In boring neighborhoods like mine, kids create scary things…. just like Hide.
It started the summer before senior year, me and my boyfriend, Jonah hosted a party for the whole grade. And don’t get me wrong, our grade is big. Like 150-people-big. We hosted it on the highschool field. Noone knew except us. Now you may think, But isn’t the high school or the field big enough for people to know and to notice? Well, nope. Our high school is isolated deep into the woods. There was this rumor about a kid who went past the field, into the woods, and they were never seen again. But that’s just some story the teachers made up to keep students away from entering deeper into the woods. Our party was big and it went on for a long time. We hired a DJ, ordered 100 pans of pizza, and we even bought a foldable dance dance floor. People were going crazy; getting drunk, passing out, playing truth or dare. Jonah and I sat alone on the bleachers and just observed the party before I said I wanted to get some pizza. Jonah went along, clinging onto my arm.
“Wassss upp homies,” says David, Jonah’s closest friend. I roll my eyes, he’s obviously drunk, his words slurring together. Jonah playfully punches his arm.
“Don’t be drunk in front of my girlfriend.” My heart tingles, it still does everytime he calls me his girlfriend, or even my girl. He’s looking at me but I pretend to talk to David’s girlfriend, Madeliene, who everyone calls Mad.
“How are you doing?”
“Well you know, same old, same old.” We chuckle. We all know. Nothing ever happens around here besides the occasional block party. Everyone’s pretty chill around here.
“Hello soon-to-be-seniors of West Whales!” We all start hollering and clapping. The principal of the student council, Sam, is on the poduim. None of us know how he became president. He’s a trouble maker but everyone loves him. He’s chill and his dad is the superintendent of the district. Everyone knows him, he makes sure of it.
“Ready to do something wild…?” People look around confused but we scream “Yesssss!” as loud as we can. Sam seems pleased and he tells us to separate into girls and boys. Everyone around us scatters leaving me and Jonah left in the middle of the field. We look at each other, we don’t want to leave each other’s side. Everyone’s looking at us and we share a quick kiss before parting.
“Chloe will be captain for the girls and Jonah will be captain for the boys.” Girls around me holler my name chant my name. Even though me and Jonah are fairly popular and have tons of friends it still felt good being loved. Sam signals for the cheering to stop.
“Today, we will have the.. game of our lives. This summer, our lives will change,” he stops here for some suspense. “Each week two person will go missing, one boy and one girl. They’ll have to go far, far, far away from here. A mile or more for heaven knows how far. No one will know where they, except the pair who gets choosen to go missing. Not even their own team will know. Now, who’s in?” He looks around at us. Some people clump in groups leave saying, I don’t want to or that’s weird, why would we do that? Within five minutes, less that a tenth of the whole grade is gone. Only 10 people left. Five girls and five boys. Beside me are Mad, Laila, Sophie, and of course, Julie, who’s always looking for a new adventure. Everyone’s confused but we nod along anyways, because what could go wrong? I was far from right.
The pair to go missing first is David and Mad. I guess Sam’s picking by couples or somethin’. Anyways Sam told us to meet him back at the field on Saturday, at 11:00 in the night. It was pitch black when we came. Sam was already there, waiting. We formed a tight circle around him.
“Well,” he started, “I’m glad you all came and didn’t chicken out.
“Well, wouldn’t miss it,” Julie says, rolling her eyes. I see Mad out of the corner of my eye, I reach for her hand and she squeezes it, obviously nervous. We do a little good-bye party and then we watch them walk towards the end of the field and then they’re consumed by the darkness of the trees. Everyone says good night and all head back to our cars. But me and Jonah stay back.
“Where do you think they went?” I whisper, even though no one else can hear us.
“Honestly I don’t know. I hope they’ll be okay.” Jonah says slowly, then he tilts his head to look at me.
“Do you reckon we’ll have to go missing together?”
“Sam’s gonna have to or well he’ll have fun talking to my parents why he thought this was a good idea.” Jonah laughs. Then we both look up to the sky. The stars sparkle above us.
“C’mon lay down with me.” Without any answer or hesitation both of us lay next to each other in the middle of the field. The bleacher lights luminous in the dark but you can still clearly see the stars.
“I love you Chloe.”
“I love you Jonah.” He turns to me, a serious look on his face, and for a second, I’m scared.
“Do you think we’re gonna get married one day?” I look at him, the fear from a second away vanishing. And I can’t help but smile.
“Well, do you want to?”
“I do.” He turns his gaze back to the stars and I give him a peck on his cheek. He turns back to me. There’s tears in his eyes, you can tell by the way his eyes are glistening under the lights.
“Jonah, are you okay? Did I do something wrong? I’m so sorry, I should’ve asked you if I could give you a peck. Oh gosh, I’m so sorry.” My heart’s racing, why would I do that?
“Chloe, don’t be sorry. It’s fine. And I’m only crying because.. you’re the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And.. if I’m not careful.. I think that you’re gonna end up knowing that I’m not a boy you wanna marry. I wanna be perfect for you.” He closes his eyes, tears running down his cheek.
“Remember when you told me you had a list of what you wanted your husband to be?” I nod, tears starting to form in my eyes.
“I wanna be able to check all those boxes. I wanna be your man, Chloe.” I laugh through my tears, realizing that he does and he is.
“Jonah Gert, you check all the boxes and you even add another one.” He asks what it is, a smile forming but his tears still flowing.
“I want my man to make me smile everyday, any day, even if they’re not here. I want to be able to feel joy knowing that they’re mine.” He crys hard and I hug him sideways, since we’re still laying flat. His lips tremble on my shoulder and his sobs echo throughout the air.
“C’mon lets go.” I help him up and he embraces me into his bear hugs. We’re still in a hug as we walk back to his car.
