his best friend, his support system, his everything. she disappeared the most important day of his life. will he ever recover, even though she's missing? and will Avianna ever be found to fill the empty space in his heart?

Chris

The sound of a fork scraping against a pot in my kitchen made me spring out of my bed; who was here and why? Everyone knew I liked to be alone on this day, for one sole reason; I didn’t like to be bothered period actually. The scent of eggs filled my nose as I jogged down the steps and walked passed the living room and into the kitchen. No one was in sight but I knew exactly who it was. Only she listened to Miguel while cooking.

“What are you doing here?” I questioned her as soon as she came out the pantry. She jumped and almost dropped the pancake mix. She continued to stare at me instead of answering my question. She said a long time ago that she wanted nothing to do with me, so why was she in my house cooking breakfast?

“No matter what we’ve been through in the past, I’m not going to just leave you alone here. Especially not with what today is.” she said in a timid voice. Like she even cares about what today is; she never liked Avi anyway. She always thought Avi was out to sabotage our relationship when she really wasn’t. Katlyn always claimed Avianna and I were in love with one another. If that was the case I would’ve proposed to Avi and not Katlyn.

“Cut the bullshit Katlyn, you know damn well you don’t give a fuck about what today is. And how the fuck did you get inside? I took my key back from you a long time ago.” hate was evident in my voice and I didn’t care one bit.  She left me after Avi’s disappearance, so shouldn’t I be the one heartbroken and chasing after her?

“I took the key from under the welcome mat and I’m here because I don’t want you to be alone today. I know how tough it is on you and how you can get whenever this time of the year rolls around.” she explained as she put the box of pancake mix on the countertop.

I shook my head and walked over to her; even with her heels on, I still towered over her. That used to be something I adored about her, but now all of that shit is out of the window. Most fiancés would have consoled their other half when finding out such news; but no not Katlyn.

She nagged constantly about me walking around being depressed, I mean who wouldn’t? The one girl who I could depend on for anything was missing and I couldn’t do shit about it except pray and hope she returned soon.

“Excuse yourself out my house, I don’t want anyone around me today especially not you. Lock my doors when you do leave.” I mumbled and exited the kitchen. I didn’t care if her feelings were hurt; I didn’t ask her ass to be here anyway. She did all that extra shit on her own; no one forced her to do it.

I slammed my door and threw myself back onto my bed then grabbed my cell phone from underneath my pillow. I had one missed call from Mama, but I doubt she would want me to call her back; she knew how I was. I set my phone back on the bed and closed my eyes; memories of Avianna came flooding back.

She and I had been through a lot of shit, that’s why she was my best friend; but that’s not how we started out. I had this huge crush on her in high school and vice versa, from there we went out and were attached at the hip.

We went through basically everything; pregnancy scares to an actual pregnancy and a miscarriage. We weren’t cut out to date one another so we called it quits. I’m not gonna lie, Avi will always hold a special place in my heart; and I think it’s the same for me with her. Even after we broke up, we would do all the things couples would do. I chuckled and reminisced to the first time she dragged me to go shopping with her.

 “Just bring your ass out here or I’m coming in!” I exclaimed and ignored the looks of the other customers. Avi was taking way too long to show me the outfit she wanted to wear on some date with some random nigga. Of course me being the ex-boyfriend I was jealous and fuck, but I wasn’t about to tell her that.

“Just come in then.” she told me and I wasted no time pushing open the curtain and making my way into the small dressing room. I pulled back the curtain and finally turned around; this is what she was scared to show me?

“The fuck you scared for? You look good as hell Avi.” I complimented and she turned her head so I wouldn’t see her smile. It felt good that I still had that effect on her, that’s how I knew no other nigga could have a real chance with her.

“You sure? I feel like a look like a fucking whale right now!” she told me and I chuckled in return. Sure she gained some weight from the baby but it was all good weight and it went to all the right places. After the miscarriage she didn’t lose the weight which was the only positive from it happening.

