No.
No way.
Creed wasn’t like that. Creed wasn’t like other guys.
Not Creed.
Not my Creed.
“Thanks, Mrs. Creed,” I mumbled, moving away.
“Whatever,” she mumbled back and lurched into the bar.
I went to his house, I drove around town and then I went to the pier.
No Creed.
I sat on the end, my feet in the water and my head spinning. I didn’t know what to do. How could he disappear? No one just disappeared. Should I talk to the police? Should I risk Creed getting mad at me and talk to his friends?
Oh God, I didn’t know what to do. Not only didn’t I know what to do to find Creed, I didn’t know what to do without him.
There didn’t seem a time when he wasn’t there.
I didn’t want there to be a time when he wasn’t there.
And I was terrified. Two days, no Creed. Something was wrong. Very, very wrong. I felt it in my bones. He’d never leave me. Never disappear. Never make me wait to start our new lives.
Never.
Something was very, very wrong and that something had to do with taking Creed away from me.
I stared at the lake, our lake, the place we met, laughed, swam, ate, necked and made love.
“Come back to me,” I whispered.
I closed my eyes tight, using everything I had, praying hard, hoping, when I opened my eyes, I’d feel Creed moving toward me.
I opened my eyes and saw lake.
I twisted around and saw the dark grass, wood and pasture, all empty.
I twisted to the other side.
More empty.
No Creed.
I twisted back to the lake, my lips trembling, my nostrils quivering.
“Come back to me,” I begged, the tear slipping over my eye and gliding down my cheek.
* * * * *
I fell asleep on that pier.
Creed never came back to me.
*****