He's Just a Kid

Missing Davenport

Bree invited me to her house after school for whatever reason. I agreed to go and she promised that Tasha would call my mom and let her know where I was going.

I was so thankful I wasn't there to hear that conversation.

I climbed onto the bus and Bree sat next to Caitlin again. I grinned at her from across the bus. Caitlin was cool, but I don't know how to describe her. She's kind of . . . intense. Let's put it that way.

And besides, I wasn't really thinking about anything other than the lack of a heartbeat I felt the night before.

Marcus, quite literally, didn't have a heart. But he could breathe, he could speak, he could laugh, cry, he could eat. Maybe I was losing my mind, maybe I wasn't thinking straight, maybe I was just so overwhelmed after kissing him that I miscalculated.

Maybe he actually doesn't have a heart?

That conclusion was so ridiculous I almost laughed out loud as Marcus took his seat beside me, quiet as a mouse and seemingly tense. The look of nervousness didn't fit him. It made him look small, fragile and like a child. A child that desperately needed comforting but couldn't find any from anyone.

I didn't like it at all.

"Please tell me you're okay."

I will never forget the way he looked at me. That detachment, the emptiness in his gaze, the worry hiding just beyond the glass wall of his shining brown eyes. He looked like the smallest touch would shatter him. No, the smallest breeze.

It didn't look like him. It didn't look like the Marcus I knew.

"Abby," he said, his voice almost breaking. What was wrong? Why was he acting like this? "I---"

"Girly, this is our stop!"

My head jerked up to see Bree waving for me to walk with her off the bus. The driver was glaring back at me in the rear view mirror, clearly irritated and impatient.

I stood up and walked around Marcus's legs, which he was holding in to make room for me, his eyes glued to the floor. I don't know what came over me, but I touched his face, guiding his gaze toward mine. He looked like a small broken puppy with those glistening eyes.

My face heated with both embarrassment and panic at the way he was looking at me. "Text me, okay? You have my number."

He nodded and turned away from me.

"Hey." I snapped my fingers in his face to draw his attention back to me. "I mean it."

I was sitting in the living room with Bree and the others, my attention on the floor. Everyone else had their eyes glued to the TV, watching a stupid cartoon or something, I can't remember. I wasn't thinking about that.

Bree noticed and nudged me in the arm. "Hey. What's on your mind?"

I looked at her, unsure of what to do. She was my best friend, but I didn't know what to say about something like this. I didn't know if it was my business to share at all. Like what do I do with this topic? This was Marcus's issue, not mine in the slightest. But I needed to talk to someone about it, and Bree felt like the right person to tell because she was his friend too. Maybe I thought she could help me figure out what I needed to do. Maybe that's why I told her everything going on without a second thought.

Maybe that was why I ended up telling her about me sneaking out to see Marcus the night before.

I had never seen her eyes so wide before in my life.