He Knew It All

Three days later, Kyle rolled over in his bed to look over at the clock that was sitting on his nightstand. He sighed to himself once he saw that it was 9:30, before he rolled out of bed and threw on a t-shirt that was lying on his floor. Out of habit, he took his BlackBerry off of its charger and slid it in his pocket, and he left his bedroom as he ran his fingers through his knotted hair.

He looked down the hallway to see Marc's bedroom door open, giving the obvious sign that he was already up and out of bed. After Kyle saw that his parents' bedroom door was also open, he trotted down the stairs and walked down the hallway as the smell of his mom's pancakes filled his nostrils on his short walk to the kitchen. When he entered his mom's favorite place in the house, he looked over at the stove to see her making pancakes, while Marc sat at the table flipping through a magazine.

"Good morning, Kyle," Kyle's mom said with a smile as she looked over at her son. "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," Kyle said as he walked over to the table and took a seat next to Marc. He ran a hand over his face and looked towards the archway to see his step-dad walking into the kitchen, the newspaper in hand. He smiled at him and leaned back in his chair.

"Mornin', boys," Kyle's step-dad sighed as he took a seat at the table. "How'd y'all sleep?"

"Good," Marc and Kyle said, replying with the same response as always when they were asked that question. Kyle looked up and watched his step-dad flip through the pages in the newspaper, a smile appearing on his face as he looked at the sports, a frown taking its place as he read the cheesy comics, and an unsure look taking over all of that three pages later.

"Cindy," Kyle's step-dad said as he waved his wife over. "Take a look at this."

Kyle's mom wiped her hands off on the dish towel, before she carried a plate of pancakes over to the table. After she allowed Kyle and Marc to dig in, she went to her husband's side and looked at something in the paper. Kyle didn't miss the way her brow furrowed in confusion or the way she and her husband exchanged looks of uncertainty just seconds later.

"Isn't Ellery dating that young boy?" Kyle's mom asked as she looked up at Kyle and Marc.

"Cory?" Marc said as he looked up from his plate of pancakes that was covered in syrup.

"Yeah," she said, nodding as she looked back down at the newspaper. "He's in the paper."

Kyle felt his stomach drop and his appetite vanish as he looked up at his mom and step-dad. He slowly pushed his plate away from him as he sat up and bit on his bottom lip, because he knew what was coming next.

"It says he's dead," Kyle's step-dad said quietly as he continued to stare down at the newspaper. "Cory Byers?"

Marc looked over at Kyle and scratched the back of his neck, hoping to look as if he didn't know anything about it. "Uh, yeah. That's him. He's...dead?"

"It says that he was shot," he said, nodding his head.

"Oh, Ellery. That poor girl," Cindy said as she covered her mouth as her eyes drooped slightly. "She must be devastated."

Kyle just looked down at the table and cleared his throat awkwardly, completely unsure of what to say. He didn't want to sound like he knew it happened, and he didn't know how to act surprised that someone was, well, dead. So he thought that it was in his best interest to be silent and just listen to what his parents had to say about it.

Kyle's mom looked up at her son and step-son. "Do you two know anything about this?"

"No," Kyle blurted out as he looked up at his mom. "We didn't know anything. I don't know anything."

"When did it happen?" Marc asked, sounding somewhat casual (more casual than Kyle, that is). "When did he get...shot?"

"It says a few days ago," Kyle's step-dad replied as he put his head on his hand, his eyes still glued to the newspaper as if he was too preoccupied to look away. "Kids these days. I'm sure he was playing with a gun or something stupid."

"Cory wasn't like that," Kyle said, the tone of his voice shaking just slightly as a lump started to form in his throat.

"I don't think Ellery knows anything about it," Marc said as he looked up at his parents. "I mean, she would've said something to us. And she doesn't read the paper; neither does Jonathan."

"That poor girl," Kyle's mom said again as she shook her head. "That's horrible. I couldn't even imagine what she's going through."

Kyle shook his head as the familiar feeling of knots tying themselves together took place in his empty stomach, and he stood up from the table. He couldn't be sitting here listening to his parents talk about Cory being dead when he knew what happened. He couldn't be sitting there listening to them talk about how sad it must be to be Ellery, or to say how upsetting it must be for the Byers' family. He couldn't take it, and the last thing he needed to do was blurt out that he and Marc and the rest of the guys knew everything.

"I'm going to go upstairs," Kyle said as he slowly trudged out of the kitchen. "Thanks for breakfast, Mom."

"Where are you going, dear?" his mom asked as she looked up at Kyle.

"I'm going to go get ready and go to Jonathan's," he replied, already halfway to the stairs. And he was never more eager to get away from his parents as he was right now. He wanted to be away from the interrogation that might take place about Cory, and he wanted to be away from everything that had to do with him right now. He just needed to be with one of his friends to get his mind off of everything, and Jonathan was his only hope, considering Caleb and Austin were both spending time with their families.

Kyle's mom just nodded and looked at Marc as if he was supposed to say something. Looking back at her, Marc smiled innocently, before he stood up and left the kitchen.

+++

"What are your guys' plans for the day?" Ellery's mom asked her two children as they sat at the kitchen table eating their french toast.

"I don't know," Jonathan said casually as he shrugged one of his shoulders. He looked over at his little sister as if to ask what she had planned for the day.

