CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

“Nikki, tell me he is fine. Is he—” My breaths broke into isolated chunks. I exhaled but it was until I was completely out of breath that I took another breath. I was visibly shaking, my hands on the counter trembled without any control.

“Yeah, he is okay.”

“Are you sure?” I asked. I pressed my palms to my face to get hold of myself. The policeman that brought me out of the holding cell I was thrown into since morning watched me carefully as if he was sure I was making an incantation to disappear alongside my friend.

“Yeah.” She reached out to hold my hand. She smiled but I knew that smile had nothing on the inside. She had this expression that seemed distant, like her real worry shoot to someplace far. Nikki was the person I called first immediately I was given a phone. She called my dad, she told me but right now, I just wanted someone that understood me, someone to tell me that I was okay because right now, I wasn’t. I didn’t think I was even me.

“I don’t know, Nikki. I don’t know