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 Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:44 pm
He hadn't come home yet.
Alex hadn't come home yet.
He hadn't answered his phone. Lily didn't know where he was. He wasn't answering her calls either.
Was Alex okay? Was that news report just a dream? Was he losing his mind? No, he could have sworn that television report was about Alex and his mom. All the details fit - the place, the time, even the people in the video looked like Alex and his mom.
Johnny didn't know what to do, what to do with himself. After exhausting all the options he could think of (he didn't have a car and had no money for the buses, Lily was busy and his own mother couldn't be reached), Johnny fell asleep on the living room couch in a daze. His head and heart ached and he was worried sick about the blonde. Was he shot too? Was he okay?
He still hadn't answered his phone.
He still hadn't come home.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:45 pm
He knew he should have called - should have come home - should have something. There were a lot of things he should have done. But as it stood he'd done none of those things.
Instead he'd waited in the OR waiting room with his father. It was when his father had finally heard his stomach grumbling that he'd had food, past lunch time but not quite dinner time. Alexandre had listened, stood at his fathers left side, as news of his mother was finally delivered to them. The bullet had pierced a lung and in the process had broken two ribs. They'd had to go in and stitch some things up and make sure her broken ribs wouldn't puncture the stitched up lung. With everything fixed up, hoping that nothing suddenly happened, she would make a full recovery.
Shown up to her room in the ICU Alexandre had stayed with his mother even after his father had left. The nurses on the floor it seemed had a soft spot for him. They had let him sleep in her room and gently roused him in the morning. Sending him down for breakfast, his mother hadn't woken yet and may or may not wake by noon. She was on heavy painkillers and no telling how long they might keep her under for.
It was after breakfast that he'd taken a real look at himself, while in the mens room, and decided he needed to get home. A trip up to see his mother, and tell her unconscious form that he would return, and he'd called his father to let him know he was on his way home and could someone get his car for him.
A cab ride home and Alex was finally stepping into the quite townhouse. Blood spattered had turned a rust color and stained his shirt, a permanent thing he was sure, his hair was an utter mess, and his eyes were bloodshot. In other words he looked a wreck. "I'm home..." He even sounded drained, utterly so.
The door shut behind him, his keys made a dull connection with the table beside the door and he stood there as if unsure of what to do now.He just stood there staring and limp, like someone had cut his strings.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:46 pm
There was a series of bumps, bangs and thumps coming from the living room as Johnny leaped from the couch and nearly tore his own leg off from beneath the coffee table. But in that moment, the pain didn't matter. The boy somehow managed to stay upright long enough to make it to the front door where the wreck of a man who used to be Alexandre was standing. His clothes were mottled with blood and bullet residue. But Johnny didn't care.
He simply wrapped his arms around Alex and held on tightly. "Alex... Alex, I'm so glad you're okay. I was so worried - you didn't answer your phone and I saw this thing on TV about the shooting... Lily couldn't reach you either and we were freaking out. We didn't know if something happened to you or who did it or what... Alex..." Johnny pulled back long enough to gaze into the blonde's eyes, try and gauge emotion. Was Alex alright? Hell, who could be after witnessing what Alex had witnessed?
His own horror story aside, Johnny was really worried about his roommate and best friend. "Alex... the TV said they might have an idea of who did this but... is your mom gonna be okay? What did they say? Wait, let me get you some tea or something. You should rest! Go lay down on the couch and I'll get you a blanket and..." The boy trailed off, wholly absorbed then in gathering up a blanket and preparing tea for the blonde whose life had been shattered by a single gun shot.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:47 pm
Standing there silent, in some sort of a daze, his arms moved on their on. Lifting to wrap about the pale blue haired male. Right now their roles seemed to have reversed, in some upside down universe where his mother got shot, and Alexandre was the one needing the rock and taking comfort and strength from the other. This wasn't how things were supposed to go and yet this was just how they were going.
When finally he found his voice it was empty, hallow, and tired. There was a note of just...nothing to it was he spoke. The shock still filling his system and tainting his words. "I'm fine...I wasn't hit." The slowness in which is words came out wasn't normal either. It was as though he didn't know what to say, or maybe he didn't know that he was speaking. Either way it seemed all wrong, even as mentally he screamed at how wrong this all was. He shouldn't be here like this, this shouldn't have happened, so many this shouldn't have's. It was a long list that seemed to just get longer as time went on.
