upstairs, straight to my room.

I had to get busy. The head line had to best one.

Not like I was looking to impress him or anything, but I wasn't sleeping until the headline was perfect.