The Disappearance

"May I have this dance?" asked Roger.
"Sure!" replied the woman.

They started dancing. Before they knew it Roger and the woman were making out. It was St Patricks Day, and both of them were drunk. They were on Rainey Street in Austin, Texas. Roger wasted no time.

"Do you want to get out of here?" asked Roger.
"Maybe, let me talk to my friends," replied the woman.

The woman went to talk to her friends. All signs were pointing to yes. She seemed to like Roger, her friends were all smiling when she got back to them, and they seemed very supportive of her and Roger. Roger put his odds of getting lucky that night at 90%. The woman came back.

"Where are you staying?" asked the woman.
"On South Congress, I want to say a half a mile away," replied Roger.
"Okay, we can go," said the woman.

Roger called an Uber. It was 3 minutes away. He was also there with a friend, Jasper. Jasper and Roger were best friends. Roger decided to take the three minutes to communicate with Jasper. The two of them were renting an Airbnb, it was the courteous thing to do. He left the woman to go find Jasper, who was talking to a group of people on the other side of the bar.

"Yo, how's it going?" asked Roger.
"Good bro, I made some new friends," replied Jasper. "I saw you making out with that girl, what are you thinking?"
"She wants to come back to the Airbnb. I called the Uber. You want to ride with us?"
"Nah man, I'm not gonna crowd you're space like that. You guys go ahead. I'll find my way back."
"It's all good bro, it's no intrusion at all."
"Nah man, I'm going to kick it here with my new friends for a bit. Think I have a shot at the hot black girl." Jasper looked over at the group. The black girl was smoking hot.
"Damn she's smokin'. I see you playa. It's almost 2 tho. What's the plan for after?" Bars closed at 2am.
"Don't know man, you guys go ahead tho."
"You sure?"
"Yeah, bro! Go have yourself a night."
"You need cash?" Roger held out a few 20s from his pocket. He was always super generous when he was drunk.
"Nah man, I'm good."

Roger gave Jasper a bro hug and went back to the woman. The Uber had arrived. He escorted the woman to the Uber. He held the door for her as she got in. Before he got in, he could see Jasper on the other side of the street. Jasper was walking down the block with his newfound group of friends. Roger had a bad feeling about this.

"Yo Jasper! You okay?" yelled Roger.
"I'm livin' bruh!" Jasper yelled back.

Roger got in the Uber and the car drove off. He and the woman started making out. Roger was getting very excited. She was a good kisser. The girl pulled back from the kiss.

"Everything okay?" asked Roger.
"Yeah. Things are going just a bit fast for me. Sorry," replied the woman.
"You don't have to apologize. You don't have to do anything you don't want to."
"Thanks. I'm not usually this type of girl. My friends all thought it would be good for me. They thought you were hot."
"Ehh I'm alright. As I said it's up to you. If you want to come over and hang out and just talk, that's cool with me too. If you want to call it a night and go home, I'll have the Uber drop you."
"That's so nice of you. Would I be the worst person in the world if I took you up on that offer?"
"On which one?"
"On the ride home?"
"No, not at all. I get it. I don't want you to do anything you are not comfortable doing. It's been a great night."
"I'm really sorry. I'm just so drunk and I like you but I'm just not there yet." She started tearing up.
"Don't shed tears on my account. It's totally cool. What's your address?"

She told him her address. He added it to the end of the Uber ride. The Uber was approaching his Airbnb. Roger was a little shocked by the sudden turn his night was taking but he understood the situation. Girls have a lot more to lose than guys. And if she was saying that she's not ready then she is not ready. All he could do was be a gentleman about the situation. The Uber came to a stop.

"The Uber is going to drop you off, I had a great night," said Roger.
"Thank you so much, I am so sorry. I bet you wish you took someone else home," replied the woman.
"Not at all. You're great. Don't give it another thought."
"Okay, thanks again."
"Hey, I don't think we ever did the name thing. What's your name?"
"Jennifer." She smiled. "What's your's?"
"Roger."
"Hi, Roger."
"Hi, Jennifer. Can I have your phone number? I'm in Austin for a few more days. Maybe we can get together again?"
"Yeah sure."

They exchanged contact info and kissed goodbye.

"Get her home safe man," said Roger to the Uber driver.

The Uber driver nodded. Jennifer was all smiles. All in all a great night, even if it didn't end the way Roger wanted it to. You can't overreact to the curveballs life throws you're way. Have to keep calm and carry on. Roger was a big believer in stoicism, a school of thought that taught an overall indifference to fate. It came in handy at times like this. Roger returned to his Airbnb. He called Jasper. It went straight to voicemail. 'Well, that's strange.' He texted Jasper. Fifteen minutes went by and there was no response. It was 230am, where could he be? Jasper's phone never ran out of battery. What if he lost his phone or his phone got stolen? Roger was right to have a bad feeling. He knew! 'Okay, this is no time to panic. Jasper is a big boy, he can take care of himself.'

