he was worried about you. concerned. distraught. whatever it was called, whatever people would call it, gus was concerned for him. him being booker. booker, the neighbourhood freak, booker, the ever-childish neighbour who seemed the most mentally out-of-it out of everyone in the neighbourhood. it was pretty blatant from day one, even booker’s reason for moving to the neighbourhood being a clear giveaway of what would soon come. the reason being that, in booker’s old neighbourhood, in his old home, a person close to him had died—apparently some guy named paul, if gus’ memory served him right—& couldn’t stand living in such quarters any more due to struggling to deal with the loss of paul. so, by the words of booker, he “just moved here”. no real reason other than that, &, gus knew dam. well that he tried to ask whether booker had any other reason to. nevertheless, gus was grateful that booker had decided to move to his current neighbourhood. gus himself had lived here his entire life, as well as his past four generations, but it was currently just him who was living in the house. his house was just a few blocks down across the street from booker’s, which made it ever the convenient for gus to check up on booker, which the former often found himself doing.

it was a small neighbourhood. everyone knew everyone else, & that was the exact case with booker. everyone knew that gus & booker were best friends, & had been so ever since booker initially moved in to the neighbourhood, ever since gus had shown up at booker’s house to help the latter move his boxes to the inside of the house. some called it bad luck, or even a curse that gus had managed to get himself associated with the so-called “freak” of the neighbourhood, yet gus himself paid no heed to those disdainful whispers & conversations that often were passed & went on behind his & booker’s back. ok, maybe he did care, but the main reason for that being his concern for booker. he hadn’t befriended the latter out of pity or anything like that, no—he saw the true potential & the good in booker that everyone else seemed to turn a blind eye to—he just needed to.. watch out for him. yeah. that was what friends were for, wasn’t it? to take care of one another? if gus didn’t do that, it would be going against his nature as a best friend, would it not?

anyway, the main reason of his concern for you at the moment was what was going on with you. not with anyone else, not his worry for you that you might happen to overheard a particularly derogatory conversation involving you. gus had often found you hanging round near the groups that often spoke badly of you with the iconic smile on your face faltering, yet he always made sure to lead you back to your home & get your spirits back up again. he’d done a good job in those scenarios, hadn’t he? good god, if he hadn’t, then he could only dream in his worst nightmares what could have potentially become of you. it was what you were doing to yourself. most of the neighbourhood had noticed it at this point, & it had even got to the point where neighbours were regularly showing up to his house to ask about news of booker. booker himself hadn’t shown up outside of his home for nearly a whole week now, & gus had found himself setting up missing posters with your face on it… even though he knew exactly where you were. he wondered whether or not it was because of that marker that went up on sale last week, something which you had made a beeline to buy before practically disappearing for the next week. gus himself hadn’t heard about any marker in particular, in fact, he remembered the store advertising a box-cutter.

he decided to go check up on you. gus found himself crossing the street, eyes flickering from each missing poster he’d set up over the last days on every surface he could find. there was a particular armada on the front of your house, which he now realised probably wasn’t that practical… he pushed open the door to your home, peeking his head round the ajar door, not stepping in just yet.

“booker? you in here, buddy?”