BLACKOUT; JR [1]

2.1

I tried my best to compose myself as Andy and I worked on tracking down the other boys; I don't think I had seen Andy look so anxious in my life, not even when we were in the forest. 

I nearly asked him to stop running and take a break before he started sprinting across the road, shouting out Jake's name with such an intensity it made me wince. 

I quickly followed, only barely taking note of the tiny bike that the blond boy was riding around town on. "Jake!" Andy called again, slowing to a jog as he approached the footpath. I was terribly disheartened to see that Jake ignored Andy completely, and didn't even turn his head to look at us. 

I felt the tears flood back to my eyes, and so, with a lump in my throat, I cried out Jake's name in one last attempt to make him stop. I was almost shocked at how my voice sounded; broken and high pitched, quite like an angry screech. 

Then, to my relief, he stopped. 

Andy glanced at my face, worry in his wide eyes. I met his gaze for a second before allowing it to fall back onto Jake, who was now walking his small bike over to us with slumped shoulders. When he looked up, Andy spoke in short gasps of breath, still not having calmed down from all the running. "I'm glad we found you." He said, squinting slightly at the taller boy. 

Jake sighed. "This isn't a good time." His words were not clipped or mean, but sad and confused. I could only assume that something similar to both mine and Andy's situation had happened to him. He briefly made eye contact with me, and I was quick to examine the sadness in his grey eyes matched that of his voice. 

He began to turn around, dropping his gaze to the ground before angling the bicycle away from us. "Wait." I took a step forward, offering a reassuring hand on his arm. "Where are you going?" 

He didn't look at me, but at my fingers on the sleeve of his shirt. "I need to find my mum." He replied, a new sorrow to his words. 

My eyes flickered to Andy, and my heartbeat started to increase as my mind tried to analyse what Jake could mean. 

"Jake, what happened?" Andy questioned, his eyebrows furrowed. 

Jake took a seat on the bike, gripping the handlebars with such strength his knuckles began to turn white. "Just leave me alone." He demanded, starting to ride off. 

I curled my fingers over the material of his under-shirt, yanking it toward me roughly until the wheels of the bike ceased all movement. "Yeah, that's not happening." I stated, dropping my hold on his clothes. When he looked up at me I tried to decipher the emotion behind his eyes, but I couldn't. 

"Why not?" He asked me, his lips curling in anger. "Don't you two have homes to go to?" 

I stepped back, shaking my head with a loud sigh. "I'm not sure we do." I told him, to which his head cocked to the side. I had peaked his interest. "I went to my dad's shop expecting tears from my father, who I know would have been worried sick, but neither him or my brother gave me a second glance." 

"The same happened to me, too." Andy murmured, anxiety falling across his smooth features. "I didn't notice anything when I first walked in, but I figured I was going to get yelled at for not coming home last night, even though it wasn't my fault." He stopped talking then, taking a deep breath and staring down at the ground with incredulous eyes. "I walked upstairs trying to find my parents, and when I walked past my room I saw that it wasn't my room anymore; it was my sister's! All of her stuff was in there! Then, my grandmother saw me; she cursed at me and threw a book at me." Andy's eyes landed on me, and I assumed he was trying to analyse my reaction. "When she finally chased me out of the house, she called me 'ghost boy' and slammed the door in my face."