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Ring.. Ring.. Ring..

It seemed that the phone rang for an eternity. I bit my lip nervously. Henry can't be right about this. He can't. Justin is perfectly fine, he's just.. He's just.. He's just driving home right now and can't answer the phone. That's right! He's driving! He doesn't have a hands-free headset and he can't answer the phone!

I felt myself getting more and more nervous, trying my best not to completely lose it and break down.

"Come on, Justin!" I exclaimed, nervously. "Pick up! Pick up!"

To my relief, I heard Justin's voice.

"Hey."

"Hey, Justin! I was-" I started to say.

"I'm not available right now, please leave your name and number and I'll give you a call back as soon as I can."

Crap. I got his voicemail. He didn't answer! He didn't answer! A loud beep interrupted my freak out session and it took a couple seconds to realize that it meant that I was supposed to leave a message.

"Hey, Justin," I said into the phone. "Please please please pick up the phone. Henry and I read your note and I'm extremely worried about you. I just want to make sure that you're ok. Please Justin, I just need you to call me back."

I reluctantly got off the phone and looked at Henry.

"What do we do now?" I asked him. He shrugged. "There must be something we can do!"

"I guess we can call everyone that we know who knows Justin to see if he's mentioned where he was going?" he suggested.

"That's a great idea!" I exclaimed, happily. I kissed him on the cheek and practically ran to the elevator.

I knew the only reason why Henry even suggested that to do this was because I was so distressed. I think that he thought that if we put the effort in and tried, that it would somewhat calm me down a couple of notches. I think he may be right.

So, two hours and countless phone calls later, we were still at square one. No one we talked to knew where Justin was. We called his parents. We called Adam. We called his friends from work (we had to get their numbers from Justin's parents). No one we called had heard from him.

I sighed. This was starting to look hopeless. I can't believe that Justin didn't call us back within those two hours. What if something horrible did happen?

"Court, did you hear me?" Henry asked me, breaking through my thoughts.

"No, I'm sorry, I have no idea what you said," I said to him. He rubbed his eyes and sighed. I knew that he was tired of all the calling with no positive results.

"I asked you if we were going to call Sarah," he said. "She might actually know where he is."

"Sure, if you want," I said, shrugging. I didn't feel like talking to her. I put my head down and tried to rest.

"Hey, Sarah, do you happen to know where Justin is?" I heard him ask.

"Uh huh, ok."

"Really?"

"Ok, I'll talk to you later. Thanks, bye."

"What did she say?" I asked him.

"I know where Justin is," Henry said with a smile.

Forgetful

*Hey guys, my internet is being a little weird right now, so hopefully this posts! Oh, the posting schedule is kind of up in the air for now. I think I'm going to try to catch up on the missing posts if my internet allows me. :) *

I smiled when I woke up the next morning. I had opened my eyes and the first thing I saw was Henry's adorable face. I don't know how you couldn't smile at that. I carefully untangled myself from the blanket and tiptoed my way into the bathroom for my morning shower.

After I stepped out of the shower and made myself a nice hot cup of coffee from the coffeemaker in the hotel room, I was wide awake. I recalled that we had tried to get a hold of Justin last night by calling his room and had gotten no answer.

Then, I realized something and mentally smacked myself.

He had Henry's cell phone.

I could have called Henry's cell phone last night to try to get a hold of Justin. I felt like an idiot. Court, you were exhausted and you weren't thinking straight. I told myself. I laughed to myself at my behavior. I was trying to justify myself.

Apparently, I laughed a little too loudly because Henry had stirred and started mumbling.

"Court?" He asked me, half asleep. I watched him as he peered at the alarm clock. He let out a big groan."It's 7 in the morning, come back to bed."

"I will," I told him. "Well, after I call your cell phone for Justin. I can't believe I didn't think of it last night!"

"I called both his phone and my phone last night," he said with a yawn. "He didn't answer. Come back to bed."

"We make a good team," I said with a smile. He took my hand in his and kissed it. "Should we be worried?" He shook his head.

"He's a big boy, Court, he can take care of himself," he said. I slipped under the blanket and snuggled up next to him.

Henry quickly drifted off to sleep as I laid there wide awake and thinking about what he had said. He was right, Justin is a big boy and he can take care of himself. Slowly, I felt myself drifting back into dreamland.

*************************************************

We woke up around noon and ordered room service. I had a major craving for pepperoni pizza and Henry was chowing down on his chicken salad with no dressing. I giggled as he handed me the rose in the vase that came with our meal.

"Only the best for you," he said, grinning. I playfully hit him on the arm and he pulled me in for a kiss. "We should go check on Justin." I nodded in agreement.

I think as each day passes, my love for Henry starts leaning more and more in the romantic direction. I found it nice to not have to worry about just loving him as a friend and not as a boyfriend. Actually, just scratch that. I realized that I'm starting to sound like a crazy person.