“Would I lie to you about that? Now why you got bikinis and shit in here? I thought it was just a date out to dinner.” I questioned and she raised an eyebrow. “Uh because, Mijo’s pool party is coming up duh! Now which one do I try on first?” she said to herself.

I picked up the hot pink bikini off the hook and handed it to her before taking a seat on the little stool in the corner. “Get to stripping!” I said and clapped my hands; she shot me a dirty look before pulling off the dress she was wearing and throwing it over my head.

“No peaking.” she scolded and I rolled my eyes before closing them and leaning my head back on the wall. “Can I look now? I’ve already seen you naked so what’s the big deal?” I questioned and she only huffed out in frustration in return.

“This is definitely not made for my body.” she mumbled and that’s when I opened my eyes. I bit my bottom lip at the sight in front of me, “Yes it was, fuck you talking about?”

She shook her head in disagreement and kept looking at herself in the mirror. “Nope, look I have stretch marks on my hips and shit. Like it’s not cute at all and my ass, don’t even get me started on that!” she told me and I waved her off.

I hopped up off the little stool and stood behind her, placing my hands on her hips then rest my head on her shoulder. “You do forget you were pregnant right?” I mumbled into her ear. She cringed at the mention of her pregnancy and I was slowly started to regret the words that left my mouth.

I opened my mouth to apologized but she stopped me from doing so. “It’s fine, I should get used to that.” she muttered and began to play with her fingers. I pushed her hair to one side and placed a kiss on her neck. “Stop it alright, we’re gonna get through this. And you’re going to start that by going on this bullshit date later on.” I told her and she started laughing.

“I’m serious but on the real. You look good and I wouldn’t lie to you about something like that. You’re gorgeous even with these supposed flaws you speak of. Now get dressed so I can buy these clothes for you and then we can go eat.” I told her and made my way out the dressing room.

I sighed and ran my hand over my face; I had nothing to do today and that’s how I wanted it. I took the day off from work on the tenth of every month and that wasn’t really a problem since I had my own business.

My tattoo shop wouldn’t suffer without me and no one ever objected whenever I did take random days off; I mean they couldn’t anyway, they had no say in what I did. It was always my dream to open up a shop of my own but I never thought I would be able to do it; but like always Avianna encouraged me.

She was my support system for basically everything and I missed that the most. She pushed me to do half the shit I didn’t want to do. She forced me to continue college when I wanted to just drop out. Hell she was even the person who convinced me to take the next step with Katlyn; what a mistake.

I reluctantly got out of bed and made my way over to my master suite bathroom. I wasn’t going to do anything today but reminisce about the times with Avi, eat, possibly smoke some weed and play some video games. All those things is what I would do with her if she was around so why not?

I stripped out of my clothes and walked into the shower; letting the water run down my body. My muscles relaxed as soon as the steaming hot water hit me. As usual, I heard her voice calling me; it was times like this when I thought I was seriously crazy.

I even went to a therapist to see if something was wrong with me but they said it was normal for people in my position. “Help me Chris.” I felt her breath on my back and then a peck; now I know I was imagining shit.

“How am I supposed to help you Avi? I have no clue where you are.” I told her and she laughed in return. Her arms wrapped around me and squeezed, “Keep searching baby boy, I’m still alive if that helps any.”

I wanted all of this to be real but I knew it wasn’t. It’s said that someone who is missing can appear to you and it’s like some outer body experience or some shit like that, but this is the first time this has happened to me.

Her touch was soon gone and I was getting out of the shower; she said to keep trying but I never gave up. I wouldn’t do that to her, she deserved to be found; I just needed clues on what to do to find her. According to “her” though, she was still alive and that gave me some hope.

My phone began to ring and I was going to ignore it but something told me to just pick it up. The lead officer on her case was calling my phone and I knew it could either be good or bad news. I slid the bar across the screen and placed it to my ear.

“We have a new lead, get down to the precinct as soon as you can.” he told me and soon hung up. I quickly got dressed and made my way out the house.  Now I had no clue whether this was a new piece of false hope, but I was going to go with it.