Picking Up The Pieces

38. Gone

Maddie's POV

Pulling up to Elias's house, I see his car parked in the driveway which means he's probably home.

I park behind him, get out of the car, and ring the doorbell.

I wait and wait, but there's no answer, even after I ring the doorbell again.

A pit forms in my stomach and for no apparent reason I'm more worried than before.

Maybe he's at the beach...

I take the wooden stairs next to the house to get to the beach and, not much to my surprise, there he is, sitting in the sand and staring out at the ocean.

I approach him, slipping my hands into my pockets as I walk.

As I get closer I see he's still wearing the same clothes he wore two days ago. His hair is also very greasy and he's sporting a stubble again.

"Elias?" I say softly.

Elias' turns slowly, looking at me as if he's seeing me for the first time.

"Maddie," he says groggily. He looks tired and there's a certain frown on his face that I've never seen before.

I take a seat next to him in the cold sand, careful so as to not sit too close to him in case he doesn't want me to touch him.

"What are you doing?" I ask quietly. "You haven't been answering your phone and Bri called me and said you didn't show up to brunch this morning."

Elias keeps his eyes trained on the ocean when he says, "Oh, I forgot about brunch..." totally ignoring my question.

"Well, maybe call Bri and tell her that," I press. "Her and Michael are worried about you... I'm worried about you."

Elias glances at me for a moment, clenching his jaw, before staring straight ahead again. "My phone isn't charged."

I want to say, "Charge it then," but something about the way he said it makes me hesitate.

What is going on? He's never acted like this before.

"I-I'm sorry for snapping at you," I say after a moment of silence.

"It's fine," he mumbles.

I watch him run his hands through the sand, his hair shifting in the wind a bit while his lips are slowly but steadily turning blue.

"Hey, are you alright?" I ask, closing the space between us and taking his hand in mine.

"I'm fine," he says, closing his eyes.

I watch him closely, knowing he just lied. "Are you sure?"

"I'm fine!" he snaps before apologizing.

"How's April?" I say, not wanting to push him any further.

The question, however, must have hit a sore spot because he tenses up and takes a shaky breath.

"She-" he starts, "She's..."

His bottom lip starts quivering and when he looks up at the sky, I see tears in his eyes.

No...

Even without him finishing the sentence I know what he's trying to say.

"She's gone," he finally chokes out, tears now streaming down his face.

"Oh my God- I'm- I'm so sorry," I say around the growing lump in my throat. "What happened?"