We went down to Justin's room and knocked on the door. We waited for a minute with no answer. I knocked again and again, there was no answer. We shrugged and went down to the lobby. We asked the receptionist if he could call Justin's room for us.

"I'm sorry, but it seems that he checked out of the hotel this morning," the receptionist with a name tag that read "Bill" on it.

"Bill, are you sure about that?" Henry asked him. "That can't be right."

"No, it says on here that he checked out at 6am," Bill said to us. "Oh, wait a minute, there is a message that he left for the two of you."

He handed us a manila envelope. Henry looked at me and opened it carefully.

Inside, he found his cell phone and what appeared to be a letter.

He took a deep breath and opened the folded piece of paper....

Sound of San Francisco

After we closed the door and left Justin alone to talk with Sarah, Henry and I had decided to get something to eat. It was more for me than him, because I had left the burger he had brought me inside Justin's hotel room. Supposedly, it was a really good burger. I'm saddened by the fact that I won't be able to enjoy it.

We took the elevator down to the lobby (not until after we enjoyed the view of the city from the window at the end of the hallway). I told the front desk of the hotel to let Justin know that we were going to be back later, at night, because we were going to explore the city (and find a hotel room for ourselves) a bit before returning to Justin's.

Since we weren't really familiar with the streets of San Francisco, we had gotten ourselves lost. Somehow, and don't ask me how, we had ended up in Chinatown. It was insanely crowded there (no surprise, really) and we couldn't find a space to park on the street.

We ended up parking in the parking garage we had found, it was underground this cute little playground where a lot of little kids are playing. It was pretty adorable sight to see when we got off the elevator. Henry took my hand in his and we headed off into the unfamiliar territory of Chinatown.

It's not really unfamiliar in the sense that I haven't been there, it's just that most everything is written in Chinese or has something written in Chinese and that throws me for a loop. Also, the people that speak Chinese throw me for a loop too. I was so lost in my train of thought that I had almost ran into another person. I should really start paying attention to where I was walking.

We ended up in a really tiny alleyway and I was starting to get the creeps. That is, until I started to smell this wonderful aroma coming from this store. I don't know if I could call it a store. I looked up at the sign, it read: Golden Gate Fortune Cookies. I thought it was a really original name.

We walked inside and it was really crowded. I was confused as to what this place was. It looked like a factory! This really nice Chinese man held out a bin of what looked to be unfolded fortune cookies. He explained that this was a place where you could see the fortune cookies being made. It was really cool to see how fast the woman was folding the cookies that were coming off the machine.

"Do you two want a picture?" he asked us. Apparently, they were charging a small fee for a picture. "Cute couple!"

"What do you say, honey?" I asked him. "Do you want to talk a picture?"

"Sure, why not?" Henry said, shrugging.

We posed for a picture. It ended up looking really nice, with the lady who was folding the fortune cookies in the background. Funny enough, it was the first picture taken of us as an official couple.

I knew that it was a tourist place, but I couldn't help but fall in love with it. We ended up buying a bag of the non-folded fortune cookies, along with the picture. My stomach started growling, signaling that it was time to eat.

I was surprised to find a sushi restaurant in Chinatown. Since my stomach was not being cooperative, we ended up eating there. One chicken terriaki bento box and a full stomach later, we were merrily on our way back to Justin's hotel.

"Court?" Henry asked me while I was driving.

"Yeah, sweetie?" I asked him.

"How do you feel about staying at Justin's hotel?" he asked me. "It'd be easier so we wouldn't have to search for another one."

"Sure thing," I said to him.

We booked a room at Justin's hotel. Before we headed up to the 5th floor, we stopped by Justin's room and knocked on his door. We didn't get an answer and assumed that he was at the bar again, trying to pick up another girl. Henry looked at me and I shrugged.

We went to the fifth floor with our things and settled in. While Henry took a shower, I asked the front desk to call Justin's room. The phone rang a couple of times, but there was no answer. I hung up and sighed.

Hopefully, tomorrow, Justin can let us know what was going on. I was extremely exhausted and needed to sleep, for now.

Telephone

Justin and Henry came in a few minutes after I had broken my phone. Justin looked at me confused and Henry started to pick up the remaining pieces of my phone. I will remain nameless of my cell phone carrier who provided me with a non-durable phone. I sighed.

"What happened?" Justin asked me.

I sat on his bed, then jumped up realizing what went on last night on the bed and made a face. Justin shrugged, apologetically, and offered me the chair. After plopping down on the chair (which was really nice, I think it's mahogany?), I debated with myself whether or not to tell Justin what was going on with Sarah or to wait until Sarah tells him herself. I highly doubt that Sarah would tell him herself though.

So, after a minute of debating with myself, I decided to tell him.

