I could tell that he cared about his boyfriend a lot. Which made me wonder even more why he was going through such great lengths to help me. I supposed that he had his reasons though, everyone had their reasons for doing the crazy shit that they did. I would have asked him, but I didn’t really need to know. As long as Eric was able to get them and bring them across to me, I would be grateful no matter what their motive was.

We sat there for a better part of the afternoon. When the light started to hint at dusk, there was a rustling in the direction of the path. I immediately let myself get my hopes up and started to pull the overgrowth away from the opening to see who was coming. After a few seconds, Eric emerged. He stepped out and straightened up as I craned my neck to continue looking down the path to see if there was anyone else coming behind him, but there wasn’t.

“What happened?” Trevor asked as he patted Eric on the shoulder with visible relief that he had returned.

“Where are they?” I asked, feeling a nervous burning at the back of my throat. “Did you see them?”

Eric was out of breath and he looked a little more worse for wear than he had when he left.

“Yeah, I found them,” he said. “They’re in the woods at the edge of the border.”

“Are they okay?”

“They’re fine.”

“Then why didn’t you bring them back with you?”

I was trying not to let my voice give away how anxious and panicked I was becoming. Something had to have been wrong. Otherwise, there was no reason they wouldn’t have come back with Eric. Unless maybe they didn’t trust him.

“The one guy, the tall one with the dark hair and the blonde roots,” Eric said as he motioned to his own head.

“Michael,” I whispered.

“He said there’s something he needs to do before he can leave.”

“What?”

What could Michael possibly have to do that would be more important than coming across the border at the first chance that he got? He promised. He promised me that he would come and find me, and now that I am here—with help, and trying to find him and reunite us together, why in the world would he be stalling?

“What is it that he has to do? Did he say?”

“No.”

“Well, didn’t you ask him?”

“I did ask. He didn’t answer. He said to wait for him here tonight and he would be coming through before morning broke.”

“All three of them?” I knew that they would all still be together, but I felt the need for reassurance at this point.

“You mean two?”

“No, three. Michael, Adam, and Rob. There are three of them together,” I said.

Eric shook his head.

“From what I saw, there are two guys. The one I told you about already, and another one that looks a bit like he could be in a rock band.”

That was Adam. But where was Rob?

“Maybe you just didn’t see them all. Or maybe Rob was off looking for food or something.”

Eric shrugged his shoulders.

“All I know is that there are two guys there and I was told that they would be coming across the border in the late hours of the night.”

He turned to Trevor.

“Are we going to stay here with her until they come through?”

Trevor nodded.

I was grateful for their help, and for their company. But I couldn’t keep my mind from going haywire with worry. Why wouldn’t Michael have come across the border right away? And where was Rob? It wasn’t like them to get separated unless something had happened.

Since there wasn’t anything else to do other than wait, I got comfortable on the ground and tried to steer my mind toward more pleasant thoughts of all the things we would do together in Canada.

Hours passed before I heard another noise coming from the wilderness. But this time, it wasn’t coming from the hidden path. It was coming from the direction of the road that we had used to get here. There was a distant sound of an engine running, and then the muffled sounds of talking that crept closer.

“Who is it?” I whispered.

“Border guards,” Trevor said in a hushed voice.

“But I thought you said that no one ever comes—”

He put his finger up to his lips to hush me before I had finished my sentence. Regardless of what he had said before, the fact was that the guards were here now.

“We can’t leave,” I said quietly. “Not until Michael gets here.”

Trevor shook his head and got ready to take my hand and pull me up.

“We can’t stay here and get caught by the guards,” he whispered.

“But don’t you know them? Can’t you smooth it over and come up with some excuse why we are out here that they’ll believe.”

“You don’t know these guys,” Eric said from next to my other side. “These guys have no allegiance to friendships, or to morals for that matter. Trevor is the exception.”

Just as he was about to pull me off to the side of the path so that we could make our way quickly back to the car that he had parked just behind the trees lining the road, another sound emerged.

This time the sound came from the path across the border. We all turned our heads around quickly to look and crouched in the mouth of the pathway—was Michael.

“Oh thank god!” I cried in a volume slightly a bit louder than a whisper, and slightly noisier than I should have.

As soon as Michael stood up, he grabbed me and wrapped his arms around me. Adam came out shortly after him. My eyes held onto the path, waiting for Rob to appear next, as Michael’s arms held onto me tighter with every passing second. After several seconds had passed, a dismal feeling sunk into the pit of my stomach. Rob wasn’t here.

“Where’s Rob?” I asked as I pulled away just enough to be able to look in Michael’s eyes.

Michael’s voice was slow, and less steady than it normally was.

“He’s not coming,” he said.