Erica fished around in her purse until she pulled out a cigarette, lighting it quickly.
Gordo slammed on his brakes.
"Put that out," he said angrily.
"It's just a cigarette," she replied nonchalantly, jokingly blowing smoke into his face.
"It's just the first step to getting rid of your drug dependency," he said, taking her cigarette and throwing it out the window.
Erica's eyes darkened, but she did not pursue the issue any farther.
"I'm not dependent on drugs," she protested. "I just like to have a good time, that's all."
Gordo sighed and decided to drop the issue momentarily.
"What do you have planned for me today, 'O Master and Commander?" Erica joked.
"Shut up," Gordo said back, though still smiling.
"Steer me in the right direction, towards the great nation of 'soberness'," she continued, making over-the-top quotation marks with her fingers.
"Are you high right now, or are you just normally like this?"
She smiled. "This is completely normal for me. Wanna quit?"
"No," he retorted. "Wanna drink?"
Her face brightened. "Oh yes, I would love some vodka. Remember, I love vodka as much as I-"
"-love you," Gordo finished. "No, I meant coffee, dimwit."
"Oh, sure. I knew that."
He made the all-too familiar turn that would take him to the Digital Bean.
Pulling into the parking lot, he and Erica saw the owner angrily ripping down signs advertising Matt's appearence the night before, which had been a Friday night.
"If you don't mind me asking, why are you ripping those down?" Gordo asked the owner, as he and Erica climbed out of his car.
"The guy didn't show last night. He didn't even call beforehand."
Gordo gave a curious look to Erica, who in fact had no idea why Gordo would care.
"That's not like Matt," he said to her, and when she raised her eyebrows in question, he explained, "Lizzie's brother."
"I mean, he's never flaked out on me before," the owner replied, still seemingly angry.
"I hope nothing happened to him," Erica stated quietly, and Gordo looked at her quickly.
"Why would you say that?"
"Wasn't their house robbed the other day? I mean, what if they were looking for him?"
Gordo nodded in agreement with the idea of hers.
"That's right. Hold that drink, Erica, we need to find out what happened."
They climbed back into the car, leaving the owner still standing outside and feeling extremely puzzled.
"I have this sense that you're right," Gordo explained. "But who would want anything to do with that house or Matt?"
They were both silent for a moment. The silence was broken by the impatient beep of Gordo's phone.
"Your phone's beeping," Erica informed him, and he reached to pick it up out of the cupholder.
"I've got a text message," he said, reading the screen.
The screen read: GORDO, IT'S MATT. I NEED TO TALK. MEET ME IN THE PARKING LOT OF HHS.
Gordo let out a sigh of relief. "It's Matt. He's fine. He wants to talk about something. Probably about that little girlfriend of his."
Quickly, he made a U-turn to the opposite direction, the direction of the high school. After the fast drive, which passed even faster due to the amount of his anxiety, the two pulled into the front parking lot of the high school.
Nobody was there, with the exception of a lone car in the corner.
"That's Liz-I mean Matt's car," Gordo stated. The car began to drive closer to their's.
However, when a lone figure climbed out of the car, it was clear that it was not Matt in the car.
"Who is that?" Erica asked, as he approached the car.
"I don't know," Gordo replied. The man's face was obscured by huge sunglasses and a hat.
The figure pulled out a gun from underneath his shirt.
"GORDO---START THE CAR! OMG, HE'S GOT A GUN!" Erica yelled, locking her door.
Gordo reached for the ignition, but remembered he had taken the key out. Frantically, he searched his surroundings for the key, not being able to find them.
"Run!" he yelled to Erica, who had since burst into tears. She unlocked her door, and started to run as fast as she could.
But she wasn't fast enough. Running, her foot hit a rock, and she tripped, twisting her ankle and skinning her elbow and knee as she landed. She lay on the ground, watching as the man opened the car door, hit Gordo over the head with the gun, and dragged his unconscious body back to his car.
He turned around to face her, and started to walk towards her. Realizing she could not walk, she tried to crawl away, but she was not fast enough.
The man stood over her, holding a white rag. He unmasked himself, just so long that Erica could see a glimspe of his face. She didn't know who the man was, but she thought that she had seen his face before.
He smashed the rag against her face, and soon enough for her, everything was all black.
