Cabin Fever | ✓

(70) You're In Wonderland, Alice

If Jacobi was telling the truth, all this time he couldn't come back. Not because she wasn't good enough, but because he physically couldn't. If Jacobi was telling the truth, he's always loved her, and right now, he's trying to find his way back to her.

The least Marley can do is meet him halfway — by speaking with the one other person he'd confide into about this. A person who could have a note, or a journal, or a message of their own right now that could lead her closer to the truth.

Marley grabbed Aiden's phone off of her bed again, "Gabby, I have to go. I'll call you if this lead pans out."

"But-" Marley hung up, tossing Aiden his phone and turned to leave her bedroom. She made her way down familiar stairs, taking them two at a time while Aiden followed on her heels.

Her heart was racing, her mind working at the same speed. Aiden took her forearm and spun her around to face him. His blue eyes took her in with concern, "Take a breath, Marley. Relax. Why don't we eat and-"

She ripped her arm away from him, kneeling to tie her converse on her feet, "Stay here or come with, but I need to talk to Max. He could know something I don't, and," Marley paused to stand up for the first time in hours, stilling to meet Aiden's eyes with a resolve of steel, "I cannot stay in the dark anymore."

Aiden pursed his lips but nodded, bending to tie his own laces as his answer. Marley shoved her hands through her jacket sleeves, striding for the kitchen table, grabbing the journal and letter where Aiden set them down. He took his car keys out of his pocket, but Marley held a hand over his with a shake of her head.

"We need to take the bus for where we're going, or else you won't find your car in one piece."

She found her fathers' old bus pass in the drawer in the kitchen, turning to face Aiden who had his eyebrows shot up to the ceiling, "Do I get to know where we're going?"

Marley rolled her eyes, taking his hand and leading him outside. She let him go to lock the door, her energy still restless. Answers is all she wanted right now, all she could think about.

"We're going to an auto shop to see Max. He was my brothers' best friend."

-

Maxwell Jones was to Jacobi what Gabby is to Marley. A best friend, a confidant, a solace. Someone to play with at school and at home, who offered a safe place. But even Marley can admit that Max and her brother were closer than she and Gabby could ever be.

They were thick as thieves, spending every day at school together, and almost every day at Marley and Jacobi's house. In the years before her mother and brother disappeared, her father was rowdy and cruel to their mother, but he was nothing compared to Max's abusive, cold father.

On weekends when Marley and Jacobi's father had his poker nights, Max would be forced to go home to face the wrath of his own, but on weekdays he was almost always sleeping over. In the neighbourhood they live in dealing with a dysfunctional family was a right of passage, and an abusive father? Almost a given. The fact that Max was harmed physically by his father was so common of an occurrence that no one bat an eyelash. Even Marley and Jacobi were desensitized to it, given they had a bad father for themselves.

They were also three years older than Marley and Gabby were, so they understood more and suffered more, having to work through their struggles together. Marley had always referred to Max and Jacobi as her protectors from a young age, a role they were more than happy to fill. Though they were as big brothers always are — against including Marley in the games they played at school and at home — it was an unspoken agreement that if Jacobi wasn't around, Max would look out for her.