Long Live Us

*Alex pov*

Alex walked home in the rain, the sudden storm soothing his soul as the dreary day wore on. The brunette was wrapped up in his jacket, a beanie covering his hair, his head and shoulders low and he scuffed his shoes against the pavement, his ears filling with the soft noise of Blink 182. Despite how it looked, Alex actually felt fine. There was a small, hidden smile on his face as he made his way out of Baltimore town and towards his house, looking forward to the warmth of a building once again.
The boy arrived back at his house quickly, wiping his shoes on the mat before walking straight in. He shrugged his hoodie off, hanging it on the radiator to dry, before walking into the kitchen to make tea. The kettle was boiling when his mum joined him, wandering into the room with a slightly concerned look on her face.
"Do you want any tea?" Alex offered, frowning at the way the women didn't seem happy at all, frowning more when she declined his offer.
"Where did you go?" She asked after a few moments, letting her gaze rake over her sons body as he poured the now boiled water into his mug.
"I went into town, I told you that." He answered, still frowning, confused at the question.
"So you weren't at Jack's?" She pressed.
"Nope." Alex slowly shook his head, picking his mug up and turnings around, leaning his back on the counter top as he watched his mothers strange behaviour. "Why?"
She sighed, sweeping her brown hair onto one shoulder and grinding her teeth together slightly - something she only did when she was worried. This in turn worried Alex, who now had a full blow frown on his face as his mind began running through all the various possibilities of why his mother was worried and asking about Jack.
"I just... I heard banging and crashing from their house earlier. I just wondered if you knew anything about it." Sighing again, she shrugged, before looking up at her son. "Go and see he's okay, will you?"
"I will, I wanted to see him anyway." Alex responded, warmed by her concern, yet nervous as too what was going on. Isobel nodded, leaving the kitchen once again, leaving Alex by himself. He quickly drank the rest of his tea and changed out his damp clothes, letting his music play out loud as he danced around, singing quietly, pushing any worries to the back of his mind.

Once ready, Alex walked out of his own house and slipped through the hedge to bring him to Jack's. He pushed open the door, entering what was a silent house. This wasn't totally weird, often the dark haired boy wouldn't be doing much, but normally there was some noise. Today, however, the brunette was greeted by silence. Which did suggest that Jack was out.
"Jack? You in?" He called, stepping further into the house. When he got no reply, he began frowning once again, quickly checking all the downstairs rooms to find that they were, indeed, empty. Alex shrugged this off as the younger boy being upstairs and not hearing him shout, so began making his way up the stairs to continue his search. However, he stopped dead when he reached the landing. The sight in front of him made his eyes widen, his feet freeze into the ground - because not only was it weird, unsettling and quite creepy, but it explained the banging his mum mentioned.
The door to Jack's bedroom was flung right open, further that it probably should be, and everything was pouring out of the room. If it weren't for the rest of the house being spotless, Alex would've thought there's been a burglary.
'What the fuck happened here?' Was his main question, as he slowly walked over to the room, stepping carefully over a broken drawer, looking around. The bed was overturned, the set of drawers complete smashed and in bits all owner the place. Clothes were spewing out of the cupboard, school books lay open and ripped everywhere, the pillow ripped open, leaving small white feathers floating about. It was a mess to say the least. Alex had no idea what to do. None at all. He tried to get out of the room, trying not to step on anything, but failing when he felt something sharp on the bottom of his foot. With a yelp, he jumped out of the way, before rummaging through where he stepped to find the culprit. To his surprise, he pulled out a bunch of roses, squashed and in tatters, but decorated like they were a gift for somebody. Alex wondered who Jack would be buying roses for, although that question was soon answered when he saw a small pieces of card with none other than his name written on it. The brunette felt his eyes widen as he clasped the small object between his fingers, reading the four letters over and over again as if it would hold some sort of clue as to what the hell happened here.
As panic started to slowly fill his body, Alex fumbled in his pocket to remove his phone, quickly finding Jack in his contacts and hitting the call button. Six attempts, the first ringing once before disconnecting, all the others saying unavailable, telling Alex that his phone was off. Without knowing what to do now, he called Jenna. Each ring seemed to drag out, time slowing down as Alex's heart beat became increasingly fast.
'Hello?'
"Jenna!? Oh my god you have to help me, like, Jack's room is like a fucking bomb site or something and he's not here and his phone isn't on so I don't know where he is and my mum heard crashing and just where is he and-"
'ALEX! Calm down, where are you?' Jenna loudly interrupted the boys panicked speech, which left him slightly breathless.
"I'm at his house..." He murmured, his voice quiet, laced with fear for his boyfriend.
'I'm on my way.' And with that, the line went dead.

