15 – Brilliant Ideas (3)

Officer Gish and Officer Bradley arrived at Luke’s house. Cops were the last people Luke wanted in his house, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Luke was nauseous and couldn’t stop shaking. Bradley searched through the house, while Gish asked questions.

“When did you last see her?” Gish asked.

Clay recounted the story. How Skye had climbed onto the counter, and broke a few plates looking for cookies she wasn’t allowed to eat. How they told her she wasn’t having any. How she screamed and stormed off to her bedroom.

“Her bedroom, huh.” Gish raised an eyebrow. “The room that happens to have a bed and an air mattress. Didn’t the social worker say-”

“I know.” Luke gritted his teeth. “She keeps having nightmares. I have to sleep in the same room with her, to be there for her.”

“Uh-huh.” Gish typed something on his tablet. “Interesting. A grown man sharing a bedroom with a little girl, and the little girl runs away.”

A new type of nausea struck Luke. “It’s not like that at all! She got upset because we wouldn’t let her eat cookies.”

“Yeah? It still doesn’t look good.”

Bradley returned to the room. “No sign of her. Should we issue an Amber Alert?”

“Right away,” Gish said. “I’ll call for backup to search the woods.”

It didn’t take long for three more policemen to pull up. Officers Baum, McNeil, and Sherman. Sherman had a German Shepherd dog on a leash.

“Do you have anything of Skye’s for Ty here to smell?” Sherman asked Luke.

Luke pulled a sweater out from the closet, noting that all her jackets were still accounted for. He last saw her in a short-sleeved dress. She’d freeze if they didn’t find her before nightfall. The dog sniffed the sweater, and Sherman led him out the door, Baum right behind him.

“Is there any place she might be headed for?” Gish asked. “Friends houses? School? Favorite places?”

“She doesn’t have any friends.” And if she had any favorite places, she didn’t share them with Luke. There was so much she wouldn’t share with Luke. With anyone.

“Any suspects?” Gish asked. “I know none of her former caretakers wanted her.”

Luke held his tongue at that. “Not that I can think of.”

“Anyone at school? Church?”

“We don’t go to church.”

“Shocking,” Gish muttered, as he typed something. “She’s never said anything about her teacher? School staff? A classmate’s parent?”

“No. She rarely talks at all. She’s really shy.”

“So I’ve heard.” Gish looked up from his tablet. “You’re not giving us much to work with.”

“I’m sorry. I can’t see her going anywhere other than the woods, or down the driveway into more woods.”

“Or down the driveway to the streets into town.” McNeil stepped past them, not acknowledging Luke. “I’m gonna search that area. Wanna come?”

Gish followed McNeil out the door. Luke collapsed on the couch, relieved to be away from the judgmental cops, but worried sick about Skye. Where could she have possibly gone?

After stopping at Jake’s to get Sebastian’s skateboard, helmet, and dog, Axel drove to Sebastian’s house. It really wasn’t far from Jake’s at all. Sebastian said his father was out at some rally, and that he shouldn’t be home for at least another hour or two. So Axel helped Sebastian into his house. Jake left the skateboard and helmet on the porch, and brought Tibby in after them. He unclipped the leash from his collar, and Tibby wandered away. Sebastian told Jake to hang the leash on the coat hook near the door.

The doctor had given Sebastian a crutch to use. Still, Axel found himself close to Sebastian’s side, ready to catch him if he fell.

His house about as large as Jake’s. Neat, tidy, orderly. Somehow it was exactly what Axel expected. They all walked through a living room, towards a set of stairs. A blond-haired woman sat on the couch, watching TV. Axel assumed she was Sebastian’s mom. She turned at the commotion, jaw dropping as he eyes landed on the crutch under Sebastian’s arm. “What happened?”

“I sprained my knee. I had to go to the doctor-”

“You saw the doctor for that?”

“I thought it was broken.”

Sebastian’s mom let out a sigh. “Your father’s going to be upset when he finds out.”

“I almost didn’t.” Sebastian glared at Jake, who listened in with a furrowed brow.

Please don’t speak up…

Jake spoke up. “Shouldn’t Sebastian’s health be his top concern?”

