Chix Flix

Shutter

|noncanon, rewritten, edited|

Staring contest, it was a fun game, one he rarely ever won though with what he tends to challenge. A wall, a toy, the cats he sees in the alley, the paintings hanging on the school walls, the devil statue Dr. Cawley... Mr. Cawley kept back home. They all had their winning streaks well into the hundreds, all to zero.

Izzy gave him his first win just the day after they met. Since then, his challenges made him champion. Their face offs so easy to enjoy, especially with how fun it was to watch her slip up at his serious face as she closed her bleary eyes with a smile and laughter. She had such a grin.

He never thought he could care so much about seeing one person smile.

They spent countless summer days together. Showing each other things, drinking from her flask in his car, listening to music on the grassy ground, eating together late at night, trying to make each other's drinks come out their nose, and making fun of one another's little tendencies, they'd talk about the world and the future and what might've been had they met sooner or later, of what might be beyond their lives at school and home, beyond their tiny town where God seemed to find harmless fun all the more horrible than anywhere else. Where they were free from their past if they could only count the days down to leave.

They cried. Few times, but they have together, in the comfort of each other's presence. They rarely spoke those times. Their hurt too great for words, but their arms were open regardless. Things weren't pleasant anywhere, or always, no matter how pretty the scenery.

Maddox twisted the doorknob one, two, three times. Opening the door carefully as he stepped out in a happy hum. Summer was ending, and genuinely, he couldn't be sadder, but that didn't mean that the day would have to be a bad one. No. He had plans. A day with Izz, some breakfast first, then a spin by the mall, and the rest of the day for them to decide and burn as they pleased. A good day. A fun day. A happy day.

Without a word to the quiet figure that sat sipping at his coffee at the end of the table Maddox sat obediently. He didn't have to say anything. He was never really forced to follow this routine, but he did need to be seen. So there he sat. Silently holding a cup of apple juice he had no real craving for as the man sipped at the steaming cup in his hand, eyes looking over papers he had in a neat line across the polished wood. For a moment. He saw his face change without word or reason. Head in his hands. Air heavy and thick with tension. He blinked once before it changed again. Swallowing thickly as he picked up his own.

He looked up at the blond boy, then silently scribbles a few things here and there with his free hand, before delicately placing his pen down, and giving him a dismissing wave. Things felt different today. He didn't know how to explain it.

Maddox downed the juice as quickly as he could manage, trying not to taste the bitterness in it as he grimanced, said thank you, and left as fast as he could. Ready to hop into his car to go see her.

He tapped the cars handle. Four finger taps as he unlocked it twice with the little key remote in his hand, pulling it open and slipping inside with a hum. A light flickering.

The boy rarely questioned what he did and why. He was a creature of habit, unbreakable ones one would notice unless you lay and observe. Only the more obvious the longer you watch and look. Simply steadfast in the ways that gave him comfort, security,... surety.

The blond clicked the dead radio to life and sighed. Strange music filling the car, songs he hasn't heard before as he drove off down the ways he remembered his best, and maybe, only friend lived.

The drive was swift, it passed by him quicker than he expected as he found himself dazed off in her driveway. Staring hard at the lights on her garage that where on in broad daylight. Blinking once before he got out of the car, sun spots burnt into his vision as he tried to walk up the sidewalk lit up brightly by the sunshine.