blue | a collection of tronnor oneshots

The Disappearing Boy

Troye had a strong voice, one that was accented and deep and made people shiver when heard. But after the fifth grade it disappeared. He stopped talking and we all knew why.

Troye and his dad Shaun had always been close. Two best buds and when Shaun got a heart disease and Troye was forced to watch him die, his mother a drunk and no siblings, something changed in the ambitious bright eyed fellow.

He no longer did that thing with his head when he laughed were his curls would bounce and his eyes no longer crinkled at the corners. He was exceptionally beautiful and when he grew sad and angry, quiet, he become ugly. It wasn't his fault, but the pressure of a horrible family and a school full of people who had no idea what to say to him besides sorry was waring on his slim form and I knew he couldn't carry it for much longer. That's why it didn't surprise me when he broke. It was a Thursday, everyone was walking into school after a pep ralley for the following football game. I was in the back of the crowd, our school had limited kids. About 250 students. I was walking behind them, Troye a yard behind me and as I was about to enter the school building I heard it.

Whipping around I saw Troye on his knees, his hands in his hair as he screamed. And he screamed so loud that a car window shattered and as the whole school turned around and watched he continued too. When people approached him he got even louder so no one tried to stop him. They let him get out all of the pent up emotion and voice. After all it had been 7 years since he last spoke. After standing and watching for a couple of minutes the teachers ushered us inside, my heart beating wildly because the once beautiful boy, the one I had been infatuated with since pre-school was screaming at the top of his lungs and I felt happy for him. I once tried not speaking for a whole day and by the end it felt like my throat had closed on me. I was drowning almost, I can't imagine how Troye felt and how good he was feeling when he let it all out.

He screamed for three hours. He didn't stop, voice didn't flatter once, and as the teachers tried to teach over the sound and the students sat in shock, disbelief, and fear I smiled. Call me crazy but I believed that Troye finally had his break. The first break he's had since fifth grade. He blacked out after those three hours and an ambulance came and got him. He didn't come back to school for two weeks and when that third week came around I decided to go to his home. One I went to only once before for a birthday sleepover in the fourth grade. I had knocked on the door and Troyes mom, Lauren I think, let me in with a grumble. Smelling like whiskey. I went up to where I remembered his room being, first door on the right. When I opened it I was surprised at what I saw.

His bed was still the same tiny race car bed he had when he was younger and his décor was made for a child too. Nothing had  been updated, nothing had been renewed and Troye had been trying his hardest to stay in the time when his dad was around. When love and affection were normal and deserved things. But what surprised me the most I think was the boy himself. He was standing in the middle of the room with a pair of blue scissors, one perfect curl laying on the floor, where he cut was sticking up straight like and anime character. He was in mid cut of another luscious spiral when i walked in, stopping in his tracks with wide eyes.

"What are you doing?" He had said.

"I could ask you the same thing."

"Well I asked he first." He said stubbornly and I realized that he was still that same little boy. It wasn't just his bed and it wasn't just the Hannah Montana poster on his wall. The now ugly but once beautiful boy gave me a glare as I shut the door behind me.

"I came to see you."

"Well I gathered that, but why? Don't you have something better to be doing fish boy?" Fish boy. I was the swim captain at our school but I'd never been called that before. I wasn't offended, ugly boys insults never really affected me.

"Actually no I don't, sorry for trying to be courteous." He narrows his eyes.

"I didn't ask you to come."

"Obviously not." Then it was silent. I remember how he sat the scissors down slowly and how he never took his eyes off of me. "I came to make sure your okay."

"Why?" And he took a step forward.

"Because you haven't come back to school in over two weeks. I thought you died or something."

"You noticed?" He was standing a few feet in front of me by then and I scratched the back of my neck nervously. Ive never been this close to a boy with eyes that big before.

"Yeah."

"I didn't think you would." He tilted his head to the side like a puppy and I remember almost laughing because puppies were meant to be cute and he was not.

"I did." And then we continued to stare at each other like I haven't been in this house before and we've never exchanged a glance in the past. We didn't say anything else after that.

We stood there for what felt like forever but was really only ten minutes until he walked away and started to cut his hair again. His hair was the only beautiful thing left and I suppose that's why he cut it off.

When he didn't acknowledge me again I turned and left, never once going back to the house where a boy 18 years old pretended to be 10. He never came back to school. He never even left his house again.

It's been 5 years. Nothing. Going from knowing this boy for all of your life for him to just disappear in a way makes me sick. I'm happily married, I've adopted a kid, I have a steady job. But he's gone, and for some reason that doesn't bother me.

And as my little girl asks me for a bedtime story as I tuck her into bed at night, my husband in the next room over, I can't help but tell her the one of the disappearing boy named Troye.
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I want to write fluff. I wish I could write fluff. I love fluff.

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