Axel put his face in his hand while Sebastian let out a groan.

Sebastian’s mother regarded Jake for a moment. “You must be Jake. From California?”

“Yeah.”

She moved on to Axel, smiling. “So you must be the Axel I’ve heard so much about.”

Sebastian talked to his mom about him? Axel was surprised he talked to his mom at all. He glanced over at Sebastian, who had turned away to focus on a table filled with picture frames off to the side of the room.

“Hopefully only good things,” Axel said, rubbing his arm. His eyes wandered towards the pictures. A few featured a much younger Sebastian, but one frame had a young boy that looked nothing like Sebastian. Who was he? A cousin?

Sebastian’s mom broke through his thoughts. “I’m Celine.” She held out her hand, and Axel shook it. “Nice meeting you.”

“We’re going to my room and I probably won’t come down again anytime soon,” Sebastian said. “The doctor said I need to stay off my feet as much as I can.”

“That’s fine. I can bring you up dinner later.” Celine looked at Axel and Jake. “Do you want to stay for it?”

Sebastian cleared his throat. “What about Dad?”

“I doubt he’ll remember Axel.”

Axel didn’t. He was also tired from the long, eventful day. “No thank you. Jake and I were only planning on staying a few minutes. We just wanted to help Sebastian get to his room.”

“That’s real sweet of you.”

Axel linked his arm in Sebastian’s as he helped him up the stairs. Sebastian had his other hand gripping the banister. The stairs were barely wide enough for them to walk side by side. Jake walked up behind them, carrying the crutch. They continued down the hall, and into Sebastian’s room. It was similar to Jake's, but actually had stuff in it. There was a monitor on his desk, next to a tablet. What might have been an alligator head sat next to it. He had a shelf with a couple of participation trophies. Some dinosaur toys. A lego model of a pirate ship. A poster of a band Axel hadn't heard of, and another featuring a blonde, large-chested woman in a skimpy outfit. It looked more like the room of a 14 year old boy than a grown man. When had Sebastian last made changes to it?

Axel helped Sebastian settle into his bed. He rounded up a few extra pillows for him to prop his leg up on. “We should’ve gotten you ice when we were downstairs.”

“There should be an ice pack in the freezer.”

Axel looked at Jake. Jake got the message, and left the room.

“Is there anything else you need?” Axel asked, sitting down next to him.

“I’m good. Sorry for wasting your day like this.”

“Don’t worry about that. What’s important is that you’re feeling okay.”

Sebastian looked as though he was fighting back a smile at those words. There was something in his eyes for a second too. A twinkle or a spark. Did that make his day? Was this man so deprived of love, that a comment coming out of a place of concern made him happy? He already came off as touch deprived, the way he kept clinging to Axel’s side every chance he’d get.

Axel noticed Sebastian’s tight jeans. Those couldn’t be comfortable on his injury. “Do you want to change into something more comfortable?”

“Yeah. I have a pair of sweatpants in my dresser over there. Second drawer.”

Axel walked over to a dresser, and opened an almost-empty drawer. A pair of sweatpants, an old t-shirt, and a few socks. He grabbed the sweatpants and returned to Sebastian, who had removed his jeans. Still, he wore those dorky-looking, too-tight boxers. His hand hid the crotch area of it from view. Sebastian was probably paranoid about flashing him again.

I really shouldn’t have commented on that, Axel thought, as he handed Sebastian the sweatpants. That had to of been one of his most embarrassing moments, and Axel had made it worse. Cute. That wasn’t the word he wanted to use. But calling another man’s dick hot wasn’t appropriate with his boyfriend standing there. And he certainly didn’t want Jake knowing he preferred small dicks.

“I’m sorry,” Axel said.

Sebastian pulled up his sweatpants. “What for?”

“In the doctor’s office. When… you know. I called it cute. I didn’t-”

“You can make it up to me by forgetting it happened.”

“Fair.” Axel picked up Sebastian’s dirty jeans. “Where do you want these?”

“In the hamper in my closet.” Sebastian pointed to one of two doors.

