New In Town (boyxboy) (student/teacher)

8 No Sunshine When He's Gone!

A/N: Firstly, I just want to apologize for the considerable amount of time between the chapters, especially after a cliffhanger. I have no excuse except lack of motivation and getting distracted by videogames. I'm sorry my lovely, loyal followers. I also want to thank all the comments. I truly love you guys. Let's get on with it.

~JC~JC~JC~

My gasp was echoed by my stepbrother, the two of us sitting in silence as we watched the chaos of lights against Dristan's apartment building. The blues and reds faded into purple through my eyes as I rushed out the car door and towards the place where I left my new best friend. The small amount of time that I've known the other teenager seemed to flash before my eyes as I passed police car after police car. The wonderful things that have started in my life that I have Dristan to thank for. I felt a tear slip from my face as I approached the yellow tape, Austin on my tail. Pushing our way through the group of people surrounding the scene, I could hear, "You don't understand! I wasn't even supposed to be home yet! If I hadn't come home to find- Who would have noticed Dristan- him being-" A sob erupted from the man talking, a larger man in military issue camo, but the orange vest spoke to him having been hunting. The police tried to say something to Dristan's father but he interrupted. "No! I will not come to file a report, you start your damn search while I start mine!" His voice thundered, calling over more men in camo. "He's got a boyfriend, I don't know anything about him, but I will soon. You better hope you find him before I do. There's only a few reasons to keep a relationship a secret!" The sneer in his voice had me fearing for Mr. Delaney's life.

"I actually have a theory." A guy about my age said, walking down the steps of Dristan's apartment toward the group of people.

"Travis? You know who he's dating?" So that's Dristan's ex. The one that caught them mid-tutoring. I have to do something. I turned wide eyes to Austin.

"He's dating me." Austin said loudly. "And I want to know what's happened!" The fierceness in Austin's voice was completely legitimate. We both wanted to know!

"You're Dristan's boyfriend?" Travis said, sneering.

"I am." Austin said, but spoke to his father. "I was still working on coming out, to my family and my team-" He puffed his chest with his team jacket out with pride he had unconsciously. "Dristan made it worth it." Austin and I ducked under the police tape to get away from the spectators. Dris' father looked Austin up and down, judging him, before nodding and turning to me. "This is my brother, Jon."

"Dristan is one of my best friends. I know you guys haven't been here that long, but we're really close." He took in the leather jacket I was wearing to protect me from the New York chill.

"What do you know?" He asked instead of commenting on what we've said. The police floundered, obviously used to being the ones asking the questions. "You wouldn't have just showed up here if you didn't know something. So why are you here?" I showed him my phone, the message from Dris plain as day. "I wasn't supposed to be back until next week, but we were rained out. Come back to see the apartment a mess, but Dris is a clean freak. And he'd never leave books on the floor. I was putting them up, in his room, when I noticed his favorite is gone. He always puts it on his shelf, it took forever to find, you see." His father took a deep breath, everyone knew he was mostly rambling, but no one was willing to interrupt the stern man. "I went to see if he put it on his bedside table when I saw-" Another deep breath. "His phone was smashed to bits, there was blood. Not a lot. He isn't dead. Whoever did this wouldn't have moved him if he was dead." He was reasoning with himself, I knew that, but it was sound enough logic for me.

~JD~JD~JD~

"Then he got our phone numbers in case he wanted to talk to us, we gave our statement to the police while Dristan's father is giving his buddies orders and search grids. As soon as we left, I messaged you guys." Jon said, sighing. I felt exceptionally weird sitting at the diner's table with three of my students, but Austin, Jon, and Melissa were the only ones that knew. They were even keeping the secret, going out of the way to do so. I would need to thank Austin for posing as Dris' boyfriend, but first we needed to find him. "I think that skunk Travis is behind this." Jon said after too much silence.