absent

The oxygen is inhaled as her chest rise up, contracting once again as carbon dioxide being released in the air. The repeated action goes on in a steady pace as she stare into nothingness. Her cheek sinks into the restful pillow as the perfectly weighted duvet wrap her body, giving her a sense of secure.

She had a meeting with the Cleston Highschool team today. It all went good as expected as the students know their part and responsibilities well. It definitely gives her a sense of delight seeing how well things are going.

Everything is calm and collected, the world seems to be walking in a slow pace, giving her time to enjoy herself.

The smell of fresh brewed coffee, the beautiful words and interpretation flowing in a book, the faint wind brushes against her skin, the efficient work of the team.

The world seems perfect.

Unknowingly, the tip of her lips rise as the window of her soul can be seen showing hints of pure joy. This one of the rare moments when you can tell her actual emotion by just looking at her face.

Maybe indeed, moving to this town is the correct decision.

Happiness seems to be chasing her, trying to give her what she deserves.

Just as she is lost in her feelings, suddenly a dot of black fall into the bail of milk, spreading the darkness into the milk as it dissolves.

Her lips that can be seen was smiling is now falling into a straight line. The emotions that was in her eyes are now gone, replaced with an unreadable gaze, as if there is a door closing shut in her.

Her mind becomes blank.

The poor girl stays in her place, not moving an inch, just staring at whatever is in front of her as the night time continues to walk.

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The lady in her 40s amble to the dining table as she place a nice plate of breakfast that is two stripes of bacons along with sunny side up egg sandwiched between English muffins. She also put on the table a mustard bottle on the table since that is how her daughter likes it.

Thinking about the time, she takes a look at the metal watch wrapping her wrist.

7.12 am.

"She usually already up at this time," she thought in his head as she darted her eyes towards the stairs. She moves her gaze to her husband who is placing two plates of breakfast on the table, one for her and one for him. The husband looks at his wife, reading a slight of worrisome on her expression.

"What is wrong?" he asks although he already got a clue what it is about. "Isn't Emily usually up at this time?" she utter, confirming his assumption. "Yeah, she is usually up at this time," the father figure says as he looks at his watch.

Lightly tapping her foot on the floor, she starts to call for her daughter. "Emily, breakfast is ready!" she shouts in a tone oud enough to reach her daughter's room.

Both of them waited for any kind of reaction, only to be met with nothing. However, it is not really shocking since Emily doesn't even reply to those calls. She will just shows up without a word and sits on the chair.

Even so, not a single sound of someone walking nor stepping down the stairs can be heard.

Sandra's heartbeat begins to rise up as she looks right at his husband's eyes. A glimpse of panic can be seen in the father's eyes.

His heart beats in an increasing pace, unwanted thoughts that haunts him begins to play in his head. "It cannot be..."

In a blink of the eye, Brandon sprint to the stairs feeling the alarm in him getting louder. "Emily!" Climbing the stairs as fast as he can, he reaches the second floor in no time, running towards his daughter's room, opening the door open.

The anxiety in him goes down a notch as he sees her daughter lying in her bed. However, that is not the end.

With his heart can be heard beating from his chest, he walks closer towards her daughter's bed, taking a better look at her, making sure she is one hundred percent all right. She could just still be asleep, although that is actually another unusual behavior of hers if that is really the case.

"Emily?" the father softly calls.

There is a pain in his chest as if an invisible needle poke his chest as he sees his daughter hands shutting her ears tight as her eyes are closed shut. "Emily?" the father calls once again as he sits besides her figure. Her body that trembles can be seen as the duvet shakes, tired eyes and faint blackness under her eyes is evident.

Dried tears can be traced on her cheeks as another drops escaping her eyelids, falling towards her nose, down to her another cheek, wetting the dampened pillow.

He places her palm against her back, patting her. Moving closer to his daughter, using his another hand to pat her head. "It is okay honey, it's okay," he assures, keeping the calm pace of his patting.

Seconds goes by as it turns into minutes. Thanks to the patting, it seems like her breathing has become calm as her body no longer trembles. Her hands that was enveloping her ears are now more relaxed although it is still right where it was.

It seems like his patting even calm himself down as the rocking high anxiety is now at a low level. It seems like her symptoms have calmed down but that does not guarantee her being completely fine.

Hand loyal in patting his daughter, her turn to his head to his left, where his wife who also sitting on the bed next to their daughter is observing with obvious worrisome on her face.

"Can you call the hospital, please?" he says in a low voice, not wanting to disturb the peaceful atmosphere. The wife nods as she mouth an "okay".