An hour went by, and still no word from Jasper. Roger had called 9 times in the past hour. He sent 6 text messages. No response. The phone always went straight to voicemail. What could he do? He was very worried, this had never happened before. Jasper was away from home. He was in a strange new city. His phone wasn't working. There was no way he remembered the address off the top of his head. Not to mention he was a black man in the south. Roger did not want to go there. All Roger could do was pray. He tried to distract himself with the TV but it wasn't working. All he could think about was Jasper. Maybe the alcohol was fucking with his head. This had never happened before. They went on vacation together a lot and they always stayed in touch if they separated. It was the buddy system. They made sure one another was ok at all times. They always had each other's back.

Jasper was the man of his household. He had a mother, sister, and grandmother to look after. God forbid something happened to him. What would happen to his family? What would happen to Roger? He would lose his best friend. His brother. Jasper's family would always blame him too. Roger was responsible. Roger really did not want to go there.

Another hour passed. If Roger was worried before, he was in a full state of panic now. His stoicism went straight out of the window. He tried to do breathing exercises to calm himself down. He called Jasper every 15 minutes. Went straight to voicemail every time. Roger was stone-cold sober now. He was also exhausted. He decided that it was best to go to sleep. There was nothing else he could do now. If Jasper hadn't returned by noon the following day then Roger would have had no choice but to go to the police. God, he did not want to do that. But he would have no choice. Then he would have to call Jasper's mom. He really did not want to do that. 'Oh please god, if you're up there, please have this man home by noon.' There was nothing else to be done that night. Roger lay down on his bed. He wasn't sure if he'd be able to fall asleep.

Roger woke up in a state of panic. He checked his phone. It was 9 am. No response from Jasper. Roger's heart sunk in his chest. He quickly got out of bed and walked through the Airbnb. Jasper hadn't come back. He was still missing. Fuck. Roger had 3 hours left till he went to the police. He sent out another prayer. He walked out of the Airbnb and walked around the apartment complex. He didn't know why. Maybe Jasper had fallen asleep on the lawn or something. It could happen, they were pretty drunk last night. Roger was in no mood to be hungover. It was a gorgeous day outside, 75 and sunny. The sun felt nice on his skin. Roger was close to crying. He kept telling himself it was going to be ok. Whatever happens, happens. You have to be a grownup in these situations. You can emote later. Right now his job was to remain patient and not panic. He went back to the Airbnb and tried to stay calm. He laid down again.

Another hour passed. Roger became reserved about the fact that he was going to have to go to the police. Fuck. He heard a dog barking in the hallway. For whatever reason, he rushed to the door and looked outside. It was nothing. He closed the door and went back to his room. A deep sadness had set in. He closed his eyes. Two more hours. He heard someone whistling outside in the hallway. Probably another false alarm. Then he heard some rustling outside the door to the Airbnb. Jasper! Roger jumped out of bed.

Jasper walked in with a coffee in one hand and a brown paper bag in another.

"Morning bruh," said Jasper.
"Morning? Where the fuck were you!" asked Roger. He was relieved, ecstatic, and angry all at the same time.
"I had a night bro."
"What happened to you're phone?"
"It was on 2% so I put it on airplane mode."
"Do you know how worried I was? I thought you died. I was going to have to go to the police."
"Aw. You care about me."
"Thank god you're alright. Because now I have to kill you!"
"Relax bro, I'm fine. What happened with that girl last night?"
"She flaked. What the fuck happened to you?"
"It's a long story bruh."
"You better start talking."

They went to the living room and sat down. Jasper bought bagels for both of them. Roger started eating his bagel angrily.

"It all started when I saw you get in the car with that girl. I was like, 'Well if he's getting some, then I'm going to have my fun too.' Granted I was drunk as fuck. So the girl takes me into that fancy apartment building on Rainey and we go up to one of her friends' places. It's super swanky and there are a bunch of people already there. The guys are all in suits, and the girls are all in dresses. I'm like, 'what the fuck?' She then takes me to a room that I guess was meant for smashing. My spidey senses started going off and I was like nahh. I also didn't have a condom. So then we came back down and met up with the friends she was out with. One of them called an Uber back to his place and we all got in the car. The car was too small. The driver let us cram in but we were being too rowdy. This dude stops in front of an abandoned warehouse and tells us to get the fuck out. So we get out. Then we called a bigger Uber. At this point, I was ready to call it a night but these motherfuckers hit me with puppy dog eyes. So I decided to get into the Uber and go back to this dude's apartment. The second we get there he pulls out a handle of Jamo. When I tell you we killed that shit, I mean we killed that shit. They also wanted me to smoke with them but I was not about to smoke with some people I don't know. Me and the girl made out a bit more but we kept it to that. I passed out on the dude's floor. When I got up I looked at my phone and it was at 2%. I took it off airplane mode and called myself an Uber home. Then I got us breakfast. And now we're here," said Jasper.

The motherfucker.