I Don't Do Sadness // Jyrus

woe

Throughout the entire day, it was nearly impossible for Jonah to not tell Andi and Buffy that he knew where Cyrus was. He was nearly ripping at the seams, bursting with wanting to tell them so that they would stop worrying, but he knew that that was not what Cyrus would want.

Cyrus was well at home, just laying in bed all day. He was too afraid to go out into the house, and he didn't need to, frankly. He was back to not eating, having discarded the banana Jonah gave him, and he didn't have much energy to get up.

His step-mother, on the other hand, wasn't well. Her and Leslie, Cyrus' mother sat in a coffee shop during Leslie's lunch break, Sharon had refused to go to work at all.

"We need to do something," Sharon stated once Leslie sat down across from her.

Leslie took a drink from her cup and glared down it at Sharon. "We've down all we can do," she replied, setting the cup down. "We can keep searching the neighborhood but it won't do much."

"You don't suppose he'd come home, do you?"

"Oh of course he will. He's not strong enough to go outside and actually stay there, he'll be back by the end of the week. He just wants attention. And we're not giving him attention." She took another sip of her drink, and turned her attention to her phone, responding to a text.

Sharon sat with her mouth dropped. Once Leslie seemed to be done, she leaned across the table to her and said, "If you're not going to call the police, I will."

"I just don't find it to be a big deal," Leslie said, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed.

"You don't find your son missing to be a big deal?"

Leslie stood up abruptly and snatched her cup from off the table. "Call them if you want. But the cops aren't going to do anything." Then she turned and walked out of the restaurant.

Sharon stayed for a few minutes herself to collect her thoughts before heading out to the car, where she did call the police. She explained the night of the disappearance to them and they told her that they'd be on it, which allowed her to take a breath.

Once the phone call was over, she clicked the home button and saw Cyrus' smiling face at her as her wallpaper.

She caught herself smiling back before tears appeared in her eyes. She wanted her son back and she wanted to see him smile again. She somehow knew that everything that had happened was Leslie's fault and she immediately pulled the car around and drove over the Cyrus' father's office.

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Jonah and Andi walked out of the school together and started along the way home when they saw Bex pull up along the sidewalk on her motorcycle. Andi greeted her and Jonah gave her a weak smile once she took off her helmet.

"I figured we could go out looking for Cyrus again. Maybe some places we haven't looked."

Andi nodded, sadly, and climbed onto the back of the bike before turning to Jonah. He almost broke. "Do you want to come?"

On the spot he couldn't think of any excuses not to go. Non that Andi would believe. He was going to tell her that he had chores to do when there was a loud siren being heard coming up the road. They turned to see a police car being trailed close behind by Cyrus' step-mother. They pulled over right in front of the three and Sharon followed the officer over to them.

Jonah smiled to her and said, "Hey Dr. Goodman," but she wasn't smiling.

"Jonah Beck and Andi Mack?" The officer asked them for reassurance. Once they both nodded, she said, "So you were with Cyrus on the night of his disappearance?"

Jonah felt his body go cold. The phrasing of the question hit a spot in him and he wasn't sure what to say. "Our friend Buffy was the last to see him," Andi quickly said.

When Jonah looked over to her, it looked as if she had tears appearing in her eyes. "Him and I had a fight earlier that day."

The officer pulled out her pad and asked Andi for more details. "Well," she sighed looking over to Jonah. She looked at her hands, struggling over her words, before saying, "He liked Jonah, but he saw him and I kiss so he got mad at me."

Jonah felt himself mentally take a step back. He blinked a few times heavily at Andi's words, and was quickly asked by the officer, "Were you with him at all that day?"

"N-no, sir," Jonah quickly said, having to push what Andi just said out of his mind. "I saw him leaving school but we didn't talk."

He caught a glance of Sharon out of the corner of his eye, her hand to her mouth and trembling with tears. Guilt rang in his chest. Here was a step-mother looking for her step-son and Jonah knew exactly where he was but couldn't tell her. He was so close to snapping and admitting everything but he remembered Andi's words. That Cyrus liked him. And if Cyrus liked him, he wouldn't like him if he turned him in.

Once the officer thanked them and asked for Buffy's address, Jonah returned to walking home alone. He had told himself that he would convince Cyrus to turn himself in. That someone cared about him.

Cyrus had a different idea about it. Once Jonah told him, "Your step-mom's really worried about you, I think you should turn yourself in," he felt a rush of adrenaline and stood from his mess on the floor.

"No! I turn myself in, then I go back and face my mother and step-father and do you know how hard they'd hit me once I got there?"

The room fell silent. Cyrus realized what he had said, but didn't care. His face was still cold and hard.

Jonah' was somehow even more worried than before. He stood to meet Cyrus and was unable to speak. He just wrapped his arms around Cyrus is silence and rubbed his back. Of course he knew that his parents hit him, it just really dawned on him at that moment. The flash of fear in Cyrus' eyes at the though of his mother and step-father.