“Max is gone” Coach repeated, even more worried than before. Winter tried to calm himself. From experience, it was easy to make a simple situation seem bigger, when not getting enough oxygen to the brain.

After having breathed in deeply, he shifted his focus to the hyperventilating Coach, and took his hands on his shoulders.

“Coach, I’m going to need you to breathe in now. Deeply. Yes, like that. Now slowly breathe out through your mouth. You’re doing great. And then again. In, out, in, out. Yes, do you feel a bit better?” Winter had taken the situation under consideration, and before making too big of a deal out of it, information was important. Coach nodded, seemingly calmer.

Winter’s intuition still told him that it was pretty bad, however, he knew he wouldn’t be able to do anything only based on that.

“You said you saw him at night, right?” Winter asked, mostly confirming the things they did know, so they afterwards could puzzle those pieces together with the things they didn’t know.

“I know this seems obvious, but did you try calling him?” Winter tried, knowing it can be hard to think clearly when worried. He had tried that a few too many times…

“He left his phone in our room…” Coach whimpered. The big boy looked so helpless, worried and pitiful that Winter almost went in for a hug. But he stopped himself. His worries about his binder being felt or his forms being touched upon made him sick.

He couldn’t comfort his new friend in an important situation… A sudden rush of guilt rushed over him, feeling ashamed of who he was. Winter tried shaking it off, but it took quite a while, where in the meantime, Coach started blaming himself.

“I should have payed him more attention…” He murmured only loud enough to be heard with Winter paying enough attention.

“Enough attention?” Winter inquired, feeling like this new piece of information might be helpful. Especially if it was enough for Coach to blame himself for Max’s disappearance.

“It’s nothing. Just…” Coach started. He then interrupted himself as it looked like he struggled knowing what to say.

“It’s really nothing” Coach decided on, with Winter just nodding in an understanding way. He didn’t want to pry, as it wasn’t his place. It just made this entire situation a bit harder…

“Hey, toilet cleaner!” A voice called from behind them. Thom was running over to the two boys that looked like they hadn’t slept for days, each with their own anxiety and guilt trip going on.

“Wow, who died?” Thom asked jokingly as he inspected the two.

“Max is gone” Winter said, pulling himself out of it a bit once he heard Thom and his joking voice. Thom could at least do the comforting now that he was here, which meant Winter could focus on the things he was good at.

Finding the puzzle pieces and making them fit together.