Max and I had become best friends ever since that bus ride home way back when we were in sixth grade. That afternoon, when the bus had finally taken its self back to our normal stop, he had told me he could see us becoming good friends.
Each day after school we would sit next to each other on the bus and then he would walk me to my house and continue walking to next door. Living next door, our bedroom windows reflecting one another on the second story was what brought us closer, what still brings us closer.
His bedroom has been pretty much the same set up since sixth grade. Only the Spider-Man posters are replaced with paintings from famous artists and the green walls are replaced with a dark blue. His bed still sits placed up against the centre of the right wall and his desk is still pushed against the window. The major difference is the lack of photos of his dad. That Friday afternoon in middle school, my dad came home and his left.
No ones seen Mr Elliot for almost six years and the last I heard he's somewhere in Antarctica training wild polar bears. Well, at least that's what my parents told me years ago to make the situation seem less scary, less real.
I never expected Mr Elliot to just leave the way he did. Chris loved Jackie and Max more then he loved anything else. Well, at least that's what I thought. I didn't know him too well, we lived next door but our families were never as close as they are now. I only saw him when he got the newspaper in the mornings or when he walked Mr Snuffles every Saturday afternoon. Mr Snuffles was their family dog - the dog Chris took with him that Friday afternoon. Whenever the subject comes us - which it rarely ever does because it's still a touchy subject for the Elliot's - Max states his mom got him and his dad got the dog.
Max had cried all afternoon about his dad leaving and I could hear his sobs at night from next door. I remember crying too. I didn't understand the entire situation but the fact that my new friend was sad was enough to make me feel empty.
When Mr Elliot left our small town in California, he casted a deep affliction over the town's centre. No one leaves the small town of Pine Cove and no one new comes in. It's the way it's been since I was born and I've learnt to adjust to the close proximity of everything in this town.
The man could be anywhere and it was knowing that which made the world seem so vast. How could a person just disappear? How could there be no traces that leave connections to him? It didn't make sense. It still, after six long years, does not make sense to me. And I doubt it ever will.
When my mother found out the news in the late afternoon that Mr Elliot had gone missing, she left the family dinner she had been cooking for my father's return and ran next door to comfort Jackie. I wanted to go over and see Max but my mom told me she thought it was best I stay home with my dad. The dad I spent three years without.
As of that day, my family did a lot of things with the Elliot's. We went on holidays together, we had weekly dinners together, we went to the beach together and sometimes we even lived together. It was my mother's way of comforting Jackie, to allow her to never feel the absence of Chris. Except it meant Max's life crashed with mine and it was as if the sun faded and the night never left. It was a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it because everywhere Max went, darkness followed.
Everyone in the town formed search parties. Neighbors would bring coffee over to Jackie and biscuits for Max. They were all looking and I almost wanted to laugh at all of them for being so stupid because they were looking for someone who had no intention of being found. Mr Elliot wasn't going to be hiding in the middle of the woods waiting for someone to find him, no, he was far from this small town and I knew he wouldn't be coming back for a very long time.
Sometimes I think that if Max and I had of been older, it would have been easier for us. A lot of conversation stopped when we came near the adults and we used to sit on the stairs eavesdropping on our parents talking about Chris. We discovered that the eighth step from the top of my staircase would allow you just enough space to see and hear the conversation the adults would have without being seen.
As the time went on, it became harder for me to picture what Chris even looked like. I hadn't seen him very much before he left and my memory from sixth grade wasn't very clear. I knew he had brown hair like Max but his eyes remain the biggest mystery to me. If they were as blue as Jackie and Max's, I would have remembered them but I don't. Jackie doesn't like to keep photos up of him anymore so the only thing I have of Chris is a black and white photo of him labelled "missing."
Ever since that Friday afternoon, my mom has said that we need to appreciate family more. Something along the lines of the 'fragile connection' that is holding the the four of us together - the four of us being, my mom, dad, brother and myself. She's petrified that one of us is going to disappear just like Chris. Except, Mr Elliot didn't disappear. He's not missing, no, Chris left. He chose to get up one day and leave everything he had back home and it was his choice to not look back.
I used to wake up in the night and I'd see Max sitting on his bed; sweat forming a coat over his body as his breathing was ragged and heavy. Some nights I'd wake up to him screaming and I'd have to shut my blinds to try not to look at the scared look on his face. He had night terrors, the ones you get when you've been traumatised and you sleep deep enough to sleep through most of them. Jackie never came in to comfort Max, I guess she never heard him and I wasn't supposed to go over there without my parents permission. Until one night, six years later and his sobs becoming too painful for myself, I did.
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Hey lovely people!
So I'm updating this super early because I'm too excited to not post it. However, future updates I plan to upload once a week :)
~ Startedat13
YOU ARE READING
The Bus Stop
Teen Fiction'Except it meant Max's life crashed with mine and it was as If the sun faded and the night never left. It was a dark tunnel with no light at the end of it because everywhere Max went, darkness followed.' Clara Anderson and Max Elliot were acquainta...
