No answer

You knock in the door, waiting nervously for a long minute for a response.

Nothing.

You feel a bit nervous and knock once more, but again there seems to be no one home.

Fuck! If they're not here, where the hell could they be? You ran through the possibilities. Perhaps they could be at the mall. Your sister always spent her days there, so its possible she took Eddy there until things calm down. Or alternatively, she could be with one of her friends. That's usually where she would go if she was under turmoil, but you doubted she would take Eddy there. Goddamnit, Hailey could be anywhere.

Logically you knew you could wait with is until she ultimately calmed down and came back home, but for whatever reason, you didn't want to. You felt this... urge to finish this now. To get the ring of Hailey and do whats best for her. To be in control.

Dereminted, you rang up your sister. It rang for a bit before hanging up. Message recieved... Not to be deterred, you pulled out your contacts and started searching. You should have her number saved... Ah! Great. Hailey wouldn't talk to you, you knew someone else she would listen to.

"Hello?" The bubbly voice of Dana Sanchez, Hailey's best friend answered after a few rings.

"Hey Dana, it's Jean." You said confidently.

"Uh, yeah. I know.", she replies simply.

"Oh uh, cool." You reply much more awkwardly this time. "Uh, is there any chance Hailey is there with you?" You ask.

Dana pauses for a moment. "Uh no, why?" She asks innocently. But the silence already told you what her words didn’t.

"It's nothing... she and I- uh, She and my mom had a fight, and I wanted to apologize." You replied, only to realize that still didn't make much sense. "Uh, on my mom's behalf. She had a spa day so she sent me."

Another awkward silence. You continued. "Anyway, can I maybe give you something to give her? A uh, an apology gift." You said. Damn, this was harder than you expected.

After yet another long pause, Dana answered. "Uh, sure." She said. "Where..."

"I'll pop by your place." You replied immediately. "I remember the way from picking Hailey up."

"Uh, ok."

With that the call ended. You cursed yourself for how awkwardly it went, but it didn't really matter that much. You just had to get that ring on Hailey, and you hoped Dana could be a good messager.

Soon leaving the dorm building, you rushed to your car and down the road to Dana's. Not 20 minutes later were you already on her doorstep.

"Uh, hey." You said awkwardly as Dana opened the door. She seemed very sleepy, and you felt slightly bad for having woken her up. You decided to be short. "Listen, I'm really sorry to bother you. If you could just... hand Hailey this ring? She just won't answer any of my calls."

Dana looked you up and down groggily, before grabbing the ring and shutting the door. She clearly wasn't really fond of this situation. You felt bad, but it was necessary. You just had to save Hailey from herself!

With an awkward sigh, you turned back to your car and drove yourself home.