Slightly O/T but relevant imo:
When I was 16 years old a friend from another school was set to cut class to meet up with us. When she didn't show up later we never assumed the worst. We thought she'd missed the bus, fell out with her mother, anything other than what really happened.
Even when her mother reported her missing we still didn't think the worst - we were kids ourselves -
our worst was meeting an illicit boyfriend or running away to a friend's house. One of the darkest memories I will ever have is my mother coming into my room, crying, to tell me they'd found her - and it wasn't good.
Knowing Charlene (she was so funny and kind, always smiling) never did it enter our minds that anyone would want to hurt her. It just didn't factor into our realm of possibilities. Our world, as young adults, was much simpler before that day. FWIW
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