My Buddy Archie [3]

77..

I knocked on his door. "Archie?" No response. "Archie...um, I'm sorry I yelled at you sweetheart." Nothing. "I don't want you to move away. I want you to stay here. I love you too much to—" I pushed the door open, my eyes going straight to his bed, only to find it empty. My eyes scanned the whole room, under the table, in any corner he could be hiding in.

"Archie?!" I hissed, sprinting over to the closet door and my heart dropped when he wasn't in there. I clawed at his clothes, moved them out of the way, but he just wasn't there. He didn't go out on his bike. The front door didn't open until Niall got home. Did the side door open? No, it's a loud door, I would've heard it.

Panic sent my heart into a frenzy. I felt a breeze come from behind me, and whipped around to see the window was wide open.

"NIALL!"

--

"He's about this tall. He has dark hair, grey eyes." I rambled off over Aria's agitated cries. "He's eight. Sometimes he rides his bike around."

"The bike in the garage?" The cop asked.

"Yeah..." I muttered, defeated.

"Don't worry, sir. We'll find him. He couldn't have gotten far on foot with the snow. Would he have taken the bus?"

Connie shook her head, "He's never been on the public bus by himself." Her voice was thick with emotion, strained sounding. And my heart was still pounding with terrified adrenaline.

When Connie screamed my name...I thought something happened to her...not Archie. I ran up the stairs and saw Connie staring out the open window, while Archie's room was in shambles around her. She told me he took his pillow, all his underwear and a pair of sneakers in his backpack, probably—to wherever he went.

He actually ran away.

He...he fucking left me...

All those years I was scared he'd be taken from me, and he just up and left on his own. Through the window. Connie said neither of the doors opened, so that was the only way he could've left. My head reeled with the thought of him jumping out a window to get away...of him being so fed up with us that he'd risk his short life and dive out a window.

I wanted to cry, but I tried my best to hold it together as we talked to the cops. And Connie and Aria were doing enough crying for everyone. Zach whimpered, and fidgeted, but didn't cry as he stared wide eyed at the cops.

Connie handed them a picture of Archie. "We'll do everything we can," one cop promised. "We'll be in touch." And with that they left through the front door.

There was a beat of silence before I turned to her, "I'm going to drive around the neighborhood. Do you want me to take Aria? She might like the car." She shook her head, rocking back and forth to calm Aria down. "Everything will be okay, Connie."

"Yeah well..." She sighed, "It's not looking too good from where I'm standing."

Guilt kicked me square in the chest. Things weren't looking good to her, and she didn't even know I lost my job. She didn't know about my dwindling bank account. She didn't know where I was all day. Archie running away was as bad as it was for her...but she just didn't know how bad things truly were.

----

I drove up to the house after an hour and a half of driving around. Connie was sitting on the front step, wrapped in her robe with the baby monitor beside her. I took a second to collect myself, to take a breath. Where on this planet could Archie possibly have gone on his own? He doesn't know how to take public transportation, and it's not like he had any money. If he wasn't in the neighborhood, he has to have gotten a ride from...