"I don't know," Ellery said with a small sigh. She pushed her french toast around on her plate in thought, before looking up at her parents, who were sitting across from her and Jonathan. "I might just go out with Kylin and Lila. I don't think they have any plans today. Cause Caleb is doing something with his family, and, well, Jonathan has no plans with Kylin."

Her parents just nodded as they picked at their breakfast that was sitting in front of them. It was rarely quiet amongst the Cook's at breakfast, but ever since Jonathan got back things were slightly awkward and tense. Ellery wasn't sure why, and she didn't really want to ask Jonathan about it, so she just shrugged it off and tried to treat the day as if it was any normal day in the house. Her parents didn't seem to notice anything different with their son, and Jonathan didn't really act out of place, or strange; it was something that only Ellery noticed... Kylin didn't even notice, and she was his girlfriend.

Or maybe Ellery was just over-thinking it.

"So, what time are you and dad--" Jonathan started, before everyone went quiet as Ellery's cell phone started ringing from upstairs in her bedroom.

"I think someone's calling you," Ellery's dad said with a smile as he looked at his daughter. "Maybe it's Cory?"

"Maybe," Ellery said with a small smile as she stood up from the kitchen table. She pushed her chair in and started down the hallway towards the stairs. "It's about time for him to get home, anyway. He's been gone for pretty much a week."

Ellery sighed to herself as she raced up the stairs, hoping to get her to ringing cell phone in time, and once she entered her bedroom, she went over to her nightstand and grabbed her phone. Cory's home phone and his picture flashed across the screen, and she smiled to herself before sitting on her bed and answering the phone.

"Hello?" she said, the smile still on her face as she laid back on her bed.

"Ellery," the familiar voice of Cory's mom said. She sounded as if she had been crying for hours, and it was somewhat hard for Ellery to even understand her through her blubbering. And this worried Ellery more than anything at the moment, because when Cory's mom called, it was usually to ask when he was going to come home because he wasn't answering his cell phone. But she knew this was different.

"Yes," Ellery said slowly as she sat up quickly and dangled her legs off the edge of her bed. "Mrs. Byers, are you okay?"

"No," she said, before she choked back a sob--a sound that made Ellery's stomach drop. "It's Cory."

Ellery shook her head slowly as she felt a lump form in her throat, and she took a deep breath. "What happened? Is he okay? What happened to him?"

"He's--" she started, before letting out a loud sob. Ellery listened to her let out numerous sobs, before she was able to get a full sentence out. "We got a call yesterday saying that Cory was dead."

That sentence made Ellery's stomach drop so fast that it felt like it fell out of her ass, and she just shook her head slowly, even though Mrs. Byers couldn't see her. It wasn't every day that you hear something like that from your boyfriend's parents, and it was hard for Ellery to believe, especially since it was Cory--her Cory.

"He what?" Ellery gasped as she tried to fight back the lump that started to get worse in the back of her throat.

"We got a call saying that he was shot, Ellery. He left the house sometime last week while John and I were at work. We both have been working overtime and we were barely home to see or talk to Cory. We had no idea that he would leave the house and not come back for days on end, and we didn't notice that he was gone until yesterday morning, when we had our day off."

Ellery's jaw dropped and she ran a hand through her blonde hair, before she narrowed her eyes. "I thought you guys were going on a vacation? He told me last week that you guys were going on a family vacation, and that he wouldn't be back for a week. I knew nothing about him leaving without your permission, Mrs. Byers."

Mrs. Byers let out another sob. "I had no idea he was leaving. This is all my fault. I shouldn't have been working so much. I should've paid attention to him."

"He wasn't mad at you," Ellery said quietly, knowing that Cory loved his mom more than he loved anyone else. "He really did understand that you had to work. Mrs. Byers, don't be mad at yourself."

And, to be honest, the tone of Ellery's voice was surprising. She didn't sound upset, or like she was going to cry. But she didn't sound casual, or as if nothing had happened. It was more indifferent than anything else, and it was surprising that she was handling the situation better than she should've been(but that was also because it always took a while for things to actually hit her).

"I'm so sorry, though, Mrs. Byers," Ellery apologized, her voice softening. "I can't believe something like this happened."

"We found drugs in his bedroom, too," Mrs. Byers cried, before she sniffed. "We found pot in his dresser, and we found quite a bit of money in his drawer."

"Drugs?" Ellery asked, as if to clarify what Mrs. Byers just said. Ever since she knew Cory, she didn't suspect him to do drugs at all. He was so happy with his life, and he was so cheerful all of the time. Drugs were the last thing she would've thought he would have been involved in, and it hurt her that he didn't tell her. Her stomach dropped even more, if that was possible, and she put her head in her free hand that wasn't holding her phone to her ear. "I had no idea."

"We think he got shot because of a drug deal," Mrs. Byers explained. "How could I have not known?"

Ellery let out a quiet sigh as she shut her eyes and rubbed her face with her hand that wasn't occupied. She had no idea that Cory did drugs, and she had no idea how this could've happened. She trusted him; she trusted him enough to think that she knew everything about him. And if he would've told her that he was involved with drugs, she wouldn't have left him; she would've tried to help him stop. It hurt more than anything that he hid something like that from her, and she couldn't believe that he was now gone because of something so stupid.

Maybe she didn't even know Cory at all.