The Forever of Ella and Micha

the door, with the last of our boxes in our hands. I pat my empty pockets, realizing I forgot my phone.
    “Hold on. I think I forgot my phone.” Setting my box on the ground, I run back to the room and glance around at the garbage bag, a few empty plastic cups on the bed, and the mirror. “Where is it?” I check under the bed and in the closet.
    The soft tune of Pink’s “Funhouse” sings underneath the trash bag—my unknown ID ringtone. I pick up the bag and there is my phone with the screen lit up. I scoop it up and my heart stops. It’s not an unknown number, just one that was never programmed into my phone when I switched carriers.
    “Micha.” My hands tremble, unable to answer, yet powerless to silence it.
    “Aren’t you going to answer that?” Lila enters the room, her face twisted in confusion. “What’s up? You look like you just saw a ghost or something.”
    The phone stops ringing and I tuck it into the back pocket of my shorts. “We should get going. We have a long trip ahead of us.”
    Lila salutes me. “Yes, ma’am.”
    She links arms with me and we head out to the parking lot. When we reach the car, my phone beeps.
    Voicemail.

Micha
    “Why is Ella Daniels such a common name,” Ethan grunts from the computer chair. His legs are kicked up on the desk as he lazily scrolls the internet. “The list is freaking endless, man. I can’t even see straight anymore.” He rubs his eyes. “Can I take a break?”
    Shaking my head, I pace my room with the phone to my ear, kicking the clothes and other shit on my floor out of the way. I’m on hold with the main office at Indiana University, waiting for answers that probably aren’t there. But I have to try—I’ve been trying ever since the day Ella vanished from my life. The day I promised myself that I’d find her no matter what.
    “Are you sure her dad doesn’t know where she is?” Ethan flops his head back against the headrest of the office chair. “I swear that old man knows more than he’s letting on.”
    “If he does, he’s not telling me,” I say. “Or his trashed mind has misplaced the information.”
    Ethan swivels the chair around. “Have you ever considered that maybe she doesn’t want to be found?”
    “Every single day,” I mutter. “Which makes me even more determined to find her.”
    Ethan refocuses his attention to the computer and continues his search through the endless amount of Ella Daniels in the country. But I’m not even sure if she’s still in the country.
    The secretary returns to the phone and gives me the answer I was expecting. This isn’t the Ella Daniels I’m looking for.
    I hang up and throw my phone onto the bed. “God Dammit!”
    Ethan glances over his shoulder. “No luck?”
    I sink down on my bed and let my head fall into my hands. “It was another dead end.”
    “Look, I know you miss her and everything,” he says, typing on the keyboard. “But you need to get your crap together. All this whining is giving me a headache.”
    He’s right. I shake my pity party off, slip on a black hoodie, and a pair of black boots. “I’ve got to go down to the shop to pick up a part. You staying or going?”
    He drops his feet to the floor and gratefully shoves away from the desk. “Yeah, but can we stop by my house. I need to pick up my drums for tonight’s practice. Are you going to that or are you still on strike?”
    Pulling my hood over my head, I head for the door. “Nah, I got some stuff to do tonight.”
    “That’s bull.” He reaches to shut off the computer screen. “Everyone knows the only reason you don’t play anymore is because of Ella. But you need to quit being a pussy and get over her.”
    “I think I’m going to…” I smack his hand away from the off button and squint at a picture of a girl on the screen. She has the same dark green eyes and long auburn hair as Ella. But she has on a dress and there isn’t any heavy black liner around her eyes. She also looks fake, like she’s pretending to be happy. The Ella I knew never pretended.
    But it has to be her.
    “Dude, what are you doing?” Ethan complains as I snatch my phone off my bed. “I thought we were giving up for the day.”
    I tap the screen and call information. “Yeah, can I get a number for Ella Daniels in Las Vegas, Nevada.” I wait, worried she’s not going to be listed.
    “She’s been down in
Vegas
.” Ethan peers at the photo on the screen of Ella standing next to a girl with blonde hair and