Page 178 of Cloudy With a Chance of Bad Decisions
“Your watch?”
Alex nodded, yanking me around—not that I needed encouragement—as we headed back toward the bathroom.
“It’s fine.” He was self-soothing, though the words were directed at me. “It’s probably on the counter. I took it off, right?” I’d never heard his voice that hollow. “Before we…and I just…forgot to put it on. It’s on the counter.” His voice quaked. “I took it off.”
We both knew he hadn’t taken it off.
But it wasn’t until we’d scoured the bathroom that Alex accepted the truth.
He smiled the whole time, but I could tell it was brittle. The smile was a coping mechanism and nothing more. Fake. Flat. Lacking the life and light that usually clung to him in droves.
“What about the cabins?” I offered. “You had it earlier when we were setting up Juniper’s party. We could go check there?”
“It’s too late. Everyone is sleeping.”
“We can be quiet,” I said. “Trust me.”
“I…” Alex’s lips pinched together. He looked pale, which was not something I’d ever thought I’d say. “Okay.” His voice was weak to match the pallor of his skin.
“It’s going to be there,” I promised, even though it wasn’t a promise I should make. But I hated seeing him like this. Alex wasn’t supposed to look upset, or distressed, or withdrawn. He was life embodied. Sunshine incarnate.
This felt wrong.
“I hope you’re right,” Alex said, empty smile in place as he allowed me to lead the way.
Me too,I thought, but didn’t say.
Me too.
The watch wasn’t in Juniper’s cabin.
We searched high and low, ducking around the slumbering bodies strewn across the floor. I managed to be quiet enough not to wake anyone. The shadows in the corners of the room taunted me, and my anxiety mounted with every minute the watch remained unfound.
Alex’s sadness was palpable.
It made the air thicker somehow.
He tried to give up again, and I wouldn’t let him. Certain he was only doing so for my benefit, and the second I closed my eyes he’d be outside in the dark alone.
“You don’t need to—” Alex tried.
“Alex.”
“It’s dark, George.” He was trying to save me. Maybe embarrassed by how much this meant to him? I had no idea. Either way, I stayed stubborn.
“It’s been dark for hours. If we stick together I’ll be fine.” Alex was just coming up with excuses at this point. It was plain as day. He’d had no suchworries earlier that night when he’d been sneaking his hand down my pants off these same damn trails.
“We can go to bed.”
I glared at him, and he shut up.
We shined flashlights on the path, hunting between the two parties—down by the lake—and inside the edge of the woods behind the boathouse. Both of us were desperate for a glint of silver.
But we found nothing.
Nothing.
Zilch.
