“Hello?” I said in a whisper, not wanting to disturb the relaxed scene.

“Ash? Why are you whispering?” Spencer asked.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I replied, this time in a voice a little louder than a whisper. “Sorry.”

“Alright… so, do you wanna come over now?”

“Um, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I’m having fun and I don’t wanna leave.”

“Are you stoned?” she asked. Shit. She was good.

“No,” I lied. “But if I was, would that be a problem to you?”

“What?”

“You can’t just make me do things or stop doing things.”

“Ashley, what are you talking about?”

“I’m not you.”

“Okay, obviously you’re really high right now and I don’t-“

“I have to go.” I hung up, angry at her and at myself for the conversation. Before I could think further, I realized Matt and Becca were both staring at me.

“Spencer?” he asked.

“Yup.”

“Don’t wanna talk about it?”

“Nope,” I replied, turning off my cell phone in the process.

“How about forgetting for awhile?” Becca asked, holding a bag of something I couldn’t quite discern in the darkness of the room.

“That sounds good,” I replied.

——————————————————————

I didn’t even want to think about the phone call with Ashley. I didn’t know what to think. I just hoped she wasn’t out doing something stupid. I went out for dinner with Allie the next night and I soon got a phone call. I told Allie I’d be right back and went into the bathroom to take the call.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Spencer, it’s Jordan.”

“Hi, what’s up?”

“Not much… I was just calling to see if you’ve seen Ashley at all today.”

“I haven’t actually. Why?”

“Well, we were supposed to have a pre-recording meeting today at 3 and she never showed up,” he said. Considering the fact that it was now 7pm, she was more than a little late.

“Did you try her cell phone?”

“Yeah, it’s off. Any ideas?”

“No, I… well… we sort of got into a little fight last night. But she was at Ben’s party,” I told him. “I’m going to call him and then I’ll call you back.”

I called Ben but he didn’t know anything either, only that he thought she was still there when he left. I went back to Allie after I called Jordan and told him Ben didn’t have any clues.

“Al, I’m sorry but I have to go.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Nobody can find Ashley,” I told her, feeling the tears in my eyes begin to spill over a bit. I threw 5 dollars down even though we hadn’t even ordered yet and headed out.

“Spence, wait. What are you talking about?” Allie asked, following me out of the restaurant.

“She never showed up for a meeting today. Her cell phone is off. Nobody’s seen her,” I cried, on the verge of hysterics.

“Shh, don’t panic. Why don’t we go to her apartment? Maybe she’s just not feeling well or something.” I nodded, and allowed her to hug me. She hailed a taxi and I gave him Ashley’s address; we arrived there 5 minutes later. “How about I go in first?”

“Why? You think she’s dead, don’t you?”

“No I don’t. I just think I should go in first,” Allie argued. I gave in and stood behind her as she turned the light on. “Nothing.” I looked around; it looked exactly the same as it had a couple days ago. A few minutes later, we had checked the entire apartment and had found nothing suspicious. I called Jordan back and told him we hadn’t found anything.

“Do you think we should call the police?” I asked.

“Why don’t we give it another couple days? If she doesn’t turn up soon, we will,” he replied.