Axel

Chapter 3

Axel

I gratefully accept the blunt Molly just lit as Shay continues her never ending verbal character assassination. I inhale deep, holding the phone away from my ear a little as Shay really starts yelling, and by the time I've exhaled a few long drags, Shay's breathing heavily and waiting for me to explain myself.

"I don't know what to tell you, cous. I really wanted to get laid."

I could probably come up with a better excuse than that, but I'm just so relaxed, laying here in Molly's bed, post-sex haze with a decent high going. The weed they deal in prison is cut in with fuck knows what. Molly has the good stuff, and god, I've missed it.

"I understand that, cous!" Shay barks back at me. "But would it have killed you to pick up the fucking phone and tell me what you were doing!? We had plans, you dick! And the last time I stopped hearing from you, well... You dropped off the face of my planet, and I ain't going through that shit again, A."

I sit up on my elbows a little, frowning at Molly and silently letting her know I want the room to myself. She drags her naked ass out of the bedroom, blowing me a kiss as she goes. I'm praying she's gonna go start some coffee. We've had roughly two hours sleep, and a lot of physical exertion. I need caffeine.  

"I'm sorry, Shay." I say sincerely. I know how much my silence and absence fucks with her head. I really should have considered that. "I have no defence, only that my emotions are a little up in the air today. You don't know what coming out of prison feels like, and you never will. It's a strange mixture of elation and uncertainty. What is life? and all that. But it's no excuse, I should have called you last night and I am sorry."

"I get it, A." She sighs, coming around with me slightly. "But I don't want you ghosting me ever again. It worries the hell out of me, you know it does. And River's over here freaking the fuck out too. Did you forget about him, huh? I'm not the only one showing up for you in North Bridge these days."

That she isn't. My old friend River is living in the fucking NBU student dorms of all places, probably chasing after everything he sees in a short skirt and making absolutely no apologies for it. His libido has always been out of control, and I really hate that he took my little cousin's virginity but hell, I love the guy, and I know he respects her. Someone had to do it, if not him, who? Drake? Hell no, he wasn't in Shay's life at the right time. River was, and I've made my peace with that. Honestly, I'm looking forward to seeing him again in a non-prison-visitation setting.

"He's with you now? Put him on?" I ask as I sit up in bed properly, looking around for my boxers. No sign of them. Where the fuck did Molly spit them out after she tore them off with her teeth?

"He wants to talk to you." I hear Shay grumble in the distance. Next voice I hear is River's.

"Hey, A. Dude, you realise with Hunter being dead we're Arm now? How fucking lame is that? Harm had such a badass ring to it. And it's not like Mac's ever gonna give up the Del Testa American Dream, so really we're just Ar now. Or we could add in Shay here and make it Ars. Oh, hell no. That fucking sucks, dude."

"River!" Shay shrieks in the background. I snicker to myself, refreshed by River's horrendously blasé attitude towards everything. I've missed his comic relief.

"How are you, River?" I ask neutrally, my eyes still scanning Molly's bedroom for any sign of my clothes. They're all gone; pants, shirt, jacket, all of it. The fuck?

"I'm good, brother. How's freedom treating you? Mac once told me prison weed sucks, I have some of the good shit here. Come over, you know, if you have time to stop by, what with your busy schedule and all."