Chapter Seven

The Elsher house was unusually quiet. The kind of quiet that settled over a family after too many arguments. Breakfast had ended in silence. Lunch had been eaten separately. By dinner, Sarah had given up trying to get everyone around the same table. Four people occupied the house. Four people grieved in different ways. And none of them knew how to reach the others.

----------------------

The music in Max's room was loud enough to shake the walls. He wasn't listening to it. He just wanted it loud enough to drown out the rest of the house. His textbooks lay open across his desk. Homework untouched. His phone buzzed.

Jaden: You alive?

Max ignored it.

Another message.

Kai: Coming tonight?

He stared at it. His mother had taken his car keys.

Grounded him.

Confiscated half his freedom.

Still...

There were ways around that.

He typed.

Max: Maybe.

He tossed the phone onto the bed.

His eyes drifted toward a framed photograph sitting on his bookshelf. It showed him at twelve years old sitting on Simon's shoulders during the town fair. Both of them were laughing. Max picked it up. His thumb brushed over the dusty glass.

"Dad..."

The word barely escaped.

He swallowed hard before setting the picture face down. He couldn't look at it anymore.

Not today.

----------------------Nate sat alone on the back porch.An untouched cup of coffee had gone cold beside him.

His laptop rested open on his knees.A reminder blinked across the screen.

Clinical Rotation — Monday, 7:00 a.m.

Another email from Dr. Singh.

Mr. Whitmore, this is your final warning regarding your recent absences. Your performance until now has been exemplary, but you need to contact me.

Nate stared at the message.

Six years.

Six years of lectures. Anatomy labs. Clinical exams. Hospital rotations. Nights spent memorizing anatomy until sunrise. He had worked too hard to throw it away.

So why couldn't he make himself care anymore?

He closed the laptop without replying.

----------------------

A knock interrupted the silence.

"Go away."

Sarah opened the door anyway.

"I brought dinner."

"I'm not hungry."

"You haven't eaten since breakfast."

"I'm fine."

She stepped inside and placed the tray on his desk.

"You keep saying that."

"I am."

She smiled sadly.

"No, sweetheart."

Max refused to meet her eyes.

"I said I'm fine."

She sighed.

"I miss him too."

The room froze.

Max's breathing became uneven.

"I don't want to talk about Dad."

"I know."

"So don't."

She walked toward him.

"Please."

The single word came out harsher than he intended.

"I just..."

His voice cracked.

"I can't."

Sarah's heart broke a little more.

She nodded.

"Okay."

She kissed the top of his head before quietly leaving. The moment the door clicked shut, Max buried his face in his pillow.

No one heard him cry.----------------------

Micah found him on the porch after sunset.

"You've been out here for hours."

"I like the quiet."

"No."

Micah leaned against the railing.

"You like hiding."

Nate smiled without humor.

"Same difference."

Micah sat beside him.

"I've been thinking."

"Dangerous."

"You and Max."

"What about us?"

"You've both decided anger is easier than honesty."

Nate scoffed.

"We're nothing alike."

"You sure?"

"He hates me."

"You hate yourself."

Nate didn't answer.

Because that one landed.

Micah sighed.

"I know you're hurting."

"I'm fine."

Micah laughed.

"You sound exactly like him."----------------------

Night settled over the town.

By eleven o'clock...

The house was asleep.

Or at least...

It pretended to be.----------------------

Max waited until he heard the last bedroom door close.

Then he quietly opened his window.

The old oak tree beside the house made climbing out easy.

He'd done it before.

Too many times.

Within seconds, he disappeared into the darkness.----------------------

Five minutes later...

Another bedroom door opened.

Nate moved silently down the hallway.

He avoided the creaky third stair out of habit.

Sarah had never fixed it.

The front door clicked shut behind him.

His car keys jingled softly in his hand.

He had no destination.

Only one goal.

Don't think.

Don't remember.

Don't feel.----------------------

The town had only one place open this late.

A rundown bar on the edge of Main Street.

It wasn't as loud or crowded as the clubs back in the city.

That suited Nate just fine.

He slid onto a stool.

"Whiskey."

The bartender recognized him immediately.

"Rough day?"

Nate gave a tired smile.

"You have no idea."

The glass appeared in front of him.

He emptied it in one swallow.

"Another."----------------------

Across town...

Max climbed through the bedroom window of an abandoned house where half a dozen teenagers had gathered.

Music blasted from a portable speaker.

Someone passed him a beer.

Another offered him a small plastic bag.

"You in?"

Max hesitated.

Only for a second.

Then he reached for it.

Anything to stop thinking.

Anything to stop remembering.----------------------

At nearly midnight...

Nate stumbled out of the bar.

He wasn't drunk enough.

He never seemed to get drunk enough anymore.

The pain always remained.

Just waiting for the alcohol to wear off.

He leaned against his car and looked up at the stars.

"I miss you," he whispered.

He wasn't sure whether he meant Eric...

Or his parents.

Maybe both.----------------------

At that same moment...

Max sat alone on the back steps of the abandoned house while laughter echoed inside.

He hadn't touched the pills he'd been offered.

They remained clenched tightly in his fist.

His eyes drifted toward the night sky.

"I miss you, Dad."

A tear slipped down his cheek before he wiped it away angrily.

No one was there to see it.----------------------

Just after one in the morning, both young men returned to the Elsher house within minutes of each other.

Max climbed through his bedroom window.

Nate quietly unlocked the front door.

Neither knew the other had been gone.

Neither knew the other had spent the night trying to outrun grief.

In separate rooms, they lay awake staring at their ceilings.

One mourning the man he thought he'd spend forever with.

The other mourning the father who never got the chance to watch him grow up.

Behind two closed doors...

Two broken hearts beat to the same lonely rhythm.

Neither of them knew that healing would one day begin with the person they understood the least.