"I - I didn't look at my phone." For a moment a single note of...something slipped through. He sounded lost, and small.
Shaking his head he clung to the other, pulling the other back and laid his head on the others chest. "I don't like tea - you know that." Such a simple thing and it was said with a small hint of teasing to it, playful even. But even as he spoke it the hands on the others shoulders clenched the others shirt in an effort to keep him there. He needed this right now; the comfort of a friend and someone who had gone through something similar. "She'll be fine, but in the hospital for a while...she's in icu." He hadn't heard that the news had a clue who'd done this horrid deed, and the words Johnathan had uttered about it had completely gone in one ear and out the other. It was like his mind was focusing on what he needed and the simple mundane things as some sort of coping mechanism at the moment. Focusing on tea and how she was and about his phone, all simple answers and easier to handle topics as opposed to the who did this topic.
Even as Johnathan went to get a blanket, and tea, Alexandre followed behind the other. Holding onto the others shirt he followed; like some lost little duckling. "I don't need to lay down - can't. I just woke up anyway." Or well...he had an hour or so ago. How he'd managed sleep in those uncomfortable hospital chairs was beyond him but he figured his body had decided that how uncomfortable they were didn't matter when compared to it's need for sleep.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:47 pm
Being the stable one wasn't exactly something, deep down, Johnny was alright with. Sure, he could fake it like he had all those years with his father's illness and his mother working two jobs. Faking it was easy. Plastering on a bright and happy smile was just second nature to him at this point but seeing Alex, the one he looked up to in more ways than one, fractured like a broken mirror really shook the bluenette to the core. With a gulp, he wandered from place to place in the kitchen, prepping crackers and slicing cheese and getting whatever he could in his hands to keep himself busy. His frown deepened with every passing moment and the tug on his shirt was more welcome than Johnny cared to admit.
Johnny took a deep breath and sighed. "I... I dunno what to do, Alex." he stammered. Being unable to cope with Alex being in this position made things difficult for the taller boy. He wanted to provide peace and warmth and comfort but that kind of trauma - the trauma and sudden realization that they could both have been killed - was something only time could heal. And Johnny couldn't really provide time. "I... I mean I know what I wanna do but... but I gotta take care of you first..."
The boy turned around, wrapped his arms around Alex and sighed into his blonde hair. "...you know?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:48 pm
Noticing the crackers and the cheese being cut he gave a small, only barely there, smile. Something light to eat was good; as he was sure his stomach wouldn't handle much more. He'd been like that since it had happened actually. He hadn't felt like he could hold much of anything down, even though he knew he should be hungry and should eat. He simply hadn't felt it. The knotting and twisting in his stomach too much to over come. It was just the shock of what had happened and realizing how close he'd come to being shot and possibly killed. He understood it but it just wasn't easy to handle. It was hard to handle a near death experience as a civilian. Powered up he could handle it, he could fight back!
As Johnathan's voice filled the air Alexandre was able to register what he was saying and he shook his head. "I don't either...I wish I did. I don't like not knowing what to do..." Softly spoken and just lost. He didn't like being this adrift and lost. And right now he felt mostly adrift and needed help as it felt like he was being overwhelmed by the water all around him. He just needed to get his head above it and he'd be fine. But he just couldn't.
"What you want to do?" He asked trialing off as he lifted his head to look up at the taller teen. Smiling as the other held him and he settled for snuggling in as he took comfort and safety from the others hold on him.
"I don't know what to think or do. I can't focus on anything."
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:48 pm
"I..." started the boy, his frown deepening. Johnny clenched his hands together. "I just... I wanna make it all better, somehow. I just... I dunno how..."
With a sniffle, Johnny's blue eyes stared at the floor. "I don't like seein' you like this, Alex. An' I mean... I mean I know she's gonna be okay an' she's in the hospital but... but that doesn't mean you're okay!" Exasperated, Johnny tossed his hands in the air and started pacing the kitchen like a neurotic chain-smoker. "I mean, there's gonna be hard times for a while with you an' your family an' medical bills an' there's that guy still out there too!"
