Shawn
By the time the second bell rang, I had checked the parking lot so many times I was beginning to annoy myself.
Lila wasn’t the kind of person who made dramatic entrances or skipped school for no reason. If anything, she was the exact opposite. She showed up early, turned in every assignment on time, and apologized if she thought she’d inconvenienced someone by existing. For her to be this late wasn’t just unusual—it felt wrong.
Nina stood beside me outside the main office, glancing between the front doors and the screen of her phone. She had texted Lila four times now. Two messages had been delivered. None had been read.
“I don’t get it,” Nina muttered, shoving her phone back into her pocket. “She would have told me if something came up.”
“Did you try calling?”
“Twice.”
“No an