"I talked on the phone with Sarah," I said, quietly.

Justin looked speechless. It took him a couple of minutes to regain his voice and all he could say was "Really?" I nodded.

"Well, how is she?" he asked me, his eyes filled with pain.

"She's fine, Justin," I said, trying to reassure him. "I don't know how to tell you this."

"What? Just tell me," Justin said, somewhat sadly. "It can't get any worse."

Oh man, you don't know how wrong you are, Justin. I thought. It's ok, Court, you're doing the right thing by telling him. Sarah's not coming back. She's too scared to tell him herself. You've got to do it because Justin deserves an explanation. He deserves to know where Sarah is.

"Justin, Sarah's in New York," I said, hesitantly, to him. Justin looked at me in disbelief. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Henry's jaw drop.

"What?" Justin yelled. "She can't be in New York! Why is she in New York?"

Again, I hesitated on telling him exactly why she was in New York. I reminded myself that he deserves to know everything, after what Sarah put him through.

"She's there because she decided to move in with this guy named Sean," I said, softly. "I'm so sorry, Justin."

He sat down on the floor and put his head down. It was painful to watch him like this. Henry sat down next to him and was patting him on the back.

"Everything is going to be ok, man," Henry said to him. "You'll find someone better than her."

"No one's going to be better than Sarah," he said, sadly. "She's perfect in every way. There's no one else I'm going to love more than I love her. She's the love of my life and my soul mate. I don't know what I'm going to do without her. I don't know if I can function without her. I miss her so much."

I couldn't help but turn away so I could roll my eyes at what Justin said. I feel for him, I really do. Honestly, it's not the end of the world when someone breaks up with you. Sure, it'll take awhile to get over that person, but you're going to find someone else who you'll love even more.

Henry looked at me, asking for help. I shrugged. I didn't know what to say to make Justin feel better. I don't think anything I could say could make him feel better.

A loud noise startled me, but I realized that it was Henry's phone.

"Who is it, Henry?" I asked him. He pulled out his phone and looked at the caller ID.

"It's Sarah," he said to me. Justin looked up and stared at the caller ID on Henry's phone.

"Let me talk to her," Justin said, reaching for the phone.

Henry looked at me as if asking me what he should do. I shrugged and he handed the phone to Justin. I motioned to Henry that we should leave the room and let Justin and Sarah do their talking.

All we heard of the conversation was Justin's "hello?".

Our Time Now

I was extremely glad that I had stayed home from school today. I had already avoided going to school yesterday and had opted to just hide out in my room. Logan hasn't sent me another text or stopped by or called me. I think he is avoiding me because of the rumors. He should know that they aren't true!

My dad was getting mad at me for staying home and avoiding my problems when I should be facing them. He made me go to San Francisco with him. He thought that it would be a good idea for me to get out of the house. We went to Union Square and looked at workers trimming the Christmas tree. The Christmas tree was HUGE! It's like one of those ones that you see on TV in New York!

Then we went into Macy's (it's 7 stories! I've never been to a Macy's that was 7 stories!) to look at women's stuff. We looked at the handbags. I think it's weird that I look at handbags with my dad and not my mom. My mom doesn't like to go shopping very much. After we went to Macy's we decided to go get something to eat in Chinatown, which was only a couple of blocks away.

Of course, we passed by Juicy Couture (it was 3 stories!). I had to go inside. It was amazing! Of course, my dad and I looked at their handbags. I wished that Haylie was there with us so we could gush about how cute the bags were.

I'm now debating on whether or not to get a Coach bag. It's more classy than a Juicy bag. It would look more professional when I am older.

My dad and I ate at this Japanese restaurant in Chinatown. It was weird. The food was amazing! I ordered the teriyaki beef. The meat was grilled to perfection. Their California rolls were divine. Honestly, the best California rolls I've ever had. They had these yam fries that tasted like curly fries. This is my new favorite restaurant. What was weird about this restaurant was that the owners were Chinese. It shouldn't be weird, but I thought it was.

"Honey, how long do you plan on staying home?" my dad asked me.

"Until it blows over," I said, stubbornly. "Or never! I can always be homeschooled."

"It's your senior year, Court," he said. "You're going to miss out on prom, graduation, grad night, your senior trip, and the whole senior experience."

"Dad, these people think I'm a whore," I told him. He looked at me with an eyebrown raised. I quickly added, "I'm not, you know that!"

"Yes, sweetheart, but you shouldn't care what other people think," he said. "In June when you graduate, everyone would be going to different colleges and different places. Pretty soon, your classmates will be starting a new life somewhere else. These petty rumors won't matter then."

I thought about what my dad said. He was right. We're all leaving in June. Who knows if we'll even see each other? The majority will go to different colleges throughout the state and some would even go to a college out of state. It's not going to matter.

I smiled at him.