Neighbors (Ethan X Reader)

Oh Shit!

"So you mean to tell me that she just vanished?" Ethan gathered your newly made friends over in his backyard. Aidan, Zoe, Anna, and Sylvia were sitting in comfy lawn chairs as Ethan nervously paced back and forth.

"Yeah, and she hasn't answered her phone!" Ethan makes a scene by shouting.

"Who knows where she's at now? Does her dad have her phone set up with a tracking device?" Anna asked.

"Maybe, I don't know. But what if she's hurt, or lost , or-" Ethan pulled his hair, pacing faster in a circle. He trembled and his voice cracked from being so worried.

"Did she give out hints as to where she wanted to run off too?" Aidan thought out loud, giving Ethan some sort of way to figure out where you were.

"No, all she said was that she wanted to run away. I don't understand why?" Ethan felt the tears form in his eyes; "Where is she?"

***

"Next on 103.7 we'll play some of the classics." The car radio blaring out over a giant hill viewing over the city. You lay on top of the hood of the car, slurping an ICEE and enjoying the bright nature. You checked your phone, which you didn't pick up since before driving off without anyone knowing.

"Tons of missed calls and messages. Hmm." You turned your phone back off, tossing it in the rolled down window. You wore your hair back tightly into a bun on top of your head held up by a thin headband. You wore shorts and a tank top, tanning on top of the car. No one comes up to this place. Surrounding you on the giant hill were tons of trees, leaving a patch of nothing for the sun to shine directly on you and the car. You smiled, humming a tune that stuck in your head from earlier.

You remembered last night- driving off. You felt no regret, you just wanted to get away. You gripped tightly onto the steering wheel, slightly driving faster down an abandoned gravel driveway leading up to a hill which you parked and stayed. You knew that Ethan and your dad would come find you, but you weren't worried about it. You just needed a small break from everything, from everyone. Being cooped up in your thoughts and the tension of being in your house and school was too overwhelming. You turned off the car, throwing the keys into the glove box as you started to violently sob into your hands for a few hours. After those few hours, you began punching trees and thrashing sticks and rocks around to release some of your built up rage. Panting, you walked back to the car and slammed the driver door shut. You stared at yourself in the mirror piece above your head. You sighed, wiping your smeared makeup off your warm cheeks.

You looked down at your hands, seeing your bruised knuckles with scabs covering them. You shrugged off the memory of last night and enjoyed your time alone while you still can. Though, you knew they couldn't find you unless they report the license to the police- which was a slight fear of yours.

"Maybe I shouldn't of.. No, this is good for me." You shook your head slightly, sitting up on the hood of the car.

"Besides, it won't hurt Ethan that I won't be home for a few hours."

***

"We've looked all around town, and we still can't find her." Serena sighed; she worried about you. Something like this never happened to where you ran off and no one knew where you were.

"Should we get the police involved?" Ethan pondered; as much as he didn't want to, maybe it was for the best. He hasn't heard from you and with every minute, his heart hurts more and more.

"I don't know why she wanted to up and just leave." Ethan spoke up; the girls looked over at him.

"I don't think she just ran off to stay away, she doesn't seem to be that person to me." Sylvia thought out loud. 

"It's something she would always bring up to me in texting conversations, and I never thought to tell anyone about it. I guess after the start of school, being in LA is hard for her now. She used to always call me late at night because her nightmares of her blackout would get worse; there wasn't anything I could do to help besides be there for her to talk to, y'know? I feel like her running off is my fault, like I could've prevented it somehow. With her own mental problems going in internally and stress outside of her head, I guess I can see why she would just disappear. Once she moved here- her mom died, her dad is never home, her sister is sick, she had a fight in school, she's had nightmares, she told me not too long ago that she has some mental illness she can't control that causes her to black out and become violent... Life just kinda sucks for her. I'm trying as much as I can to be there for her, but it's hard when she's not telling me everything or I can't see her. I'm a terrible boyfriend." Ethan covers his face within his sleeves, hunched over sobbing.

"Ethan, it isn't your fault." Zoe tried to comfort, but all she did was rub his back awkwardly. Sylvia, Aidan, and Anna spoke among themselves, trying to think of places they didn't look that they could try looking at.

"There's an old gravel road that leads up to a giant hill, maybe she went there to relax?" Anna suggested.

"We didn't look there, let's go!"

***

As the sun sets and the sky turns from light blue to indigo, you still lay on top of the car, enjoying the view of the city lights suddenly flashing on. You sit up as soon as it begins to get chillier, hopping into the car. You turn your phone on to text Ethan that you were okay and that you were driving back home. You missed him, but you wanted to stay up here longer.

Startling you, you notice bright headlights behind your vehicle. You didn't recognize the car that pulled up behind you. An unsettling feeling sat in your stomach, so you locked your car doors. A slam from the other car's driver's door echoed within the silence of the small wooded area. Footsteps was heard from outside your car, walking closer to yours. You felt scared, but what if it was just Ethan? You took a deep breath, looking out your driver's window to try to see who the person was.

"Y/N GET OUT NOW." A familiar voice was heard from the other side of the car. You quickly spun out to see Amelia with her face halfway bandaged still.

"A-AMELIA?!" You shouted, scared out of your mind. You locked the doors, but she took strong tree branch and broke the window of the driver's door. You screamed, kicking and wailing around to free yourself from Amelia's grasp until she unlocked the door and dragged you out of the car. Then suddenly, a large amount of pain shot into your body- knocking you unconscious.

***

Hours pass and Ethan along with your dad drive up a long gravel road to a giant hill where the car you took was still. Ethan hopped out of the car, running to the car where he saw the window's glass shattered all over the dusty ground.

"You're gonna want to see this." Ethan panicked, but barely just got the words out. "She's not here."