Sam's POV
I knew Percy from Sophmore year of High School, we all did. He'd shown up for orientation, set the band room on fire with Rachel, disappeared, and then came back to finish the school year. Rachel was our friend from Freshman year and Percy had fallen in fast with our group of friends, which is why it had left such an impact when suddenly he just stopped showing up for classes in the middle of the semester. When asked, Rachel only made us more confused. Sure, she had some excuse about a family emergency but it was all very vague and I knew I wasn't the only one who noticed under all her fake assuredness, she was seriously worried. It wasn't long after that Shay got a text from Rachel, explaining that she was leaving school and then we never heard from either of them again.
Most of the Goode had forgotten by now, though every once in a while someone would get the courage to ask one of us if we'd heard from either of them. Percy especially had turned into somewhat of an urban legend around school. It wasn't every day someone got away with setting the school on fire then vanishing off the face of the earth. But the four of us had not let it go so easily.
It was Nonnie's idea but it hadn't taken much convincing for us all to get on board. It started out as some innocent web sleuthing, we reasoned every teenager had some social media we could stalk, just to satisfy the curiosity but not a single one of us found a trace. That was until Shay just typed his name into a google search. "Nationwide manhunt for 12-year-old boy, believed to be armed and dangerous", "Explosion caused by runaway", "Fugitive believed to have kidnapped mother". The titles went on with varying degrees of severity but underneath several was a grainy picture of a young Percy. I don't think any of us said a word for a solid minute, just staring at each other in shock. We found the follow-up articles as well, the ones exonerating his name and saying he was a 'hero' for standing up to their kidnapper but I don't think it sat right with any of us. All four of us asking "why didn't he tell us?".
I knew Nonnie was hurt the most, I'd listened to her go over it again and again for months; "You were his best friend Sam, he never said anything to you?" and every time I would say "No, he never told any of us". She wouldn't say it out loud but I knew she had liked Percy as more than a friend. Percy was the kind of person we had all been able to tell our secrets to, we knew he would never judge and he seemed to always say the right thing. Knowing he had never felt the same stung. I was quietest about it though, I felt like I could understand why he had never said anything.
Nonnie, Shay, and Matt were all good friends but there were certain things they would never understand. I'd met their families, they all lived in nice neighborhoods and all seemed to have relatively happy lives. Anytime I tried to talk about what was going on at home I could see they were trying to say the right things even though they felt awkward but none of them could relate, except for Percy. He and I had always made excuses why we had to go to their houses instead and eventually they all just stopped asking. I wondered now, after reading the articles, if Percy was more like me than he had let on. Most people only saw the goofy side of him, they thought he was nice and maybe a little dumb but even before he disappeared I had wondered if anyone else noticed the small things. Nonnie, who sometimes acted like she was the only one who had known him, didn't seem to know about the scars or the bad dreams. I had mentioned them offhandedly one time over the summer and she had just gotten very quiet. Even the others looked quizzical. I never brought it up again.