Suddenly whirling around, Johnny grabbed Alex's thin shoulders and shook him once. "I just... I wanna go out an' kill that guy for doin' what he did to you an' your mom! It's not fair!"
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:49 pm
"I want to also...I don't like being so lost." He whispered honestly. He didn't like this feeling at all. He wished he could just banish it all or turn back time, both impossibilities and he knew it. In a world where he knew not to think anything was impossible he liked to think he could be sure on these two things being impossible, at least right now in the first case.
When Johnathan left him, in the middle of the kitchen, in order to pace around he felt his legs give out. Sitting on the floor, his legs folded under him he stared up at him. "Bills won't be an issue." That wasn't even something he'd considered or given a single moment to think on, and why would he? Dragging himself to his feet he let himself lean against one of the kitchen chairs until he was seized by the other and shaken.
"I'd kill him myself but I just - I can't. Not now." Not how he was. The words unspoken but thick enough in the air even Johnathan could pick up on them. "I - I just. I don't know how to handle this. My aunts and uncles - my cousins. They'll all be coming and my grandparents." And he'd have to help arrange that with his father. Lily's family would likely hear about it, if they hadn't already, and somehow come. His mother had social events in her planner and he knew it. Someone should go but who? There was still the shock of this all for him to process on top of all the things which would be happening and have to be decided in such a short amount of time. He didn't have time to power up and track the shooter down. And there was always the unlikely, and hoped against, odds that something bad could suddenly happen to his mother in the hospital. No, it was all too much to the normally organized teen. Too much to organize because how do you organize something like this? The two things seemed completely opposed to each other.
He knew that if he let himself get too overwhelmed he could easily stress out. It was why Lily had removed him form his parents home and taken him in with her and helped him figure things out. She'd dug him out once and now he couldn't go to her, she would be apart of this as she was a family member of sorts.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:49 pm
Johnny said too much and he knew it. Shaking his head furiously, the boy did his best to physically support Alex. "No no no, let me worry about that stuff, okay? You just go sit down and I'll bring you some crackers an'... an' maybe some lemonade or somethin' and you can read a book and just relax, okay? Okay Alex? You let me take care of things. Okay? I can do it, I promise."
As the bluenette was trying to lead his blonde companion back to the couch, Johnny's brain flew into overdrive - how was he going to catch the person who did this to Alex and his family? He watched a show once, a police procedural, that explained that the faster someone started an investigation, the sooner the suspect could be apprehended and the case solved.
A solved case meant peace for Alex and his family, which was the single most important thing in Johnathan's life at that very moment. "You just relax. I'll get you a blanket and a nice book, okay?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:50 pm
Letting himself be lead by the other he sighed. No point in fighting the other, he didn't want to unsettle and upset the other. it would do no good to have Johnathan and himself both wrecks. "Alright...just don't over work yourself - please?" The oft request was accompanied by an honest and genuine, though soft, smile. The other really was like a family member to him.
"Promise you won't over do it, Johnathan. If you need help...please." It he could focus on things and or perhaps, and better yet, do something very mundane where he didn't need to think. He'd like that right now. Seated on the couch he curled up, drawing his legs up, before a thought hit him. "I should shower...I'm dirty." And back up he was. He could handle that, it was simple and he really did need it.
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Posted: Thu Apr 11, 2013 5:52 pm
"Promise you won't over do it, Johnathan. If you need help...please."
Johnny stared at the blonde's back until he disappeared into the bathroom. With a sigh, the blunette wandered about the house, gathering up several freshly-washed blankets to adorn the couch with. Alex had to be cozy when he came out of the shower. Oh! And a book, too. Johnny looked up to the bookcase near the kitchen threshold and wandered up to it. Eyes darting about, the boy couldn't decide which one to pick. He heard the shower turn on.
On Poisonous Plants looked good. Johnny plucked that one from the large collection Alex seemed to have amassed and laid it atop the stack of folded blankets just waiting for the blonde. Johnny turned to the window.
Outside was calling to him. He had to make good on his promise.
Darting into the kitchen, Johnny scribbled a note and left it on the pile of blankets next to the book. Going out - will be back later! And he disappeared, vaulting out into the midday sun on a mission of the utmost importance.
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