Chapter 6:

"Danny?" Tucker stood in the middle of the Nasty Burger's empty men's restroom. "Dannnnyyyyy?" He called slowly as he absentmindedly leaned down to check if perhaps Danny was taking a dump in one of the stalls. Didn't he come in here?

Before the door behind him could close completely, a tall, brooding Casper High football player came bursting through. "Move, geek!" Dash called, shoving a bent over Tucker into the sinks before hurrying over to the last urinal.

"Oh sorry," was all Tucker could manage as he tried to wrap his mind around the situation. Asshole.

Tucker stood up, turning away from Dash who was relieving himself, and aimlessly scratched his head as he exited the restroom. He slowly made his way back to Sam who was finishing off her veggie burger back at the table.

"Is Danny alright?" She asked as she delicately wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin.

"Dunno," Tucker didn't really know how to respond. I was sure he went into the restroom...

Sam furrowed her brow, unsatisfied with his response. "What do you mean, 'dunno'?"

"He wasn't in there."

"What?"

"He wasn't in there," Tucker repeated, thinking Sam didn't hear him the first time.

"I heard that, but where could he have gone if he's not in there?" Sam just looked up at Tucker who was standing behind his chair, looking down blankly at his melting chocolate shake.

"Maybe he went out the back door?" Tucker offered as he moved to take his seat. "I mean, he could have, right?"

Sam just slouched back in her chair and folded her arms over her chest in thought. "I guess. But why would he just leave like that?" Tucker just shrugged his shoulders as he resumed shoveling in spoonful after spoonful of chocolate ice cream into his mouth.

The two sat in silence for a few minutes, quietly thinking to themselves, until Sam broke the stale air. "Do you think he's been a little...off? Today?" She asked Tucker as she leaned forward on the table and rested her chin in her palms.

"Whaddaya mean?" Tucker sputtered between mouthfuls of milkshake.

"Well," Sam took a deep breath, "we didn't hear from him all weekend, he freaked out over the Phantom article this morning, and I dunno, he just seems different. Maybe, like distant in a sense?"

"Mmm, maybe," Tucker mumbled as he scraped the last of the chocolate syrup from the bottom of the glass.

Sam suddenly pointed at the center of her chin, signaling to Tucker that he needed to wipe off some excess syrup. He understood the gesture, and quickly drug his mangled napkin across his mouth before saying, "Dude said he was sick."

"I don't buy it," Sam interjected quickly, not giving his statement much consideration. "Just seems odd to me."

"Maybe he's stressed out about school?"

"The semester just started."

"Maybe he's having issues with his parents?"

"They're always out hunting ghosts."

"Well, I don't know, Sam, maybe he's just having an off day. Happens to all of us." Tucker shrugged and shook his head in defeat. He didn't really notice anything off about his best friend like Sam had. Maybe he was just being oblivious to Danny's behavior, but he did think his disappearance was weird. "I wonder where he went," he said aloud.

"I'll try calling him," Sam offered, reaching beneath the table to grab her cell from her combat boot.

"Or not," Sam sat back up and held Danny's phone in her hand. "It must've fallen out when he ran off."

...

The two opted to walk over to Fenton Works, hoping Danny would be home so that they could return his phone and school bag to him. Tucker got stuck carrying Danny's backpack while Sam just twirled the phone in her hands as they walked.

"We should look at his phone."

"What?! Sam, no."

"Why not? He doesn't have a screenlock on it." Sam pressed the power button to prove to Tucker that the phone wasn't secure. The screen lit up to reveal a background of an old group picture of the trio, only Tucker had basically been cropped out of the frame.

"Oh, thanks man," Tucker was slightly offended that half of his face had been cut out, and suddenly had no problem snooping around Danny's phone. "Go for it."

Sam did a quick look over of their surroundings, just to make sure Danny hadn't somehow crept up on them when they were talking before swiping open the home screen.

What kind of pictures does he have in here? Sam thought to herself as she opened his gallery. She began to scroll through the few photos he had, but quickly closed out of the app before Tucker could catch a glimpse.

"What was it?"

"Nothing!" She stuttered as pink flooded her cheeks, blatantly lying. There were some group pictures of the three of them, pictures she'd never seen before, but mostly there were candid shots of her. She could feel the heat of her cheeks as her heartbeat rose and fluttered.

"Gimme that," Tucker commanded as he took the phone from Sam's hands. She began to protest, but he took it anyways and opened the internet app. "What kind of stuff has he been looking up..."

"You're disgusting," Sam frowned, having a pretty good idea what he was looking for. They were high school seniors after all.

He ignored her and clicked 'History'. He was a bit surprised to find a plethora of various newsfeeds and blogs about the ghost boy. "Huh?"

"What?" Sam asked anxiously, trying to look at the screen over Tucker's shoulder.

"It's all articles about the ghost boy," he handed the phone over to Sam so that she could see as they stopped walking. "Someone's got a boy crush," Tucker laughed.

"Oy!" Sam huffed and abruptly turned off the phone as she briskly took off walking towards Fenton Works that was just a few blocks away.

"What? It was a joke!" Tucker called after her as he began to jog. "Hey, wait up!"