Within the hour Jenna had arrived at Jack's house, bolting up the stairs to find Alex in the exact position he had been stood in when he had made the phone call.
"Holy shit." Was all she could muster as she too took in the sight before them, and then she understood the panic that had been withheld in Alex's voice.
"Where is he, Jenna? What's happened? Where did he go?" Alex choked, beginning to allow tears to roll freely down his cheeks as the blonde gave him a sympathetic smile and pulled him in for a hug. As Jenna's hand soothingly rubbed his back, the tears became waterfalls, and sobs began to rack through his body, his breath becoming hiccups.
It took a few minutes for Jenna to calm down Alex enough so that he could function normally again, his eyes red a puffy, his nose now sniffling, but he could talk and do something about whatever was going on now.
"Right, let's look for clues or something." The girl announced, looking into Jack's wrecked room, with Alex standing by her side doing the same.
"I haven't really moved anything, except the roses," he told her, picking up the flowers that he'd discarded once again, "oh and this."
He removed the small card with his name on it from his pocket and passed the two items too the blonde girl, who took them off him and began examining them.
“Do you know why he was buying you roses?” she questioned after a minute, placing the objects back by the door and looking up at Alex. The boy shook his head, frowning and chewing on his lip as he tried to remember every second of the past week or so that would make Jack do this.
“Are you sure? You’ve both been acting really weird recently.” Jenna asked again, frowning herself now and turning back towards the room. Alex just hummed, not knowing how to respond.
“Should we try and track his phone?” Chewing the inside of her cheek, Jenna spoke her first suggestion in their bid to find Jack.
“Do you know how?” Alex questioned, tipping his head slightly.
“That’s a flaw in that plan..” A small chuckle escaped Jenna’s lips before she sighed, sinking into a thought process once again. Alex also let his mind drift, trying to slot together the crooked pieces of a strange puzzle in his mind. There was certainly something in the air, something hadn’t gone to plan, dust had been stirred where it shouldn’t have been. Yet the brunette was still clueless. Other than this nagging in the back of his mind, he knew nothing. He couldn’t think of anything to say or do, or anything that would help. He just wanted things to change, and he began to think they needed help with that.

Just as that thought crossed his mind, the door bell rang. Alex and Jenna’s heads both shot up, their wide eyes meeting briefly before they flung themselves down the stairs and towards the front door. Alex wasted no time in swinging the door open, the sight leaving him speechless. Thankful, surprised, and sort of confused.
“Josh? Dan? Shit you’re coming today!” Jenna said, peering round from behind Alex, smiling as she greeted the two boys.
“Hey guys! Don’t look too happy to see us, will you?” Dan joked, hugging Jenna when she squeezed out the door to welcome them properly.
“Yes it’s today! What’s wrong? Have you been crying?” Josh asked, his gaze falling on Alex, who still stood completely still in the doorway. The English boy frowned at the strange behaviour, and the dark, fearful look in Alex’s eyes made him certain that something had happened.
“Let’s go inside.”

The four friends ended up sat in a ragged circle on the floor. Josh and Dan were still gracing smiles, despite knowing that something was wrong, but after a long 12 hours they were just happy to see Baltimore. Jenna was also happy to see the boys, the delight evident in her eyes behind the dark worry for Jack. Alex knew that his face portrayed that of somebody who was haunted, he could feel that his eyes were dull and his expression was blank, but inside he was glad to see the two friends.
“I’m so sorry we forgot what day it was! Things just got a bit... busy.” Jenna spoke, biting her lip but showing that she was genuinely sorry to Josh and Dan.
“It’s okay. Are you going to tell us what’s going on?” Josh reassured, quite understanding considering how long he had been part of this group. Dan seemingly got it too, for his eyes filled with worry at the tone of Jenna’s voice.
“We don’t... er... really know...” The blonde started, completely not knowing how to voice that it seemed their best friend had run away.
“It’s Jack, isn’t it?” Dan guessed, glancing briefly in the direction of the stairs.
“Is he okay? He’s okay, right?” Josh quickly questioned, his eyes widening slightly with worry for his best friend, all the worst scenarios running through his mind.
“He um, we don’t know where he is.” Alex murmured quietly, aimlessly pulling at a loose thread at the bottom of his jeans, not wanting to look up as he openly admitted that he’d failed in looking after the younger boy.“
What do you mean?” Josh asked, looking to Jenna as Alex just let out a sigh, guilt slowly consuming him.
“Come and see this.” Was how the girl responded, the four standing up and going upstairs, Jenna showing the two English boys the wrecked room. Dan let out a gasp and a few murmurs, talking quietly to himself as he took in the sight, confusion and nervousness radiating off of him. Alex felt the same, empathising with him as he too began to feel like he should’ve been able to stop this. Josh, however, remained completely silent for the few minutes he was stood there. Nothing of him moved, other than the steady rising and falling of his shoulders as he breathed. The stillness almost scared Alex. He felt like he was waiting for something to happen. It built up suspense, as if something was about to jump out of somewhere, or a crash would fill the house.

There was no sudden movement or sound, only the slow turning of Josh’s body as he faced into the group. His eyes were glazed and dark with worry, his teeth chewing on his bottom lip as he ran his hand through his brown hair as everything in his mind came together. And then he spoke seven words which made Alex’s heart go crazy.
“I think I might know where he is.”

Notes

ooo is Josh right or not?!
four chapters to go!
((that also means its your last chance to vote, subscribe and comment & make a certain person very happy *hint hint*))