Stand by Me

Chapter Fourteen "Running Out Of Time"

"Can you excuse me for a second?" I asked the three boys and they nodded. I walked to my bathroom, slowly, almost as if I took a wrong step the floor would crumble beneath me.

I entered the bathroom and quietly shut the door, I stared at the white wood tears flooding my eyes. It wasn't until now that the realization hit me, the emptiness. I looked into the mirror, staring at my reflection almost as if it weren't me.

I sobbed, sinking to my knees. I lay on the ground sobbing until I heard a knock on the door. "Hey, Mallory... Are you ok?" Gordie asked. Although I haven't quite talked to him in a while, I still knew his voice, even better than my own.

I opened the door and shook my head, and he pulled me into a hug. I walked back to my room, still crying but not as hard.

"We have to go find him," my voice cracked, betraying myself.

The other boys nodded "we'll meet at the tree house first thing tomorrow morning," Teddy said climbing out my window, the other boys followed.

I walked downstairs, my legs shaking underneath me. I was greeted by my mother "honey, are you ok?" she asked and I shook my head sobbing.

"Oh my goodness, what happened," she asked hugging me and I sighed.

"Chris is missing," and she froze a little.

"Teddy, Gordie, Vern and I are going tomorrow to look for him, find some things out," I said again my voice betraying me, it didn't even sound like my own.

Again my mom looked like she saw a ghost "oh sweetie," she said hesitantly and I looked up "we're moving, I got the court papers. I regained legal custody, we are moving," she said and I rapidly shook my head.

"No! No!" I yelled "I'm not leaving until I find him, I not leaving him!"

"I'm sorry baby, we're leaving at the end of the week. I know this is hard for you, but sometimes people just don't want to be found," my mother said and I almost didn't believe her. The end of the week was in two days.

"You don't know him! He would have left me a note, or something. He wouldn't just leave me like this," I broke down and she hugged me rocking me back and forth.

"You have a two days to find him, the police are probably aware also," she started and I cut her off.

"The police don't do shit!" I stormed upstairs, but yet my mother followed.

"Baby, we aren't leaving Castle Rock forever. We're gonna move away for the summer, and once your aunt is moved out we will come back before the school year. Maybe this is a chance to reinvent yourself," she said, thinking that was the reason I was upset.

"I just want Chris," I muttered, shoving my face into the pillow. "I know sweetie, I know," she rubbed my back and I fell asleep.

When I woke up it was daylight out. I looked at my clock and it read 6:20 AM, that was enough time for me to get ready. When I did get ready, I did it very slowly. All the energy was drained from my body.

I soon headed out to the tree house, thinking about the whole moving thing, trying not to think about Chris. What if he did run away, what would I do. Maybe he ran away, there are many reasons of why he could have but none are any good reasons to do so. If he really needed a place to go, he knows he could have came to my house. I guess running away is a spur of the moment thing that people hope will solve what ever is going on in their lives.

I climbed the ladder, trying to remember the "secret knock." My hand did it without second thought and the door was open, to reveal the the three boys.

I partially wondered why nobody was listening to music, playing cards or joking around, but I wouldn't either. I felt as though I needed to whisper, that if I talked it would be to loud.

"Guys," I said and their attention was focused on me "I'm moving in two days."

They all looked at me wide eyed "what? where? why?" all these questions were shot at me.

"I don't know where I'm going, but I'll be back at the end of the summer. Or whenever my aunt is finished moving out."

"So that's it! You're gonna leave without even trying to find Chris!" Teddy shouted at me.

"You think I'm thrilled to be moving! Well I'm not! I care about Chris just as much as you guys do but I have not control over the situation!" I shouted back and they all got quiet.

"Where are we gonna look?" I asked and they shrugged. "Maybe he went out to the train tracks," Vern said and we all chuckled lightly, remembering last summer.

"If he went out there it would take weeks to find him," Teddy rolled his eyes.

"Yeah but he only left about two days ago, how far could he have gotten?" I asked and Gordie shook his head.

"Even if we start looking now, he still has a two day lead," he sighed and so did I.

I swung my feet back and forth, "maybe we could look for clues, like spies of something," Vern said and I shrugged. That wasn't a half bad idea, we could ask around town, see who saw him.

We all decided to go out to town to see if anyone heard anything. We walked for 15 minutes until I heard some of The Cobras conversation.

"Come on Eyeball, man, you don't know where he went?" Charlie asked and Eyeball shook his head. I already knew who they were talking about so I tuned it, the other three went into Blue Point.

"Why do you homos care so much? He's gone," Ace said and the all started walking away, except Eyeball. Once the rest of The Cobras were a good distance away Eyeball called out "I know you were listening," he said looking at me and I slowly walked toward him.

"Do you really not know where he is?" I asked looking up at him. He sighed and shook his head, even though he never told Chris or acted like it, I knew he cared about him.

"Last time I saw him was when our old man was hitting him two nights ago, he ran away. I could've gone after him.. I could have," He looked down. Eyeball and I weren't friends, but we were on good terms, I've had a few conversations with him before.

"Was there anywhere he could have went, a certain place?" I asked rocking on my feet, from my toes to my heels. But he shook his head, I sighed walking away.

"Mallory," he said and I turned around, nodding. "I'm sorry," he said and I nodded turning back around.