A door banged open somewhere in the house and thudding steps echoed down to the first floor. Ashlei looked up disinterestedly from the TV as Martin bounded into the room, eyes wild and glasses askew. “Get up,” he motioned and half ran, half slipped to the other side of the room. He pushed open the door to the backyard and yelled at Trenton to come inside too. Ashlei still hadn’t moved. She was drying her hot-pink nails and didn’t want to be bothered with whatever nonsense Martin had cooked up in that room of his.

Trenton was a little more curious, but still irritated at Martin’s interruption. He had been working on his pecs and was about to launch into a 5 kilometer run when Martin stopped him. “Come inside, we need to find Betty and Laura and Mikey…” Martin rambled on as he led Trenton inside. “and maybe Terry too? I know Elle is out at the moment, but it is very important that we all stay inside for now.”

Ashlei rolled her eyes and blew on her nails. “Spit it out Marty, what d’ya wanna say to us? We’re all very busy as you can see,” and she stretched out luxuriously on the love seat.

Now it was Trenton’s turn to roll his eyes. Ashlei hardly ever did anything worthwhile and though Martin was eccentric, it wasn’t anything intolerable. He pushed Ashlei’s legs off the couch and plopped down on the edge, ignoring her venomous glare. “Okay Martin, tell us what you want to say first, and then we’ll help you find the others.”

Martin looked like he wanted to argue but something flitted across his face and he went slack-jawed for a moment. “Chris is missing,” he said absentmindedly and wandered into the kitchen, looking for a snack.

For all of three seconds, Ashlei and Trenton stared at the spot Martin had been occupying. Then like a volcano finally erupting, they both jumped up and began shouting over one another.

“WHAT D’YOU MEAN-”

“WHERE COULD HE BE-”

“THIS IS A BAD JOKE MARTY-”

“STOP EATING THAT PEANUT BUTTER AND LISTEN TO US,” they yelled in unison. Martin looked up innocently, a childish demeanor rounding out his features. He stuck the spoon full of peanut butter in his mouth and walked back to Ashlei and Trenton, jar in one hand and a bag of crackers in the other.

“What?” he asked blankly and Trenton had to resist the urge to throttle him. Sometimes he was the most brilliant student he had ever seen, and sometimes he got on a mental spacehip and flew away at the worst possible times.

“You said Chris is missing, Martin,” Trenton said levely. “What do you mean that he’s missing? He can’t be missing missing, right?”

“Yeah, I just saw him this morning and it’s only like three in the afternoon,” for her usual cool appearance, Ashlei was starting to look a little ruffled. Pink spots smudged her perfectly bronzed cheeks and her trembling lips betrayed her uncertainty. Chris had never gone missing before, he’d leave for a few hours, but he always came back before anybody got too worried. If Martin was spreading the panic alarm already… “How can you be sure that Chris is gone? Did you see him leave?”

Martin snorted derisively but choked on his peanut butter and had to swallow loudly before saying, “Of course I’m sure. I wouldn’t come to bother you all if my statement had no validity,” he walked back to the kitchen and deposited the jar and crackers into the trash. “He told me he was leaving last night and he didn’t know if he would come back, if at all.”

Trenton’s mouth hung open in a perfect O and Ashlei was frozen on the couch. That was how Betty and Mikey saw them when they walked into the room.

“You knew since last night? Why didn’t you say anything?” Ashlei screamed. “He could be long gone now, he could be on the other side of the planet since we didn’t do anything and let him walk right out the front door!”

“Woah woah woah there, Ashlei,” Mikey said. “What’s the matter? What’s wrong?”

She rounded on the stocky boy next. He didn’t falter under her angry gaze and kept her blazing eyes with his calm blue ones. “Marty over here just so happened to forget to mention that Chris left. For good. And now we don’t know where he went or why.”

Mikey looked mildly surprised but only glanced at Betty without saying anything. She shrugged a shoulder in an I don’t really know how to deal with her right now kind of way and pretended to go over to help Trenton who was sweating more than when he was working out, and hyperventilating to top it off. “Well he’s been dropping hints that he was going to leave for a while now. Didn’t you notice?”

“What are you even talking about Mike,” Ashlei groaned. “I don’t even know what any of you are saying anymore,” and she sank back into the couch, half-heartedly waving her hand through the air.

Mikey stood in the middle of the room. Martin had wandered off to find and tell the others his grand news, still in his euphoric cloud; Betty’s curly head was bent over Trenton, trying to calm the 320-lb football player that all was well; and Ashlei lay lethargically where she had fallen, looking at nothing.

He began to pace the length of the room, kicking aside books and wadded up newspaper the cats must have been playing with. There was no noticeable damage to the house since Chris had left: the walls had not caved in, the lights did not black out, and the furniture was mostly intact. For now. There was one time Chris, in his fool hardy sense of the world, ran full on out of his father’s apartment building to meet his mother (his parents had recently divorced and he was excited to tell his mom of his time with dad in the big city) and he was hit by a taxi cab. Those two months in a coma were the scariest Mikey could remember. Since Chris was gone and he couldn’t bring himself to wake up, the rest of them were left to fend for themselves in this house, which slowly fell to disrepair and broke itself into chunks.

“He didn’t say he would leave for good,” Mikey said slowly. “He wanted a vacation, some time alone, that’s what he’s been saying these last few months.”

“I thought that was all a joke,” Ashlei said in exasperation. “Y’know how he gets sometimes, so melodramatic and all.”

But Mikey was already shaking his head. “He was talking about suicide. That wasn’t a joke Ashlei. He was really depressed.” and then his face softened and he said, so quiet only Betty could hear, “and we did nothing to help him.”

Ashlei rolled her head and looked at Mikey lopsidedly. “So what do we do now?”

Mikey started to pick up the trash lying around, which Chris would usually have cleaned up by now. “We find him,” he began to prod Trenton up and Betty left to do the same to others around the house. “We find him and we bring him home. Simple as that.”

“You aren’t really hearing yourself,” Ashlei sneered. “This isn’t some bullshit game of hide and go seek. Chris is probably dead by now, and you have the attitude to be optimistic? The hell Mike. The actual hell.” She stood up and left, banging on chairs and tables loudly as she made her way upstairs.

Mikey looked at Trenton, who had calmed down somewhat, and shrugged. “We don’t know yet.”

They both began clearing the debris that had piled up since Chris had left and sat down once everything was meticulously spotless. It was silent for awhile.

Trenton huddled himself into a ball so Mikey sat opposite him and tried to comfort the bigger teen. Mikey sifted through his own thoughts carefully, and no matter how he played it, there was only one feasible solution. He didn’t want to voice it in case Trenton had another breakdown and Ashlei might try to stop him. But he couldn’t just let Chris wander around aimlessly while they were all trapped at home.

“I’ll be back, okay Trenton? I promise,” Mikey left Trenton in the room and climbed the arduous staircase to his bedroom. It’s not like Mikey had prepared for Chris’ departure, but like before, they would not have survived another experience like that if it ever happened again. Mikey had set precautions. He closed his door carefully behind him and locked it for good measure. He didn’t expect anyone to come barging in, but it was a rather tenuous time and everybody’s emotions were on the fringe.