The Fallout | ✓

32 - not a runaway

M A D D O X

"What?"

"What?"

"What's with the whats?" I looked between both siblings, brows drawn together.

"Nothing," Knox replied curtly, eyes scanning the parking for an empty slot.

When the car stopped two minutes later and no one made a move to get out, I turned to them, "What's going on? You're not going to sit here all day are you?"

"You should skip ahead, will come after you in a minute," Knox killed the engine and faced me for the first time through the whole ride.

"Oh hell nah. I don't care if you want to argue with your sister, I'm not leaving her alone for you to fucking chomp."

"I'm not going to chomp her, happy? Get out."

"Not a fucking chan—"

"Mads, it's okay, I'll be fine."

"What?"I swiped my head toward her with horror. This was unbelievable and I didn't understand why she didn't want me there to defend her.

"We have to talk our problems out, it's a rule in the family."

Knox cringed, "Please don't phrase it like that."

"But—"

"Please," She urged.

I grumbled under my breath as I aggrisevly opened the door and got out, worried sick to my stomach as I headed toward Lazy's.

I thought we agreed that everything between us was fine, that I was fucking serious about her. Was he going to convince her to end it with me? Was he going to fill her in with false assumptions and ideas about me? What if he told her about what I've been meaning to say all those months back to her?

Shit.

"Sir, sir are you okay?!"

"B–bathroom?" The waitress took my arm and led me through the place without a word. The played soft music that did nothing to calm me. She navigated me through the cats scattered on the ground and through the little throng of people. My vision became blurry at the sides and I was going to empty my fucking stomach if I didn't make it to the bathroom in the next five seconds.

Q U I N C E Y

"Just spit it out already," I urge, my eyes on Maddox's slowly fading body.

It feels like the air of the car is dry and tight with our silenced words.

Knox clears his throat, hand scrubbing the back of his neck, his eyes meeting mine in the rearview mirror before returning his gaze to Maddox's figure, "Did he tell you yet?"

His voice although calm and calculated dig a hole into my chest. All the question marks in my head swimming to shore at his question.

"No," I croak out finally, filling in the blanks by myself. My head falls between my shoulders and my gaze examines the car's floor.

Knox sighs, "I'm not going to spill what isn't my business, he'll have to tell you himself when he grows some balls," I want to interrupt and ask if that'll ever happen, if Maddox will ever fully open up and have enough courage to share with me whatever made him walk away from town in the first place but my brother cuts my thoughts with his voice, "But for now, I'll I need to know is if you're sure about him. I know it's not the end of the word that you guys are dating, but it felt like it was for you when he left back then."

All hopes of me feeding the ogre of curiosity vanish. I want Maddox to tell me the problem himself but at this point and after all the time that had gone by, I might as well stop as low as hearing it from someone else since everyone seems to know everything about him more than me.

After a minute of bathing in my mind's chaos, I open my mouth to answer my brother's question with one of my own, "Is it bad?" the tone of my voice feels almost shaky, even with the words leaving smoothly past my lips, " What made him leave I mean."

He pinches the bridge of his nose, "I guess so. It's pretty fucking shitty what happened if I'm being honest. But like... It's clear as day that it was no one's intention to let what happened happen."

It's like my brother is talking in a foreign language and I'm absolutely more confused than ever, trying to fit different puzzle pieces in the wrong spot over and over again.

"Is it that serious?" My breath hitches, "I—um... I thought it had something to do with him being bored and wanting a change of scenery and people or something like that. I just, I—"

My brother's snort slices the tension, the drastic change in his mood making me rewind the words I said and question where the humorous part is. He turned in his seat, his dark green eyes in line with mine.

"What?"

"You're so fucking dumb."

I grimaced, "And can my smart brother enlighten me?"

"First of all, yes I can. Maddox would've never left town, and as gross as this is to say, he would've only left with you attached to his a—"

"What do you mean? So this has nothing to do with trying to find someone else, someone new?"

He chuckled, "No dumb face. This isn't some runaway teenager shit, it's much worst."

"Well, do continue, you can't just leave me hanging," My heart thudded, my eyes searching his for an answer.

"Oh I can, and I will," He unlocked his door and hopped out, I followed him, shutting the door with more force than I intended from the rage boiling inside of me.

"Knox, what the heck? You can't just do that!"

He spun around and started walking backward, lifting the cap off his hair to brush his fingers through it before shutting the conversation, "Not my place to say all that shit, if he wants to he would."

My lips formed a tight line and I wondered for a moment if I should take a detour and ditch everything to sink into the disastrous thoughts that my brother had pulled to the surface after I'd tried to bury them deep.

.
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Been some time since the last one but here we are again, with a pocket of excuses and none that are earth-breaking

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,
—faith

4:49 PM
TUE, 28nov2023

Ps, I am so stupid to have forgotten to say ty for 500 reads, we're halfway to 1k, and that's like insane and I'm super super happy, and grateful for it all. Tyyy