Tears of Gold: House of Anubis

Jerome X

After his conversation with Lili, Jerome started to pay more attention to when Alfie was disappearing. Alfie had disappeared with the others for an hour or so into Amber and Nina's room after dinner. When he came back, he seemed kind of dejected and just wanted to go straight to bed. Seeing his bad mood Jerome decided it was probably best to leave it alone for now and resolved to speak to him the next day.

In the early hours of the morning Jerome shot awake as he heard a scream from his brother's bed. Jumping out of his own quickly he rushed over to where Alfie was sitting grabbing his calf. "Alfie what is it?"

"Ugh, I think it's just a cramp" he tried to cover. Jerome was not buying it.

"You sounded like you were in serious pain. Here let me see" which led to Alfie jumping to the other side of the bed.

"You know what? It feels better now. Yeah, I'm just going to go shower" grabbing his things he quickly exited the room. Alright. Something is definitely up with him. Peeking his head out the door Jerome saw Alfie walk right past the bathroom and on up the stairs. Heading back to bed Jerome decided to speak to Alfie at a decent hour and quickly fell back asleep.

*Tears of Gold - Tears of Gold - Tears of Gold*

Jerome didn't get a chance to have this conversation till they were walking between classes. He was trying to figure out how to raise the topic without admitting that he suspected something was going on. The dropping of a book in one of the common rooms was just the opening that he needed. "What is the matter with you today? Why are you so jumpy?"

"Do you ever get flashbacks from past traumatic experiences?" Bingo!

"Oh frequently. Bad hairstyles and past girlfriends mostly" Jerome goaded. "Is that what this is about, Amber?". Obviously not, now all Alfie had to do was open up.

"No, I had a bad dream last night. It started to bring back stuff from last year" Alfie revealed.

"Oh that! You know I get flashbacks to Rufus and seeing you dying on the floor. I don't care if you were just acting. My brain can't tell the difference". This caused Alfie to relax a little. Clearly, they all needed to work on their communication. "Do you want to call Dr. Delarosa? You said that she helped you a lot over the summer".

"Yeah, I already called her assistant and I have an emergency session set for this afternoon. It was just so vivid". Ok, maybe Jerome had to push a little harder.

"I know buddy. But hey that's all behind us." He turned Alfie to look him in the eyes, silently daring him to try to lie. "We aren't in an absurd life or death situation anymore. Right? So we can relax". Alfie just muttered and walked away. So much for that plan.

As Jerome went to follow his best friend he bumped into a frazzled Mara. "Jerome! Hi"

"Hi" this was going to be awkward. He had been avoiding her after their last fight and really didn't want to deal with her opinions right now.