Chapter Sixteen
Macallan
“Why do you keep looking up in the stands like a lost little puppy searching for its owner?” Joey regards me with a narrowed gaze, shifting in his stretching at the same time I do.
“What are you on about?” I ask as if his observation is the furthest thing from what I’m doing, moving left to stretch out my hamstring.
This is a game day routine. We come out onto the field to stretch and warm up before the game.
And while I know Maisie said she’d be here, a part of me hoped she’d come early so I could get a glimpse of her before the game.
Among the few dozen people already in the stands, I haven’t spotted Maisie, much to my disappointment.
“Don’t do that. Don’t act like you aren’t transparent as hell.” He snorts out a laugh, bending at the waist. “What time did she say she’d be here?”
“Who?”
“Who?” He mocks. “Maisie. You know, the girl who’s occupied your bed the past few nights. Because I sure as shit know it wasn’t you screaming your head off last night, though you weren’t exactly quiet either.” He grins. “So what’s the deal with you two anyway?”
“No deal. Just hanging out.”
“You see, I might actually believe you if I hadn’t just spent the last thirty minutes watching you scan the stands every few seconds.” He shakes his head, pushing a strand of hair out of his face. “You like her.” It’s not a question.
“More than I should.” I allow myself to admit.
“I wondered when you’d realize your mistake and man up. Though I’m not sure what her excuse is... She was always too good for you.”
“Still is.” I huff out an agreement.
“So is it serious?” He lunges to the left.
“It feels like it’s getting serious.”
If I can admit that to any of my friends, Joey is the one.
While he’ll never miss an opportunity to bust my balls, he’s also the only one of my close friends who can hold an actual adult conversation from time to time.
The others just make jokes and laugh at themselves as if they’re still in high school. Children, the lot of them.
“And how do you feel about that?”
“Honestly, man, I’m terrified.”
“I thought you might say that.” He lunges to the right when the trainer calls to switch, and I do the same.
“But I’m also enamored by her, man. I’ve never met anyone like her. She’s...”
“Special.” He fills in the gap when words fail me.
“Very.”
“Then you better not fuck it up this time.”
“I don’t plan on it.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m happy for you. I know how much it ate at you letting her go the last time. I mean, I get why you did it. Lana really is as batshit as you said. But with her now out of the picture...”
“We hope.”
“You think she’ll stick around, after everything?”
“It’s hard to say with her. On one hand, I think there’s no way she could be that stupid.
On the other, I would be the stupid one if I underestimated her.
It’s not even myself I’m worried about. It’s not Lana’s style to go straight for the kill.
She’ll go after the people I care about instead. You’re proof of that.”
“I still can’t believe she drugged me. I had the worst hangover of my life and didn’t even get my dick wet for my efforts.” He laughs, clearly joking.
“Trust me, sleeping with Lana is not worth it.”
“I wasn’t talking about Lana.” He smirks, goading me.
“Just because you’re one of my best friends doesn’t mean I won’t rearrange that pretty face of yours.”
“Always so quick to violence.” He chuckles, straightening. “What time did she say she’d be here?” He tips his chin in the direction of the stands.
“She didn’t. Though I hoped she’d be here early enough that I could see her for a minute.”
“Wow. You really do have it bad.”
“Fuck off.”
“I mean no disrespect. I’m just... surprised, is all. You haven’t exactly been the kind of guy who obsesses over one specific woman.”
“Well, Maisie isn’t just any woman.”
“Of that much, we can agree. I may not know her well, but even I can see she’s a rare breed. And fucking gorgeous too.”
“Careful.” I give him a quick look of warning.
“Relax. You know I’m not one to piss in another man’s Cheerios. Just saying, she’s stunning.”
“You don’t have to tell me that. I’m quite aware.”
“Stewart. Franklin. Get your heads out of your asses and let’s go.” We turn in unison to see Coach glaring at us from across the field, the rest of our teammates already heading back into the locker room to pad up.
“Sorry, Coach.” Joey snickers under his breath. “Come on, brother. Time to get your head in the game.”
I nod once and then follow my friend and teammate across the field, looking up at the stands where I know Maisie’s seat is one last time before disappearing inside the tunnel.
