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Alright. After... thursday, I'm in the clear. Just gotta keep cramming. And go figure one of the scariest moments in my life had to happen this week. This one way surpasses the kitchen fire, almost car accident, any illness I've ever had. I hadn't seen my friend Brandon in around 7 months.. we worked together, then just fell out of contact till I gave him a call out of the blue about a month ago to check in, see if he's still around and alive. We made plans to have an impromptu coffee meeting in Seattle, when he got out of work. So I'm at Starbucks around the time we made plans...waiting for his call. He does so at around 7, saying that he's getting off the ferry and will be there in about 3 minutes (This Starbucks is literally not even 2 miles away from the dock). 30 minutes later, and no Brandon. No nothing in fact - no call, no sight of him, no hint of where he is. I wait a lil longer (had homework to do, anyway) and then call for the 4th time, leaving another message, this time saying I'm going back to Vashon. I was pissed, hurt, and embarressed. But then he never called me that night, (which got me to really start worrying..) and when I called his work the next day (damn near panicking,) the woman said that he didn't call in and that he never made it in. That his parents were scared to death and his roommate hasn't heard a word from him. This send me into full-blown panic-mode. My friend is a missing person, all because I wanted to have coffee. "he's dead, he's kidnapped, perhaps held up..." were the only things I was thinking. I looked for evidence of an accident, but the police said there were none. I called the two big hospitals in Seattle, there was no Brandon brought in. I called the fucking morgue, three different police precincts till FINALLY... after about 24 hours of near hysteria and consistent crying, Kris finds out that Brandon was arrested for fraud. I was stunned and totally exasperated in a worried yet pissed way.. but then Brandon actually called me last night (!) and explained that he got pulled over for bad tabs, and when the guy ran insurance through, the company hadn't transferred Brandon's name to this brand new car. So.. it looked like insurance fraud and car theft. He spent the night in the slammer, then they released him the next day after working with the insurance company. I took my pastry theory final with 0 hours of sleep under my belt, and nervous ticks. Goddamn. What a horrible, scary thing to feel like *poof* - your friend is gone and there is NOTHING you can do to bring them back. It's even worse to think that you could have avoided it by rescheduling, by driving them, by something so small and insignificant as saying "pick me up first." I genuinely was more worried here than I think just about any other time in my life. I just HATE feeling like I have no control, especially in scenario's like this, where I thought someone was dead because of me. But... it worked out. He's shaken but okay, and legal. I'm totally sleep-deprived and sick to my stomach from the adrenalin still. Two more days, and then it's summer though. No school, just work and some serous catching up on sleep. Talk about lessons in futility.
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