In The Scenes

Fourth

WARNING: May be mentions of abuse, panic attacks, trauma, blood, etc. If you are sensitive to these topics, please don't read.

Bryce POV:

I've never heard something so weird. That's coming from me, the weirdest person on the planet. Mindy was also confused.

"You got hit . . . "

"Yes."

" . . . by a drunk man driving a car . . . "

"Yes."

" . . . so you were checked by paramedics . . . "

"Yes."

" . . . and they told you not to stress yourself."

"Yes."

Jane just nodded and turned around. I was shocked.

"You're not surprised?"

"We literally got Alex, who hadn't talked in years, to give us information to get his abusers in jail. I'm not surprised at this point."

"You . . . I mean you have a point there."

We all agreed. We've done things that most people won't do in their entire lives. How many people can say their first date was ruined by their abusive foster parents beating them up and then being arrested by the police while they were taken to a hospital with their girlfriend at their side and then passing out for six days with no memory of what happened? As far as I know, only Alex.

"Whoa," Alex said, looking at the snacks on the table. "Did you guys make these?"

"We noticed you two were losing weight so we made snacks for you to eat while studying."

"I really do have the best friend group. Everyone dig in. The two of us can't eat all of that before it gets spoiled."

We did. We ate and we laughed and we talked. None of us wanted to cook so we ordered pizza. After 20 minutes, the doorbell rang.

"That must be the pizza," I said.

I opened the door and looked around. I bent down and picked up five pizza boxes.

"I only ordered four. What's this fifth one?"

I walked toward the others and opened the box.

"I told you to watch out," Alex read out loud. He looked at Lia. "Before the car crashed, someone grabbed my shoulder and said, "watch out."

Lia noticed something. A paper was attached to the pizza box. On it were dates starting with today's. Alex grabbed the paper.

"No." He looked at Lia. "On . . . "

She nodded. Alex turned the paper around so we could see it. The dates had words next to them. Today's date had the word car.

Lia POV:

None of us slept that night. Mindy, Jane, Micah, and Bryce stayed up watching A Series of Unfortunate Events so they could see people other than themselves being traumatized. Mattheo ended up binge-watching My Little Pony to calm himself down.

"Don't judge me," he said, watching Twilight Sparkle talk about the magic of friendship.

I didn't. Alex clung onto me. Eventually, he fell asleep. I went on my phone and listened to some calming music. I felt something on my shirt so I looked down. Alex was crying. He wouldn't stop so I ended up waiting for him to stop on his own.

"Are you awake?" I asked.

"Mmhm," he said, as he tried to stand up.

I pulled him toward me. Judging by the way he was shaking, I guessed that he had a dream about his ex-foster parents breaking out and hurting him.

"Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?"

I was surprised at his comeback but then I noticed his head was bleeding. I helped him up, took him to the bathroom, and fixed his bandage. He wouldn't look at me. I knew he felt bad for snapping at me.

"You don't have to feel bad."

"I shouldn't've snapped at you. I'm sorry."

I made him look at me.

"What do you want to do?"

"Sleep."

I helped him to his room and he fell asleep as soon as his head hit the bed. I layed down next to him. I sunk into the bedsheets and fell asleep.