Coming Home // Sidemen AU (Minizerk)

Still Missing

"C'mon Simon, one of us can do it. I know you and Josh are the duo and all but we can answer the questions just as well."

The blond was putting up a fight. It had been two nights since Josh's disappearance and he was still yet to sleep. "I...I should be the one," he insisted, even though his eyes were shutting as he did so and his words slurred off his tongue. To everyone else he looked like he might pass out at any moment and his father was obviously concerned.

"Son," he said gently, placing a comforting but firm hand on the blond's shoulder. "Let one of the other boys do it. You can still be here."

He was making sense, Simon knew it. It was best if someone coherent spoke to the police. And it wasn't like he could offer up anything the other boys couldn't.

"Yeah...yeah alright," he agreed slowly, handing the phone to Tobi. That boy had the best phone manner.

Glancing nervously at them as he dialled 101 like the website had instructed them to, the others waited anxiously until it was answered. "Hello?" Tobi spoke, taking a deep breath before continuing. "Yeah um...I...we'd like to report a person missing, it's been over twenty four hours and still no one's heard from him." They all watched as Tobi nodded, intently listening to whatever the person on the other end of the line was saying to him. "Yeah that's fine. They're just gonna ask me some questions," he informed the others.

Simon could only sit by as Tobi listed off the standard details used to find a person. "Joshua Bradley...the 4th of September 1992." He also briefly described the boy's appearance before talking about his employment: "Yeah his official employment is at the restaurant but he also just helps out at his mum's hairdressers."

More chattering from the other end of the line and then Simon saw the younger boy's body tense slightly. "Uh we last saw him last night," he responded. "We were all at our friend's house and he was leaving to go to the shop which was like five minutes away, but he never came back and we tried contacting everybody."

There was more chattering and Simon had to resist the urge to snatch the phone off Tobi so he could hear what he was being told.

"Yeah um also two of our mates who were looking found his bag and phone in the nearby park," Tobi explained. "No the phone's been smashed." He paused his conversation to let them know: "They're gonna want us to bring the stuff down to the nearest station."

Simon's dad nodded. "I can do that."

After a few more moments conversation Tobi hesitated. "Um...hang on," he said, looking towards the others. "They want to know if he's at risk," he told them.

"What d'you mean?" Ethan asked.

"Like, I don't know..." He stopped as the woman clarified for him. "She says if he's had any trouble in the past or something similar."

They were all quiet. There was no straight forward answer to that one.

"Tell her yes." Simon broke the silence, setting his face firm as they all turned to him. "Tell her he's been acting strangely this week," he said decisively.

Tobi relayed this information and after a few more questions and a lot of listening on his part, he ended the cool with an, "Okay thank you, bye."

"Well?" Simon asked before Tobi had even finished his sentence.

"They're gonna have some guys come round to talk to us and his mum. They might want to search his house also," Tobi explained. "And they're going to put out an alert to the local police to search the area where we found his stuff and by the shop. Oh and they're gonna check any hospital admissions that match his description."