I Don't Do Sadness // Jyrus

the dumps

"He's not in there!" Jonah called out to Buffy as he jogged towards her, returning to the woods.

She quickly acknowledged him before continuing to call out for Cyrus and looking around for him. Jonah slowly walked over to her with his hands in his pockets. Buffy looked over to him and looked at him weirdly. "Are you gonna keep looking?" She asked him, confused.

"Oh, um, I'm gonna go home," he told her. He had an awkward smile on his face, and Buffy stared at him like he had three heads. "You're going home?" She repeated to him.

"Y-yeah. It's cold and it's getting late."

She squinted her eyes at him and nodded, still confused about his sudden mood change. He turned and walked out of the park, taking a deep breath as he went. As he walked home, he tried to plan out the process of how he would hide Cyrus in his bedroom. He figured he'd wait until it was dark out and then he'd sneak out of the house to go and pick him up from the park.

From there, he was lost. How long would Cyrus be there? Should he tell his parents? What would Cyrus do during the day? Would he go to school?

He went through the front door of his house and went past the dining room, heading straight to his bedroom. His parents were sitting at the table with his brother having dinner and turned when they heard him walk in. "Hey," his mom said to stop him.

He turned and looked at them, shocked, and stuttered, "H-hi."

"What's up, bud?" His dad asked before putting more food in his mouth.

"Oh...nothing," Jonah said, laughing, before starting back to his room.

"Do you want dinner?" His mom asked, stopping him.

Jonah turned back to her and said, "No," with a voice crack and all. "I'm tired. I'm going to bed." He said before turning and speed walking to his bedroom down the hall, and silently closed the door behind him, taking a deep breath.

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Bex looked over her shoulder at Andi and Buffy roaming around the streets, yelling out Cyrus' name. She saw the sun falling behind the trees and felt a cool breeze. She jogged up to Andi and said, "We should be heading home."

Andi's head whipped around to Bex and she said, "What?"

Buffy also looked back, her eyebrows furrowed. Bex pulled out her phone to check the time, it inching towards 9 pm. "Andi, you have school tomorrow-"

"But he hasn't been found."

Bex took a deep breath, fighting the tears in her eyes after they had appeared in Andi's. She put her hands on Andi's shoulders and looked into her wet eyes and said, "I know. I know, I know. But, he will be. Eventually. I'm sure there's a reason for Cyrus being missing and I don't think he'd want you to be running around town all night trying to find him.

Andi gave in, turning to Buffy and throwing her arms up. "We'll walk you home," Bex said to her and they went off into Buffy's dark neighborhood together in silence.

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After 10 rolled around, Cyrus' mother texted his step-mother to call off the search for the night. His step-mother was furious, but still met her back at home. Cyrus' father was pacing around with his phone in his hand and nearly dropped it when he heard the door close. His eyes were so full of hope, but when he saw it was only his wife, sadness took over his face once more.

She sensed it and went over to him, wrapping her arms around him. "Norman," she sighed, before nestling her head into his chest for a hug. He sighed and rubbed her hair. "We'll find him," he whispered to her.

There was a knock at the door and when she went to answer, Cyrus' mother stood in the doorway. She quickly came in, her eyes sweeping over the little mess in their house before settling in front of Norman. "We were just about to call the police," he said referring to his phone.

"Don't call the police," She said to him with cold eyes.

Cyrus' step-mother came up behind her with confusion all over her face, "What? We need to find him-"

"We don't need to police searching around town for him. I made posts on Facepage so people know to look out for him."

"Leslie, our son is missing!"

Leslie jammed her finger in Cyrus' step-mother's face. "He is not your son."

Norman wrapped his arm around her while Leslie straightened out her jacket. She turned to leave, calling over her shoulder, "When you find him, return him to me, it's still my turn with him." Before leaving, she turned to them and said, "Don't you dare call the police or I will be sure that he never comes back here."

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Jonah waited until the sun had officially gone down and the house was quiet before opening the window to his bedroom. He had gotten out some extra pillows and blankets, claiming to his parents that he was too cold, and said goodnight to them. Jonah kicked out the screen to his window as silently as he could, before crawling out of it. He was lucky that he was on the first floor of the house and his window was at ground level, however it was the smallest room and it was going to be hard to hide another teenage boy in it.

He shivered in the cold as he walked quickly back to the park. The blowing wind and sounds of the night were on his shoulder as he entered the forest and he pulled out the flashlight on his phone. "Cyrus!" He called out in a scream-whisper.

He heard rustling ahead of him, and when he pointed the light in that direction, there Cyrus was, tiredly rubbing his eyes. Jonah rushed over to him and helped him up. Cyrus' freezing hand joined in Jonah's as he said, "About time."

Sitting under that tree for a few hours had done a number on Cyrus' back and he was unbelievably cold and tired. Jonah carried Cyrus' bag, and they walked to Jonah's house in silence, also going as fast as they could to ensure that no one would see them.

Once they returned to the window, Cyrus said to Jonah, "Thanks for this, by the way," while he was opening the window.

Jonah turned to him, caught off guard and blushed slightly. "You're welcome."