We all sat at the kitchen table, silently eating the meal that Iggy had cooked perfectly. Well, everyone but I did at least. I stared into its perfection, not registering even a detail of it.

"Max?" Nudge tried to say my name quietly enough to not draw attention to me. The four other bird kids' perfect ears heard of course, and they looked from me to Nudge, ruining her reasons to keep quiet.

"We're worried about you, Max," Gazzy didn't make any effort to keep quiet or draw attention away from me. But, what was more alarming was how serious he sounded. Probably the most serious I'd ever heard him other than when he was reporting different ways he could kill something smack-dab in the middle of a fight. But this couldn't be farther from a fight.

I felt vulnerable, like something was trying to break my defense, but instead of force, it was gentle. And instead of these kids having my back, it was just me on defense. Only me with the shield.

And it was falling fast. It fell every night, when I cried, and every day it became harder and harder to rebuild it. I was just turning into silence itself in attempt to keep it up now.

"Max…" Nudge spoke again, "It's been a month and four days now, and we still haven't talked about it. This is unlike you. We always talk. We're family… We-"

My chair made an awkward noise as I quickly, violently pushed it back and stood up.

"You don't think I know that? So, talk, Nudge. If there's so much to talk about, speak. But he left, and the last time I checked, that's a pretty simple subject to grasp." I grabbed my plate angrily and threw all of it into the trash, silverware and all. I went to my room, down the hall in front of the E house. I didn't know what I was going to do, I just knew that someone worrying about me was the last thing I wanted, and I needed to be farthest from that that I could get.

He had left so that I could be a better leader, and look at me. I was falling apart.

I still woke up every morning expecting to see him sleeping at the end of my bed, like he used to do when he'd stay up with me talking and get too tired to walk to his room. I still went to sleep every night expecting to hear him talking to Iggy three rooms over about something I wouldn't pay attention to. His voice had been my focus.

Just like he had said. When he was here, I only wanted to be right next to him, holding his hand or kissing him. And when he was gone, I missed him and wanted him to be near. It had now been a month of him gone, and the people I was supposed to be looking out for were worrying about me.

I flopped down on my bed, trying to clear my head.

Max, it's natural to miss him, but priorities should never be with something you've already lost, said my oh-so-helpful Voice. Now, on a normal day, I would have come up with some witty comment about it being Confucius, but today wasn't a normal day. No day was anymore. And, even though I'm really not one to cuss, I think for the first time in history I actually may have offended it. It didn't say anything else.

I sat up, feeling like no matter what position I put myself in tonight, I wouldn't be comfortable enough to sleep. I leaned up against the wall, and sensed someone was about to walk in my door.

I heard a timid knock, and after a nonresponsive silence, Angel stepped in. Even though I'd been doing such a horrid job of leading, she didn't try to take over. His letter had taken its toll on her too. She stepped down to let me recover in time, like he'd said for her to do, and still let me run to the best of my abilities. I guessed this was her way of coping for an absence of a flock member none of us had gone this long with.

"Max, are you alright? You didn't even touch your pork in there," she started. Pork. I'd thought it had been steak. Guess I really didn't give it the time of day to find out.

"Yeah, I'm just really not that hungry," I lied to a mind reader. She nearly rolled her eyes, but held back for my sake. She held out a plate of leftovers, loaded with deliciousness, and sat it in my lap. I decided to let her give it to me, and started to eat like a ravenous… well, bird. She gave a ½ grin.

"Max, what's going on? No- never mind- don't answer that. I know. I've been in the same page as you involuntarily for a month," she gave an almost angry look for a second, but soon passed to worry.

"Angel… I know I can't lie to you or else I would. So, no, I'm not fine. I'll get through this. Eventually. I just need some time," I explained, and she looked at the floor.

"I get it. You just need to… adapt. That's fine, for me. But, Max, I'm not the one who needs you. I'm fine. Individually, we're all coping in our own way. But, as a whole, all of us, well… Max, we're breaking. We're falling apart. Our relationships and trust are just… going under," She said slowly, gently.

"I can't believe you're eight. What eight year old talks like this?" I smiled to myself, proud of her for having deep understanding. She gave me a worried look all over again. I sighed. "Just… time. I'll be better."

"I hope so, Max. I honestly don't know what power time has that we don't though," she said defiantly. I frowned and laid my head back down on my pillow. She sat there for a few seconds before standing and walking out of my room.

About fifteen seconds after she left, she popped her head into my room, and said, urgently: "Time's up, Max. We have company."