Axel opened the closet door. The first thing he saw was a mountain of clothes spilling out from a laundry hamper. No wonder Sebastian was forced to wear a pair of ratty, too-tight boxers. “Jesus. When was the last time you did your laundry?”

Sebastian lack of response told Axel everything. The man was too depressed to do something as simple as a load of laundry.

Did he even actually do his laundry? Sebastian had mentioned having a robot caretaker in the house. “Don’t you have a robot that does this stuff for you?”

“I have to tell it to first,” Sebastian mumbled, avoiding Axel’s eye.

“And it does the whole process for you?” Axel had never seen one, but always assumed they did everything.

“Mm-hmm.” Sebastian still wouldn’t look at him.

He was too depressed to hand a bag of laundry to a robot and tell it to do it? His mental health must be worse than Axel feared. “You haven’t even been able to do that?”

“I can. I’m just lazy.”

“Sebastian-”

Jake walked in with an ice pack. “Got the ice. Sorry I took so long, your mom kept asking me questions about myself.”

“I’m sorry.” Sebastian rolled up his pant leg and took the ice pack from Jake. He put it on his knee with a relieved sigh. “That already feels better.”

“Can we go now?” Jake asked Axel.

Axel had been ready, but his newfound discovery of how bad Sebastian’s mental health truly was left him reluctant to leave. At the very least, he should take the laundry down to Celine. If Sebastian was too sick to do that before, he definitely couldn’t do it now.

“We need to do Sebastian’s laundry first,” Axel said.

“No you don’t,” Sebastian said quickly.

“I saw a robot downstairs," Jake said. "Can’t that do it?”

“We need to tell it to.” Axel pulled the bag of dirty laundry out of the closet.

“Jesus. When was the last time you did your laundry?” Jake asked.

“Just give it to my mom,” Sebastian said tiredly. “She’ll take care of it.”

“Will you need anything else?” Axel asked.

“No. You’ve done more than enough.” Sebastian smiled at him. “Thank you. For everything.”

“Anything for my best friend.” Axel leaned over, and startled Sebastian with a goodbye hug. “Text me if you need anything. Even if you just want someone to talk to.”

“I will.” Sebastian didn’t let go, so Axel didn’t either. He figured Sebastian needed a big one.

Jake cleared his throat, right as the room filled with pings, followed by voices emitting from everyone’s watches.

“Amber Alert- Skye Lindberg. Five years old, Caucasian girl, long brown hair, last seen wearing a green dress. Please dial 911 if you have any information.”

“That’s Luke’s kid!” Jake stared at his watch, one hand gripping his hair. “Shit. I should help him.”

“Why?” Sebastian asked.

Why indeed. As far as Axel was concerned, that man was a rapist. He was appalled when he found out Luke got custody of his daughter.

“Do either of you know where he lives?” Jake asked.

“Why do you care?” Axel asked.

“Because he’s my friend.”

Axel’s jaw nearly dropped. “What?!”

“He’s a frequent customer. We talk sometimes. He’s rad.”

Jake thought he was rad? Did he not know the story? “You do know he raped someone.”

“I heard that was just a rumor,” Sebastian said to Axel. “You should know not to take town gossip seriously.”

He was obviously referring the Axel’s backstory. Axel’s very true backstory. “The ‘gossip’ about me was true.”

“And most of the gossip about me isn’t. This town is good at twisting stories around to make a victim look guilty.”

It was a good point. “Still. There’s a chance it was rape. And it’s not like the girl is alive to-”

“It wasn’t rape,” Jake said. “Luke told me the story himself. They were childhood best friends turned lovers. It’s tragic. Have you met him?”

“No.” Axel wouldn’t recognize him if he had. He had been sleeping in the streets of Redding when Luke was sentenced to jail. He’d only heard the story of Luke Lindberg from an acquaintance after he moved to Gilran.

“Then you shouldn’t judge him.” Jake checked his watch. “We need to get going.”

The group exchanged goodbyes, Axel feeling a twinge of guilt for believing the first person who told him the story. But there was still a chance that version of the story was correct.

Regardless, Axel hoped the little girl was safe.