Page 35 of Frat Row

I bang my fist against the familiar door repeatedly until I hear rustling behind it. Blair swings it open. She’s in her pajamas, wiping her eyes, and her hair is in those heatless curler things.

“What the fuck do you want, Tyler? Has the sun even risen yet?” She all but yells at me.

“It’s about to, and I need answers before it does.” I scowl back at her.

“What could possibly be so important?” she asks, but then she turns a deadly shade of white. “Wait, is it Cassidy? Is she hurt or something?” Her voice frantically raises to a higher octave.

“I figured you would know about her well-being since she’s been here with you,” I shout back at her vehemently.

Her eyes all but fall out of her head. “No, I haven’t seen her since the morning she left with you to move,” she screeches, completely awake now. “I thought she was just staying with you at your fraternity house.”

“Let me inside right now,” I say as I begin pushing my way through. She can sense my urgency, and she opens the door wider to let me in.

The door shuts, and we move in sync with one another toward the living room, neither one of us wanting to take a seat, fidgeting and pacing back and forth with worry.

“I heard her leaving to help you move that morning, and she sent me a laughing emoji that day at one of the reels I had sent her, and that is the last I have heard from her,” Blair all but shrieks at me.

“Cassidy stayed with me that night after helping me move, but then she left before my alarm went off the next morning, claiming she had a math exam to study for,” I tell her.

Blair looks at me, horrified, clasps her mouth with one of her hands, and lets out a noise that sounds like a whimper. “I need to call her mom and see if maybe she went home or if they’ve seen her.” Tears form in her eyes as she worries about her friend.

I stand there impatiently waiting. I nod, making it apparent that I am not going anywhere.

She runs into her room, grabs her phone, and it takes her a couple of seconds to find the contact she is looking for. Finally, she clicks it, her hands shaking, and she holds the phone to her ear.

I stand in the living room watching her, my heart beating rapidly, and my hands begin to sweat, so I rub them on my pants.

“Lillian, it’s me,” Blair says in a calmer voice than I expected, swallowing deeply to hold back the tears.

I can hear a response back, but Blair cuts her off, “Is Cassidy at home with you?”

I know the moment she says no. Blair clutches her mouth again and falls to her knees, whimpering and trying to hold the tears back, but they begin to fall silently down her face.

“She hasn’t been back to our apartment in a little over 48 hours,” Blair says between deep breaths, trying to get the entire sentence out to Cassidy’s mom.

You could hear a pin drop; that’s how deadly silent the other line goes.

Blair switches the phone from private to speaker, and I hear Cassidy’s mom calmly say, “Have you checked everywhere, Blair? This has to be some kind of misunderstanding. You know Cassidy, she can hole up anywhere when it comes to her studies and lose complete track of time.”

“I thought she was with this guy she has been seeing, Tyler, but he just turned up, and he hasn’t seen her either,” Blair says.

Lillian is silent for a moment. “Do you know her school schedule, Blair?”

Blair nods urgently and whispers, “Yes, I have it memorized like my own.”

“Ok, dear, let's try not to panic. I need you to contact her professors and see if she has been to her classes. I’m willing to bet she hasn’t missed any of those, and she’s probably just crashing somewhere else for the time being,” Lillian calmly says to a hysterical Blair.

“I’ll go to all of them today and see if she’s been to any of her classes,” Blair says, running into her closet, not even caring that I’m there, and begins changing into a workout set.

“While you are doing that, I’m going to start heading that way,” Lillian says. “I will see you soon, dear.”

“Alright, sounds like a plan. I’m sure you are right, and I am panicking for nothing.” Blair takes some deep breaths while she starts brushing her teeth and throwing her hair into a claw clip.

“Definitely, Cassidy is the more responsible one out of the two of you, I’m sorry to say, dear. She’s definitely somewhere around the campus freaking out about an assignment or something,” Lillian says, chuckling.

Blair softly laughs back. “Definitely. See you soon.” Blair takes her off speaker, and a few more words are exchanged. I can immediately see the change in Blair, like she was overreacting and being dramatic about the whole thing.

She looks up and becomes startled, making eye contact with me. “I forgot you were there.”

I nod empathetically. “Listen, here’s the plan.

You’re going to go talk to her professors, check your sorority house, and ask your sisters if they have seen her.

I’m going to go to the student union, check those study pods that are open 24/7, and also check the library,” I tell her with authority in my voice, feeling a little better with some type of plan forming to find Cassidy.

Blair continuously nods while holding out her hand and says, “Give me your phone.”

I hand it over without a thought.

She saves her number in my phone and sends a text message to her phone.

“We’ll keep each other updated and meet back up with what we’ve found out. I’m also going to be back here in a few hours to meet her mom when she gets here,” Blair says.

I run my hand through my hair. “Sounds like a plan. I’ll meet you back here as soon as I can.” I sigh, already moving toward the door.

With my back turned, Blair says, “Something is wrong. I can just feel it.”

I don’t look back because my stomach turns, and I am thinking the same exact thing as I shut their apartment door.