Jaime

“Close the shop and come upstairs,” Zack said, words rushing out with a panic added to them.

Those were not the words I had expected to hear from him when he went upstairs to get Alex ten minutes ago. If anything I had expected him to return with grumpy Alex following him, whispered curses falling from his lips.

“What’s wrong?” I asked back in a whisper, finishing filling the cup with the steaming liquid.

“Just close the shop,” he said and went off to the few people sitting at the tables, apologizing to them with a smile and leading them to the doors. I gave away the last cup as Zack left the shop and went back up. This must have had something to do with Alex and it couldn’t be good. We had never needed to close the coffee shop because of anything before. And Zack looked stressed.

I locked the doors and turned off all the lights, checking if the coffee machine was turned off before I left the shop to climb up the stairs to the apartment. I didn’t know what I had expected to see or hear but it definitely wasn’t the unsettling silence in the apartment. Once I closed the doors Zack’s head showed up from Alex’s room. He looked pale.Vic was standing outside the room in the hallway, looking like he would get sick if asked to go in the room.

“What’s wrong? Did Alex die or something?” I laughed awkwardly, but got cold stares back from both of them.

“No, but Jack might,” Zack started but got a death glare from Vic, “Okay, I don’t know how serious it is or not so I wanted you to take a look at it. You know more about that stuff than we do. Plus Vic might get sick because of the blood.”

“Yeah, I’ll stay here,” he said, pushing the kitchen doors open and quickly slipping into the kitchen and out of the hall.

I looked at the spot Vic had just been standing in, feeling confused, “so…what happened?”

“I don’t know,” Zack said turning around to walk into Alex’s room, “I came up here to get Alex but he was kicking and punching Jack who already looked unconscious.”

I walked in after him to see Jack lying on the floor by Alex’s bed, blood forming a small pool by his head. “Maybe Vic will get something out of him. By the look on his face I’d say he might’ve had a panic attack or something. He had been crying and you know how he gets then but that is not an excuse to nearly kill Jack,” Zack paused to look at me, “he’s not dead already, is he?” he asked in a whisper.

“Take a picture,” I said without thinking.

He looked at with wide eyes, mouth slightly open, “What?” he finally got out.

“Take a picture!” I repeated myself, taking a step closer to Jack’s body to take a better look at him, “We didn’t get any reaction out of his parents with that letter so we might send a picture with the next one. Or just keep it for later if we need it.”

“Not bad,” Zack said in a voice that sounded a bit broken and left the room.

I hadn’t known about Alex’s anger problem until a year after I had moved into this apartment and I was sure no one would’ve told me anything if that bottle of pills hadn’t fallen right into my hands. It happened by accident whilst I was looking for some aspirin and the bottle of Alex’s pills fell off the shelf. I asked Vic about it and only then I found out that if not for the pills Alex could kill all of us. Not on purpose. No. The only problem was that when he had one of his episodes he completely blacked out and didn’t control himself anymore. The prime example right here in the form of Jack’s unconscious body.

At first I had just thought that Alex was a control freak, the way he always stuck to his routine and wanted us to do the same but after getting all the information from Vic and reading the materials I found online, I understood the reasons behind it. That helped him. Along with the pills, of course. He should’ve been attending weekly therapy sessions but according to Vic he never had and most likely never would. He’s too good for that.

“Here,” Zack came back with his camera in his hands.

“You do it,” I shook my head when he tried to put it in my hands, “you’re the one who likes photography.”

“Not the one with unconscious bodies,” he grumbled but took the picture anyway. More than one, actually. He took at least ten, all from different angles. Whilst he was at it I went to the bathroom to get something to clean the blood away so I could see how serious it was.

“Can you roll him over so I can have a look?” I asked Zack, giving a small nod towards Jack’s limp body, the blood pouring from the right side of his head. It could be nothing because a lot of small blood vessels are located close to the surface of facial skin and head. It could be nothing more than a scratch. It could be. But my instinct said that it was not. He wouldn’t be unconscious if it was just a scratch. It wouldn’t be Alex’s doing if Jack was left conscious.

I was proven right when after having cleaned the cut as much as I possibly could the blood was still seeping through. “He’ll need stitches,” I said, looking up at Zack.

“We can’t take him to hospital,” he replied, his eyes on Jack.

I pressed the gauze to the wound to slow down the blood flow, “Get me the smallest needle we have here,” I told him, ignoring the blood that was covering my fingers, “alcohol and a thread, silk would be good.”

Zack looked at me dumbfounded, “A silk thread? You think we’re some kind of housewives from late fifties?”

I guess he was right. He could be able to find a needle in this apartment but definitely not a silk thread, “Fishing line. That could work,” I looked up at him, “You have some left? From last summer?”

“I…yeah, I think so,” he scratched his head, “okay, I’ll get that,” he turned to leave the room but then stopped, “What kind of alcohol?”

“Wine,” I said, almost starting to laugh at his facial expression, “Vodka, of course. Or tequila but we don’t have that, right?”

“Right, yeah. Okay,” he left the room to get the listed items.

Jack did not look good. He had looked miserable before this and he hadn’t eaten much so it really wasn’t that surprising he was unconscious now. Maybe Alex didn’t even hit him that hard. I would’ve liked to think that but the memories of how he had jumped at the opportunity to beat Jack when we took him were too vivid.

“Okay. I think I got everything,” Zack said, pushing the doors closed with his foot, “I don’t know about this needle,” he gave it to me. It could’ve been smaller, “It was the smallest I could find,” he said as if he had heard what I had been thinking, his tone apologetic.

“No, it’s fine. As long as we stop the bleeding,” I muttered and got to work.

