It was quiet. The thing he remembered the most about that night was the silence. There weren't any dogs barking, cars weren't going down the street, even the sound of crickets seemed to be gone.
At the time he didn't notice. They were sitting on the couch, texting each other even though they were two feet apart. It was stupid, he was nervous. His face was hot as they discussed their feelings over text. What do you really think of me?
Clayton looked up from his phone and at him, thoughtfully. "What?" he asked, frowning slightly. "Sorry, I know you wanted...well, I just have to say something."
He looked down at his phone and frantically typed something, unable to speak. He started to sweat. Are we just friends?
Smiling, he typed out an answer. Not exactly. Then he was looking at him. It was a quiet look, but it spoke a hundred words all the same. Neither of them said anything for a moment.
Something was going to happen, but before it did, he saw. It took his gaze off of his friend and made his blood run cold and his fingertips go numb. His eyes went wide.
"Clayton," he whispered, pointing to the window. "Look."
Red and blue lights flashing in front of the house, almost blinding him. He stood and ran to the door, running out of the house. Nolan was frozen for a moment but he followed. He couldn't feel his legs. He desperately willed himself not to cry. You don't know what's happened, he told himself. It could be nothing.
But somehow, he just knew.
"Is this the residence of..." The officer glanced at his paper. "Clayton Dominguez?"
He shoved his hands into his pockets, trying to hide that they were shaking. "Yeah."
Nolan saw it before Clayton did. In the officer's other hand was a red digital camera. The lens was shattered.
"...at 6:30 today, we found..."The words faded out and he didn't hear most of them. "....think he may have been hit.........blood on the road..."
"Missing."
He didn't have any time to process the information. Everything was blurring together and he was suddenly knelt on the ground throwing up, but he wasn't sure how he got there.
The next thing he felt was a hand on his shoulder. "Come on, let's get inside." said Clayton's voice in his ear. As he was helping him up he saw the car had gone. How long had he been on the ground?
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