Ash’s POV

Alex had been acting like nothing but a jerk since I asked him to leave Jack’s house early so he could bring me home. It was Sunday and I had finished all my homework except for a poster I had to make for Drama class. But I was finishing that off now. We had to research some weird play and make an A3 poster for it. It was getting graded, though, so I was going to make sure it looked amazing.

I had everything printed out and had already made a drawing for the background, but I needed glue. And of course I didn’t have any glue in my room. I had to go to the study and get it there. Normally, I wouldn’t mind getting it, but Alex had been walking up and down the hallway constantly. Originally, I decided to wait until he finished and disappeared into his room, but he just kept going and going back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. I had to get the glue if I still wanted some free time. So, I took my chances and just went out of my room and to the stairs to get to the study.

Alex’s eyes looked red and he was muttering something to himself; it was like he had been crying. He made brief eye contact with me before stopping and freezing on the spot. I rolled my eyes and pushed past him, not caring if I hit his shoulder with mine in the process. It was his fault he was literally standing in the middle of the corridor. I just blantely ignored him. If he was going to be some sort of idiot, I wasn’t going to care about him either.

After getting the glue and a pair of scissors that was bigger than the one I had, I quickly went to the kitchen to make myself a hot water bottle. Sometimes I could get these stupid craps that would just make me want to throw up. It was definitely the worst feeling in the world. Going back to my bedroom, I bumped into Alex again and still continued to ignore him. But this time he didn’t just leave it be.

I belly flopped onto my bed, getting another one of those stomach churning cramps. After curling into a ball, I managed to put the warm life saver securely against my belly. All I wanted was to hide away for a while until the pain had left. But no. Alex had to come and ruin it.

After stomping around the hallway for a bit more, he ran into my room with loud footsteps and glared at me, “what the actual fuck is your problem!”

“What?” I groaned and felt like I was going to faint from the pain.

“You’re ignoring me and literally acting as if I’m invisible!” He slammed the door closed.

“Oh, yeah, that,” I wrapped my blanket tightly around myself and got myself in a position a cat would be lying down in.

“Well, what the fuck is your problem!”

“I don’t know, Alex,” I sneered, “what is my problem?”

“Hey, I can’t read your mind,” he threw his hands up in the air in frustration, “you will have to tell me.”

“You’re the one who brings me the advil and makes sure I’m ok, then has a random mood switch and tells me to ‘better be grateful’. You said you weren’t going to act like that. But you do! You act like an… an… an…”

“Come on!” Alex yelled, “just say it!”

“Like an asshole!” I threw one of my pillows at him. My period was probably making me overreact, but I would have been upset anyway, so I didn’t really regret it.

“Hell yes, I;ve been!” he screamed one more time before slumping against the wall and sliding down it. He put his head in his hands and murmured, “I have been…”

The door suddenly swung open and Isobel and Peter looked at us angrily, “what is going on in here!”

“I think our periods might have synced up,” I mumbled and got more comfortable my pulling the duvet further over my head.

“Ok, I’m out,” Peter heard my comment and chuckled before walking out.

Isobel came into the bedroom and closed the door. She took a seat next to me and sighed, “ok, serious talk right now. What is wrong with you guys. One minute you’re friends, the next you are yelling at each other and throwing pillows,” she picked up the pillow from the floor and put it back on my bed.

“I think I might be bipolar,” Alex looked up at his mom, completely terrified.

“No Alex, you are not,” Isobel reassured him, “we already had you tested for that. They found out what it was, don’t freak yourself out.”

“Plus, that’s not what being bipolar is like,” I added quietly, “I know somebody who is bipolar, in case you were wondering. It’s different.”

Alex looked up at me and frowned, trying to read my eyes and figure out who I meant. But I wasn’t going to tell him. It was another one of my secrets; one I didn’t tell them during the Q&A session with him, Harper, and Lianne. My life was full of secrets, yet it didn’t seem like it was. Being a quiet person had its advantages and disadvantages. I didn’t know whether this was a benefit or limitation.

