Double life: Empty

A/N: a small one and one that didn´t suffer many changes like the others -the recent ones.

I think I should warn you that this is the beginning of the end... 

I´ve done something different with the time in which the story is narrated in this one and in the coming ones, and I guess they´ll have some kind of focus either in one or other of the characters... we´ll see how that looks hahahaha 

ah, Saku, I haven´t addressed to your question about last post´s picture... I think it was about Nichole´s mind in that whole part, that trip, not only the post but the one before that one, it´s always hard for her to share stuff but then it was like letting go -like the birds too. To me that picture represented that.

****

Nichole sighed as she idly swung in the swing. She’d been in the park where Nat and Mii were supposed to meet her for a little over half hour. She´d thought they´d be there already, it was now, close to eleven in the morning.

Ten minutes went by, she stood up and paced the playground once and went back to the red swing. Another fifteen minutes went by; she made a call and was taken aback when no one picked up. She called again, this time it went straight to voice-mail. She kicked the ground. Five minutes later she got a text.

“I’m stuck. Be patient” Nat said in the text. Nichole closed her eyes and scrubbed a hand over her face.

 She took her drawing pad out of her messenger bag, as she did so, the black notebook of Mary Ann Ibsen fell to the ground, she´d been carrying it with her since she found it, she´d always been careful of putting it on a safe compartment of her bag but she´d gotten out of Burgeoys in a hurry.

A small picture fell off the notebook. It was her, angry, Nichole shoved the picture in the journal and the journal in the bag.

An hour later, she called Natasha again, she didn´t pick up. Nichole called again but there was no answer. A while later, her phone vibrated, she hurriedly picked it up

“Where are…?” she said

“Won´t be able to make it” Nat interrupted

“But you…”

“It’s not all up to me. We´ll reschedule for later. Gotta go” the woman ended the call, the girl fell like smashing the phone against a tree or like kicking someone, instead she looked up to the sky, closed her eyes and sighed with a pained expression on her face. In the distance she heard people approaching to the park, she stood up, put her things away and climbed up a tall tree on the furthest part of the park. She was sad and angry at herself for thinking Nat would follow through her promise. She was feeling frustrated enough to make tears come out of her closed eyes.

***

“Josh, can I talk to you for a moment?” said mike when the Art Club time was over. He stayed behind. The teacher waited for all the students to clear the room to start talking.

“Do you know if Nichole is ok?” he inquired at last. Josh furrowed his eyebrows

“Our teacher told us she was sick and that´s why she hadn´t been in classes” Josh explained, he wonder how Mike didn´t know that. He was almost sure the girl wasn´t sick but he also knew that she sometimes gave that excuse and missed classes

“I know, I got told that but she´s not at the infirmary… she hasn´t come over four days and that tells me she´s not well” he said as if to himself

“She often skips Art Club time” Josh said with humor. It was impossible that the teacher hadn´t noticed that

“She skips being with the other kids, but she always comes to work on her own. I thought you knew that since you often seemed to be with her –he said, Josh blinked a couple of times, Mike chuckled- I know when someone touches my instruments” he explained

“Oh”

“Yeah, so, do you know if it´s something serious?”

“I… no, I haven’t seen her either… you know I wouldn´t be allowed in her room”

“Ah, I thought you knew something”

“Why?” he asked, wondering how he could know more than a teacher about Nichole´s whereabouts, most of the times he didn´t know where she was. Mike raised both eyebrows.

“Because you are always together, you seem… ah… close… well, let me know if you know something” the teacher finished

“You too” said Josh as he left

“Mike just asked about you. Are you ok?” read the text Nichole had just gotten. The last part had been repeated in the last couple of days. She went through all of them

Josh

Mon. 9:00 am

Can´t believe you skipped the math quiz! Lunch?

Mon. 1:30 pm

Homeroom T asked about you. Still with Mii?

Tue. 3:30 pm

Back at Burgeoys? T said you´re sick. U ok?

Wed. 5:15 pm

R u really sick? R u ok?

Nichole stared at the texts wondering when he´d get tired of sending texts without getting a reply. He´d called on Wednesday, she´d let it go to voice-mail.

“I’m worried about you. R u ok?” Josh hit the sent button of his phone at around ten thirty of a Friday night. He waited ten minutes but as he suspected this one was not going to be replied either. He sighed “I guess I am too annoying” he said to himself as he pushed the emergency door exit of the girl´s dorm building. Quietly he went up the stairs and waited, listening behind the door. Nichole´s room was at the end of the hallway, the furthest from that one, he would be in serious trouble if someone found him there or “if she doesn´t open her door” he murmured to himself as he pushed the door and walked swiftly to the end of the hall. The tried the door handle, it was open. “she heard” he thought, he got in, the lights were on, the window close, it was too silent, no one was on the bed or desk

“Nic?” he quietly called and went to the bathroom door. The faucet was opened, he heard water running.

“Nic?” he knocked on the door but waited, ten minutes later he knocked on the door again

“Nic? Nichole are you ok?” he knocked earnestly “Nic, open up” there was no answer, he was worried, she wouldn´t leave her front door open “I’m going to come in” he tried the door, it opened, the shower curtain covered the tub. He hesitated and called her name once more, he quickly removed the curtain when there was no answer, to his surprise, nobody was there. He was somewhat relieved after, he´d imagined the worse, he´d remembered that time when she´d passed out as she ran on the top of the wall. He turned off the faucet and went out the bathroom.

He looked around; she wasn’t there like the dorm supervisor had reported. He sat on her bed and before every time he´d come there was a drawing for a little girl ballerina and of a long haired boy with his hand extended. The past Saturday he´d found out it was Ashley. The drawings of Camille and Ashley were missing. He opened the drawers of the desk, her drawing pad and pencils were gone but that, he said to himself, is to be expected, she always seemed to carry those.

 “I’m sorry, Nic, but you don´t reply and no one knows where you are” he mumbled and opened one of her drawers, he half-expected to find it empty but no, it was full of clothes, he quickly closed it as she also closed his eyes and stood straight. “My underwear´s on the second drawer” he remembered she´d said one to tease him. it was not in that but in the first one.

“Sorry” he muttered and opened his eyes, his reflection on her mirror stared back at him. He´d spent some time in that room and though he didn´t really had have time to pay close attention he found hat then he could recognize things were missing, one thing actually, a little wooden chest. He´d seen it at his home when she spent with them, he´d seen its contents there too.

“My treasure chest” she´d said. It had his guitar pick, Ashley´s cat pendant, a ring too big to be hers; a pair of earrings she´d said had been her mom´s and the hairpins he´d given her. He´d seen her pack it the morning when they were leaving for holidays the year before, she´d taken it with her then

“You’re gone” he whispered as a frown set on his face. Once he realized this, he wanted confirmation. He went to her closet, all her uniforms and fancy dresses and shoes were there, all of her clothes were there.

“You travel light” he said remembering how small her bag had been when they had left last year. Ashley´s old jacket was missing, as well as the scarf he´d given her and her boots but he didn´t see those things in a closet he´d barely seen open.

“You´re really gone” he whispered again, the whistling of the wind made him realize he it had started to rain. He was forced to spend the night in her empty room.