Cleaning the wound with the alcohol Zack had picked up was the easiest part and the one that required the least of precision. “How bad is it?” Zack asked, avoiding looking directly at the wound.

“You’re asking me that like I’m a doctor,” I smiled, taking the needle and the fishing line, “cut this for me?” I asked, showing him where to cut it.

Once I got to the part which included me piercing Jack’s skin with the needle, Zack let out a groan, sitting down on the edge of Alex’s bed and hiding his face behind his hands, “Come on, you can watch ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ but you can’t handle this?” I asked him without looking up, my voice lacking the usual cheeriness.

“Shut up, this is horrible,” he grumbled, face still hidden.

“It’s not the worst,” I answered, focusing only on the stitches, “has Vic gotten something from Alex?”

“Didn’t get to ask, Vic literally kicked me out of the kitchen once I got the bottle,” Zack finally looked up, hearing me put down the needle and pick up the bottle, “He looks like shit. Has for the last couple of days.”

“You mean the last couple of days when he was actually here? He’ll need a gauze anyway,” I said, referring to Jack.

“Yeah, those last days,” Zack stood up and left the room again.

I dabbed at the wound with a washcloth soaked in alcohol, feeling pretty satisfied with my work. Bleeding had stopped and that was the most important thing. For now. “I really do feel bad for you,” I whispered, looking at Jack’s closed eyes. He didn’t deserve to be here. Why did we even agree to this plan? Was it because deep down we were all scared of Alex? Maybe that was the case for me. Maybe even for Vic but Zack? Zack was the only one who could actually stand up for himself in front of Alex and not get his nose broken. Why did he do this?

---
“Someone needs to stay with Jack tonight,” Vic told the two of us later that evening, “Alex will stay on the couch,” he added when I was about to open my mouth and ask about that.

“I can stay,” Zack quickly said, “that way I’ll be able to stop Alex if he tries to do anything at night.”

Vic and I looked at each other, “Zack, he’s not going to try and sneak into the room to kill Jack or something. You two were like best friends before all this started.”

“Yeah, well, he needs to get over himself and deal with his problems like an adult and stop acting like a bratty fifteen year old,” he spat, looking down at his glass that was filled with vodka.

The kitchen stayed silent after that. I understood that it wasn’t all Alex’s fault and we could’ve stopped this any time but his anger problem was out of our control. It looked like lately it had been out of his control as well.

“He didn’t get the pills today,” Vic said, breaking the silence.

Zack groaned, pushing the glass away and rubbing his face with his palms, “So we all have to keep suffering.”

“You’re not the only one suffering,” Vic said angrily.

“That’s why I said ‘we’.”

“I meant Alex. You think it’s easy for him?” he took the glass away from Zack and poured the alcohol in sink, “Go sleep,” he said leaving us alone in the kitchen.

---
The next morning I found myself wandering in to the living room, my eyes falling on Alex’s sleeping form. He was curled up in a small ball, his knees pulled up to his chest, his face turned to the back of the couch. He looked young and vulnerable like this. Like you’d just want to pull the covers tighter around his body, let him sleep and protect him from all the problems in the world.

“Morning,” Vic greeted me, walking out of the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

“He’s sleeping?” I asked pointing my finger to Alex.

“He’s not,” before Vic could answer, Alex’s scratchy reply came from where his face was pressed between the pillow and couch.

The next thirty minutes were spent making a quick breakfast and eating it in the kitchen. I wasn’t sure I wanted to be in the living room with Alex and Vic. I definitely didn’t want to experience the moment Zack walked in there. That was going to be awkward.

“Hey, come here for a bit?” Vic’s head popped into the kitchen. I nodded at him and got up, leaving my plate on the table. I’ll clean that up later.

When I entered the living room I was surprised to see Zack there, sitting in one of the armchairs. Alex was up as well, sitting at the far end of the couch, his chin resting on his knees that were pulled up to his chest, arms wrapped around his legs.

“What’s this about?” I asked, going to sit on the couch since Alex was occupying barely any of it.

“He’s still out,” Zack said, not looking at anyone in particular. I threw a quick glance at Alex. He looked miserable, his eyes boring into the floor. He looked tense but at the same time his face gave away no emotions.

“How long is it…normal to be out after head injury?” Vic asked.

“It’s not good. He should be in hospital,” I mumbled, looking down at my hands in my lap. I had expected Alex to say something but to my surprise he stayed silent.

Zack sighed rubbing his forehead, “He was out for like two days when we…got him here so…this shouldn’t be…that much different, right?” he said hopefully but we all knew it was different. Last time Jack was out, he didn’t need stitches to stop the bleeding.

“What if he doesn’t wake up?” Vic’s voice came as a whisper.

“Have you tried giving him smelling salt?” Alex asked, his voice quiet and sounding tired. All of us looked at him, shock and surprise on all our faces. If anyone would’ve suggested anything I was not expecting it to be Alex. “You know…that thing they give you in hospitals or doctor’s office when…”

“I know what you mean but that’s mostly used for fainting,” Zack interrupted him, my body tensing, expecting Alex to raise his voice at Zack.

“Mostly. But it’s not said that it wouldn’t help if you tried,” he said in the same quiet voice.

I furrowed my eyebrows at that. What he was saying could help but the way he said that. This was not the Alex we knew. What had happened to him during the night? I looked over at Vic who had nearly the same expression on his face.

“Okay, I’ll go get that,” Zack said and stood up, “Let’s just hope they’ll sell it without a receipt or anything.”

Notes

i really don't know what to say.. i just really like this and they're all confusing but that's the best part about this!! right???!

-ilovetea