Barely Breathing//Ethis

62||

Chris' point of view:

The doorbell sounds and Jakob stands up, getting ready to answer the door. He stops and takes the blades from my hand and proceeding to exit the room.

I sit there still crying for a good 5 minutes just letting everything sink in, Ethan's gone and he might not come back for months if he feels like it. I miss him so much and it's only been a few hours since I last saw him.

I hear footsteps climbing the stairs again and I assume it's Jakob until they get to my doorway and speak;

"Oh, sweetheart." I look up to see mum walking over to me, I quickly wipe my eyes and pull myself up to sit on the bed

"He left" I whisper as she comes to sit beside me, she nods picking up the letter and reading through it

"He said he would come back though, didn't he?" She reminds me

"But he's not here now, I need him here now" I begin to cry all over again

"You really love him don't you?" She asks softly, I nod

"More than anything. We need each other."

"If that's so, then you need to have trust that he will come back when he's ready. The things he's been through are probably very hard to deal with, when he does come back you just need to be there. If you need each other as much as it appears then he's going to be missing you just as much as you are him. He'll come back, just give him time darling." She comforts, pulling me into a side hug

"I want to know where he is, if he's going to be okay" I sigh

"I'm sure he's got the initiative to make sure that he's safe, trust him" she replies, she doesn't understand, he could be safe but he might not be safe.

Ethan's point of view:

"Thank you so much, I mean it" I thank Lara again as we get out her car, she's about a year older than us so she has her licence and can drive without adult supervision as far as I'm aware of. She agreed to come pick me up from the band house. I had already organised that when Chris and Jakob left to go to the studio I would pack a bag and she would come pick me up and take me back to her house.

"You don't have to thank me, it's okay. I'm always here for you, you need me right now," she replies meeting me at the top of the path, she unlocks the front door and we shuffle inside. "My parents are hardly ever home and our house is huge so I don't think they'll mind if you stay here for a while"

She leads me up the stairs and into her room, I drop my bags against the wall  taking off my shoes and sighing.

"I'm sorry" she breaks the silence between us, she didn't say why but I know what she's talking about, I close my eyes nodding slightly. I feel her arms wrap around my torso and she pulls me into a hug. I hug her back and rest my head on her shoulder, we stay like that for a few minutes until we finally pull away.

I wipe a tear before it has the chance to fall, she smiles at me sympathetically

"It's nice to get away from all the stress and pressure." I tell her honestly

"I know, I'm happy to have to here. You can stay as long as you want to" she smiles bigger now

"Should I call Chris?" I ask quieter starting to feel guilty for leaving without no warning or any signs

"No, I thought he was part of the stress. You're not going to get any better if you keep overwhelming yourself."

I sit on the edge of her bed

"He's not the whole problem," I state, getting ready to just tell her "it's mainly the fact that we planned to go to the police today. I can't tell them anything, I don't want to. They're going to want to question him too, right? That means I'd have to see him. I'm not ready for that, I'm scared. And it hurts even more that I know if he had the chance, he would do everything again." I shudder at the end

"Hey, you're okay and you're going to be okay." She comes to sit beside me "now, let's not think about that." She grabs my hand pulling me up with her

"What are we doing?" I let her pull me back over to my bag

"We're unpacking your stuff" she informs me, picking up my bag and bringing it to her bed

"Okay" I unzip the bag, she helps me take out my shirts and we start to hang them up in the space she cleared in her wardrobe.

We finish unpacking everything and by this time it's almost dark outside and I feel exhausted.

"Do you want to order pizza?" She asks already picking up her phone and dialling the number

"Alright then"

"It'll be here in 5 minutes," she tells me as soon as she hangs up the phone, I nod in response "what's up?"

"Leaving was the best thing to do, right? Does it seem like a petty excuse for not facing my problems?" I ask her, staring at the carpet in front of me

"I don't think it's an excuse at all, I get it. Sometimes you just need a break from everything that's been going on, to be honest if I were you I would have done something like this ages ago. You're really brave, I know you must hear that a lot now, but you are." She pats my back, we hear the doorbell ring and we race each other downstairs.

Lara pays for the pizza and we take it into the kitchen. We immediately start devouring the pizza, but after a while I begin to feel sick. I haven't eaten this much in a while.

"You okay?" Lara asks putting down her slice

"Yeah, just feel a bit sick" I tell her

"You should lie down, it's getting late anyway so we might as well get some sleep" she replies walking from the kitchen, I slowly follow her back up the stairs and into her room.

She climbs into bed and I stand awkwardly for a few seconds

"Get your ass in bed" she laughs motioning for me to join her, I do.

A/N: I can't express how much I hate this like ew no this is so boring