I called my mother’s phone again. I tried her office, but I got no answer. I called all the places I knew she went to regularly, which weren’t very many, but no one had seen her. I gave up by seven o’clock.

Frustrated,and alone I climbed the stairs to my room. Something inside of me felt off. The silence that filled the house was eerie. It was different from the tense silence that filled the air when my mother was home. I got a nervous knot in the middle of my stomach.

I blasted my stereo through the house. I sang along, trying to ease the worry mounting within me. I blocked out my thoughts in the way I had mastered recently, but I couldn’t block out my feelings. The music wasn’t helping; it was only preventing me from hearing if anyone had returned home.

I knew I would never get to sleep in this house. I needed some where else to go. But where? I was afraid that if I left my mother would come home and be pissed, and if I stayed I would freak out.

I dialed Nathaniel’s number and listened to it ring.