take a good hard look ⚣ // scomiche

4

"Scott."

"What?"

"You're in a tree."

"So?"

He was sitting incredibly up high, death gripping a tree branch while dropping popcorn down on me. Mature.

"Will you come up here?" He shouts.

"Nope."

"Please? I won't let you fall." He slid down a few feet, enough for him too reach a hand down too me.

I sighed, letting him pull me up. He directed my hands to which branches too grab on, lifting me slightly near the end, so I could sit next to him.

"Ta-da!" He sang.

"It's a tree."

"It's our tree!" He yelled. I watched a bird retreat into the distance as he laughed at himself.

With him I was really happy.

Ridiculously happy.

Dilersiously happy.

Of course, it got fucked up.

We got address to Lauren's house, when suddenly, 

The car came too a halt. 

"Can we please stop," Kirstie says. She hangs her head low, her nose sniffling as she takes in a sigh.

"You want to go home?" Avi asks, his voice empathetic and calming.

"No, no..." She said, "I mean the awkwardness that happens whenever we talk about him."

Everyone slightly adverts their gaze.

"When I was 15..." I began, "S-Scott snuck out of school with me. On my birthday, and we went to the carnival."

"He used to tutor me in like, every subject," Kirstie laughed. "But can we just not talk like he's..."

"Dead?" Avi asks. We all nodded heads in unison.

"He's probably not dead," Kirstie whispered. She narrowed her eyes into slits before starting the car back up, promising it would only be a few minutes before we got to Lauren's house. 

I barely had any memory of Lauren besides the fact she had supposedly gone to live with her grandmother when she was younger. I was still calling her Logan then, and thought of her as the annoying little sibling Scott would push away when we were hanging out. 

I wonder what she was like now. How she looked different. If she was happy. 

"We're here," Kirstie finally said softly. 

Lauren lived in a rented house with a couple people. I think she started university early, because it was similar to a dorm. 

It had a few levels, and about 3 roommates, each of them having their own room. 

We were greeted by Lauren herself, who had waist long, bleach blonde hair and swampy grey eyes. She was holding a small cat in her hands, petting it softly as she began talking too us.

"Mitch? She asked, "why are you here?" 

She let us come in to her house. We sat down on an indoor bench, and I looked around too find a lot of the same things; cats and plants.

Kirstie had explained our situation in one breath.

"Scott was the only one who accepted who I was," she said, her voice slightly shaky. Her eyes darted back and forth, and she nervously toyed with one of her earrings.

"Do you know anything that could help us..." Kevin asked. How did we explain this? We sounded insane.

"He used to hang out with an older woman a lot," Lauren said. "I don't know where she is, but we could look it up." 

"What was her name?"

"Susan Grey, I believe. She lived in a rural part of Arlington." 

"So, let's find Susan, then."

I somewhat remembered Scott talking about her. 

We were at his house, me sitting upside down in a reclining chair, and him messing around on his computer. I think he said something about a couple, named the Grey's. 

Sometimes I wished I would've listened more. Or read his body language.

Because Scott never did anything wrong.