What I Go To School For

I decided to stay home from school the next day. I knew I wouldn’t be able to handle it, not after hearing what Alec was saying about me. The fact that people would choose to listen to someone like him amazed me. So instead of going to school I laid in my new bed. The basement was finally finished and ready for Kyrsten and me to sleep in it. I knew it would be hard to sleep in a different bed then Nick, but there wasn’t much I could do about it.
Finally it was time for the boys and Kyrsten to be done with school. I joined Denise in picking them up from school. Only Joe waited for us by the front doors of the school. I couldn’t see Nick anywhere in sight.
“Nick said he’s going to walk home with a friend.” Joe said as he shot his car door.
“Who is walking with?” I asked.
“Someone he met at lunch.” Joe said. “He wouldn’t tell me anymore.”
I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a quick text to Nick asking him if he would be home when I got there. I received no response from him by the time we got back to the house. I went looking for him in the house but he wasn’t home. I tried to call him but he sent me straight to voice mail. I went down to my room to wait for Nick to call or text back. After an hour I couldn’t take waiting any longer.
“Hey Joe!” I called up the stairs from the basement. A moment later I could hear Joe’s heavy footsteps.
“What?” He asked as he pounded down the steps to where I was.
“Did Nick say where he was going?”
“No. He said he was walking home with his new friend.” Joe explained. He sat down on my bed next to me. “You know we could go looking for him.”
“We don’t know where he is.” I said stating the very obvious.
“Yeah but we know where he likes to go after school.” Joe said raising one of his eyebrows. “So we start there.”
“Fine, I guess.”
And with that we set out on our quest to find Nick. We went to the ice cream parlor that we sometimes go to but Nick wasn’t there. Since we had to walk this task of finding Nick was a lot more hassle then it should have been. By the time we got to the mall the chances of finding him there had dropped, he probably was already at home.
“We should have asked Kevin to drive us.” I mumbled as we sat down on a bench to rest. “If he was here he probably isn’t anymore.”
“Kevin isn’t any fun!” Joe replied. “Duh.”
“Whatever. Let’s get back to looking.”
The mall was a lot bigger then usual since we had an actual reason for being there. Many times I had to remind Joe why were there, he kept getting sidetracked by some of the stores and girls. For a Tuesday night it was packed at the mall, and there wasn’t even any event going on.
“Joe, this is pointless.” I finally said as we did a second walk through the stores.
“Maybe.” Joe agreed. “But since we’re here why not do some shopping?”
“It’s almost eight. We really should be walking back.”
“Seriously?” Joe asked disappointed.
“Yes Joe, we can back some other time.” I said rolling my eyes.
“Awesome!” Joe exclaimed. He gave me a bug bear hug then led the way out of the mall.
We passed an arcade where a familiar laugh caught my attention. I pulled on Joe’s arm and pointed towards the arcade.
“Oh sure we can’t go shopping but we can play games.” He said shaking his head.
“I think I heard Nick.” I said smiling wide. “Come on!”
I pulled Joe into the arcade and quickly walked around the first set of games, at last I saw Nick, but as we got closer I saw he wasn’t alone. I stopped in my tracks and watched as Nick hugged someone. I heard Joe whisper something to me, he was trying to convince me what I was seeing wasn’t what it looked like. Like I wasn’t seeing Nick with another girl.