The Saturday for the date finally came. I was nearly as nervous as Kylie. The whole week she’d been talking about it. I thought it was odd that Kago never came to talk to her and barely acknowledged her when he saw her around school. How do you ask someone out on a date but then act like you don’t know them? It seemed strange but I never mentioned it. I didn’t want to add to Kylie’s nervousness.

On Saturday afternoon, she came over to my house so I could set her hair and put her under my mother’s big hair dryer.

“Oh that’s going to look lovely,” my mother said, as I stood taking out Kylie’s rollers after her hair had dried. “That boy is certainly lucky having a beautiful girl like you as his date.”

“Thank you Mrs Kereng,” Kylie said.

I combed her hair out and put it up with some hairpins. It turned out nicely. I sprayed it all over with hair spray. I brought the mirror so that Kylie could see. She was quiet at first, and then I thought she was going to cry. “I look beautiful. Don’t I?”

“You do,” I said.

She got up suddenly. “It’s getting late. I better go.”

Kago was meeting Kylie near her house. As with me, she didn’t want him knowing where she lived so had told him to meet her at the hardware store on the corner, the usual place I met her. I walked her to our door. “Have a good time. I’ll call you first thing tomorrow,” I said.

I watched her walk away and I had a strange feeling. Now when I look back I realise I should have paid attention to my feelings. I guess everyone does that: looking back, they see all of the signs. But still I wish I had said something. Everything might have gone differently if I had.

*****

Sunday morning I woke up and phoned Kylie. Her phone was off. I didn’t think much about it. I just assumed she was charging her phone. I waited and called later in the day and still her phone was off. I started to get worried, but then just thought I’d see her in school the next day.

At school I waited for her at our normal spot but she didn’t show up. The bell rang and I waited some more but still she didn’t come. I thought maybe somehow I had missed her and she was already in school, so I went in. But she wasn’t there. She wasn’t there all day.

After school I saw Kago standing with a group of his friends looking at their cellphones. I went up to them and they put their phones away. “Hello Kago. I wondered if you knew where Kylie was,” I asked.

“Kylie?” He looked confused.

“Yes, my friend Kylie. The one you went to the movies with on Saturday.” I was getting annoyed. Why was he acting like he didn’t know her, when I knew he did?

One of his friends hit him on the back and he stumbled. They all laughed. “OK, yeah, Kylie,” he said. “I haven’t seen her since Saturday.”

“So you walked her home?”

“Sure, why not?”

“It’s just she’s not in school today.”

“Maybe she’s sick. I don’t know,” he said and all his friends started laughing. Then they walked away.

I watched them go and felt even worse. What had happened to Kylie? Why did Kago and his friends find it all so funny?

***

Tell us what you think: Why is Kago behaving like this? What could be going on?