“Where the fuck are you?” I grumble to myself as I call Maisie again, only to get her voicemail for the third time.
The game ended an hour ago. That I could tell, Mais never showed.
Though to be fair, it’s not like it’s easy to pick out a singular face in a crowd of thousands.
Even still, I have to believe that if she were there, she would have stayed after the game like most family and friends do.
And yet, as I exited the locker room onto the field following the game, she was nowhere to be found.
I’ve been texting and calling her for the last thirty minutes, but she’s not answering.
A part of me wonders if maybe she changed her mind about us—and who could blame her if she did?
I haven’t exactly made it easy on her over the last couple of years.
But an even larger part of me is convinced that isn’t it. That something’s wrong.
After the fourth call with no answer, I decide to call in the big dogs. If anyone knows where Maisie is, it will be Charlotte. And as luck would have it, I just so happen to have her number.
Pressing on her contact, I hold the phone up to my ear, damn near praising the heavens when she answers.
“Char, it’s Mac. Have you seen Maisie?” I don’t waste time with pleasantries, my worry outweighing my etiquette.
“Hello to you too. And do I want to know how you got my number?”
“You gave it to me a couple of years ago. But that’s not important. I need to know if you’ve seen Maisie.”
“Not since this morning. Why? Isn’t she with you?”
“No, she isn’t, and I can’t get a hold of her.”
“Weird. She came by earlier to borrow a football shirt from me. Said she was planning on going to your game today. I felt awful about not being able to go with her.”
“Well, from what I could tell, she never showed. I haven’t seen her, and she’s not answering my calls or texts. Do you think she bailed since no one could go with her and she didn’t want to go alone?”
“I guess it’s possible. Though, she didn’t give me any indication of that. Let me try to get ahold of her. I’ll call you back.”
Before I can say anything, she ends the call.
Five brutal minutes pass before she calls me back. Five minutes that I spend pacing, staring at my phone, willing Maisie to answer me. She doesn’t.
“She’s not answering Lyric’s or my calls either. Something’s wrong.”
“No shit.” I blow out a sigh of frustration. “Where could she be?”
“I don’t know, but I think it best that we divide and conquer.
I’ll head to her dorm. I have a key, so I can get in if she doesn’t answer.
I’ll have Lyric check her usual study spots.
In the meantime, maybe you could check any places you know she likes to frequent.
Maybe the coffee shop. The bakery. The soccer field. See if anyone has seen her.”
“I’m close to the soccer field. I’ll start there. You’ll call me if you get in touch with her?”
“I will. And you do the same.”
“Will do.”
“And, Mac, don’t worry. I’m sure she’s fine. Probably just got held up doing something and her phone is dead.”
“Yeah.” My response is about as believable as her attempt to make me, and herself, feel better.
I end the call without another word, immediately jumping into my car to head over to the soccer field.
It doesn’t take me long to get there, but when I do, the field is empty and the locker rooms are locked, indicating there’s no one inside.
I hit the coffee shop next, showing Maisie’s picture to the barista like a panicked parent who can’t find their child. Unfortunately, while she recognizes her, she hasn’t seen her today. The same with the bakery.
I’m just heading outside when a text comes through on my phone. I damn near collapse in relief when I see it’s from Maisie.
Maisie: Meet me at the old milling building.
Something immediately feels off.
Why would she skip my game? Ignore my calls and texts, as well as the texts and calls of her two best friends, only to text me to meet her at an abandoned building.
Regardless of how suspicious it sounds, I hop in my car without a second thought and head in that direction.
It takes me less than ten minutes to get there, and I text Charlotte as soon as I arrive, to let her know what’s going on to the best of my ability before abandoning my car in the parking lot to enter the dark building.
It’s eerily quiet as I make my way inside, which is not unusual for an abandoned building, but still, for some reason, the silence sets my nerves on edge.
Climbing the stairs two at a time, I reach the roof in no time, pulling in a deep breath as I push open the door that leads outside, still not sure what I’m about to find.
Call it intuition, or just a sixth sense, but I’ve known since the moment that she didn’t show for my game that something was up. Now I guess it’s time I find out what exactly that is.
I had run through every worst-case scenario I could think of over the last several minutes, but none of them could have prepared me for what I find when I step out onto that roof.