“I’ll keep you updated.”
These were the words that presently caused a turmoil in Jordan’s head as he stared wordlessly at the mahogany coloured drink swirling between the mini ice cubes in his glass. He groaned loudly for the umpteenth time since he and Keelan had arrived at the bar tonight.
Looking away from the bevy of half naked ladies who were seductively batting their fake lashes at him as they twisted and turned their curvaceous bodies in all directions humanly possible, Keelan took in his friend’s seemingly frustrated figure with an eyebrow raised.
He scrutinised him as he continued to have a staring contest with the Jim Beam bourbon whiskey glistening in his glass. His friend, who was usually-if not always-quiet whenever they hung out together, that Keelan already knew he had inherited the position of the conversation starter, had been groaning and making frustrated sounds so loudly since the start of the night.
Clearly there was something on his mind. Something was bothering him. Yet another groan from Jordan tore Keelan out of his train of thoughts to discern what could possibly be troubling his friend.
“You do know that having a staring contest with your whiskey is just plain pointless, right?”
He hurriedly raised his hands up in surrender on seeing Jordan’s harsh glare. “What? I was just reminding you in case you had forgotten,” he said, trying to pacify him while attempting to inhibit his own laughter.
“Well, keep it to yourself, Mars. I don’t need it,” Jordan grumbled before guzzling his drink.
“Alright, spill. What’s the matter with you, JoJo?” Keelan teased again, chuckling when he saw another one of Jordan’s rare glares.
His friend rarely reacted to any of his gibes but seeing as his every word seemed to gain a reaction from him tonight, it could only mean three things-he was already drunk to stupor, he was in a really good mood-which was something that was probably light years away from J. K-or something really was pestering him.
Knock out the first two because one, Jordan always liked to remain sane at all times to avoid vulnerability, meaning not having too much to drink and two, even happy J. K was equivalent to expressionless J. K, so that scales it all down to one option; he was bothered. That was a rare case too but definitely plausible.
“Alright, let’s be serious now,” Keelan sat up, emphasising on the serious. “What’s the problem, J?” he asked soberly.
Jordan released a dry chuckle at the question, signaling to the bartender for another refill. He quickly slugged down the delivered drink before making a move to reply.
“What? Are you some kind of protector now?” he raised an eyebrow at his friend. “Well, there’s no need to worry about me. I’m perfectly fine, as you can see,” he strived to put an end to the conversation but Keelan was having none of it.
“Don’t give me that bullshit, J. Carol and I were worried about you. Apparently, you hadn’t left the city but it seemed as if you had disappeared-”
“Overexaggeration,” Jordan interrupted.
Passing him a glare of his own, Keelan ignored his comment and continued, “Carol and I visited your home-”
“House,” he interrupted again with his jaw clenched.
Keelan cleared his throat and continued again, “-visited your house to find it practically empty. Carol also told me you had been leaving the office rather early, although that’s a good thing, I guess, or sometimes, you wouldn’t even bother to check in at all,” he ranted on and on.
“I didn’t know you and Carol had become my guardian angels now,” Jordan tilted his head, passing Keelan a fleeting look.
“I had gone further to ask Skull about your whereabouts but it’s like that guy is your shadow or reincarnation or something, because he wouldn’t even budge or reveal anything,” he finally concluded, much to Jordan’s relief.
“I thought you were smart, Keel but I guess not.” Jordan quipped as he regarded Keelan with a blank look.
“What do you mean by that?” asked Keelan, slightly offended.
“If Skull had been unwilling to inform you of my whereabouts, then you should’ve known there was nothing wrong. If I had been in danger, he would’ve called you first to let you know.”
“Oh, I knew that,” Keelan suddenly embarrassed, avoided his eyes while rubbing behind his neck. “I just needed confirmation for Carol,” he mumbled.
“Mhmm. Let’s say I believe you.” Jordan held his sixth glass of whiskey for the night, slowly taking sips this time.
“Ok, since we’ve got the safety part cleared out,” Jordan rolled his eyes, “where have you been hiding all this while?” Keelan asked, genuinely curious as he racked his brain on the possible places his friend could have been hiding but he could only come up with three places just like Carol had-it was either his company, home-correction, house-or the clubhouse; better yet, out of the country for a business trip.
“Somewhere,” he feigned a faraway look in his eyes, intriguing Keelan who looked closely at him. “On Earth.” he smirked, watching his friend’s deflated expression.
Keelan kissed his teeth as he eyed Jordan, “Fine, don’t tell me. I’ll just give my attention to those sexy ladies over there,” he turned back to the ladies whose eyes still remained glued to him and Jordan, who didn’t seem to care less about them.
“Suit yourself,” he shrugged, diverting his attention back to the glass in his hand before his phone suddenly vibrated in his pants pocket. Not wanting to handle business with a jumbled mind, he chose to ignore the message until the device began blowing up with more messages, vibrating irritatingly against his thigh.
With furrowed eyebrows, Jordan brought out his phone and met it filled with messages from an unknown number. Wondering how someone had gotten his private number, he opened the message and instantly, his phone screen was filled up with pictures of a certain someone.
He stared at the pictures in confusion, trying to decipher why someone would send him pictures of her, his eyes widened when a sickening thought skipped across his mind.
In panic, he scrolled down to the bottom of the pictures, expecting to find a death threat or something similar, but he was stunned to see something he had never anticipated.
“I promised to keep you updated. Enjoy!” The message read and ended with a winky faced emoticon.
Immediately, Jordan recalled Logan’s last words as he had hurried out the door with his duffel bag in hand. The same words that had been plaguing and putting him on edge since the day before.
He didn’t know how Logan intended on ‘keeping him updated’ but he had been on his toes since they had left yesterday morning, constantly checking his phone for calls, texts, emails, anything.
After waiting hopelessly but to naught, today, it had finally occurred to him that Logan didn’t have his contact info nor any other means of contacting him to be able to ‘update’ him on anything, so he had given up hope until now that the surprise had finally arrived.
Jordan breathed a sigh of relief when his mind was eventually able to wrap around the fact that she wasn’t in any danger. With curiosity gnawing at his insides, Jordan opened one of the images and he felt his breath hitch as he gaped at the picture.