With that she gets out of her daughter's bed, walking out of the room to the downstairs where she had left her phone on the kitchen counter.

She stretch her hand, grabbing the phone in her hold. Turning on the phone as the screen lit up, she immediately tap on the phone symbol, typing and calling the emergency number.

"Hello, 999. What is your emergency?"

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Holding the black tray of food in hands, two slices of triangular sandwich stands on a plate, a beautiful ripe yellow banana and a carton of milk organized as he walks to the table where Matthew and Halle are already sitting at.

The situation of the cafeteria is quite loud as usual, having students talking about other students, their teachers, things circulating the internet or even home works.

Reaching the table for six, Cameron takes a seat at the empty blue chair, sitting in front of Matthew while Liam on the other side, sits in front of Halle who is already enjoying her chicken salad with some generous dressing while eyes are focused on the screen of her phone.

Quickly realizing the emptiness of a person, Cameron speaks up with wrinkled forehead. "Emily is not here?"

Liam's attention quickly diverted to Cameron's sentence in contrast of his physical remains on seemingly acting unbothered. Liam begins to tear up the plastic wrapping of his croissant, proceeding to put the soft bread between his thin somewhat pink lips, teeth sinking into the airy pastry. His ears listening close on the conversation.

Halle continues to chew the salad in her mouth as she puts her phone down, diverting her gaze towards Cameron in response of his question. Taking a few seconds to chew, she swallow the nutritious bolus into her body. "Nope, I waited in front of her class when all of the students were dismissed but she was nowhere to be found. I asked her classmate and she told me that Emily is absent today."

Cameron's lips form an 'o' as he lightly nodded. Getting the answer to his question, his eyes move to the food on the black tray as he reaches for the sandwich. He takes a moderate bite before an idea comes in his head. "Should I text her then?" he suggest, looking at Halle again who also has her gaze on the guy speaking.

Halle takes a pause before nodding, taking her phone in her hand again as the other one holds a fork which stabs her salad. "You should try. I texted her but she didn't reply," she states, putting the salad in her mouth, sliding the fork clean in between her lips.

Cameron form a pout as his mind works, his hand fishing the phone in his pocket. Opening the chat app, he tap on Emily's contact name, sending her a simple text.

'hey, are you okay?'

Seeing the text message being successfully sent, he place his phone on the table, screen facing up, in case of any text message comes in. He continues to eat his lunch as he brings the sandwich to his mouth, taking a good bite of it.

On the other hand, Liam cannot help but to think of her. This is the first time she is being absent to school in the first month of her being here. But anything could not happen to her, right?

If she is absent, that means she has to be under her parents surveillance. He cannot help but to feel worried. From what he has been told, Emily can be quite uncontrollable sometimes.

There were times where she destroyed everything around her causing her hands to be filled with cuts and bruises, her feet bled from kicking the door. He cannot imagine her in that state. From what he has been told and from what he has seen, it is hard to imagine the quiet, composed girl in the picture of breaking everything down to pieces.

Or, she cannot ran away from home, right? If she did, her parents would have probably come into the school, asking the kids that might know her where she might have been. If that happens, the principal might have been worried too since he is the one who made them do what they are doing. Or probably the principal has some kind of connection with her parents?

He is not really sure. All is now is that possibilities of what might be happening right now runs through his head.

Deep down, he knows she will be okay. She is a smart girl after all.

Being deep in his thoughts, his eyes does not catch the guy in his all black attire who has been watching the cafeteria for some time, as if he is looking for someone. Eyes going through each table, he finally notices a group of people who always said to be seen with her, from what he receives from another student. He walks to the table next to the big glass door, step by step getting closer to the group of four.

Upon noticing a figure in the side of her eye, she turns her head to the side to be met with him who has been dancing in her heart. Flowers bloom inside of her, feeling the pleasant of butterflies swarming in her warm tummy. A smile automatically makes a way onto her lips as he divert his eyes to look at her.

"Sup loser," Zach says as he looks at Halle with a mischievous smile, stopping his track as he stands at the end of the table. Halle looks up to him, shoving her smile down as she slenderly rolls her eyes.

Zach move his gaze onto the whole table, having the attention all on him as Cameron and his bestfriend Liam along with Matthew, the quiet nerd looking at him. Noticing the unusual sharp gaze by Liam, he just quietly shrug it off and bend down closer to Halle.

Halle looks at him who is now at much closer distance with her, making her knees wobble as her heart beats a little bit faster. If it wasn't for her sitting right now, she might have fallen on her knees. He is looking out of the window which promotes the greenness of the school.

