WILDly by wildly

happen?”
    “About an hour
or so back. Lisa immediately phoned Peter and we all rushed there.
We looked and sensed all over the place, but he was gone.”
    “Poor Lisa.” If
I knew Lisa, she blamed herself for this.
    “Yep, poor
girl’s in a state. But listen, it’s not safe to phone. The
conversation between Lisa and Peter was definitely overheard.”
    “Do you think
my phone is bugged...as well?” I asked. It felt more and more like
a conversation from some or other high-tech spy movie.
    “Possibly. But
listen now, please, just take care of yourself. I’ll be around,
watching closely,” his green eyes were begging. He hesitated.
“Don’t go anywhere strange, keep close to the dorm at all times.
Promise me?” he insisted.
    Why wouldn’t I?
I thought.
    “Promise.”

    ***

Chapter 10 –
Into the lion’s den
    Jennifer was
off during dinner: I could tell because she was quiet as a mouse,
which also made the atmosphere tense and the food tasteless.
    “So, next week
is test week. How is your roster looking?” I asked in an attempt to
divert my thoughts and to draw Jennifer into a conversation.
    “Fine thanks.”
She frowned and continued eating.
    I ignored her
abruptness. “Well, mine is terrible. I have two on Tuesday and
three on Thursday. Can you believe it! Why they couldn’t space it
better, no one will know.”
    Jennifer didn’t
seem to be listening. I took a bite and then tried again.
    “How are your
classes going, Jen?”
    She answered
the same as before. “Just fine, thanks”.
    I didn’t
appreciate her rudeness and decided not to tolerate it. She
wouldn’t see the sun shining on anyone but herself. So I decided to
confront her head-on. “What’s going on, Jennifer?”
    “Nothing,” she
replied quickly.
    “It’s not
nothing. I know you too well. What’s the matter, tell me now!” I
demanded.
    My stronger
approach had the right effect and she stopped eating and looked
down at her hands. “I feel like such a failure. I can’t even keep a
date, and you’re running around with two stunning guys!”
    “I told you,
they are only friends. Friends, Jennifer. It’s a concept that you
don’t understand. A girl and a boy can be friends, you know.”
    “Yeah, that’s
what Duncan told me over the phone as well,” she said bitterly.
    I had forgotten
about Duncan and then remembered that I still wanted to phone
him.
    “Did Duncan
dump you?”
    “Yes, Val. What
else? That’s what ‘friends’ mean, you know?” she mocked me.
    Her reaction
wasn’t an overreaction so much any more. “But why, what
happened?”
    “He didn’t dump
me in so many words, but when I phoned him, a girl answered. She
said he didn’t want to talk to me and that he’d rather be my
friend. Then she asked me to leave him alone for her sake as our
‘friendship’ would only interfere with their relationship.”
    “Oh, I’m sorry
about him, Jennifer. But don’t you mind him, there are more where
he came from. Don’t worry about it, be patient, you’ll find Mr
Jennifer soon enough.”
    “Don’t
patronise me! You’re not the expert!”
    I counted to
ten and then continued; the poor girl had been dumped and it
couldn’t be nice, especially not with the size of her ego and
image-awareness.
    “You are on
campus, Jen! There are guys all over the place, swarming like bees.
And if you really want, I can set you up on a date with Wilfred?
You seemed to like him? He’s a nice guy.”
    “Yeah, he is so
nice that he disappeared. I invited him to have dinner with me and
you tonight, and he simply didn’t show,” she said with a cracking
voice and closed eyes, as if trying to hold back tears.
    I knew what’d
happened. Wilfred had gone to sleep as he had to do the night
shift. In the fumble with Alex’s disappearance, he’d forgotten
about Jennifer. Her bad mood made even more sense to me now, but I
couldn’t tell her the truth.
    “He’s not like
that. I’m sure that there’s a very good explanation for