“Are you okay to drive Jonah?”
“Yep.” His eyes still glistening under the lights. I will always and forever love him.
“You wanna come over for the night?”
“Of course. Anything and everything for you,” he says, a wide grin forming across his face.
I wake up to the smell of pancakes and bacon. I look around I’m still in the same position as yesterday, sprawled out on my couch but now I have my favorite blanket on me. I look towards the kitchen and hear my mom talking to Jonah.
“Hey look! My princess is awake! Good morning!” I smile and mutter a good morning and Jonah comes in for another bear hug. I catch my mom out of the corner of my eye, she’s smiling, obviously satisfied of our relationship.
“Morning Jonah. Morning Mom.”
“Morning sweetie, look at the breakfast Jonah made.” I look at Jonah, surprised, after all I didn’t expect something.
“You did?”
“Well, since I slept over without any notice.. I thought the least I could do was make breakfast. I made your favorite.” Jonah leads me to the kitchen and it looks better than it smells. I look at Jonah and he gives me a very pleased expression. My dad comes down and stops. He looks at Jonah, who looks back at him.
“Good morning, Mr. Kim! I hope you don’t mind that I set up breakfast.” My dad looks at him, still surprised.
“Uh, morning..” he stammers, “Thank you, thank you so much Jonah,” my dad smiles his widest grin at Jonah and Jonah seems relieves he’s glad. My dad digs in, acting like he’s never eaten before. Half of the pancakes are gone before he realizes that we’re looking at him gobbling down the food.
“Jonah, your parents raised you good,” Jonah chuckles, blushing.
“I’m serious, this, first off, is amazing. You’ll be a good father and a good husband one day. Are you planning on marrying my daughter some day?”
“Da-” “Yes, actually.” Jonah says shyly, clearly trying to hold his composure instead of bursting out laughing. My dad laughs.
“You have my blessing, if-if you end up getting married. Anyways, thank you so much,” he walks over to kiss my mom on her forehead,”I have to go to work now. I’ll be back before six.” He waves and heads off.
“Thank you so much Jonah. And well, if we’re talking about it now I will say, I give you my blessing as well. You two seem perfect,” she winks then heads upstairs. When she’s gone, we burst out laughing. Ding I check my phone and I stop laughing when I see what it says. Jonah must have seen the expression on my face because he hurriedly runs to my hide to see what’s wrong. The message is from an unknown number, it says, “Don’t do it. Don’t go missing.” Who could have found out about the game? I shudder and quickly delete the message and block the number. We eat breakfast silently and I can feel Jonah’s gaze on me but I don’t look his way. I’m shaken by the message. Who could have done it? How did they know? What will happen? I start worrying about David and Mad. Then everything goes black.
I wake up to Jonah’s face. His eyes lit up as soon as my eyes flutter open.
“Chloe! Are you okay? My mom rushes over, clearly worried.
“Wha-what happened?”
“We were just eating breakfast and like you looked blank for a second and then you almost hit your head against the floor but I caught you in time thankfully.” Of course my Jonah did. I smile and go to kiss him but I feel a stab in the heart. I start coughing, my chest feels pressured, tight. Jonah looks at me with wide eyes and he tries to I hear my mom calling an ambulance but everything blurs and sounds become distant. I double over clutching my chest.
I don’t wake up for hours. My parents, Jonah, and his parents are gathered around me. I look down at my body, tubes inserted into places where it shouldn’t be. I look at Jonah, who’s crying.
“Jonah, why are you crying?” I don’t recognize my own voice, it sounds like a dying cat’s voice.
“It’s my fault you’re here. I-I cooked the breakfast and it was the last thing you ate before passing out.” My heart softens seeing Jonah sob, not like little tears but full on body-shivering tears.
“No, no it’s not,” my dad cuts in, “I’m still here, it’s not your fault Jonah.” My dad gives Jonah a playful nudge and I can tell Jonah is sort of relieved but not fully convinced. Then the door opens, a women – who I happen to know – comes in.
“Chloe, you’re awake! That’s good,” but the expression on her face dosen’t match her enthuaism.
“Yes, hi Miss Sylar,” without fully acknowledging my response she turns to my parents, “Can I talk to you outside?” My parents nod and they go outside. I search for Jonah’s hand. I want to tell him its okay but I don’t have enough strength to do so. My parents come back inside a couple of minutes later, looking devasted.
“Chloe, honey..” Sylar says, “you’ve been diagnosed with Hypertrophic Cardiomyopath.” I’m completely shocked. I know what this is, we learned it in health class last year. I try gathering my thoughts and think of a response. I look at Jonah.
“Are you sure? What’s gonna happen? Will I die? Is it easy to cure? Can I still hang out with my friends? Did I do something wrong? But I’m too young. My health teacher said that most people get it at ages 4o and above! This is impossible?” Beep beep The monitor shows red and the beeping sound escalates.
“Whoa there Chloe,” Sylar says rushing over to the monitor.
“Take a deep breath, I know this is a lot to take in, and yes, we’re sure.” I take a deep breath as instructed but its hard. I try again but my lungs don’t take in as much air as I should be. Sylar comes over and comforts me. She instructs everyone to leave to go to the waiting room. Jonah kisses my hand on his way out.
“Miss Sylar?”
“Yes, Chloe, what would you like?”
“I don’t want to die.” Sylar’s face softens.
“I promise that you won’t. Plus with the advancing technology and studies, it’s almost impossible for something to fail.”
“Am I still allowed to hang out with my friends?” Sylar thinks for a second before saying yes. Ding My phone buzzes beside me. I check the notification, it’s from the group chat; Sam’s group chat.
Next pair: Chloe and Jonah.