"Do you know where Emily is?" he asks, which is definitely a question she did not expect. Cameron, Liam and Matthew watch close the guy, of course being able to hear what he just asks Halle due to the space between all of them.

Cameron has might of might not expected this happen. Zach is the popular boy anyway and he does have quite of an interesting personality.

"She is absent today. Why are you asking?" Halle answers as she pop another question.

Zach stands back straight with his spine, eyes still focus on the view of the blue sky and trees outside. "Nothing, I just misses her," Zach reply as he turn his head to look at Halle, flying a wink to her before forming a smile on his lips.

"Thanks for your time," he thanks, walking backwards, not moving his eyes from Halle before turning her body to look at her way.

Contrary from the smile Zach gives before he turns away, unexpected answer from Zach catches her off guard, glooming her heart in a quite non-explainable way. Her face turns blank as her eyes shows a hint of hurt, looking at the guy who is walking away. She never heard any kind of sentence like that coming out from him.

Yes, he does talk to girls but in just a friendly way. But way that he treats Halle is different, by harmlessly bullying her anywhere and anytime they bump into each other, as if he wants her attention. Halle knows that Zach is definitely a softy in the inside, that side of him that one day she hopefully can see. She knows that Zach has interest on her, she can tell by his action.

But hearing his sentence, a wave of insecurity gushes in her mind and heart. He has never said that about anyone to anyone.

What does he mean when he said he misses her? When did they even meet? Is there something happening that she is not aware of? If there is, then what it is? What it is that it made him said he misses her?

Her hand that is holding the fork unknowingly slowly dropping down onto the table as her eyes stare onto the way Zach was walking on. Gush of sadness can be seen on her face as the other guys on the table watches her quietly, cannot help but feeling a hint of pity inside of them.

Cameron who watches Halle drop his gaze on the table, well aware of how much Halle likes Zach. There is really nothing he can do about it, but rather letting it happen as it is. He wants to comfort Halle, but he also know that Halle have the right to feel what she is feeling right now.

He will wait for awhile. When the time is right, he will personally comfort Halle and pat her back.

Halle is definitely a wonderful outgoing person and to see her like this, he feels downhearted for her.

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The silence of the floor reflects on how he looks right now. He sits in a small bench besides the wall where series of doors are facing each other in the corridor. Not far from him, there is a reception table where there are nurses behind them who are on duty, focused on to their work while some is more leisure since the warded patients in their unit is all resting at the moment.

His head droop down low as not really a thought coming in or out through his head, just a little bit of worrisome and gloominess in his heart.

The sound of the door opening from the room his daughter is warded in, he lift up his head to find his wife who is looking at him while having her hand quietly closes the door behind her.

"Hey," his wife says as she sits besides him who is not hiding his gloominess.

"Is she okay?" the husband asks to her wife as he turns his head to look at her.

The gleam of woe can be seen in his eyes, hurting the wife's feeling inside. It is hard to see her husband like this. Even all those years she knows her, he is who he shows himself. He has always been an all smile and outgoing, fun person who you can rarely sees him in condition like this.

"Yeah, she is fine. She is just sleeping like a baby right now."

Hearing that sentence, that somehow knock his heart as tears make no time forming and falling out of his eyes followed by his silent cries. She immediately turn her body to his way, placing her hand behind his back, patting him. He continues to cry silently as he hide his face in his hands, elbows resting on thighs.

Noticing the silent cries reaching their ears, one of the nurses stand up from their seat to check out on what is happening to see a man in distress while a woman besides him is trying to give him comfort. Catching the eyes of the nurse, Sandra notices that the nurse is silently asking her whether everything is okay, having her signaling to the nurse that everything is fine.

Once the nurse is out of the gaze as she goes back to her work, sitting, her focus goes back to her husband who is crying.

She cannot lie if she say that this whole situation they are in doesn't hurt her. However, in times like this, someone needs to be strong. Just like how his husband, Brandon is the strong one in past accidents, this time, she needs to be the strong one for her family.

Brandon has been strong for too long, so this time, let he cry all he wants. He has always been the place for her to cry during her downs so this is the time for her to be the place of comfort and support for him. He has always been the strongest between the two of them, now this is the time for her to show him what he had learn from him, from his husband, from the love of his life who she had known for almost the half of her life.

His cries goes on as his wife loyally sit by his side, not even once leaving him alone on the bench. Patting his back is the only thing that she could do. Although it seems helpless and useless, it helps him to know that she is there for him and always will be, it let he knows that it is okay to cry when you are feeling like it.

For that, she continues patting his back, no matter how long it takes, she will always be there for him.