Chapter 2-The Process of Worrying

Dedicated to my sister, who's always there for me and worries too much.

"OW!!!" we said in unison.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," I began.

He cut me off. "Wait.. I know you," he started, "You're the girl who doesn't like chocolate ice cream!"

"What, no!" I shouted. That probably wasn't helping my case much.

"Are you sure?" he asked, "You look familiar."

"I'm sure. In fact, I really like chocolate ice cream," I babbled.

"Uh-huh. Sure." he said, "Oh, and you should really watch where you're going."

"Yeah, sorry again," I replied quickly.

I ran another few blocks to my house. When I got home, Lily was there waiting for me.

"You got home late," she said.

"Yeah...wait, what are you doing here? You still have--" I checked my watch, "30 minutes of school left." Lily had gone to high school for two years then transferred to a private school.

"Yeah, well I decided to come home and wait for you. Aren't you happy to see me?" she asked.

I ignored her last comment and asked," Why would you come home early and miss class just to see me?"

"Well, it's your first day of school and I thought you might want something special," she said.

"Like what?" I said slowly, this meant that she wanted something and that I was probably going to end up paying for it.

"ICE CREAM!!"

I mentally face palmed myself. Of course, Lily just had to mention ice cream.

"Okay," I sighed, "but you're paying."

"Duh. That's why I came here. To pay for your ice cream," she said sarcastically.

I groaned. "I don't have any money right now, Lily."

"Fine. I'll pay, but just because it's your first day of High School and it's going to get a lot worse it you're not in a private school."

I grinned. "Yay!! Thanks Lily!"

She sighed. "Anything for my little sis."

When we got to the ice cream store, I immediately ordered a large strawberry bliss waffle cone. Lily got a vanilla cookie dough cone.

"That will be $7.95," the cashier said.

Lily handed over a ten dollar bill.

"$2.05 is your change. Enjoy!" she said.

We walked outside with our ice cream cones looking at shops.

"Lily!! Hey!!" her friend Mary shouted, "Over here!"

We turned to see Mary waving her arm crazily in the air.

Lily glanced at me. I knew what that meant.

"Go talk to Mary," I said, "I'll just go home by myself."

"You have the keys, right?" Lily said worryingly.

"Yeah. Go have fun," I shooed her away.

"'Kay, see you at base," she said jokingly.

"Yeah, see ya."

I walked around the strip mall a few more times, then turned to head home. I bumped into someone again.

"Ow!!" the person said.

"What are you doing here?" I asked when I realized it was that boy I had ran into earlier, "Are you stalking me?" I took a few nervous steps back.

"It seems like you're stalking me," he said.

"I was just getting ice cream with my sister, but then she went to talk to her friend," I said.

"Oh. I see. Well see you. And stop running into people!" he said grumpily.

"Okay. Sheesh. Sorry to disturb you and all," I said sarcastically.

"You should be. I'm going to meet up with my friends."

"Didn't you just see them at school?" I asked.

"So you admit it. You are the girl who hates chocolate ice cream," he said.

"No I didn't. I just said that you probably saw them at your school, wherever that is," I denied.

"Yeah, whatever," he said.

We walked in the opposite directions. I went home without any more run-ins with anybody. Literally. Lily wasn't home yet, as I thought. She would probably be out until five with her friends. I sighed. I was such a loner. But I could always call Krystal or Tiana. Hmm...maybe we could all go ice skating together or have a sleepover. As I thought of things to do, I slowly drifted off to sleep.

"EVA! I'M HOME! WHERE'S MOM?" Lily's voice shrieked from downstairs.

I rolled over in bed and hugged my pillow.

"EVA?" her voice drifted upstairs and into my room. I could her her stomping up the stairs loudly.

"Oh, of course. You're asleep," she said. Then yelled directly in my ear, "WAKE UP!!"

"AAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!!!!" I screamed. I slowly regained my bearings.

"Hey, what time is it?" I asked sleepily.

"7 pm. Where's Mom and Dad?" she asked.

"I don't know I was sleeping," I sat up, "Wait, Mom's not back from work yet?"

"No, that's what I've been saying!" she said impatiently.

"Okay, well just call them," I lay down again.

"I did, nobody's answering." That was strange. Mom and Dad always picked up the phone, no matter what, just in case we had an emergency.

"Okay, well let's go to the police station, I'm sure that Dad's still there," I said.

20 minutes later we were at the police station.

"Hi, I'm Lily Hall and this is my sister Eva Hall. We were wondering if our dad is still here at work. His name is George Hall and his police number is 127." Lily said smoothly.

"Alright, we'll check if he's still in the office for you," the police officer said. According to his nameplate on the desk, he was Lee Chan. He went to the phone on the far wall. After a few minutes, he came back.

"I tried calling twice, but nobody answered. His work partner said that he had left at 6, the usual time he goes home," Lee said.

"That's weird..he didn't come home, though," Lily said slowly.

"Maybe he went to pick up your mom or something. I'm sure that he'll be at your house soon. There's nothing to worry about."

"Well, okay then. Thank you officer Chan," I said before Lily could say anything, "Sorry for taking up your time."

"It was no problem," he said kindly.

When we got outside the police station, Lily pounced.

"How could you just cut me off like that? I'm sure he could have helped us in some other way!" Lily said.

"No, he couldn't have," I said, "If we don't have any evidence that something happened to Dad or Mom, he wouldn't have cared."

"I guess so.." Lily said.

"Let's just go back home, I'm sure Mom and Dad will be back soon," I said.

When we got home, Mom and Dad were there.

"Where were you guys?!? We were worried sick about you!" Lily said.

"We were just visiting your grandparents, honey. I told you that just this morning, remember?" Dad said.

"Oh..I guess I was half asleep or something," Lily said.

"WOW, Lily," I said, "You had me worried for nothing!"

"Oh well, you deserved it since I had to pay for your ice cream," Lily said.

"Ugh. Whatever," I said. I was already worrying about the next day of school. What if I ran into that guy again? He would definitely say something about me running into him multiple times and then the whole school would say that I was a stalker. I just had to be really careful. 

Author's Note

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