“Well, ok,” Isobel broke the uncomfortable silence, “why were you guys shouting at each other?”

“It’s my fault,” Alex mumbled and looked at his hands, “something happened and I’m bringing it all out on Ash.”

“Does it involve me?” I asked carefully, hoping I hadn’t caused all of this.

Alex didn’t answer and instead sighed and lowered his head. Great. This was all my fault. I did something without realising it and now he was mad at me because of it. Did I do something stupid while I was drunk?

“I’ll let you guys talk it out, I don’t want to get in between this,” Isobel smiled and walked out silently, closing the door very softly.

“What did I do wrong?” I asked after staying quiet for a couple of seconds. If I wanted to fix this, I was going to have to know what was going on.

Alex breathed out loudly and raked his fingers through his hair, making it messy and stick out in weird places. It didn’t seem like he was going to answer, but I was going to give him some time. The cogs in his brain were turning and trying to figure out, but nothing was being produced. I was about to give up, when he suddenly opened his mouth, yet still didn’t look up at me, “it’s just some girl problems.”

“Oh,” was this really everything? Why was he getting mad at me though? But he seemed to distressed about it, “maybe I could help?”

“I don’t think so…”

“Hey, I can always try.”

“Ok,” Alex looked uncomfortable and shifted his position so his legs were stretched out in front of him, “there’s this girl I like, but I know for a fact she doesn’t like me back the same way. She hasn’t noticed how I act around her, so she probably doesn’t know. I got rejected without even saying anything.”

“Oh, well, umm,” Alex was right, I didn’t exactly know what to do, but I could still give him terrible advice, “how long have you had those feelings?”

Alex’s eyes snapped up and he froze, like I said something I wasn’t supposed to, “Umm, a couple of weeks… I guess… A bit after the school year started.”

I chuckled, and he looked hurt, but I wasn’t trying to upset him, “that’s not been long at all. She’s probably way too busy with getting back into the whole school routine to realise you have feelings for her and for her too feel anything back.”

“Well, she literally said she didn’t like me,” Alex spat and was getting ready to punch the nearest object.

“Because she hasn’t had the time to consider it yet,” I tried to convince him, really trying to fix our friendship, “just start out with being just friends with her. You will find out if your feelings are actually real, or just something you believed you had. If you are around a lot more, she might even start developing feelings for you. Don’t give up yet.”

“I doubt it will work, but ok. I’ll see how it goes. At least she’ll be a friend.”

“Exactly. Now, can we also be friends again?”

“Friends,” Alex smiled and shook the hand I struggled to get out of the blanket hugging my body.

We sat there is silence for a bit more, just calming down and thinking about random things. My body was still trying to rip itself apart and it was making me very nauseous. The pain made me want to throw up, but I was too comfortable and in too much discomfort to stand up and rush all the way to the bathroom. I looked around to try and distract me, and found Alex staring at me with a half-smile.

I raised my eyebrows at him, and he pointed at me, “you look very cute wrapped in a duvet like that.”

“Well, I feel like my guts are being stabbed, which is not very cute,” I groaned.

“Do you need me to get you anything?”

I moved the duvet so it wasn’t protecting me from the outside world anymore, and lied down properly. Alex sucked his lips in and frowned, confused about what I was doing. But when I raised the cover up on one side and motioned for him to join me, he finally got it. He rushed to stand up and lied down beside me, asking me if I was ok with him wrapping his arms around me before doing it.

I just wanted a friend to comfort me right now. Normally, Charley would crawl into bed with me and stay with me while I felt like I was slowly dying from the inside. He didn’t know what was going on, and he was the youngest of us all, but he was also the only one that would actually be concerned about me when I moaned, ate tonnes of chocolate, and hid in my room.

For now a friend would have to do; Alex would have to do.

Notes

So who's the person Ash knows that is bipolar? And how do you feel about Alex and Ash becoming friends again? Let's hope it stays that was for longer now.

Just imagine Alex actually having a period, it would just be a mess: