ON HOLD peaches

v

"another full size. like, seriously, rich people are such suckers." dustin said, then turned to face sam. "except you." dustin smiled. sam lightly smiled back. dustin suddenly felt bad. "wait, your not rich, right?" dustin suddenly asked max, who shook her head with a chuckle. "no, i live up old cherry road" max admitted.  sam intently listened. "oh." dustin replied, feeling bad.

"no, it's fine. i mean, the streets good for skating." max said, reassuringly. dustin just hummed. "yeah, totally tubular." dustin said casually. the two girls cringed at the word. "what? did i say that right? or is it like, tubular." dustin asked, saying tubular without the r. "it's, like, totally tubular." lucas said, saying 'totally tubular' in a surfer boys voice. "totally tubular!" dustin repeated in the same accent. "what a gnarly wave dude!" lucas yelled, making the two girls chuckle at how childish their being. "totally brodacious, bro!" dustin kept talking in the same accent. "stop. our ears are hurting." max complained.

sam held max's hand as they walked, and neither said a single thing. lucas and dustin kept talking like surfers, but toned it out to look at max. her extremely white teeth made her look like a star, and even from the side profile, she could count every freckle she had. her red hair was flowing around her shoulders, and her smile was contagious. after walking a bit into a driveway, sam suddenly felt cold. not the touch, though. like frozen cold.

it was like if you were on a roller coaster but the only thing you felt was the tickle of your stomach when your about to go down a ramp. she stopped, letting go of max's hand. max looked back, sad she had let go. when mike bumped into her, she was back into consciousness. she quickly realized that will wasn't with them.

"guys, where's will?" she asked, scared for the boy. the others turned around and realized that the bowl cut boy wasn't with them anymore. "spread out." mike instructed almost immediately. no one hesitated to walk around where they last saw the poor boy. after a few moments, mike called out that he found him. they all ran down a small staircase into someone's backyard and saw will hiding behind a small brick ledge.

they saw that the boy looked extremely scared, as if he'd seen a monster. sam immediately knew that he had another episode. "is he okay?" lucas asked. "i don't know." mike responded. the whole time, max had a confused expression on her face as to why will was huddled and scared, and why everyone acted so calmly.

"i'm gonna get you home, okay? i'm gonna get you home. hold on." mike calmly told the boy, grabbing him by his shoulders and bringing him to his feet. "alright, take it easy." dustin suggested, walking over to will and tried to touch him, but mike shooed him away. "i got him." mike assured the curly haired boy. "mike?" dustin asked, almost like he was betrayed. "keep trick or treating. i'm bored anyways." mike told them, forcing them off of the two. he helped will up the steps and walked away.

max looked at the 3. "what's wrong with him?" she asked, confused. sam turned to her "he just has these episodes from when he was lost, it's kind of frequent so.." sam lied, but wasn't wrong in someways. she grabbed max's hand and walked up the steps with her.

"how was california?" sam asked, trying to change the subject. as the two walked to max's house, which wasn't that far in all honesty, max explained how much fun she had in california. how she and her old friends, nate eddie and ben, sat behind her house in the summer and afternoons after school and built ramps, how her dad would take her to watch the horses race on vinyl stools and eat peanuts, and how, in sams opinion, california was the best place ever.

"are you sure you'll be okay to walk back to mikes?" max asked, scared for the girls safety. sam nodded. max smiled slightly, squeezing the others hand. "thanks for trick or treating with me." max thanked, glad she had a friend in this shitty town. "anything for you." sam smiled. she then walked away, blushing crazily.