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“Colten Enterprises, how may I help you?” I hear her voice. It is like music to my ears.

“Why are you ignoring our calls?” Cyrus asks her.

Silence on the other end. I watch as she looks at the handset before writing the number on a piece of paper.

“I am busy,” she says.

I continue watching her on the screen and see she has become quite nervous. She starts fanning herself with a piece of paper, and I notice she’s become quite flustered.

“You haven’t been eating. Your lunch break was half an hour ago.”

“Like I said, I am busy. I need to go.”

“Wait—”

She hangs up the phone, and I look up at a pissed-off Cyrus.

“She hung up on me,” he says with a sigh, running his fingers through his hair, annoyed.

She always hangs up. Even when Debbie gave her the phone. She usually hangs up instead of speaking to us. She is trying to avoid us at all costs, and it is really aggravating. How hard is it to stay on the phone for five minutes? Isn’t the distance affecting her like it is us? We just want to hear her voice and know she is okay. We can feel her emotions, but it isn’t the same; her emotions are getting harder and harder to read the more she closes herself off from us.

“I heard,” I tell him, and I watched as she rushed into the bathroom and out of view.

“What do you want to do?” I ask him.

“Give her more time, maybe. Ring Debbie tonight and see what she says.” I nod; at least her mother answers our calls.

I watch as she comes back into view, but she appears to have wet her face and hair. My Lycan side has been unusually anxious the longer the days have gone without seeing her, but she looks fine. I can tell she is working too much and has dropped more weight even with the make-up covering her face. She looks lethargic and withdrawn.

“Maybe we should just go get her?” I say, now looking at her.

She looks different; maybe she isn’t as okay as she looks. Anyone could make themselves appear normal, but something is off about her; she looks flustered as she clutches her drink bottle in shaky hands.

She drinks half the bottle down before rummaging in her bag. She pulls out a sheet of pills, and I wish the camera were a little closer to her desk. I might have been able to read what it is she is taking.

“We do that, and she may run. It’s only been a week, Eli. She will calm down soon enough and contact us,” Cyrus tries to reassure me.

I watch as he opens his laptop before typing in the password.

I text her, wanting… no, needing to know why she is taking medication. Is she sick?

“She just took some pills,” I tell him, looking at my screen as my fingers glide over the keys while I type.

“Probably vitamins or some crap them humans fill their bodies with,” he says, looking at me over the top of his laptop.

“Are you messaging her?” he asks, and I nod, sending the text.

“Eli, she is fine. You’re just stressing. You can see her on your phone,” he says, looking back at his laptop screen.

“It’s not the same thing, and she won’t talk to us.”

“Did she reply?” he asks, and I shake my head before hearing my phone ding.

Addie: I’m fine, just a headache.

“She says she has a headache,” I tell Cyrus.

“See? Told you. Nothing to worry about,” Cyrus says, and I press my lips in a line.