Emancipating Andie

But after about ten minutes, he was back in front of his apartment building with no sign of her. Andie’s car was still where it had been when he left, and Chase eyed the surrounding area one more time before he turned to walk down the block toward his car.

He had only taken two steps before his foot came down on something that skidded beneath his weight, causing him to stumble forward.

“What the hell?” he mumbled, turning to look behind him.

His eye immediately landed on the small silver ring of keys attached to a purple swirl in the shape of a heart.

He’d recognize those keys anywhere. He’d helped her when she had locked those keys inside her apartment. He’d used those keys when driving her car.

Chase bent down and scooped them up before eyeing the block again, this time with something like panic in his chest. With the keys clutched in his fist, he dug his phone out of his pocket and dialed her number again.

It went straight to voicemail.

“Shit,” he hissed as he walked briskly to his car and jumped inside.

There had to be a reasonable explanation for this. She must have dropped her keys. She must have walked home. She was probably curled up on the couch right now, eating ice cream and lamenting her douchebag of a boyfriend.

Chase held on to those thoughts as he sped to her apartment. He called her number again and again as he drove, keeping one eye on the road and the other sca

When he pulled into the parking space in front of her building, he already knew she wasn’t home. He could see the window of her bedroom and her living room, both inky black and still, but he ran up the steps to her front door anyway, knocking loudly as he tried to catch his breath.

“Andie?” he called, knocking again. “Andie, I swear, I’ll leave if you want me to, but if you’re in there, just let me know that you’re safe.”

Chase stood there for a minute, listening to the silence before he knocked once more. “Andie? Please just let me know you’re in there. You don’t even have to open the door.”

Again, nothing.

He whirled around, fisting his hand in his hair as he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket.

Where the hell could she possibly be?

“Damn it,” he said before squeezing his eyes shut. He didn’t know any of her friends’ phone numbers. He didn’t even know the number to her restaurant.

He could go there, he thought, but he didn’t want to freak her parents out. They didn’t know about him yet, so how could he just burst into their restaurant and introduce himself by asking if they’d seen their daughter, who he just happened to send ru

He kept his eyes on his phone as he scrolled mindlessly through his contacts.

And then he saw it.

Tate, Colin.

Would she have called Colin?

Would she have gone there?

She had been feeling so guilty about everything that happened earlier that Chase could see her doing something like that. He could picture her going to him, trying to make things right between everyone again, even though Chase knew it was a lost cause at this point.

“Fuck,” he sighed to himself, taking a deep breath before hitting the button to call Colin.

It rang five times before going to voicemail.

Chase dropped his head back and brought both fists to his eyes before he began pacing the hallway in front of her door. He hated the feeling he had right now, this helplessness. He didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do, but he needed to find her. That much was clear.

Chase hit the button to dial Colin again, and this time it went to voicemail after one ring.

“Son of a bitch!” he yelled, ending the call and heading toward the stairs.

He had to go there. It was his only option. He couldn’t go back home until he figured out where she was and knew she was okay.

He made it to Colin’s in half the time it would have normally taken him, so he didn’t really have time to focus on the stupidity of what he was about to do. Chase knocked on Colin’s door, and when it swung open, his friend’s face went from shocked to blank in the span of a second.

“Is she here?” Chase asked.

Colin stared at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I don’t know where she is,” Chase said desperately. “Is she here?”

Colin’s jaw flexed as he continued to stare Chase down. “Unbelievable,” he muttered before he went to close the door on him.

Without thinking Chase threw his hand out, stopping the door, and Colin’s eyes glinted with rage.

“Move your hand. Now.”

“We had a fight.”

A moment of disbelief overshadowed Colin’s anger. “And what, you’re coming here for sympathy? You really are a piece of work.”

Colin went to shut the door again, and this time Chase slammed his hand against it with such force that it swung out of Colin’s hand and hit the wall.

“She might be hurt!” Chase shouted, and Colin froze. “Please,” he said, his voice softening significantly and bordering on desperate. “Please…just help me.”

Chase couldn’t decipher the expression on Colin’s face, but when he spoke, his voice was firm but controlled. “What do you mean she might be hurt? What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything,” Chase said. He explained what had happened in a rush, and Colin listened, his expression unchanging.

Finally, after what seemed like hours of silence, Colin turned and walked into his apartment, leaving the door open.

“Colin?”

“I’m go

Chase took two tentative steps into his friend’s home, watching as Colin grabbed his phone and hit a few buttons before bringing it to his ear.

“Tracey?” he said. “It’s Colin. Is Andie with you?” There was a silence before he said, “No that’s okay. If you hear from her, can you just have her give me a call? Thanks.”

“Shit,” Chase said under his breath, ru

Colin looked down at his phone for a second before he hit a few buttons again.

“Hey, Danielle. It’s Colin. Is Andie working tonight?” A pause. “Oh. Well did she stop by the restaurant at all?” Another pause as Chase listened to the sound of his own heartbeat thrumming in his ears. “Alright. If she comes by the restaurant, can you ask her to give me a call? Thanks.”

As Colin ended the call, Chase began pacing in front of the door with both hands fisted in his hair. There was nowhere else she could be that made sense. With her car still at his place. And her keys on the floor.

He heard a strange rasping sound and realized it was his own breathing.

Chase forced himself to stop walking as he bent at the waist, bringing is hands to his knees as he tried to calm himself down, and he noticed Colin staring at him with the oddest expression on his face. There was something else behind the anger in his eyes. Disbelief? Scrutiny? Shock?

Whatever it was, he didn’t have time to analyze it. He grabbed his phone and started dialing.

“What are you doing?” Colin asked.

“Calling the cops.”

“Chase, they’re not go

“I don’t care!” he yelled. “I’m not just go

Colin stood, ru

Chase explained everything to them, about Andie leaving his apartment, about her car and her keys on the street, and how no one knew where she was.

As the young man jotted a few things down on a notepad, the middle-aged woman quirked her brow at Chase. “What happened to your eye?”