Highschool Sweethearts (Boyxboy)

Chapter 47

Chris POV

"Christopher, can I talk to you outside, please?" Penelope asked.

My heart started to beat really fast. What does she want to talk to me about? All I could do was nod my head and the two of us walked to the backyard.

"Just that no one can hear our conversation," she said.

We went over to the tree in the backyard where Nate and Jacob both like to swing on the branches. I remember being them when I was their age: swinging on the branches at our house with my friends-until Jackson broke his wrist. Then my parents refused to let us play on it unless an adult was watching us.

"So what do you want to talk about?" I asked.

"I just wanted to see how you're doing."

"I'm doing fine," I said.

"Are you sure?"

"Gee, you sound just like Brian," I said.

Penelope took her necklace between her fingers and started to play with it. "Yes, well, I know this is really hard on him, just like when..." she stopped right there.

"When Elliott passed away?" I asked.

She gives me a surprised look. "He told you about Elliott?"

"Yes."

"Oh." She put her hand on the tree. "I never thought he would never talk about it. Whenever anybody tried to talk to him about it, he would get really angry and would yell at them, telling them not to bring it up again. It would get worse when he's around his brothers and sisters because it scares them when he's doing that.

"Then there's these times when he would get these nightmares about Elliott and he would..." She puts her hand over her mouth as tears started to show on her face. "I'm sorry. I'm getting really emotional."

"It's fine. Brian told me about the nightmares," I said.

"Oh. He told you that, too?"

"Um, yeah. He did. But he didn't tell me much."

"He would wake up in the middle of the night, screaming Elliott's name; it would scare us to death. We gave him some sleeping pills; it did help him for a while. We tried to talk him into seeing a therapist, but he refused. His father and I thought he would changed his mind about it one day, but as far as you can see, he hasn't. He just thought it would go away."

"But it didn't."

"I know. It thought he got over it when...well, when he started to hangout with you. I haven't seen him this happy for a long time."

I started to pick at the tree. "Really?"

"Yes. But when we heard about the picture and we saw that he was gone this morning, we knew that something was wrong. So we came over here because we were worried about him."

"Yeah, he came over last night because he thought I was going to kill myself," I said.

"He did?"

"Yeah. That's when he told me about Elliott."

"Oh." She puts her head down.

I looked at the house where I saw Brian and his dad looking at us. I can see that Brian is looking at us with a small smile and tears pooling under his eyes. It hurts me to see him in a time like this. I don't want to see him sad like this all the time-I want to see him happy.

Penelope looked at the house and smiled. "You know, he's been a little happy ever since he's been hanging out with you."

"You did tell me that."